Recommended CPC 6128 Plus hardware expansions.

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Hi guys!

As I told somewhere else I have officially been out of the CPC scene for the last 5 years or so because I moved from Spain to UK. The great news is that next month I will bring to London one of my 6128 Plus and I plan to use it here and recover the lost time . However, I will need to do some upgrades to the machine to have it working properly. First, since I will leave the original screen in Spain, I will need a power supply and something to connect it to a VGA monitor. This is simple enough, I even have an appropriate 17" screen here (I would prefer the original CRT but it is just too big to carry).  I was also planning to add an HXC floppy emulator and the great CPC Plus cartridge replacement by gerald. However, I am bit lost regarding RAM expansions. I know that there are plenty for the regular 6128, but I am not sure if there is a single one compatible with the CPC Plus. Do you have any suggestion? I would also like to know if you have a favorite board to convert the video signal to VGA (my screen is 1280x760) and if you would add something else to the computer

Thank you!

[steve]

Look here, CPC Boards - Cent Pour Cent
The 4 slot motherboard can be connected to a 6128Plus using the appropriate cable, then you can get the X-MEM which has 512KB Ram and 512KB flash rom, you might also be interested in the X-MASS which gives you 128MB Flashdrive.
There are other expansions also but you asked about memory so I covered that first.

[Guy0me]

X-Mem is working on a 6128+ perfectly     and also with a C4CPC together..

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Thank you for the info! 

Great news then, I think I will go for MotherX4 with X-Mem, C4CPC and HXC. X-MASS is very nice, but I do not know if I need it having the HXC.

[CraigsBar]

If you want to run symbos then yes you need an X-mass.

For the price it's worth it already, but with the pending release of acme dos and fat 32 access from basic then it will be awesome.

[Bryce]

If you want to run symbos then yes you need an X-mass.

For the price it's worth it already, but with the pending release of acme dos and fat 32 access from basic then it will be awesome.

?? I've used SymbOS for years without ever needing either a SymbiFace or X-Mass.

Bryce.

[CraigsBar]

?? I've used SymbOS for years without ever needing either a SymbiFace or X-Mass.

Bryce.

So you enjoy disc swapping then? [emoji6]
OK maybe 'need' should be replaced by 'would really benefit from'

[Bryce]

So you enjoy disc swapping then?

It all depends on what you want to use SymbOS for. But your use of the word "need" is very misleading. You definitely don't NEED it.

Bryce.

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Anyway, although not strictly necessary, I think that it is a very good suggestion . I was thinking about the HXC and I did not realize that you still have to virtually switch the discs. On the other hand, I never used SymbOS in a real CPC but I am looking forward to it. It will be HCX, MotherX4, X-Mem, X-Mas and C4CPC then. Btw, I guess that I will have to be sure that the power supply is able to handle all the expansions. How many amps are recommended?

[CraigsBar]

Lol I use a PC power supply to make sure all of mine work.

[remax]

Symbos support using the HxC as a hard drive (even if it is slower than the XMass).

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I can always try X-Mass, seems worth the price if it is useful . About the PSU, I would like to avoid using a PC power supply, I have one in Spain connected to the 6128 (because it has some hardware expansions as well) but it is a bit messy. I could do one myself, or maybe buy one of these switching power supplies that are used for some embedded computers. I saw one that is very small, 5V and 10A.

5v 10a AC-DC power supply adapter charger with 5.5mm: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

I could also buy something a bit more powerful and then make a proper regulator to put it between the PSU and the CPC, just to be sure that everything is OK. Luckily, I have some experience making them for audio amplifiers.

[TFM]

X-MEM and HxC...


That's a good combination. The HxC makes life more easy, you don't have to swap physical discs. Also it's can be a nice backup station for Discs.
For using advanced OS (CP/M Plus or FutureOS) it's a good thing to have the X-MEM (IMHO the most essential hardware-expansion) because it provides RAM and ROM space - 512 KB each. 

[remax]

Do you know what CRTC you have, cause i seem to have incompatibilities beetween my CRTC 4 and the X-MEM...

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Well, it will be the CPC+ ASIC...

[TFM]

Shall work like a charm. 

[remax]

Well, it will be the CPC+ ASIC...

Oh sorry, i missed the "Plus" part

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Good to know that it will work 

I am after a power supply now, something of 5V and around 10A. This should be more than enough for the CPC with all the expansions. Problem is that I only find cheap switching power supplies and I do not trust them. I am sure that some of them are OK but who knows. I could make one myself, but then it would be a linear power supply, much bigger than these others. Moreover, I would pay more if I make it from scratch than if I buy one that is already made.

[TFM]

I got an 5 V, 3 A from Amazon for cheap with the right plug already. They have 5 A too, and 5 A should be enough for really everything including HxC. 
Sorry, don't have a link to it at this computer.

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It is really great to know that 5A is enough! I am going to have a look and see if I find something of half decent quality. These are the ones I like the most at the moment, and they are super cheap:

5v 10a AC-DC power supply adapter charger with 5.5mm: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

5v 8a ac/dc power supply adapter with 5.5mm center: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

BTW, I was reading all the documentation of FutureOS some days ago and it is really a wonderful work. I really liked it!

[TFM]

Thank you very much! Let me know if there are some questions. 

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I wondered how much fast some of the games would be if properly coded and ported to the operating system, but I already now the answer 

[TFM]

Well, that totally depends on the game itself, and which parts of the OS is uses. Usually games take over the whole CPC for having more RAM and not slow down due to interrupts. I made FutureOS with this in mind, so it uses a minimum of 2 KB RAM only. Further the interrupts, the RST entries and the second register set is fully available for games / demos / apps. 

[Prodatron]

Symbos support using the HxC as a hard drive (even if it is slower than the XMass).

Yes, you can access the SD card of the HxC in FAT32 directly in SymbOS (3.0beta) as a native device. Because of the shugart bus it's only a little bit faster than normal floppy discs, but it's the only way to read and write single files directly from/to the HxC SD card on the Amstrad CPC directly, as it is formatted in the FAT32 filesystem, which is not readable by Amsdos and any other ancient OS for the CPC. In SymbOS it's possible to read and write any files directly to the SD card as well as changing into any nested subdirectories or copying very large files from SD card to the X-MASS. It can be used to copy big files (>720KB) to the X-MASS internal DiskOnModule as well. This methode was quite usefull btw when I installed this device

[TFM]

I wondered how much fast some of the games would be if properly coded and ported to the operating system, but I already now the answer 

Actually there is a nice page which compares basic features, which may also play an important role for games...

Speedcheck - CPCWiki