Jupiter Ace Hardware EB Custom Ace

EB Custom Ace

he EB Ace started out as an unpopulated issue two pcb. EB is of course Edwin Blink co-founder of the archive site, programmer, hardware guru, and Ace fan. After a programming Blaze the Ace emulator for the Sam Coupe he soon began to looking for a real Jupiter Ace, not finding one but getting hold of the pcb he built his own. Most of the ICs used are low power version of the original ICs, also a CMOS low power Z80A.

There were a number of things that came from Edwin's build. The EPROM board, the original EPROMs were two 4K 2532 EPROMS which are hard to find and may not be supported by today's EPROM burners. The EB-ROM Board was a way to over come this problem. Next to come was Edwin's video board so the Ace could be connected to a monitor with a Video input. Other items include the 60Hz Mod, 96K RAMpack, ROMboard 2, ACF, ROMSL Mod, and currently in development is AMI.

The first thing you notice on Edwin's Ace is the laptop keyboard, which has been modified to fit the Ace. The keyboard "pull up" resistors are also in place. The 7805 power regulator has been removed and no heat sink, more on this later. The ROMs have been replaced with the EB ROM board 2. The modulator for TV signal is in place but connected to the smaller edge connector port is the EBVideo board.

Underside of the Ace. You can see where Edwin has taken the address and data line for the keyboard. Also not the half moon pcb cut-outs at the bottom edge of the pcb. This is normal in an issue two pcb. The cutouts were so the pcb would fit an Ace4000 type case.

Close up of where the power comes into the pcb, Edwin has removed the 7805 regulator. The Ace can get hot after a short time so by using a regulated 5v supply there is no point in having the 7805 in place and the heat sink. The Ace gets hot because the 7805's out put is +5v and the Ace's original power input is +9v, the +4 volts difference is dispersed by the 7805 as heat.

This is Edwin's switched +5v power unit

Partially assembled.

This photo is during the build, the power is being supplied thought the edge connector, also a PC Keyboard membrane is being used as a temporary keyboard. No cassette sockets have been solder in at this stage, probably because Edwin was waiting for them to be sent from the UK. The Ace's ROM is the ED ROMboard version 1.

These two images show the cassette sockets and a speaker from a dead ZX Spectrum have been added.

Here is Edwin's Ace fully loaded with the ACF version 4 running, laptop keyboard and monitor output at the HHC Computer Show in Utrecht, November 2006.

A great image here of Edwin's Ace at the show between his Sam Coupe and a ZX Spectrum 128. Looks like the Ace has finished a VLIST command. On the white box behind the Sam are some of the first ACF's on show.