Brendan Alford
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balford.bsky.social
Brendan Alford
@balford.bsky.social
Professional Code Monkey, part-time ZX Spectrum tickler. Opinions my own etc.
I take it the machine works perfectly otherwise? It could well be an issue with the copy protection on the DSK image.
November 2, 2025 at 11:32 AM
That’ll be the issue then. I found the best way to install Plus membranes is to work round in a circle with the screws, tightening them in a couple of passes, much like you’d do an engine’s cylinder head.
October 29, 2025 at 8:16 PM
That generally only causes a problem with the extended keys on the Plus keyboard, though.
October 29, 2025 at 3:34 PM
If it’s the same supplier it could be a QC issue. If you’re feeling flush, these are *awesome*:

www.ginger-electronic.com/en/retro-com...
48P-KDLX keyboard for Sinclair ZX Spectrum plus (+) / 128k Kit Kit (need soldering)
The rails from production must be broken with small tongs and the cables need to be soldered to the pcb and the small keyboard adapters, which will fit perfectly in the membrane connectors. This keybo...
www.ginger-electronic.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
It's much more likely to be an issue with the membrane itself. The bubble mat just provides 'springiness' to the key actions, it doesn't have carbon contacts to make connections - that's contained within the 4 layer membrane Pluses and Toasties have.

A good clean can do no harm, though.
October 29, 2025 at 1:55 PM
While we're talking scope creep, how about supporting TIFAX and SAA505x fonts in the viewer? Looks like you'd just need to make the embedded chardata.png configurable (runs)
October 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Don’t fear the RIFA
September 16, 2025 at 5:46 PM
There’s no H/N jumpers on a Toastrack, and the vast majority came with EPROMs fitted anyway 🙂
August 28, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Tip - hold SPACE down when you're using it to skip a part...
August 26, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Aw nads. Really sorry to hear that.
August 5, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Hmm. Hit a small snag.

Won’t get a chance to investigate till next week unfortunately (as it happens I’m off on a pilgrimage to Cambridge tomorrow)
July 31, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Not that I've encountered, but I can check on real hardware later (of course I have a physical copy of Strangeloop for 'testing' purposes)
July 31, 2025 at 8:10 AM