Hi There
Welcome to the RBC build page of Trick-1. There is something about computers that you can open up, design new bits for, work on and fix that I really like. It was exactly that in the form of an Apple II europlus that got me hooked on computing back in the 1980's. I have a varied background in electronics and computing. For me it is both work and occasional recreation when time permits.
The recreation aspect can be slow, glaciers move faster, and is broadly around
- The Apple II - I still have a IIe and a II europlus that I have restored and collected a variety of cards for over the years. I have also designed (opto coupled parallel I/O card) and in the process of finalising a build of a Transputer link card with modification from Das Transputer Buch.
- Transputers - I caught the transputer bug in the late 1990's and today have a modest collection of which most runs Helios.
- Building electronic things - Now this is where RetroBrewComputers has just recently come into my life
- Other computing related things such as SunOS/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/Ubuntu and Nvidia CUDA/Parallella/Intel Xeon Phi Clusters
RetroBrewComputer Build
ECB
- SBCV2 - Fully built and operational running romwbw 2.71. Currently running the Z80 at 4Mhz. Powered directly from the backplane
PSU at this stage. - 12-Slot Backplane 505-6508 - Built and 1/2 populated with connectors. :builderpages:trick-1:backplane.jpg
- ECB Bus Monitor - working :builderpages:trick-1:busmon.jpg
- ECB Disk I/O V3.0 - working :builderpages:trick-1:diskio.jpg
- ECB cvdu - working :builderpages:trick-1:cvdu.jpg
- ECB propio - Pending Propeller programming :builderpages:trick-1:propio.jpg
- ECB ProtoBoard III - working
- EuroCard Rack - I got a great deal from this gumtree seller in Australia who has a range of racks/PSU/card guides, front pannel hardware etc https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/blacktown-area/other-electronics-computers/din41612-eurocard-frame-card-guides-183mm-jg1/1129976514
- 250W ATX Slimline Switch Mode Power Supply with ATX socket on breadboard and switch between the green wire and ground (sorry that's really not technical)
- MiniMax8085 - tested and working well
Built but yest to be tested
- ECB ProtoBoard III x1
- ECB 68030
- ECB MF-PIC
- SBC6120-rbc-edition - This is now built
- ECB VGA3
Pending final parts
- ECB 4UART-USB
- ECB Dual-SD-Card
- ECB Sprite Video Card
To be built
- CPU280
- REH-RBC-IDE
- 3 Slot ECB Backplane
This is a rather bad photo but shows my initial setup in an ABS Rack Case. This is now in a metal EuroCard Rack case (photo pending)
September 2017 Update
Well after a big session I now have my RBC running a custom ROMWBW 2.4.8 with the following hardware. See the forum posts around DISKIO and CVDU for information on what was done there to make it all work.
- CVDU - terminal Video and Keyboard
- DISKIOv3 - 1.44M FDD and Physical HDD
- Z80 @ 10Mhz (see forum post about using Crystals instead of Oscillators)
- Busmonitor
- Prototype card with some basic lights to flash on and off for getting the hang of programming.
The following is the current setup
