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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 4:47 pm 
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So, this is a real "on the off chance..." type of post. But if I'm going to find the answers, I'll get them at this amazing place. :)

Around 1992 or so I was doing my A-Level (sixth form) Electronics class. Whilst the focus was on basic electronics, one of the topics covered was, you guessed it, assembly programming on a 6502 board. To be fair, I didn't really know what I was doing on this board. It wasn't like any computer I'd used before, but it was still fascinating. I remember we had some tasks given to us, and one of them was to program it to play a tune. I was the only one to use a lookup table; I guess that speaks volumes for the rest of the class.

Anyway, I'm desperate to find out more about this board. I've hunted high and low but I can find nothing and none of the similar boards I've found match what I can remember. Obviosly 22 years is quite a while, and my memory may well be faulty. However, some things I do remember:

* Definetly 6502 based
* Traditional hex keypad and 4 or more likly 6 7 segment digits with program entry by writing to RAM, presumably with a simple monitor in ROM
* I'm fairly sure the keypad had largeish white buttons?
* Fairly sure the computer was spread over two boards
* Had a piezeo sounder
* Again my memory is possibly faulty but I seem to remember the PCB was an unusual blue colour

I suppose it's possible this board was some custom machine, perhaps even made by the college I was studying at. But on the off chance my rough description has jogged someones memory, I'd love to know about it; what the board was, and where I might find one...

Thanks! And sorry that this is all very vague....

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:12 pm 
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Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:28 pm
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Location: England
I don't suppose it was this board from Unilab:
Image
See here

See also the Music Module at
https://web.archive.org/web/20190327220 ... PDqw=w1200
and
https://web.archive.org/web/2222/https: ... cgWg=w1200
both from this album

And
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/cgi/ ... ogrammable

[Edit: convert G+ links to archived versions]


Last edited by BigEd on Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 9:58 pm 
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Location: Southampton, UK
BigEd wrote:
I don't suppose it was this board from Unilab:


Wow! I can't believe you figured that out from a few vague notes. It's odd looking at a picture of something that you've not seen for so long, yet had in ones mind so clearly. Yes, that's definetly it. I had a nagging feeling that the speaker/buzzer was on a different board.

Though I couldn't find any on ebay, I did find this, which we also used:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221579821594

The memories!!! I think I need a lie down. :) :) :)

Thanks SO MUCH. Just looking at the pictures brings it all back.

Mr (Kevin) O'shae, if you are still alive, I owe you one for cemmenting my computing knowledge and getting me started in a carear I love.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 10:18 pm 
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Oh, what a lucky guess - I remembered seeing that odd board at the exhibition and wondered if it might be the right one. It so happened that I'd posted a photo.

I found some more info in mostly-paywalled articles from 1985 Electronic Systems News:
(D. John Martin had the peripherals and Peter Nicholls had the microprocessor board, possibly Salford University oversaw the educational content.)
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresul ... er=5345132
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.js ... er=5345144
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.js ... er=5344892


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:54 am 
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Thumbs up to Ed for his detective work. :D

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:02 am 
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Cheers BDD.

Good to hear about your inspirational teacher, Aslak3 - I was about to suggest you post in our Introduce Yourself thread, but then I saw that you already have. (I encourage anyone who hasn't yet, to post something about how they got started with micros and computers.) So then I had a look at your blog, which is a good read!
http://aslak3.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/a- ... puter.html
(It's based on 6809, but that's fine.)


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