The ESP-Rainbow: Flatter Than a Speccy
6 days ago
- #ESP32
- #ZX Spectrum
- #Retro Computing
- The ESP-Rainbow is a bare PCB emulator of the ZX Spectrum, designed by Atomic14, featuring a capacitive touch keyboard with color PCB printing for Sinclair BASIC legends.
- Powered by an ESP32S3 microcontroller, it emulates both the 48kiB and 128kiB ZX Spectrum models, significantly outperforming the original hardware in terms of CPU speed and memory.
- The keyboard uses 74HC4051 analog multiplexers to expand capacitive touch inputs, resulting in a keyboard with no tactile feedback, though audio feedback is provided.
- The device supports USB-C power and has a header for a battery, making it portable. It boots into a menu allowing selection between 48K and 128K Spectrum BIOS.
- Games can be loaded via a MicroSD card or through a web interface using the WebSerial API, though Firefox currently lacks support for this API.
- The default firmware includes features like rewind, enhancing the gaming experience, and the screen is noted for being crisp and bright.