[Coco] Re: 68B09P - Datasheet?

[John Donaldson]

Andrew,
   If these boards are configured as a CPU board and I/O boards, You 
might be
able to use them as is. You could make NEW EPROMS using Boisy's OS9 ROM
and use the I/O boards under NITROS9. You may have to do some rewrite of the
I/O drivers to match them up with the I/O boards, but you would get a 
lot of support
here on this form. Remember OS9 started out as a RTOS, which is a Real Time
Operating System. A RTOS is what you want for a robotic project, if the 
robot is
going to be the type that runs on it's own and now via a radio/joystick 
link.
  You could even write the main routines in Basic09.

John Donaldson


Andrew wrote:

> All,
>
> I recently went to my favorite used/surplus electronics/mechanical 
> parts supplier here in Phoenix (Apache Reclamation) - and out in their 
> yard I discovered a whole mess of old slot machines and parts. Some of 
> these parts were logic motherboards, which had on them various 74LSxx 
> parts, some EPROMs, and - a 68B09P processor...
>
> I am in the process of designing and building a robotic device, and a 
> portion of it I was originally planning to control with a 16F84 PIC - 
> but seeing these 6809 processors lit my eyes up.
>
> I was wondering if these would be worthwhile to investigate (as I 
> could likely get the boards really cheap), or if I should just stick 
> with PICs - or if the processors might be good for something else?
>
> I can't find a datasheet, though, to determine this. Unfortunately, I 
> don't know the manufacturer of this particular instance of the chip, 
> either.
>
> All I have been able to google tells me that this is a 40 pin chip 
> (duh), with a 2MHz internal clock. No mention of any on-board memory 
> or such...
>
> I realize that there probably isn't an EEPROM or FLASH on board this 
> chip - but how difficult is it to interface such things to it 
> (providing I have datasheets)? Would it be worth the trouble for 
> robotics use, or would I be better served sticking with PICs?
>
> Something tells me "stick with PICs" - because I fear I would be 
> spending too much time on the interface needs of the 6809 (ie, 
> essentially building a PIC) - but I wanted to get the group's opinion 
> and ideas on the matter, in case someone has some relevant knowledge 
> in the matter.
>
> Even with using a PIC, this is going to be an "uphill" struggle for 
> me, as I am going to still have to build a simple programmer, learn 
> PIC assembler (or somehow beg/borrow a PIC BASIC compiler), then learn 
> how to use it in a circuit, etc - to control my robot. But, 
> fortunately, there are tons of examples on this on the Net, so though 
> it might be rough, it is doable.
>
> All I would have using a 6809 would be this forum, any datasheet I 
> could scrounge up, my back stock of old Rainbows, plus the little 
> informational books I have on such old processors (mainly textbooks on 
> interface designs for microprocessors and control use).
>
> Andrew Ayers
> Glendale, Arizona
>