The SBC V2 is a Zilog Z80 processor board. It's a 100x160mm board that is capable of functioning both as a standalone SBC or as attached to the ECB bus.

• 4Mhz+ Zilog Z80 CPU
• Up to 512Kb paged SRAM.
• Up to 1Mb EPROM or 512Kb FLASH ROM.
• Serial Interface with flow control jumper options (16550 Uart)
• Parallel interface (8255), can be extended to support IDE interface via ppi interface board.
• Real Time Clock (DS1302)
• Battery backup controller for RTC and SRAM (DS1210).
• Standard ECB bus interface
• Standard PC drive connector power supply interface using +5V only
• Reset button with external connector
• Bi-colour status LED.

ROMWBW BIOS featuring:

• CP/M / ZSDOS
• RAM & ROM disk support.
• ROM based BASIC, FORTH and Monitor.
• Prebuild disk images.

Gallery

A description of the circuit operation can been seen here: http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/the-n8vem-sbc

A video showing the construction of the SBC-V2-003 can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXUt_EX-eo0

The current version is SBC-V2-003A.

Schematics: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc_v2-003a-sch.pdf

PCB Board: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc_v2-003a-brd.pdf

Gerbers: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc-v2-003a.zip

Kicad: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:ecb_sbc_v2-003a-20190306.zip

Full list of parts::boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc-v2-parts-list.pdf

See here for minimum build and parts substitution guidelines.

There was an error in the board layouts of sbc-v2-003 compared to the original schematic that results in the external reset not working in Kontron mode. This has been corrected in SBC-V2-003A

V2-003 schematics: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc-v2-003-sch.pdf

V2-003 board layout: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:sbc-v2-003-brd.pdf

V2-003 Kicad files: :boards:sbc:sbc_v2:ecb_sbc_v2-003-kicad.zip

To configure the V2-003 board to work in Kontron mode with the external reset coming from the backplane the following workaround can be made.

1. Pin 3 on K13 needs to be jumpered to Pin 2 of P6 (Reset switch jumper) - this connects the backplane reset input pin (c31) to the reset circuit input.
2. Pin 1-2 needs to be jumpered on K13 - this connects the /reset circuit output to the backplane reset out pin(c26).

The V2 is upward compatible. The main difference is the added jumpers to allow 48k/16k memory mapping as an alternate to 32k/32k. All of the V1 software will run on the V2 with default jumpers.

The V2 board has major corrections to the external Bus Master logic to support DMA. The V1 board is not able to support DMA. Since there are no add-on boards which have a DMA controller, this circuit update has never been tested or used.

The serial interface is jumper configurable to support DTR/DSR protocol (V1 compatible), or RTS/CTS protocol (not on the V1).

There is an DS1210 on the V2 board to provide 512k SRAM battery backup. The V1 does not have this capability. The RTC SRAM is battery backed on both boards.

There is an option jumper on the Parallel Interface connector to strap pin 25 to either GND or 5v. On the V1 board this pin is tied to GND.

The V1 board has a Power On LED; the V2 board has a HALT(red)/RUN(green) bi-color LED. This is considered extremely cool.

The following table outlines the correct jumper settings for the SBC V2 board:

* = default setting

A number of modifications may be made to enhance your SBC-V2-003, all of which have been incorporated in later versions.

• Sound
• Speed switch
• Recovery mode switch

The SBC V2 doesn't have any video capabilities in its solitary form. Therefore, in order to test it, you will need to connect it to a serial terminal (which will provide the keyboard input and monitor output). The easiest way to do this is to construct a cable which will provide a serial port (with a D-sub connector or DE-9 plug) which will plug into a “host” computer running a serial terminal emulation program. This program will allow you to interface with the SBC V2 board using the host computer’s keyboard and monitor.

First, you must build a cable with an IDC-10 plug on one end (plastic rectangular connector with 2 rows of 5 pins) and a female DE-9 plug (ie. a serial port plug) on the other end.

The female DE-9 plug is what you will plug into the serial port of your host computer. Serial ports (on the back of the computer) are male ports (ie. they have pins), so the plug at the end of this cable must be a female plug (they have holes). It's not recommended to use accessory serial cables to make this connection (such as null modem cables, etc.). This is because many such cables are wired for specific applications, and may not work with your SBC V2 board. For instance, a serial data transfer cable is wired very differently from a “straight-through” serial cable (pin 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc.) which is different from a null modem cable. Because of this cable inconsistency, it's preferred to build the complete custom cable from the beginning knowing exactly what pin is connected where and why, and not to use any serial extension cables. The exception to this is using a serial cable that you know is wired as a “straight through” cable (with each pin on one plug connected to each pin on the other plug: 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc).

The following cable layout shows what is being connected where in this cable:

Pin 1 on the IDC plug is marked with an embossed triangle on the plug, and this pin corresponds to pin 1 on the pcb which is marked with a square solder hole (at the lower-right most position of the plug on the SBC V2 pcb). The pins on the DE-9 plug are usually marked right on the plug itself in tiny numbers. Strip some wires and solder away. Instead of stripping wires and soldering manually, you can also use ribbon cable and special “direct connect” plugs that connect directly to the ribbon cable without soldering (they have rows of metal “pins” that press down and penetrate the ribbon cable to make the connections). Because of the non-standard pin connections that are needed in this cable (per the above table), however, you will likely need to do some soldering or “custom connecting”.

Always double and triple check where you’re soldering something before you solder it. When you’ve built your cable, use your multimeter to check connectivity between each pin on the IDC-10 side and the DE-9 side according to the arrangement above to make sure you got it right.

In order to test connections in a plug you cannot stick the multimeter lead into the hole (because it will not fit). Instead, take a spare piece of wire, stick it into the hole for the pin you want to test, and then touch the multimeter lead to that wire.

ROMWBW will automatically identify the type of serial chip installed. Depending on the capability of the serial chip, flow control may or may not be available. Chip data sheets cannot be relied upon to accurately identify the chips capability.

Your terminal should be set up for 38400, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no line-feed after carriage return.

Baud rate can be changed using the CP/M MODE program i.e. MODE COM0:57600,8,N,1 /P

If garbled characters are seen on the display or serial file transfers fail, a lower baud rate should be tried.

Teraterm is a popular terminal user program that works well with ROMWBW and the SBC V2

A single color or bicolor LED can be installed for the status LED. The LED monitors the status of the HALT line from the Z80 CPU. Consider the color selection and orientation when choosing. A red/green LED is ideal and logically should show green when cpu is running and red when halted. Or in the case of a single colour LED, on when cpu is running and off when halted. It is wise to not fully solder in the LED until the orientation has been checked to confirm the right sequence. Or, you could install a pin header and run flying leads to an LED mounted in a case,

The HALT status can be initiated by booting CP/M and running the DDTZ debugger, loading and executing a HALT instruction.

B>ddtz
DDTZ v2.7M by CB Falconer. CPU=Z80
-a100
0100   hlt
0101
-g100

The SBC can be configured with 128Kb or 512Kb RAM and up to 512Kb ROM. The Z80 processor can only access 64Kb at one time, so the additionally memory is accessed through a memory paging scheme.

The memory paging system can be configured in two different ways but the default is to be set with 32Kb of RAM fixed at the top 8000h-FFFFh memory range and for the bottom 32Kb 0000h-7FFFh being selectable from either the RAM or ROM chips. This 32Kb/32Kb configuration is what is supported by the ROMWBW software package.

Under the 32Kb/32Kb configuration, the top 32Kb is mapped to the last 32Kb of the 128Kb or 512Kb RAM chip and the lower 32Kb is selected from RAM or ROM by writing the required address line configuration to the RAM or ROM memory page configuration latch.

The SBC V2 uses address 60h - 7Fh for on board peripherals. Address decoding is not complete so some address ports are duplicated within this address range. All other I/O address ranges are exported to the ECB.

Bit 6 of RTC port $70 is connect to an on board jumper JP2 which can be read by software. By default it is tied high. Removing jumper JP2 will result in the being tied low (=0).

Effectively this creates a configurable jumper setting which the ROMWBW bootrom can use for determining the primary communications console.

This facility is not enabled by default in ROMWBW and the setting is ignored. To enable, rebuild the ROMWBW package with the CRTACT setting set to true. The CRT type can also be configured at this time:

SBC_std_cust.asm

CRTACT        .SET    TRUE           ; CRT ACTIVATION AT STARTUP
VDAEMU        .SET    EMUTYP_ANSI    ; DEFAULT VDA EMULATION (EMUTYP_TTY, EMUTYP_ANSI, ...)

This will cause ROMWBW to check the status of BIT 6 at startup. If “0” (jumper removed) it will change the primary communications console from the Serial UART to the first CRT console found. If a CRT console is not found it will default back to the Serial UART. If BIT 6 = “1” (jumper in place) it will boot as normal with the primary console using the Serial UART.

There is extensive firmware support for the SBC V2 and associated ECB peripheral cards. Currently there are two firmware builds still being actively developed - UNA and ROMWBW.

See here for current software builds and information on historical projects.

A debug boot ROM can be installed for testing - try James Moxham's ROMIMAGE.BIN from here.

The DS1302 real time clock can be set under CP/M using the rtc utility program.

Loading CPM...
CP/M-80 Version 2.2C for the N8VEM, October 2008
Run XM from A drive, this downloads file to B drive
A>rtc
Start RTC Program
RTC: Version 1.0
RTC: Commands: E)xit T)ime st(A)rt S)et R)aw L)oop C)harge N)ocharge D)elay I)nit G)et P)ut H)elp
RTC: trickle charger disabled.
RTC>

Set the time and date with the Init command first and then use the Set command to program it.

RTC.COM can also be used to set up trickle charging for the backup battery or super capacitor if connected. More Information on charging Super Capacitors can be found here: https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/design/tools/calculators/product-design/supercap.cfm

The utility can also set and read the RTC memory.

asciiart.bas benchmark for SBC-V2 8Mhz Z80 board running Microsoft MBASIC v5.21:

2m32s

10 FOR Y=-12 TO 12
20 FOR X=-39 TO 39
30 CA=X*.0458
40 CB= Y*.08333
50 A=CA
60 B=CB
70 FOR I=0 TO 15
80 T=A*A-B*B+CA
90 B=2*A*B+CB
100 A=T
110 IF (A*A+B*B)>4 THEN GOTO 200
120 NEXT I
130 PRINT " ";
140 GOTO 210
200 IF I>9 THEN I=I+7
205 PRINT CHR$(48+I);
210 NEXT X
220 PRINT
230 NEXT Y

000000011111111111111111122222233347E7AB322222111100000000000000000000000000000
000001111111111111111122222222333557BF75433222211111000000000000000000000000000
000111111111111111112222222233445C      643332222111110000000000000000000000000
011111111111111111222222233444556C      654433332211111100000000000000000000000
11111111111111112222233346 D978 BCF    DF9 6556F4221111110000000000000000000000
111111111111122223333334469                 D   6322111111000000000000000000000
1111111111222333333334457DB                    85332111111100000000000000000000
11111122234B744444455556A                      96532211111110000000000000000000
122222233347BAA7AB776679                         A32211111110000000000000000000
2222233334567        9A                         A532221111111000000000000000000
222333346679                                    9432221111111000000000000000000
234445568  F                                   B5432221111111000000000000000000
                                              864332221111111000000000000000000
234445568  F                                   B5432221111111000000000000000000
222333346679                                    9432221111111000000000000000000
2222233334567        9A                         A532221111111000000000000000000
122222233347BAA7AB776679                         A32211111110000000000000000000
11111122234B744444455556A                      96532211111110000000000000000000
1111111111222333333334457DB                    85332111111100000000000000000000
111111111111122223333334469                 D   6322111111000000000000000000000
11111111111111112222233346 D978 BCF    DF9 6556F4221111110000000000000000000000
011111111111111111222222233444556C      654433332211111100000000000000000000000
000111111111111111112222222233445C      643332222111110000000000000000000000000
000001111111111111111122222222333557BF75433222211111000000000000000000000000000
000000011111111111111111122222233347E7AB322222111100000000000000000000000000000