[Coco] [N8VEM: 17421] Group Order Interest Pre-Check - 6x0x ATX/VME Board

Wed Mar 5 00:00:01 EST 2014

Hi Guys!

The notice contained later in my email went out to the N8VEM group of people several days ago.  The 6x0x SBC VME PCB is actually a triple support 8-bit microprocessor single board computer that uses the VME bus style of connectors though it is not VME compatible..  It will support the 6809, 6802 and 6502.  Of course my board will have an Hitachi HD63C09P microprocessor on it.  The test build team for the first version of this board of which I’m a member were very excited to see how a 6309 based version of this PCB will work.  I know there are some people who like to tinker with 8-bit microprocessor projects of many types on this Coco list, so I’d like to encourage as many people as possible to order one of the bare PCBs.  The more people who order a bare PCB reduces the cost of the entire order and thus the cost for each bare PCB will be lower and lower.  The more people who have a copy of this PCB will make porting NitrOS-9 to this PCB easier.  The list of orders thus far is on the web page below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmbodPH8GZcCdFp5WW8xaVc0WDY1RWhJQnQwOE9pNVE <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmbodPH8GZcCdFp5WW8xaVc0WDY1RWhJQnQwOE9pNVE&output=html> &output=html

This list shows 38 people on the N8VEM group who have put in requests for PCBs at the writing of this email.  The link describing the ECB 6x0x SBC VME PCB is

http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder <http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=ECB%206x0x> &param=ECB%206x0x

This is so far the biggest homemade 6809 Single Board Computer that I have ever made.  I’ve designed several versions of a 6809 SBC of which none have been fabricated yet, but I may still build some as a learning experience in designing PCBs for myself.  This one is really impressive though.  Andrew Lynch and John Coffman have done an excellent job designing this board.  The features for this board are documented on the above site so I won’t go into a detailed description here, but just very briefly the PCB will support a 6309, 6809, 6802 or 6502, has 512KB of SRAM, 512KB of Flash memory for a total of 1MBs of address apace, PS/2 Keyboard, VGA output, SD Card socket for online storage which so far works with a 32GB SDCard, two serial ports – one for a 6551 and the other for the on board Parallax Propeller chip, a parallel port, and unused pins from two 6522 VIA chips, and 6840 PTM chip brought out to pin headers for any use that can be imagined.  It uses a 20 pin ATX connector for power as well as a 4-pin Floppy Power connector which are compatible with any standard PC power supply.

I will be documenting my experience with this board soon on my Wiki page on Cocopedia.com.  

Can you imagine a 6309 Single Board Computer with no real drives running NitrOS-9 6309 L2 with 512KB of RAM?  I can!  It will be easier to port NitrOS-9 to this board if you have one yourself to experiment with.  Maybe we’ll also be able to connect to a Drivewire 4 Server with NitrOS-9 on this PCB.  

Here are a couple of pictures of my PCB test build thus far.  The first picture is of the front of the board.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cgfedtwer28sziu/Pic_0222_280.jpg

As you can see, I’m just about ready to insert all the IC chips into their sockets.  The second picture is of the back of the board.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/czjf56ymqvl8t6o/Pic_0222_281.jpg

So far I have soldered 1,453 solder connections with at least 125 to go.  No wonder my hands got tired.  Once all the parts I had on order finally arrived, I was able to get this far with all the soldering in just 3 or 4 days.  The fun part will be inserting all the ICs, but I bought several Xcelite IC Inserter and Extraction tools for that.  The board passed the initial smoke test with flying colors – No Smoke!  I have a few mandatory modifications to make on this board and then I’ll be ready for IC installation.  All the problems the test build team have experienced on the first version of this PCB have been corrected on the production version.  I understand that the N8VEM group has an IDE controller that can be connected to the parallel port called PPIDE.  The 6x0x SBC VME PCB is also compatible with N8VEM’s line of ECB backplanes and accessary ECB cards so many other boards could be added to this board for a real card cage style computer – similar to the computers of yesteryear.  I always wanted to build one of those card cage style computers like the SWTPC for example, but I could never afford it.  Now I can!  Let the 6309 SBC VME PCB building begin!  Take care my friends.

Kip

From: n8vem at googlegroups.com [mailto:n8vem at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Bingham
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 4:50 PM
To: n8vem at googlegroups.com
Subject: [N8VEM: 17421] Group Order Interest Pre-Check - 6x0x ATX/VME Board

Hello,

I've coordinated with Andrew L. and I'll be coordinating/buying/distributing the first order of the new N8VEM ATX/VME 6x0x SBC.  The board and directors of Mojave Makers (www.mojavemakers.org) have agreed to make this an official project of our 501c3 as part of our educational mission, allowing us to help offload Andrew L. without having to worry about things like volume of PayPal payments, taxes, etc.

Prototype boards have been out to a few people since late last year; there are a few minor tweaks going on with the board design right now, and Andrew L is updating the EDA files.

I'd like to get an idea of the interest level for this board, so I can get quotes, arrange for packing/shipping materials, etc.

My general plan is this:

-Interest check (now) while we wait for the finishing touches on the board design.  Get quote and provide estimated cost per board at this interest level.

-Once Andrew L. finishes up the EDA files to where they are ready to order, I'll send out another email asking for people who expressed interest to confirm their orders, or for any new confirmed orders.  I'll leave things open for orders for something like 1 week to give everyone plenty of time to see the message and get orders in.

-At the end of the order period I'll post a final list of who ordered what, and place an order for boards

-When the boards arrive, I'll generate PayPal invoices and send them to everyone who had a confirmed order

-Upon receipt of payment, boards will ship.

So, let me know if you're interested in 6x0x boards and I'll get the interest list started!

Andrew

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