I finally got a hold of an IMSAI 8080 like the one used in the "War Games". Now this is going to be a fun computer to play with. Lots of blinking lights and switches.
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I purchased this Matt Millman's 2708 programmer shield (unpopulated) for the Arduino Mega 2560 R3. This allows me to program 2708 chips, something I cannot do with any other programmer I own. It will actually program 2704 / 2708 / TMS2716 / MCM68764 and MCM68766 EPROMs. The only one it will not program is the 1702 / 1702A. However, Matt has a board for that too. Unfortunately, that board is nearly made entirely of surface made components, so it would be tricky to put together.
As you can see, the EPROM I am programming here is for my Ithaca Audio Floppy Disk Controller. Finally got all the components for this IA-2020 Floppy Drive Controller board. Now all I need to do is program a 2708 EPROM with the appropriate code. I am currently looking for a BIN or HEX file of the Ithaca Audio FDC-II (IA-2020) code. It would fit on a 2708 EPROM.
I wanted to test my Solid State Music IO-4 card to make sure it is working correctly (to eliminate it as a source of problems with another computer I am working on), so I decided to see if it would work with the JAIR. I pulled all the jumpers from JP10 (per Josh's instruction manual, all I/O mapped is to S-100 bus). I set my IO-4 board to: Serial A 0x20 Data Port 0x21 Status Port 9600 baud, N,8,1 It seems to partially work. The boot loader text displays fine, but then the computer seams to struggle and start to output junk. It never prints the dots or starts to load the SD contents. I have attached a photo of the screen. If I revert back to the onboard SIO all is fine again. Not sure why the SSM IO-4 card would cause the JAIR to hang like that. Any ideas? Mind you I did not play with the parallel port settings, however if I understand it correctly, with the jumper J10 empty of jumpers, the onboard parallel port is disabled as well, correct?
MiniTerm Associates ROM/EPROM board
Looking for some documentation on this ROM/EPROM board from MiniTerm Associates. I want to know how to set the jumpers, if I use a different set of EPROMs. µUN Jello RAM board Does anyone have any information on this µUN Jello RAM board. Even some images of a completed board might help as it would let me know component values if the resolution is high enough. Please e-mail me at v a 3 n g c @ g m a i l . c o m if you can help. (remove spaces in email name) I am happy to say, I have my JAIR S-100 single board computer up and running. I have had this board sitting around for awhile but only finished building the power supply recently. This baby emulates the Altair and IMSAI computers. In fact it will work with their front panels and other cards as well. I'm going to use it to test out some S-100 cards I have. I really like this little computer.
Well, the old Gifford computer is doing something. I have blinking lights, but she is not loading anything from the drives. I will have to check what is on the EPROMS. In the notes I have it only talks about loading from tape. Also nothing shows up on the terminal screen.
On the plus side the front panel seems functional (except for one LED). I can at least examine and deposit data. Just about ready to fire this baby (Gifford S-100) up. Any bets as to whether or not she starts first time?
Stay tuned tomorrow to see what happens... Got a monitor for my SOL-20. CTI EM-941 Believe it or not, this monitor was made in 2000, but it looks correct for the SOL-20. If anyone notices, they are standing too close anyhow!
At some point I have to replace the foil pads on the keyboard as some of them are deteriorated. Received the following S-100 boards from the brother of the person, I bought the lot of boards off of in March. The boards consist of:
The Solid State Music (SSM) OB-1 board is a vector jump and prototyping board that is plug compatible with all S -100 bus mainframes. The board has a full 16 bits of vector jump address and can jump to any individual addressable location. Additional features of the OB -1 include prototyping areas on the board for ten 16 pin integrated circuits, three 24 or 28 pin integrated circuits, plus two spare regulator patterns. The SSM IO-2 Input/Output, PROM and Universal Board. S-100 bus compatible. Two I/O ports committed, pads provided for three additional ports, including one serial. Other pads to facilitate wiring for a UART, EPROMs etc. Instructions include information on several wiring options. Gold contacts for edge connector. Kit includes parts necessary for two I/O ports. There are some pretty cool things you can build with this card according to the manual. Also there is a lot of neat projects for it on http://www.glitchwrks.com/s100.htm |
AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
February 2024
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