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Some of what I'm up to--showing some of what I've got.

saundby

Experienced Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
306
Location
The Villages, FL, USA
I've just finished a blog post on what I'm up to with my computers this summer. Well, some of it, anyway. I've posted some pics of some of my systems and part of my set up and my electronics bench (temporarily covered in clutter when I took the pic.)

Have a look:
http://catsonkeyboards.blogspot.com/2010/06/retrocomputing-summer.html

These are just a few of my systems. Over time, I expect to have more pics and info out there. In addition to what's shown I have an area next to my big screen where I rotate various of my old systems through over the course of the year, including Vic-20s, C-64s, an Amiga 500 (my 2500 is playing dead until I figure out what's wrong with it), Apple IIs, and so on. I've also got a desk in the garage that has a Bigboard, a G4 MDD Mac tower, and a place where my compact Macs rotate through (presently the Performa 550 is there, last week it was one of my Mac Plus systems.) There's another desk in my second garage that has my AT&T 6300, a PS/2 Model 25, and an HP/Apollo model 425 Unix box (68020, 25MHz--for years this was my primary software development system.)

In addition to the projects on the blog, I've finished refinishing a 1.5m rolling rackmount chassis that I'm planning on moving a collection of CP/M systems into. The present plan is to put the Bigboard, a Bigboard II, a Kaypro, and an old 286 with a Compaticard and Baby Blue board into it (formerly owned by Jay Sage, given to me in a trove of stuff by Dave Baldwin.) The plan looks good on paper, but it's going to be tight fitting everything in, especially while keeping the keyboards and displays accessible. The 286's display will sit on top of the cabinet, since it's only going to be used for data transfers between 8" and other formats, so I don't mind craning my neck a bit when I use it. If I've been overconfident, I'll leave out the Kaypro. ;)

Once that's done I need to build a place to house a selection of my Commodores. Presently I have a TV armoire that I've converted into a home for old video game systems. It presently houses an Atari 2600, a 7800, a Sega Saturn, and a Sega CD along with all the games and peripherals for the systems. They're all hooked up to an old-style "prosumer" TV/monitor with multiple inputs. I'm thinking of doing something similar for the Commodores, but with drawers modified to have the fronts swing down as keyboard trays, and probably only three systems to allow extra space for the disk drives.

After that comes a permanent home for my Apple IIs...but each step forward means more room on the three desks I've already got committed to old computers around the house. That means others get to come off the storage shelves for good. :)
 
Very nice! It's interesting to see your 8085 project as it matures. I came across your MAG-85 about the time I was getting ready to start playing with the 8085, having wanted to design a computer around the 8085 since middle school. It's now in phase two of development, making a PC board to replace the point-to-point built prototype.

The Little Board is really neat too...always liked the series! I wish I could find one of the Z-80 boards for a reasonable price, but all things come with time! One possible suggestion on the VT-102 used with it: I've got a serial terminal (Heath/Zenith H-19) that I really like, and currently have it connected to a 4-position serial switch. That allows me to select between my Linux server's console port, the Cromemco Z-2D, and OSI Challenger III without moving the terminal around or changing out cables.
 
Glad to hear you've got an 8085 in the works! Do you have anything posed about it? I'd like to check it out.

I'll probably do up a PCB for my 8085 next winter. It takes me a fair bit of time to design a PCB, I don't do it often enough to get good at it. But the MAG-85 is a really simple design, so I'm not expecting it to be too hard, I just have to get used to whatever software tool I end up using. One that has definitions for the chips I use already in its library would be a good choice, I suppose. ;)

I expect I'll be breaking out my serial switch when I get more terminal-based systems going again. Presently the Ampro is the only one that's running. When I get my CompuPro 8/16 going again there'll be a use for the switch. Most of the other systems I've been working on have a built-in console, like my BigBoard I and IIs and Kaypros. One option for my CP/M rackmount system is using the BigBoard I as the terminal for other systems in the rack. I've used the BBII with a terminal, as opposed to the built-in console, so I may do that for that system. But first I need to put a power relay on the disk drives for the BBI. Right now the drives run constantly. Adding the relay is simple and I've got an SSR set aside for the job, but I haven't had a chance to put it in yet.
 
I haven't posted much about my board here, but I'm working on a writeup which will be posted to my personal website once I get it up and running (I hate dynamic content, if nothing else from a security standpoint, so it's all straight HTML). I plan to release it as open source hardware with full schematics and board layout for non-commercial use. I managed to squeeze the main board (ROM, RAM, 8085, address latching, device select, and reset logic) in the EAGLE Light 3x4" board limit with a stacking 40-pin connector on the edge, so that people can design additional boards with the free version of EAGLE (highly recommended, btw...it comes with an extensive symbol library, I didn't have to make a single symbol for my board!) I put my board's schematic and board layout together in one evening, but I use EAGLE a lot.

I want to write a ROM monitor and build a serial board for it, so I can download programs directly to RAM and execute without burning a new EPROM/EEPROM. That'll be open-sourced too, written in 8085 assembly of course. I'll probably use either a Z-80 SIO chip (I have dozens of them) or a i8251 (I have experience in programming them).

I like to keep the two serial ports in my rack-mounted Linux server available as 2400 and 9600 baud console ports for my vintage computers. That allows me to use them for daily activities like e-mail and sync files between them via Kermit or zmodem. As much as I like repairing old systems and getting them back to original working condition, I also like being able to use them for useful tasks!
 
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