Automating Mouse and Keyboard with an Arduino Pro Micro smbakeryt 2024-10-17 | Automating Mouse and Keyboard with an Arduino Pro Micro
Adding Magnetic Bubble Memory to a vintage computer, an iPDS-100 Personal Development System smbakeryt 2024-06-03 | In this video, I take an iPDS-100 vintage computer circa 1982 and add Magnetic Bubble Memory to it. The iPDS-100 was manufactured in the early 1980s by Intel and was sold as a personal development system, featuring EPROM programming and emulation capabilities for 8051 and 8085 CPUs. This particular iPDS-100 has two 8085 CPUs in it, allowing you to run two programs concurrently on a split screen. This allowed you to not just program EPROMs and emulate processors, but also to run a variety of software such as editors, assemblers, compilers, etc. It ran an operating system called ISIS-II, and it also ran CP/M. My iPDS did not include the necessary iPDS-120 "multimodule adapter" necessary to plug the iSBX-251 Bubble Memory modules into it. So I built my own! It was a little difficult getting the dimensions exactly right, but I pulled it off and was able to install the replacement adapter and get my iPDS to use bubble memory and to boot from it. I also show how to blank check, program, and verify a 2532 EPROM. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
Rockwell AIM-65 6502 Vintage Computer: Display Board, Speech Synthesizer, Basic, and Forth smbakeryt 2024-05-04 | I explore the Rockwell AIM-65 vintage computer. This is a 6502-based computer from the late 1970s. This computer came with 4KB of RAM and 20KB of ROM, and had some kind of calculation program installed for what I think is a manufacturing company. It came in a nice all-metal industrial case. I build a display board that uses the 6545 CRTC chip to render composite video. I also build a speech synthesizer using the SP0256A-AL2 speech synthesis IC. I also demonstrate using BASIC and Forth languages, and establish a serial connection to the vintage computer. For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
I built an 8008 Supercomputer. 8 ancient 8008 vintage microprocessors computing in parallel. smbakeryt 2024-02-19 | I've done some videos lately on the 8008 CPU, widely regarded as the world's first 8-bit programmable microprocessor. Previously I built a nice little single board computer. In this video I connect eight of these 8008 microprocessors together, designate one as a controller, design a shared memory abstraction between then, and use them to solve a simple parallel computing program -- Conway's Game of Life. Using my simple straightforward assembly implementation of Conway's, I was about to show that the seven CPUs (one controller, 6 workers) worked together to solve the problem significantly faster than the single processor alone. The 8008 debuted commercially in the early 1970s. It's a physically small chip, only 18 pins, and requires a triplexed address and data bus. The clock rate is 500 KHz and the instruction set is fairly limited. Nevertheless, you can do a lot with this little CPU. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com/.
The Best Votrax Text-To-Speech Synthesizer: Aicom Accent Votrax SC-02 8-bit ISA PC Card smbakeryt 2024-01-07 | I've played with a lot of other text to speech systems, including the Votrax Type-N-Talk, various CTS256/SPO256 solutions, etc. This Votrax SC-02 based speech synthesizer, the Aicom Accent has phenomenally good text to speech technology for the time. Part of this is due to the increased capabilities of the SC-02, which offers more parameters than the SC-01 (and certainly more than the SP0256A-AL2). However, I think the real reason for the quality is the text to speech algorithm in the rom. Whereas most TTS systems might have an algorithm that runs in 4KB or 8KB of ROM, the Aicom Accent has 128 KB of ROM. It's really a text-to-speech coprocessor more than it is just a speech synthesizer, completely offloading all text-to-speech duties from the PC. This card appeared to have originally been installed in a phone response system at a municipal library. Using some software called SpeakUp as a basis, and talking to the developer of that software, Kirk Reiser, I was able to write my own DOS utility to communicate with the card. In this video, I demonstrate configuring many parameters of the Votrax SC-02 via the Aicom board, I have it speak many phrases and even read a few files, Let me know if you have any other good speech synthesizer stories. For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
I built a Jupiter Ace clone, and 3 new modules for it! smbakeryt 2024-01-01 | I came across a project on hackaday.io called "Recreating the Jupiter Ace" and I decided to try to reproduce this myself. I downloaded the author's Kicad files, had the board fabbed up by jlcpcb, and built myself a 2024 Jupiter Ace! I ran into a couple problems, which I diagnose and resolve in the video. Then I designed three modules for it: 1) RAM expansion, 2) Raspberry Pi Supervisor, and 3) Speech Synthesizer. The Jupiter Ace is a cool vintage/retro computer because it is one of the very few computers that came with the FORTH language instead of BASIC in ROM. Not many people knew FORTH at the time, so this may have led to some of the marketing issues with the Jupiter Ace. Nevertheless, it is quite a capable computer for its size, and I even play a couple games -- Tut Tut by George Beckett and Moon Buggy by John Kennedy. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com/.Resources:* Scott's Website: smbaker.com* Hackaday.io page on Recreating the Jupiter Ace: hackaday.io/project/165772-recreating-the-jupiter-ace* Tut Tut by George Beckett: zx81keyboardadventure.com/2020/05/tut-tut-on-jupiter-ace-part-1.html* Moon Buggy and other Games, by John Kennedy: github.com/GrantMeStrength/retro/blob/gh-pages/Ace/index.md* Jupiter Ace Archive site: jupiter-ace.co.uk
80188-based FORTH Computer Vesta OEM-188 aka Radio Electronics RE Robot Brain smbakeryt 2023-12-30 | While working on my recent 80186 CPU Board project, I came across an eBay listing for the Vesta Technologies OEM-188 single board computer, which is based on the 80188, and it even has the FORTH programming language in ROM. Will it even boot MS-DOS with a serial console? Let's find out. This board was also featured as part of a series of articles in Radio Electronics Magazine back in 1987. This board was the "brain" for the Radio Electronics RE Robot. Unfortunately, I don't have the robot itself, but at least you can get a good demo of how the CPU board for it worked. For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com/.
MS-DOS on an Ancient Heathkit H8 computer using an 80186 CPU Board smbakeryt 2023-12-23 | Did you ever wish your vintage H8 8-bit computer ran MS-DOS? Probably not... but what if you did? In this video, I upgrade my H8 computer from its stock 8080 CPU to a 16-bit 80186 CPU. This is an upgrade from 2MHz to 25Mhz, and an increase in the memory bus width from 8-bit to 16-bit. The retrobrew SBC-188 was the basis for this design, which I modified to use the 80186 with its 16-bit data bus, and glued it to the Heathkit H8 "Benton Harbor" bus. In the video I demonstrate integration with some of my other boards, including an SP0256A-Al2 speech synthesizer, a VDIP1 USB module, and an H8-4 serial board. Some DOS software works fine, but some software will require true IBM PC compatibility and not work so well. Oh, and we die in Zork and play some Galactic Warezone too! For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
Olivetti M20 Z8000 Computer: Upgrades and New Boards and Speech Synthesizers and ZORK! smbakeryt 2023-11-26 | I finally got my hands on an Olivetti M20 computer, this one came all the way from France! I've been looking for an M20 ever since I did the Z8000 clover computer project a few years ago. The Olivetti M20 computer seem to have been particularly popular in Europe, and were designed and manufactured in Italy. The typical M20 has two floppy drives, each either 320KB or 640KB in size. Some may have had optional hard drives. 128 KB of memory was stock, which could be raised to up to 512 KB by adding a total of three add-on memory cards. The CPU is the Zilog Z-8000 16-bit CPU. In this video, I upgrade the RAM from 128KB to 512KB, add a compactflash adapter, design a speech synthesizer, design a USB adapter, play zork and encounter a troll, try out the 8086 Alternate Processor Board (APB), and program things in Forth. For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
Mini-08 single-board computer based on the 8008 CPU smbakeryt 2023-10-30 | I take my 8008 H8 CPU board and I refactor it into a standalone single-board computer. The 8008 CPU is widely considered to be the world's first 8-bit commercial programmable microprocessor. My single-board computer features the 8008 CPU together with up to 128KB of RAM and 128KB of ROM via bankswitching, and a 8251 UART for serial I/O. It runs Basic, Forth, and has a build-in monitor and can play games. The display board is an optional add-on that features ten 7-segment displays together with a real time clock and a 76489 complex sound generator IC. For more vintage and retro computing videos, see smbaker.com
Heathkit H8 Vintage Computer with an 8008 CPU Board (Not 8080... 8008 !!) smbakeryt 2023-09-04 | I wanted to experiment with the 8008 microprocessor, so I decided to produce an 8008 board for my trusty Heathkit H8. The H8 by default ships with an 8080 CPU board. I've previously upgraded it, including upgrading to an 8085. But what if we went the other way... What if we went all the way back to the 8008 CPU? Can we make the H8 work? Can we implement the front panel monitor? Run basic programs? Play games? Sure we can. Let's see it happen. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
RC2014 and Heathkit H8 Vintage/Retro Punched Paper Tape using a FANUC PPR (Portable Punch Reader) smbakeryt 2023-07-30 | My second video on using punched paper tape with vintage computers. I found a FANUC PPR (Portable Punch Reader) on eBay. I repaired it. Then I modified my RC2014 using a custom serial board and a custom BASIC interpreter so that I could load and save BASIC programs to punched paper tape. I also augmented BASIC so I can use the PPR's printer to print program listings. Then I connected this to my Heathkit H8 and used Extended Benton Harbor BASIC to read and write BASIC programs to tape. Finally, I printed over a hundred feet of tape (first paper, then mylar) from my Laptop containing the binary for Benton Harbor BASIC and loaded that into the H8, demonstrating how to load a large binary program. Tape went all over the flow, it was quite a mess, but eventually I loaded over the 100+ foot tape. The FANUC PPR is a great way to experiment with paper tape on Vintage or Retro computers as it implements everything you need -- paper tape punch, paper tape reader, and even a printer -- and it implements is using a standard RS232 Interface that is very easy to use with most older computers. For more vintage computing projects, see smbaker.com
Bubble Memory Part 2: Single-Board Bubble Computer and my return to the RC2014 smbakeryt 2023-07-05 | I build a single-board computer that includes a bubble memory storage device. Bubble memory is a technology that stores bits of data using magnetic domains on a substrate. This board uses the 7110AZ bubble memory storage device together with the associated support chips. The single board computer pairs the bubble memory and support circuitry with an RC2014-like Z80 computer (16K ROM, 32K RAM, a couple of serial ports). I also build a variant that can be used as an expansion card for the RC2014. I show off a couple other boards, including by "Double-Bubble" Heathkit H8 board and my RC2014-SCC board. For more retro computer projects, please see smbaker.com
AKI Typesetter Keyboard/Punch repaired and automated with Raspberry Pi smbakeryt 2023-07-04 | I wanted to introduce my retro computing projects to punched paper tapes. Reading paper tapes is conceptually fairly simple, and there are numerous options out there including DIY. However, punching is more difficult because the mechanism is more demanding. I bought an AKI Typesetter Keyboard on eBay. It was advertised as being nonfunctional. I repaired the device, and then reverse-engineered enough of it to be able to figure out how to drive it with a raspberry pi. These typesetter keyboards were typically used in the 1970s for large newspapers and other production facilities, where operators would type documents using the keyboard to a paper-tape. The paper-tape would have then been taken to a slugcasting machine / linotype for production. The keyboard has no display mechanism, no serial or parallel interface -- the operator simply types and the result goes directly to paper tape. I was able to control is using the raspberry pi and wrote a program to issue test patterns and print novelty banners. For more retro computer projects, please see smbaker.com
Heathkit H-47 massive 8 Floppy Drive Unit smbakeryt 2023-06-26 | I bought an H-47 to go with my Heathkit H8 computer. This would have been a considerable upgrade back in the early 80s, going from the H-17 which offered 100KB per disk (later 200KB with double-sided support) to the H-47 which had one megabye per disk. The H47 is also considerably faster than the H17. In the video I take a few quick looks at the internals, then I format and sysgen a disk on my H8, prove that we can read files from it, prove that the disk can be read in the other drive. Then I try to boot it, which didn't quite work, but we're workin' on that... :) For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
Magnetic Bubble Memory Storage on a Heathkit H8 smbakeryt 2023-06-03 | I ditch my modern compactflash board for a period-accurate "Bubble Memory" board. Bubble memory, using the 7110AZ bubble memory device, is a 1 megabit nonvolatile storage medium that makes use of magnetic bubbles together with a garnet substrate. It was a remarkable and elegant technology for the time, but ultimately lost out to RAM and HDD technologies that offered higher bit density, higher speed, or cheaper cost. Nevertheless, it's fascinating to build one of these bubble storage devices. I demonstrate formatting a bubble storage device, copying files to it, and booting from it. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
Trump Card Z8000 PC Coprocessor card Part 2, 1980s Vintage, Lost software has been found! smbakeryt 2023-05-20 | About 6 months ago, I bought a used "Trump Card" off of eBay. This card is a Zilog Z8000 coprocessor presented in an article in BYTE magazine by Steve Ciarcia of Circuit Cellar. The card offers increased performance for an IBM PC 5150 or similar PC. The Z8000 ran at a faster CPU speed, and it was a 16-bit CPU compared to the PC's 8-bit 4.77MHz CPU. The card communicated with the host, and you were supposed to be able to run Z8000 software seamlessly from your PC. I had the card, and I had the documentation, but the software itself. Not even Steve Ciarcia himself had a known copy of the software (most of his Circuit Cellar artifacts have been sent to a museum, and the software may or mot not be there). Anyhow, a friendly user, Hank, managed to find out about my quest for the lost software and found the missing disks! In this video I will install the card in my 5150, load the OS onto it, and run several commands. I'll exercise the basic compiler and perform a comparison of the Z8000 basic compiler to IBM BASICA, IBM BASIC COMPILER, and Z8000 C. I'll also try the Z80 CP/M emulation capabilities of the card. I'll show how it can be used as a ramdisk. For more vintage computer videos, see smbaker.com
Heathkit H8 Part 4: 16 Megabytes of RAM in a Heathkit H8 Vintage Computer smbakeryt 2023-05-09 | Here I make a 16 megabyte RAM board for my Heathkit H8 8-bit computer. The H8 typically shipped with 4K or 8K of RAM, and 64K was a popular upgrade, sometimes requiring multiple boards. There were a few 64K boards back in the day, but to my knowledge nobody has ever made an 8 Megabyte board! Whatever would you even use that much memory for. In this case, I build and used two 8MB boards to add a total of 16MB of memory and used this to create 8 Ramdisks of approximate size 2MB each. The board allows either AS6C4008 512KB RAM chips or 39SF040 Flash chips to be used. The RAM contents are lost at power off (unless battery backup is used). The flash chips are persistent, but much more inconvenient to write. With these boards I also demonstrate the SEBHC Z80 board, and even try the Ramdisks on the original Heathkit 2 MHz 8080 board. You can boot from the Ramdisks. You can image copy one Ramdisk to another. Schematics, gerbers, drivers, etc., are available on my github repo. For more electronics and vintage computer videos, please see smbaker.com
Heathkit H8 Part 3: Designing an 8085 CPU Board for the Heathkit H8 smbakeryt 2023-03-20 | In this video, I design an 8085 CPU board for the Heathkit H8 computer. The 8085 was a populare CPU back in the early 80s, particular in S-100 computers. I don't know if anyone ever built or marketed an 8085 board for the H8, so I decided to make one! This is my first 8085 CPU project. In this video, I walk through the schematic for the 8085 board. I also talk about a few of the other boards that I use in the H8, including my raspberry pi based vinculum emulator, propeller serial terminal, the sebhc compactflash board, and a DRAM board that I'm working on. For more vintage computer projects, please see smbaker.com
No Vinculum? No Problem! Emulating an 8-bit VDIP1 using a Raspberry Pi smbakeryt 2023-02-21 | I wanted to build a project that used an FTDI Vinculum VDIP1 IC, but I could not find this IC in stock anywhere, and although I could find an appropriate replacement, a V2DIP1-48, I didn't want to wait. So I decided I'd try an experiment to see if I could replace the missing VDIP1 module with a raspberry pi. The goal was to make the pi function essentially like an 8-bit IO peripheral in a vintage computer system. I implemented the circuit using a pair of 74HCT574 latches, together with a 74HCT74 flipflop to handle some handshake signals. I wrote a short python program that emulate the firmware of the VDIP1 module. Then I used this together with my Heathkit H8 computer to transfer files from the raspberry pi to the H8. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
Heathkit H8 Part 2 - a Zilog Z8000 CPU board for the H8 smbakeryt 2023-01-17 | In this video, I replace the CPU card in my H8 computer with a card that uses the Zilog Z8000 16-bit CPU. I designed this card based on some of the boards from my Z8000 "clover computer" modular computer project. In addition to the Z8000 CPU, it includes 1MB of RAM and 1MB of flash. On-board peripherals include serial and parallel / counter-timer. While it functions as a standalone computer, the real goal was to put it on the H8 bus, so I implemented the necessary transceivers so it can perform 8-bit IO on the H8 bus. I wrote a panel monitor so the H8 front panel can be used. For more electronics projects, see smbaker.com
Heathkit H-8 Part 1: Trying out the Tape Board, and Designing a Speech Synthesizer smbakeryt 2022-12-22 | In this video I receive a Heathkit H-8. I wanted one of these since seeing them in the Heathkit catalogs back in the early 80s. This video series is going to start out with a fairly plain H8 computer and slowly build it up into a fully provisioned H8. I'll be using both boards found on the Internet (most notably by Norberto and Les of SEBHC) as well as a few of my own boards. In this video, I try to get the tape board working, and eventually bypass the tape circuitry and inject the tape data stream directly into the tape controller's 8251. After a successful load and a short "Benton Harbor Basic" demo, I then design a speech synthesizer card, build it, and try it out. For more vintage computer projects, see smbaker.com
The Trump Card: Zilog Z8000 Coprocessor for the IBM PC by Sweet Micro Systems 1984 Vintage Computer smbakeryt 2022-12-17 | I've been on a quest for a while to resurrect the Trump Card. This was based on a set of articles published in BYTE Magazine back in 1984 by Steve Ciarcia. The card is designed to be placed in an IBM PC 5150 or similar clone, and adds a 16-bit Zilog Z8000 processor with 512KB of RAM. It's a truly unique product for its time, but what makes it unique is the software, which I don't have and might be lost to the world, so I'm calling out for help to anyone who might have the software for this unique expansion card. Please, help me return this Z8000 coprocessor back to service! For more vintage and retro computer projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
A modern Single-Board Olivetti M20 Clone, another Z8000 computer smbakeryt 2022-11-13 | A fellow enthusiast, Salvatore, sent me this cool M20 clone board to build so I can have my own Olivetti M20 compatible computer. Lately I've been having fun with the Zilog Z8000, a rather obscure microprocessor from the 80s. For a while I've been looking for a commercial Z8000 computer such as the Olivetti M20. They're really hard to find, but perhaps it's even more fun to build one from scratch! You'll see me assemble a pre-release version of Salvatore's pcboard, go through the various components on the board, and then boot Olivetti PCOS 4.1a. For more vintage computer projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Zilog Z8000 retro computer part 3: Video and Keyboard using TMS9918 or Yamaha V9958 smbakeryt 2022-11-07 | I think video I take my Z8000 clover computer that was developed in parts 1 and 2, and I add the necessary parts to enable video and keyboard. I demonstrate both a 40-column circuit using TMS9918 and an 80-column circuit using V9958. The 40-column circuit was based on J.B. Langston's RC2014 video board, and the 80-colum circuit is based on designs by Sergey Kiselev and by Dean Netherton. For a keyboard, I used Sergey's MSX keyboard. A Zilog Z8563 CIO is used to do the strobing of the keyboard, implementing both the timer necessary to interrupt periodically for the keyboard strobe, and to implement the IO to the keyboard itself. With this project, the Z8000 Modular computer is now a complete standalone computer system. If you're unfamiliar with the Z8000, it was a 16-bit microprocessor, rarely used in a very few vintage computers, but still available from sources on eBay. For more electronics projects, please see http://www.smbaker.com
Zilog Z8000 retro computer part 2: CompactFlash, Floppy, Pi Supervisor, and speech synthesizer smbakeryt 2022-09-06 | Part 2 in my series on building a Zilog Z8000 computer. In this video I add several more boards. The first is a combination compactflash/IDE and floppy controller board. Next up is a raspberry pi bus supervisor that lets me read and write memory and provides a shared disk. Finally, I add a speech synthesizer. I always add a speech synthesizer. I also play a few old infocom games, generator a maze, and print my name in tiny basic. The Z8000 was a 16-bit microprocessor from the mid 1980s. It didn't really succeed commercially, and it's difficult to find computers that used the Z8000. So I decided to make one just for one to put this oddball CPU to use. For more electronics projects, see smbaker.com
Scotts Z8000 CP/M-8000 Clover Computer smbakeryt 2022-07-25 | In this video I build and demo a Z-8000 computer, which has 1 MB of Flash, 1 MB of SRAM, two serial ports, and eith TIL311 displays. The Z-8000 was a 16-bit microprocessor made by Zilog introduced during 1979 and put into use in the early 1980s. Very few computers used the Z8000, most notably the Olivetti M20. I modified a CP/M distribution that I found on github so that it would use some 39SF040 ICs as a ROM disk, and I during the video I boot CP/M 1.1 on the computer. For more electronics projects, see smbaker.com
Repairing a Convergent Technologies Miniframe, Part 2 smbakeryt 2022-05-31 | Part one left the miniframe in dire shape, unable to boot or do anything more that blink some diagnostic LEDs. In this video, I use a diagnostic ROM to examine memory and set breakpoints in the boot loaded. I replace a whole bunch of 74XX logic, then I get out my logic analyzer and troubleshoot the problem. By replacing some 74LS461 ICs and replacing a PAL, I get it to the point where it boots, but still experiences occasional memory errors and core dumps. I then transition to playing with a second miniframe, one that works quite a bit, as well as a Convergent terminal that connects to the miniframe. I succeed at hangman, but fall into a pit while hunting the wumpus. For more electronics videos, see smbaker.com
Restoring a $25,000 Convergent Technologies Miniframe CTIX Unix Computer, Vintage from 1985 smbakeryt 2022-05-09 | I'm an avid collector of Convergent Technologies computers, perhaps you've seen my previous videos on the Convergent NGEN. In this video I start the restoration process on a Convergent Miniframe computer that I obtained from eBay. This computer uses a 68010 CPU and runs an operating system called CTIX. In this video, I spend most of the time checking out the power supply. I remove the hard drive and image it using an MFM emulator. I boot it up and look at the diagnostic LEDs. Unfortunately, I could not get the computer to boot, that will have to be finished in the next part in this series. For more vintage computer material, see smbaker.comResources:* Forgotten Machines blog over at mightyframe.blogspot.com* AJ's video booting the image on his miniframe-on-a-board: youtube.com/watch?v=A5UaKWK-WKQ
Vintage Heathkit SB-610 Monitor Scope restoration using Hayseed Hamfest recap kit smbakeryt 2022-04-18 | I bought a used SB -610 from eBay. It has a blown fuse, a leaky capacitor, a nonfunctional selenium rectifier. It sounded like bacon frying when I powered it up. In this video, I use a recap kit from Hayseed Hamfest, who makes custom recap kits for many ham radio and other vintage electronics. I don't show the actual soldering, but I stop and show each step where the new capacitors are mounted. I diagnose the bad selenium rectifier. I do a fairly complete demo of the SB-610 using it to monitor the output of my Drake T-4XC transmitter, and I try out the tone generators on the SB-610. For more ham radio and electronic projects, see smbaker.com
Raspberry Pi Based DDS-VFO for my 1970-era Drake 4-Line Tube Ham Radio smbakeryt 2022-03-07 | A hybrid Ham radio and Raspberry Pi project. I took a raspberry pi, attached it to an AD9850 DDS breakout board, and used it as the VFO for my Drake R-4C and T-4XC. Attached to the raspberry pi is an optical encoder that allows precise dial response, a keypad using Cherry MX Blue keys, and an alphanumeric display. The advantage of this digital system over the Drake PTO is that it's easy to select a specific frequency, and it does not drift. It does take away some of the unique character of the old Tube Receiver. So it's a trade-off between modern convenience versus vintage look and feel. During the video I go through the schematic in detail, and I run through a full demo showing some phone reception on the 40 meter band. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com/.
Panadapter for the Drake R-4B 4-Line Ham Radio smbakeryt 2022-01-09 | My hobby for this Christmas was to become a Ham Radio operator. This is something I previously had no experience with. Along the way, I purchased some Drake Tube Radio gear, a Drake R-4B receiver and a Drak T-4XC transmitter. In this video, I build a panadapter for the R-4B. The panadapter takes a normally narrow-band receiver and visualizes a wideband output. Using a small buffer board together with a computer-based SDR receiver, I'm able to visualize the full 40 meter band on the computer, while at the same time listening to it on the receiver. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Heathkit GC-1000 Part 2: 85% Hi-Spec success! Data collection, and RF board alignment smbakeryt 2021-11-15 | At the end of part one, my clock project was in dire shape, unable to sync reliably to the WWV signal. This video sees me fix that problem (I replaced sockets and ICs on the tone board, and recapped the RF board), and then I embarked on a data collection project, connecting a raspberry pi to the LEDs so I could measure exactly how often it was in hi-spec mode. Then the second clock I ordered showed up, and it needed not only some minor repair, but also a realignment of the RF board. I managed to get it working, but it's not working as well as the first clock. For more electronics projects, see smbaker.com
Heathkit GC-1000 Most Accurate Clock Part 1: Restoring a broken clock, Teardown, Setup, Tuning smbakeryt 2021-11-07 | I bought a broken clock on eBay. It wasn't even right twice a day. The Heathkit GC-1000 is another one of those items on my perpetual wishlist, so when the opportunity came to purchase one cheap on ebay in nonfunctional state, I jumped at it. The actual problem may have been due to a previously failed recapping (or a failure during the original build; I don't know the history) that damaged the reset line to the microcontroller. In this video I tear down the clock, get it up and running, and then fume about how once I moved it to its final display location in my office, it won't sync anymore. I also evaluate several antennas, including my own random wire antenna, a youloop antenna, and an MLA-30+ megaloop antenna. For more electronics projects, see smbaker.com
I built a scopetrex! Vectrex games on my old oscilloscope smbakeryt 2021-10-24 | While wandering the Internet one day, I came upon the plans for the scopetrex, so I went ahead and built one! The vectrex was a vector-based game console from the 1980s. Whereas most home video game systems of the time used raster display, usually on your television, the vectrex came with its own internal screen and drew monochrome vector graphics. Vector graphics are drawn by continuous positioning of the electron beam to draw out simple shapes. You get pure figures that lack the pixelation often seen in early raster games. Anyhow, I followed the plans, I built the scopetrex, and I tried to get the display properly aligned, with some limited success, though it's still far from perfect. In this video, I play a few popular vectrex titles including "Scramble", "Mine Storm", "Star Trek", and "Pole Position". For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Tandy Color Computer 2: Ram Upgrade, Composite Mod, DIY Multi-Pak Interface smbakeryt 2021-09-27 | I fondly remember the CoCo 2 from my youth. I had an extended basic 16K Coco 2. That one is long gone, and I've been watching eBay for a while for a suitable replacement. In this video, I unbox a NOS Coco 2, and I immediately set to modifying it with period-accurate modifications. I upgrade the RAM from 16K to 64K. I replace the RF Modulator with one of Ed Snider's Composite Boards. I then go ahead and build a Multi-Pak Interface based on some gerbers that I came across on the web, and build a 3D Printed case for the DIY MPI. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Designing Sound and Speech cards for the Epson QX-10 CP/M Computer smbakeryt 2021-09-06 | I'm still having fun with my Vintage Epson QX-10 CP/M computer. Last time I designed an IDE adapter for it. This time I'm designing a pair of boards, a sound card and a speech synthesizer. The sound board uses the AY-3-8910 sound chip, popular in the MSX and the ZX spectrum. The speech board uses the SP0256A-AL2 phonetic speech synthesis IC. For more vintage computer projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
IDE/Compactflash controller for the Epson QX-10 Z80 CP/M Computer smbakeryt 2021-08-14 | I have a fascination with Z80 CP/M computers as people may have noticed from the all RC2014 projects I've done. In this video, I start to play with my first commercial Z80 computer, the Epson QX-10. The Epson QX-10 has two DSDD 5.25" floppy drives, but I wanted it to also have a hard drive. There was a hard drive manufactured for it back in the 80s, the comrex comfiler, but those drives have largely disappeared, and information on them is scarce. In this video, I build an IDE controller for the QX-10, and use it with a CompactFlash to function as a 10MB hard drive. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Battery-operated ESP8266 Wifi Button to automate my sprinkler controller smbakeryt 2021-07-19 | In this video, I create a battery-operated ESP8266 Wifi button. When pressed, the button will send a REST request to my Rainmachine sprinkler controller to start a zone, which will cause the master valve to operator, allowing me to use my yard hydrant. The button is battery operated and makes use of "deepsleep" mode to keep the battery consumption low. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Building a flash + RAM board for the HP9000 computer smbakeryt 2021-06-01 | In this video, I build a memory board for the HP 9000 computer. I try this is my 9920, 9836, and 9000/310 computers. This board has basic 5.1 in flash (alternative, could use basic 4.0 or HPL) and it has 3 megabytes of RAM. I also demonstrate using these boards together with DMA and a high-speed disk adapter. It took about 4 tries for me to finally get this board right and completely working. For more vintage computing and electronics videos, see htttp://www.smbaker.com
Assembling a thinclient to serve as an HPDrive for HP9000 Computers smbakeryt 2021-05-23 | I've used these T5745 thin clients for several projects so far. By adding an inexpensive expansion adapter, you can add a PCI slot to the T5745. PCI slots can be handy on a number vintage projects. For example, I've previously setup a T5745 with an adaptec SCSI board when I needed to image some SCSI hard drives. In this video, I install a GPIB board, and build something called an "hpdrive". HPDrive is software that allows a GPIB-based computer to emulate a HPIB/GPIB storage device such as an HP9121 (floppy unit) or an HP9133 (floppy and hard drive). I load an HP-UX 5.1 image onto the HPDrive, and then I boot an HP 9000/300 using the emulated drive. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.comBlog post: smbaker.com/assembling-a-thin-client-to-serve-as-an-hpdrive
I always wished my Raspberry Pi would have come with a 360K floppy drive... smbakeryt 2021-03-28 | I wanted to add a 360K floppy drive to my raspberry pi, so I threw together a circuit using the popular WD37C65 controller IC together with a Tandom TM100-2A floppy drive, the same drive that would have been used in the original IBM PC. Using this I'm able to format, read, and write 360K floppy disks from a python program running on the raspberry pi. The same controller can also be connected to a 1.44MB 3.5" drive and rewrite high density disks. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.comBlog post: smbaker.com/raspberry-pi-floppy-controller-boardSoftware repos: github.com/sbelectronics/pi-fdc, github.com/sbelectronics/smb-pi-lib
HP 27201A, The Worlds First Speech Synthesizer ... by a major computer company smbakeryt 2021-03-17 | The HP 27201A is a TMS5220 based speech synthesizer released in 1983. According to the HP museum, it's the first synthesizer designed by a major computer computer. Yes, the TI99/4A's speech synthesizer uses the same IC and is at least contemporary if not even predating the HP module. The module has very sparse documentation on the web, so I had to disassemble the Z8 ROM and then reverse engineer the protocol. In the video I end up controlling the module from a raspberry pi over a serial connection. For more electronics videos, see http://www.smbaker.comBlog post: smbaker.com/hp-27201a-speech-output-module-first-speech-synthesizer-designed-by-a-major-computer-manufacturerPython tool for controlling the module: github.com/sbelectronics/hp27201a
Epson HX-20 Small Talk Plus, The worlds first TALKING laptop! Teardown and Repair smbakeryt 2021-03-07 | In this view, I teardown and repair a Small Talk Plus device manufactured by VTEK. This computer is actually an HX-20 with a custom speech synthesizer expansion unit and custom ROMs. It was intended as an aid for the visually impaired, and has built in calculator and word processor. The HX-20 itself is an incredibly compact, efficient unit for its time, and the speech expansion is pretty well done. It uses an SSI-263, the equivalent of the Votrax SC-02. No, not the SC-01a that folks are really familiar with, but the somewhat lesser-known SC-02. As I received it, the computer had a number of problems -- leaky battery, damaged display, nonfunctional printer, and I work through the diagnosis and repair. By the end, it's completely functional. For more vintage computer stuff, see http://www.smbaker.com
This is Digitalker! (and Jameco JE520) Vintage Speech Synthesizer smbakeryt 2021-01-24 | While working on my Votrax project, I came across several people selling Digitalker ICs on eBay and I remembered that I always wanted a set of those. So I set off to build myself a digitalker demo board using the Mozer 54104 by National Semiconductor. I can control the speech synthesizer via I2C, Serial, or Wifi. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.comBlog Post: smbaker.com/this-is-digitalker-and-jameco-je520-too-vintage-speech-synthesis
Heathkit Hero Junior Rebuild Part 3: Votrax SC-01A Speech Synthesizer smbakeryt 2021-01-18 | I add a vintage Votrax SC-01A speech synthesizer IC to the Hero Jr. The Hero Jr (and the Hero 1, as an option) originally came with the SC-01A. My robot, if you've watched the previous videos, came with all the electronics removed. I've been busy adding modern components to the robot, but the speech synthesizer is one of the parts that I wanted to keep authentic. I designed a new board that includes the SC-01A, together with an ATMEGA328P for control, and allows the synthesizer to be controlled from a raspberry pi using I2C. For more projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Heathkit Hero Junior Rebuild Part 2: Making the Head Spin smbakeryt 2020-12-29 | In this video, I modify my Hero Jr robot so the head can turn. This is part 2 in a multi-part series on modifying a Heathkit Hero Jr with modern electronics. When I owned a Hero Jr back in the 80s/90s, I always wished the head would turn like it did on the Hero 1. Since I'm rebuilding the robot anyway, I figured it was a good time to make this update. In this video I primarily address the mechanical concerns, such as the bearings and stepper motor used, as well as the power distribution. I can drive the robot around with my handheld remote, and spin the head. A hall-effect sensor is used so that the head can automatically home. For more electronics projects, please visit http://www.smbaker.com
Vruzend Battery Kit Review / Building my first Lithium Battery Pack smbakeryt 2020-12-29 | While working on my Hero Jr project, I decided to build a Lithium battery pack to replace the lead acid batteries that were originally used in the Heathkit robots. In this video, I review the kit I used to build the battery pack, and I show a few of the stages of battery pack assembly. For more electronics videos, see http://www.smbaker.com
Heathkit ET-3400 Part 3: The ET-3404 6809 adapter, cloned smbakeryt 2020-12-21 | In this video, I build a clone of the ET-3404 adapter board for the ET-3400/ET-3400A. This board replaces the trainer's original microprocessor (at 6800 for the 3400 or a 6808 for the 3400A) with a 6809P. The new microprocessor is not binary compatible and therefore comes with a new ROM image as well for the machine monitor. Blog Post: smbaker.com/cloning-the-et-3404-6809-adapter-for-the-heathkit-et-3400Along the way I also encountered several "bad" 6809P ICs. You have to be careful when building these boards that you don't also run into bad ICs, as there seems to be many out there in the wild -- I've heard the same from other ET-3400 enthusiasts. I originally thought they were counterfeit (not shown in the video -- I performed tests and they behaved more like a 6809E without the clock generator than a 6809P with), but once I received another shipment of ICs from china, which included a mix of good and bad identically marked chips, my opinion became that many of them were simply bad.For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Heathkit Hero Junior Rebuild Part 1: Drive Systems smbakeryt 2020-11-02 | I bought a Hero Jr that lacked electronics, and in this video I start the process of installing modern electronics. I've always wanted to do something like this, but 1) I sold my own Hero Jr years ago, and 2) If I did still own it, then I could probably never bring myself to disassemble it. But then I came across this Jr where someone had already removed the electronics, so I figured "Why Not?". In this video I take a look at the drive system, the stepper motor for direction and the DC motor for drive. There's also an encoding for detecting movement and some limit switches. I build a power/motor board using an ATMEGA328, control it with a raspberry pi. I power it with a custom-built 4S3P lithium battery pack. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.com
Heathkit ET-3400 Part 2: ET-3400 vs ET-3400-A, Cassette Interface, ADC Experiment smbakeryt 2020-10-27 | This is a continuation of my video series on the Heathkit ET-3400 series of trainers. I manage to get a nice ET-3400-A and I compare it to the original ET-3400. I also demonstrate the cassette interface of the ETA-3400 memory/io accessory clone that I built last video. I wire up one of the experiments from the manual, an ADC connected to a 6821 PIA. For more electronics projects, see http://www.smbaker.comBlog Post: smbaker.com/designing-a-memory-io-eta-3400-addon-for-the-et-3400-trainerGithub Repository: github.com/sbelectronics/eta-3400
