The White Next

In March 2016, the Spectrum Next was still just a render. Three different designs had been produced for consideration and these had also been rendered in white. At some point one of these renders was shared in the Facebook group and the lovers and the haters both reacted.

The Next was a complex proposition. A group of people who had no real idea on how to create a physical product were fortunately working with people who did. Keeping things moderately simple meant that producing Next’s in multiple colours was not an option. It certainly isn’t something you consider when your original plastics company pulls out of the process, and an olive branch is presented by another company. Your ability to deliver feels limited and compromised and you have to focus in, and keep to a limited narrative.

Still I reached out to test the waters, looking to create some kind of special edition in limited numbers. I would need to align our case and keyboard manufacturers to assess the feasibility and costs. In June 2018 I began what was to be a fairly short lived conversation.

There was a disparity between our keyboard and case manufacturer in terms of the response. Whilst it would be more expensive per unit for the keyboard (acceptably so), our case manufacturer cited concerns around doing such a limited run, primarily around the amount of wasted plastic. They reckoned on 300-500 white injections before they could achieve a decent white, and at the top end of the estimate in order to eradicate all traces of other colours. For the smaller run the costs were ten times those for the black case. The main disparity? Our keyboard manufacturer described their mould cleaning process, which would ensure no traces of other plastics would remain in the moulds. Our case manufacturer felt more like they would flood the mould with white several hundred times in order to remove any unwanted deposits. I cannot confirm or deny this, it just felt wrong, but as newcomers to the injection moulding process, that pretty much ended the conversation.

The first Kickstarter had been a nightmare from start to finish and having this parallel thread running when we were running out of money would have been irresponsible. I also did not want to push additional work to our case manufacturer as it was critical that they were free to focus on what the Kickstarter had promised, and this was taking a large amount of time to refine. There was the odd discussion about white cases over time but it really wasn’t going anywhere.

That is until Kickstarter 2 and November 2021. We had a new case partner, indeed we had practically a new everything partner (excepting the keyboard). Much more receptive, positive and active. The “can-do” attitude elevated them in our eyes and there was a distinct effort on their part to push us more. What about doing this? What about doing that? Ideas were now flowing in both directions.

The nature of the white Next had now changed significantly. It was no longer my desire to produce a special edition Next for people to buy, or win in an auction, it was now solely focused on the developers who had worked tirelessly on the Next for many years. Only two of them were professionals, paid to provide their excellent services, one in industrial design, and the other in the development and manufacturer of the Kickstarter 2 Next’s. The rest were people who are passionate about making stuff, and helping to make this whole endeavour shine. In order to pay for this sincere and huge thank you, more units would need to be produced and sold off in order that funds were not lost from the Kickstarter itself. To differentiate the units going to our beloved developers, each one has their name etched onto the pristine white motherboard. The remaining units would not feature any additional text but are still special in their own right.

After discussions with our manufacturer, I decided to split the white Next run into two lots of 25. Roughly 25 developer Next’s (with a slight margin in case I missed someone out), and 25 to be sold at a slightly elevated cost to pay for the entire run. I wanted white cases and white motherboards. It was our manufacturers suggestion that they could also provide white PSU’s and white inline switches. Great touch and again such a refreshing response.

Ideas were thrown around based on the current issue of board in terms of text and placement and I provided our manufacturer with what would be the longest name for the print (not mine by the way).

Every conversation I had on the white Next was prefixed with “As long as this does not interrupt the KS2 flow”. And so they went away to ascertain costs of a limited run of 50 cases, 50 boards, 50 PSU’s and 50 inline switches. Meanwhile I had returned to our keyboard manufacturer to discuss the white keyboard.

A generic white PSU. I had been asked if I wanted it colour matched to the case for additional cost. A step too far me thinks.

In December 2021, the white PSU sample arrived at the factory and they shared this image.

I was tracking the costings per unit in addition to the fixed up front tooling costs for all aspects of the white Next. A $4.50 regular black PSU becomes an $11.24 PSU. A $3.90 inline switch becomes $4.29.

In April 2022, the white keyboards went into production and there isn’t much to tell about that, it was a fairly slick and trouble free process. Worth a bit of text though.

Rewinding to February 2021, I had raised the question of white keyboards with them once more and I asked about Dye Sublimation. This process is effective when the key legends need to be darker than the surrounding material and would allow for multiple colours for the key legends. It turned out it would need a different material (PBT) and the moulds had not been designed for this, therefore we would need new moulds. A non-starter at this point considering that KS2 was also becoming problematic. We would need to proceed with the conventional additives to the ABS resin, and laser etching the key legends. Nothing was progressed on the white keyboard front, and focus was on delivering the Kickstarter.

In November 2021, our keyboard manufacturer sent our industrial designer a white Next keyboard. Just like that. Off their own bat. It looked great in isolation but when mounted in the case, he observed it should be a brighter white in colour, with the text being darker but not black (#2d2d2b or RGB 45, 45, 43 was given as an example). Another version was produced and whilst it looked good, we wanted the key legends to be even darker however this was not possible. We accepted what we had. It’s a minor thing and I think it looks great anyway. An order for 55 of these keyboards was put in, with a few being sent to the UK and the remaining 50 to our case partner for colour matching and installation into lovely white cases at some point.

There was only one issue during this process. A return of a sink mark.

Gah!

It took much longer than expected for the white keyboards to be produced, and the first units shipped in July 2022.

The white case itself had to wait for the case moulds to be completed prior to us seeing a physical example and this was a long process, many months with many refinements, corrections, overcorrections. Another saga. It happened though, we finally got to see the two components together.

Looking good!

The white boards themselves did not form part of the Kickstarter 2 assembly which was a much higher volume in comparison. Instead the white boards were treated as prototypes and were done individually.

When the board and the case/keyboard were finally brought together, it was a great moment. Until the thing was switched on!

When you have an LED that is brighter than the sun, and you have a white case, you get a big red glow.

I like the globe that flashes red like our Krypton sun

The problem was two-fold. The light pipe from the upper case down to the LED fell short of the LED by a number of millimetres. This meant the light was allowed to bloom everywhere. The second issue was the translucency of the case itself and the light pipe being a transparent piece of plastic which allowed light to go in all sorts of directions. The beauty of having a manufacturer who understands how to resolve issues is that I left the solution with them.

So here is a redesigned light pipe that is longer than before, and was also used for all Kickstarter 2 Nexts. Why? Because if you push the light pipe down on the Kickstarter 1 Next, it can sink due to it being a friction fit.

New version at the top, which was fitted to all KS2 models

For the white Next’s, the light pipe was coated in a light blocking material so they are unique!

A CAD model showing a light pipe that more closely wraps around the LED.

Before

After

The end result, I can assure you that both Next’s are powered up with fully functioning LED’s in this image!

So boards were made, nearly half went to team members/developers, two have now gone to Crash as prizes (we will probably hold another one in storage for Crash 2025), and the remainder will be auctioned off soon by the looks of it.

A white board undergoes testing

I did miss out a part, deliberating on the colour for the ZX Spectrum Next part of the logo.

I had played a bit with different colours in Photoshop, I quite liked the grey but in the flesh I preferred the red

The finished product. Yes I know the box internals are black…

The culmination of years of wanting to see something, refocusing it as a gift to the incredible team members and finally it happened.

What is the future for the white Next? Personally I’m hoping that is the end of its journey. Never to be produced again. Otherwise what’s the point in trying to create something special?

If some people see a white Next as a collectable item, it really defeats the object. There is a purpose to the Spectrum Next and loft insulation is not one of them (not even in a glass case, they don’t like that).

Still, we’re torn between two places. Needing money to produce the thing and people giving more money to buy a white one to accompany their black one, and wanting to increase adoption of the platform. I don’t believe white units will help at all with adoption, they will not encourage more developers to the scene which is 100% what we need.

I had intended to have the big reveal of the white Next’s to be their sudden arrival with the highly deserving members of the team (to whom this was still a secret). Then the world would see them and the other half of the production run could be sold. I had also promised a white Next to the Crash event in 2023 to be the grand prize in their raffle (and a black one, raffled off to those who bought early bird tickets for the event). When times started to slip it became clear that the slow boat from China would not have the Next’s arrive in time for the event so I had to get some shipped via air mail.

The problem now was that Crash needed to publicise their event and the existence of a white Next that someone could win would be a big deal. I had them hold off on the reveal as long as I could but ultimately had to concede to them using it in their promotions. The secret was out.

When I arrived at the carpark in Kenilworth on the 18th November 2023, I had an unopened box containing the white Next. Like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn, Chris Wilkins suddenly appeared at my car boot and whisked it away. It was great to see the enthusiasm at the raffle stand, and to see how many tickets were being sold. It’s all in a great cause, helping to pay for this unique Sinclair focused event.

I left the “Spectrum Next Project” back in April-ish this year. It was a fantastic and terrible 6-7 years. Very rewarding at times. Very depressing too. The pressures of responsibility (poor me), but exhilarating when something finally came together. I’d never get involved in anything like it again but I’m glad I did. I got to meet and make friends with a lot of new wonderful people.

For the future? I still have some interest there, I will continue (for now) to do light touch things. Things that do not involve deadlines, or financial cost, or big decisions.

Commodore sucks! 🙂