Z80-MBC2

[Cyber]

On 8/27/2022 at 2:37 AM, Strider said:

Well, I'm as far along as I can get with what I have on hand, everything else has been, or needs to be, found or ordered.



It's a good thing I test everything before using it, my wife got me an assortment box of ceramic capacitors from one of the many re-sellers on Amazon, and I think just about every capacitor in it is faulty. So now I need to order some of those since I don't have the 2 values I need on hand, they were in that kit. I also haven't decided if I want to mount the VGA Terminal Board vertical or horizontal yet, so I held off adding that header until I have the board in hand. 



Overall, a few hours well spent in my opinion. Can't wait to get it completed!

This is looking great! I also know how pleasant is the time spending assembling the board. Also I see you are enjoying using this PCB holder as much as I am. )

[EMwhite]

On 9/15/2022 at 9:13 PM, BruceMcF said:

For tinkering and dabbling with languages hosted on an 8bit system, CP/M is great.



Look at the programming languages page at Retro Archive ... skipping assemblers and linkers:



{stuff deleted for brevity, which is my thing}



 

Thanks for that, great resource (the parent, and related directories) and who can deny the Amtek amber font?

When I was in College (mid-80's in California), the school had PerfectWriter and the rest; very interested to see if it's the same version, however I believe we were running it on PCs.  Shame that "Turbo C" was not part of that lineup.  Suppose Borland had to snap the line somewhere and at a certain point only produced IBM PC titles.

 

[Strider]

One of the main reasons I wanted to build the Z80-MBC2 was to give me the opportunity to learn on real hardware, and this “modern homebrew” machine is as close as I am going to get. Like I said, I can give you a basic overview of how these machines work, but this is simple enough I can really dig into how to make it work for me. So not only is this for fun, but it’s also a learning tool I can use to teach myself how to utilize it instead of just using what others create.

This one uses the AtMega32 basically as the system ROM, and I still need to get that programmed so I can get it up and running. I ordered a 2 pack of USBASP programmers, and they don’t seem to play well with Windows 10, I failed to notice that when I ordered them, so I am going to try them on Ubuntu and see how that goes. I’ll get this thing up and running sooner or later.

You had me for a second, I thought to myself, didn’t that come out in the early 90’s? ?

I do plan on playing around in Microsoft Basic, and maybe Cobol, for the pure nostalgia of it, I haven’t messed with either since the 80’s. Not sure where I’m going to go from there, we’ll see.

 

On 9/17/2022 at 1:39 AM, Cyber said:

This is looking great! I also know how pleasant is the time spending assembling the board. Also I see you are enjoying using this PCB holder as much as I am. )

Yeah, that simple little cheap PCB holder is great to have, I have used it quite a bit! ?

[Strider]

I just used AVRDUDE in Linux to burn the bootloader, worked like a charm. Loaded the "sketch" that acts as the systems ROM. Hooked it all up, loaded up Putty, and .... IT"S ALIVE!

I know what I'm playing with all day today. ?

I absolutely LOVE that first power on and boot feeling!

[Strider]

Just in case anyone is interested, I have it posted on my blog. If you notice any errors, let me know. ?

https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-z80-mbc2-retro-homebrew-computer.html

[Strider]

I'm officially losing  my marbles...

I could have sworn I had several 100nF capacitors on hand.... got well into building the uTerm today, only to discover I have ... two. I need six. ?



 

I was hoping to get it up and running today. Oh well, now I guess I have to wait a bit longer. ?

 

[BruceMcF]

It's a little known fact that the same gnomes that steal socks from the sock drawer sometimes steal small two-lead electronic parts just to make mischief.

Especially looking forward to the U-term build, since so many minimalist retro Z80 boards I have seen around are accessed by plugging a USB-TTLserial cable into a SIL pin header, and the U-term seems like such a promising replacement for that ...that is, given that part of the appeal of tinkering around in CP/M on a retro board is to get away from the ever-present-distractions of the Internet.

[Strider]

On 10/4/2022 at 3:55 PM, BruceMcF said:

It's a little known fact that the same gnomes that steal socks from the sock drawer sometimes steal small two-lead electronic parts just to make mischief.



Especially looking forward to the U-term build, since so many minimalist retro Z80 boards I have seen around are accessed by plugging a USB-TTLserial cable into a SIL pin header, and the U-term seems like such a promising replacement for that ...that is, given that part of the appeal of tinkering around in CP/M on a retro board is to get away from the ever-present-distractions of the Internet.

Darn gnomes, just stick to socks! ?

I agree 100%, accessing it via serial on a modern PC is fine, but I want the full retro experience, and the uTerm is about as close as I'm going to get.

I also like the fact he designed a stand-alone uTerm, the uTerm-S (https://hackaday.io/project/176716-uterm-s) You could use it as a dumb-terminal for other retro CP/M builds.

He also has one last version, the uTerm2-S (https://hackaday.io/project/181583-uterm2-s-a-multi-emulation-color-rs232-terminal).

I do like options!

Edit: This is what I am thinking about cramming it all into this once I'm done.

https://amzn.to/3V32qyM

Move all the lights and buttons to the front panel, along with the keyboard connection and a proper power switch. Power input, serial, and VGA out the back. ?

[Strider]

Just a quick update...

The uTerm is up and running! So far so good with the quick and dirty setup on my desk, all running off a 9V battery. ? 

Time to get it hooked up properly and play around!

EDIT: Added better photos after I got it hooked up for proper testing. ?





 



 

UPDATE: Full article is up on my blog! https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2022/10/z80-mbc2-build-part-2-uterm-vt100-style.html

[Cyber]

Cool setup!

I also like to make such projects work without modern computer. In my case I use ASCII Video Terminal (https://geoffg.net/terminal.html). I think it is pretty much similar thing to uTerm, just a different implementation and taste.