Retro Computing Projects: Repairs, conversions, extensions, special hardware projects.
Finally I needed a case for the Gigatron. But I had to “design” it myself. The Gigatron was available as a kit from the developers until the beginning / middle of 2020, including a beautiful wooden case with a glass lid. The case was specially made for the Gigatron and with the appropriate cutouts for […]
Since the Gigatron itself apparently works, but I didn’t have a suitable game controller to operate the system, I naturally wanted to connect a keyboard. There is also the so-called Pluggy McPlugFace board. An adapter from the serial (DB9) to PS/2 port. Driven by a small Attiny85. The Attiny85 could also be programmed with my […]
After Part 1 of the Gigatron report dealt with the general introduction and the first steps in setting it up, the second part now includes the completion of the circuit board. It continues with the IC sockets. According to the instructions, sockets are only intended for the RAM and EPROM. But I decided to socket […]
I became aware of the Gigatron project through a thread in the VzEkC-Forum. The Gigatron is a computer based purely on TTL components that works entirely without a CPU. The blocks of a CPU are simulated using TTL chips. Very interesting! The Gerber files for the project are freely available, further, very detailed information is available […]
The Chip Tester Pro from the 8-Bit-Museum is a DIY project that started out as a pure DRAM / SRAM tester and has now (after several states of evolution) matured into a highly professional “almost everything tester”. After a long time I finally manage to set up the Chip Tester Pro myself. The author (Stefan) […]
After having dealt a little with systems based on the 6502 and the Z80, it is now time to have a closer look into the predecessor of the IBM PC, the Intel 8085. Craig Andrews introduced a very interesting and advanced concept, the SBC-85. Craig designed his layout freely and encourages everyone to build the […]
This second part about the RC2014 acording to Stephen C. Cousins deals with a few extensions. I actually wanted to add a CF module to use CP/M, but I started with a few other additions first. Since the small 3-slot backplane was quite limited, the next step was the modular 6-slot backplane. SC112 – Modular […]
It’s time for an update. This is about the RC2014 system based on the Z80 CPU. This is not really an SBC (single board computer) system, but consists of several, flexibly combinable modules. During the COVID-19 crisis I am constantly working from home, i.e. I have been working from home since March 13th. Not that […]
Stephen C. Cousins designed an extended and re-worked version of the RC2014, available for ordering as kit or as pure PCB at Tindie. Cousins also operates an excellent Website with detailed information, as well as assembly and user guides. The modules from Stephen already incorporate the extended system bus (2×40 pins instead of 1×39 in […]
After last weekend’s creation of the uTerm terminal adapter, it was time for setting up the Z80-MBC2, the main CPU PCB. Creating the Z80-MBC2 As usual, the kit from McJohn was complete, well sorted and of high quality. After sorting the components I started with the usual sequence, i.e. resistors and diodes first, followed by LED, […]