The Xberry-Pi - A Spectrum NEXT compatible board by Don Superfo

[Andrew_Waite]

Don Superfo has made a very neat "Xberry-Pi" Raspberry Pi form factor board with a Spartan 6 FPGA, 2 Megabytes of RAM and video output connectors. The board is targeted as a fully compatible clone of the Spectrum NEXT the size of a Raspberry Pi. However, the board does not have Spectrum branding on it, and looks like it can be configured to clone any computer that would fit in the FPGA.

I know that there are cores for both the BBC Micro and the BBC Master for the Spectrum NEXT. I would imagine they would work on this board as well.

The board also has an HDMI port, video output (compatible with RGB or VGA), PS2 keyboard connector, joystick port, 40-pin GPIO, Micro-SD card reader, RTC, WiFi, and a J9 port for programing the board using a JTAG programmer.

There is a link to a nice video demonstrating the board below.

Could this be the hardware to build the "BBC Micro NEXT" on ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFudlR7znyo&t=377s

[Chuckie]

how do you buy one?

[BigEd]

Can pre-order for £100 at https://zxrenew.co.uk/Xberry-Pi-p596973674

[elk1984]

Can pre-order for £100 at https://zxrenew.co.uk/Xberry-Pi-p596973674

Thanks - I've just taken the plunge. (Too much Speccy Next excitement over the Christmas break!)

[shifters74]

Bought one too!

Had 4 in stock in the morning, only one by the time i went back a few hours later - so jumped on it!

Shifters

[Grasshopper]

I'm not a big fan of the Raspberry Pi form factor, but nevertheless, the price of these boards makes me very tempted to get one. Does anyone here know whether the acrylic case is included in the price? It's not clear from the website.

Also, can anyone point me to a link that details all the alternative cores currently available for the Next? A quick google search hasn't thrown up very much.

Thanks

[elk1984]

I'll update when mine is delivered. What I didn't realise is the XBerry PI is a complete standalone unit and only needs a PI Zero adding if you want the "accelerated" Next.

One warning is that the header on the Zero needs mounting on the underside and needs to be female (effectively making the Zero into a HAT on top of the XBerry PI.

[BigEd]

If I'm not wrong, an IDE cable will connect a normally-pinned pi to the next's pinned motherboard.

[shifters74]

A number of vendors on ebay sell them pre-made with the female connector on the underside. You can also get a pi zero with no connector and use the pimoroni gpio hammer kit to fit a female connector on the underside with no soldering.

shifters

[BigEd]

I did fit one of those hammer-on connectors, and although I was eventually successful, it nearly went very wrong. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll certainly buy a jig.

[shifters74]

I did fit one of those hammer-on connectors, and although I was eventually successful, it nearly went very wrong. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll certainly buy a jig.

Yes i did use the jig - quick, simple and worked first time (unlike my soldering skills!! )

Shifters

[shifters74]

What kind of power supply are people using to power the Xberry-pi?

I was thinking of using a raspberry pi 2.5A PSU that used to power the Pi3b+. With a pi zero hat is that enough power (no idea what the xberry board requires!)

I assume the pizero is powered by the xberry-pi???

thanks

shifters

[elk1984]

Just arrived today. Acrylic case (with protective film still installed)

The Pi Zero (female header soldered to the underside of the board) and ESP32 module were extras. I'm running from a standard Raspberry Pi 3 power supply.

SD Card Images Downloaded from:
XBerry-Pi Software https://www.specnext.com/distro/22.10/s ... 22.10a.zip
Pi Zero Image https://zx.xalior.com/NextPi/NextPi_0.99D.tar.gz

Attachemnts:

• Kit as delivered + extras
• ZXOS Boot Screen
• NXTel Telecomms Client
• Rusty Pixels Scroll Nutter Demo

[shifters74]

Thanks for the feedback - waiting on mine to arrive today (hasn't yet!).

I got my NextPi from here http://zx.xalior.com/NextPi2/ which says its for KS1 and KS2 so i think its newer (Apr 23) than the link you have posted but then i not tried it yet! Its also alot bigger 15Gb vs 1Gb but i dont know whats changed.

thanks

Shifters

[Grasshopper]

Just arrived today. Acrylic case (with protective film still installed)

The Pi Zero (female header soldered to the underside of the board) and ESP32 module were extras. I'm running from a standard Raspberry Pi 3 power supply.

Thanks for the update.

So just to clarify, are you saying that it comes with an acrylic case and an SD card?

[shifters74]

I have now received mine from ZXRENEW ( https://zxrenew.co.uk/Xberry-Pi-p596973674 ) and can confirm it comes in the acrylic case with a memory card!

Shifters

[Ukwebb]

I'm in the process of designing a better case for this - I'll post it here when I'm happy with it

[shifters74]

For those interested - they are back in stock at zxrenew!

Shifters

[scruss]

Yup: just got mine. Didn't know they were shipped from Coatbridge.

Slightly amused to see the blank Raspberry Pi Zero board holding it together.