Here's our third monthly roundup - see also our partial catalogue and our profile page. Comments welcome on this thread!

2015-03-06 Dallas Moore found some injection molds at a business liquidation sale, and launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to produce new C64C cases in new colours - this is not the original breadbox case, but something more like the C128.




2015-03-13 All about the cases built for the early single board machines: Kim-1, AIM65, UK101, Superboard, Junior 6502 and of course the Apple 1.




2015-03-20 Rockwell's proposed System on Chip products with dual 6502 capability. One with mask ROM and one which relies on an external memory interface. Some discussion here about whether to call these dual core, dual thread, or something else: we only see the datasheet, not the implementation, so we don't know. Were any of these ever made? Any internal documents ever escape? (The datasheet says there's a dual register file but a single ALU.)

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2015-03-27 Rockwell did use the 64-pin QUIP format for real product too: we feature Andrew Jacobs' SBC built with an R6501Q SoC and some external RAM. (No relation to MOS' original 40-pin 6501 offering)




We hope you enjoyed these. We try for a mix of topics, whether the various 6502 micros from back in the day, or new projects using 6502, or feats of software relating to 6502. We're also partial to details of the chip internals.

Ed and André, posting as 'mos6502'

Thanks for the link to the case building post. I am just doing the finishing touches to my custom case for my 6502 machine. Funnily enough, by chance, it's quite like the COMPUKIT UK101 shown on YouTube. I wanted a very early 80s style and am glad to see I was thinking along the right lines!

Not ready to post pics yet (need some Mahogany!) but will when I am done.

Simon

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

Walnut works too! (http://vintagecomputer.com/sol-20.html)

I should really use a native timber like Rimu or Kauri I suppose. Nice timbers are hard to get here unfortunately (lots of cheap pine we grow here though) but I have a friend who knows about such things and he rescues old bed heads and thrown out furniture for the oaks and mahogany. We used it in vintage car building for instrument panels and tool boxes and the like. Someone is doing an instrument panel now and I am meant to get the offcuts!

Simon

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

Reclaimed material is a good answer!

Mahogany? This thing going to be a computer or a piece of dining room furniture?

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

That's why I mentioned Rimu, I DID use that for dining room furniture: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/2014/08 ... le-part-11

The computer is crackle black steel but with timber ends.

Simon

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

That's a nice-looking dining room table.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

And not just a table: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/wpg2?g2_itemId=7206

Yes, that's why it's a railway table It has a model railway inside it. I need to buy the glass still for the top.

And finish the railway. The table top is actually made from thick Rimu floorboards from the original Auckland railway station (that they destroyed by turning it into cheap student apartments).

Simon

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

Nice...ruin something of historical value and replace it with something of ephemeral value.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Was a beautiful old building too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Railway_Station

In the wrong place though, just on the city fringe. Was replaced with the worlds only underground diesel loco terminus (with only two entry tracks!) that looks something like Darth Vader's personal bathroom and is called 'Britomart'.

They are only now putting in electric trains and hopefully extending the line through the station to complete the loop. As it is now if I catch the train home from the city you get to the first main station, the train stops, the driver has to physically walk from one end of the train to the other and it continues off in the opposite direction!

250 years worth of world railway history but in Auckland we still have to do things our own way (and totally f it up).

I am just glad I could put the floorboards to better use! I work from home now, on that table! The other end of it is currently covered in the bits of my 6502 machine waiting to be assembled!

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

Just a quick update. I did get some reclaimed Oak. A friend picked up an old oak dresser off the side of the road and gave it to me. I pulled it apart to reuse the timber (it was beyond restoring). So I used some of the Oak to make the ends of my machine housing. This is just a teaser really. It's not complete yet as I am waiting for a new (bigger) LCD screen to arrive and for my SwinSID then I can button it all up but you get the idea.


Simon

Edit: Literally 5 or 10 minutes after posting the postie arrived with my SwinSID arrived so I might be able to get this thing done tonight!

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer

Blinking lights and a latching caps-lock! Very nice.

The blinkenlights are actually really useful. They are just sitting on an address so you can poke straight to them.

In the end I didn't add the SID chip. It just isn't working for some reason. The Swinsid boots up and makes noise, all the signals to it look fine. With the original SID I have I can read from it happily so the address decoding is working to some extent. Just can't get any sound out of the thing. I think there is something amiss with my board layout since with the SID daughter board in the machine it seemed prone to lock-ups and not resetting properly on startup. Without that board in there it works great. I can't find anything wrong buzzing it all out though. It is just Veroboard with a bunch of wires though so perhaps it's just too noisy?

Since it was an afterthought it would take a lot of redesigning and rebuilding to incorporate it properly. A SID was never in the original design, it was a late minute add on when I remembered I had one! So for now it stays out. I still have sound from a speaker driven off PB7 on a VIA and that's enough for what the machine is meant to do (review Usborne books and simulate a Bombe hopefully).

I will still play with the SIDs another time. There are projects about to drive them with RaspberryPis (I have one spare somewhere) and even Arduinos. And of course I have a few spare 6502s about!

I had two other issues with the final assembly. One was that the audio out 3.5mm socket I used wasn't a mono switching one as I wanted but a stereo one. I found a mono one in an old project so I pinched for to get the computer finished. I don't actually need an external speaker. I get excellent sound from a little 8R speaker on the back panel. I think because the case is so hefty it makes the sound quite solid!

The other issue was when I did up the final screws I got a short! Turns out my power supply board was touching the case just when everything was tightened up. That was a simple fix.

So now it's all buttoned up and working fine. I will do a proper write up when my new LCD arrives.

Simon

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My 6502 related blog: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/bb/category/6502-computer