Clive Sinclair dies, age 81. R.I.P.

[restorer-john]

Clive Sinclair has died.

Clive Sinclair, Inventive Computer Pioneer, Dies at 81 (Published 2021)

His inexpensive Sinclair personal computer, one of many inventions, was an introduction to computing for young people in Britain and beyond.

www.nytimes.com

My first real computer was a Sinclair ZX-80, then a ZX-81. Wiggly 16kB RAM pack and all. Membrane keyboard and overheated in summer. But I loved it. Made robots and ended up swapping it for a Tamiya Sand Scorcher R/C car which I sold in original condition only about 10 years ago for a huge sum (after having stored it for ~40 years). His affordable computers got many of us into computing, interfacing with the real world etc.

Clive made electric cars, audio amplifiers and was a true electronic pioneer, inventor and legend.

See @pma thread:

50+ years of Sinclair Z-30 amplifier and 40+ years of my DIY mods

50+ years of Sinclair Z-30 amplifier and 40+ years of my DIY mods It was in 1969 when Sinclair Project 60 kit appeared on the market in UK and it contained Z-30 amplifier modules, advertised as 25W and 50W peak. It also advertised to be “the world's lowest distortion high fidelity amplifier”...

www.audiosciencereview.com

R.I.P. Clive.

 

[diddley]

Yeah i read it a week ago, i had the zx81 spectrum lots of good memories.truly an inventor.

 

[PierreV]

I start mine every 3 years or so. So far so good.

 

[restorer-john]

I start mine every 3 years or so. So far so good.

So awesome! I still have nightmares about that membrane keyboard and the shortcut BASIC single key business. I remember the programming book (for the ZX-81) was about twice as thick as the whole computer and weighed more !

 

[BlackTalon]

I remember a slight jostle of the RAM module would crash it. Of course my sisters and I would use this to screw with each other.

 

[JayGilb]

My very first home computer bought at a second had store was a ZX-80.

 

[Neddy]

RIP Sir Clive. The first of the 'computers for us masses' guys? Have to wonder what he'd be doing toda if he was a contemporary of Elon's.
Spent a lot of time with that BASIC compiler; wrote a PC board drawing app (for printing out resists; used a weird Olivetti carbon arc ? printer for that), and used two of the ZX81s (?) linked together, along with gobs of custom PCBs to write and make a home phone system, using one of the very first Motorola SLC (Subscriber Loop Interface) chips (actually VERY first, it was one of their earliest production chips).
Was pretty cool - and worked really well. Would answer phone calls, route them to a tape recorder, could use any DTMF phone in the house as a remote control (via BSR/Radio Shack AC remote things), logged phone calls in/out, could do 'free' international calls , and even had a fancy speakerphone through the stereo system (which used diffferent EQs on mic vs line to avoid feedback).
But, he pissed me off that I never got the Black Watch he promised.
Thank goodness for innovators who ignore the naysayers.

 

[sarumbear]

Sir Clive was a Hi-Fi pioneer as well.

 

[DanielT]

Feels, for home use, so new with computers. But

List of computer museums - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Why not. Can be an interesting visit to a museum.

 

[Count Arthur]

I'm fairly sure I have one of these kicking around somewhere:

And I know I have one of these:

I upgraded mine and fitted a massive 95MB hard drive. It was still working when I last used it about 15 or 20 years ago.

 

[ZolaIII]

My first PC whose ZX Spectrum, had 16 K and 48 K. Had a last PC that Clive started and unfortunately never had finances to finish but it whose its alright. The Amstrad Schneider CPC6128 that I loved very much and it whose the first full integrated PC ecosystem (with PC/M, Fortran, Cobalt...) ever. I think that's what we need to remember him for and it's not a well known fact.

 

[Neddy]

Love it!!
I made my own kleyborgs!
I was experimenting with foam + plastic ala Burt Rutan Quickie foam composite tech.

Rutan Quickie - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

For the one on the right I remember cutting the key logos out of a manual somewhere, and using epoxy to 'mold' them on to blocks of plastic I cut off a square tube of lucite something or other (yes, I cut something like 80 - 1/8" thick x ~1/2x1/2 lucite squares one at a time with a hacksaw!).
I think I made a good half dozen of these kbds, using a variety of cheap surplus keyboard PCBs and/ or just keyswitches.


Woof, just realized I scanned these a while back - forgot I even had pictures of the CAD program and more keyboards AND the phone computer (under the desk, behind the tape recorder)!!
(I gutted a 50's vintage RCA o'scope and installed all a card cage and PCBs & Z80s in there).

Just very interesting, in retrospect, what innovators like Mr. Sinclair can incite in others who are curious and, uh, kind of driven.

 

[MRC01]

Back in the day, I learned programming on a TRS-80 with 6809E processor. My Dad and I amped it up, replacing the cheap chiclet keyboard with a buckling spring mechanical, boosted to 64K RAM and dual floppy disc drives. One of my friends had a Timex, which I believe was a version of the Sinclair. Most others were using the Apple II at that time, and what my high school had, so I did some programming that too, BASIC, 6502 assembly and UCSB Pascal.

 

[ZolaIII]

One of the first do it your self whose Galaxy (made one). It whose a small project of two engineers in the land and time when you couldn't buy one.

Galaksija (computer) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And recently they made a (fancy) remake.