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Hand-Wired Z80 Basic Computer -- Episode 341

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

Join the Ben Heck team every week for amazing hacks! Watch them build and mod community-inspired projects using electronics!

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Seeing as everyone loves to a bit of intricate soldering, it's time for one last super solder episode! Ben is feeling nostalgic looking at his collection of CPUs so decides to use the z80 to create a basic Microsoft computer...giving him the perfect excuse to do lots of lovely soldering!

 

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  • I would REALLY like to build a 6502 based computer but with a cool, old school front panel / console.

     

    You see, I am blind, and I would love to have a way to program my computer with switches and maybe use vibrators instead of Blinkenlights. But wouldn't it be cool to be able to actually toggle in machine code directly into a system, like on the old IMSAI or Altair (or, even, PDP-11, although that was 16 bit...)

     

    I realise that the 6502 can't adress more than 64K of memory (since it is 8-bit), but I would also dream of putting more memory in it, but being able to toggle between banks, so that one potentially could write a modular OS for it, such as UNIX. On an 8-bit computer.

     

    Yeah... One can dream, right?

  • in reply to mackan

    I've built many 6502 family based systems. Do you need any help?

    To make things easier I suggest building a system using the R6511Q derivative.

    All you need to do is connect an EPROM, oscillator, some caps and resistors and you have an instant system.

    Optionally you can connect extra RAM.

     

    The R6511Q has inbuilt RAM - all 192 bytes!, Timers, parallel and serial I/O ports and 10 (TEN) Interrupts!

     

    If you really want to look at an 8 bit computer with banked memory - have a look at the later Z80 based microbees.  They have up to 1Mbytes of RAM (but usually 128-256).

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  • in reply to mackan

    I've built many 6502 family based systems. Do you need any help?

    To make things easier I suggest building a system using the R6511Q derivative.

    All you need to do is connect an EPROM, oscillator, some caps and resistors and you have an instant system.

    Optionally you can connect extra RAM.

     

    The R6511Q has inbuilt RAM - all 192 bytes!, Timers, parallel and serial I/O ports and 10 (TEN) Interrupts!

     

    If you really want to look at an 8 bit computer with banked memory - have a look at the later Z80 based microbees.  They have up to 1Mbytes of RAM (but usually 128-256).

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