Building the C02 Pocket PCB

[Edzard]

Hello All,

Thought I would document my build of Kevin's C02 Pocket PCB.

I was looking around for a compact and well documented 6502 board and Kevin's C02 fits this bill!
https://github.com/floobydust/C02-Pocket-SBC

You can order the PCB's through ExpressPCB https://www.expresspcb.com/.

I live in The Netherlands, so the sending costs are a bit steep but the quality of the PCB's is excellent.

On github there is a helpful overview of the parts with a Mouser order number.

Here is an overview of the required IC’s.

Starting with the lower parts (condensators, resistors).

Next are the Resistor arry, Led and Reset chip.

Followed with some switches and power connector.

When all parts are fitted, power can be supplied and tested.

Led is working, IC's are getting 5 V. Almost there!

Then it's time to program the AT28V256 EEPROM and ATF22V10C PLD.
For the PLD you find in the Software/Glue map a file named GLUE3.jed. With my TL866II plus this is easily done.

Programming the EEPROM was a problem for me. Kevins supplies two S-record files on github. One for the BIOS and one for the Monitor program.
The Bios starts at $F800 and the Monitor at $E000 (with an offset of $800).
I don't have a clue (yet) how to configure that with the software of the TL866. I think the TL866 is not even capable of programming S-record files (?).

After contacting Kevin he kindly e-mailed me the newest version of the EEPROM in binaire format!

The systems works instantly (when you punt in the oscillator the correct way...)!

Thanks again Kevin!


Best regards,


Edzard

[barrym95838]

Nicely done, Edzard! It looks like you're ready to conquer the world with your next 8-bit software creation.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Edzard wrote:

Thought I would document my build of Kevin's C02 Pocket PCB.

Very good!

For the benefit of anyone else who wishes to build the Pocket SBC2, attached are the Gerbers for making the PCB. Many PCB manufacturers such as JLCPCB (who made the PCB for my POC V1.3) are a lot less expensive than ExpressPCB. I suspect delivery to Netherlands is less than the amount charged by EPCB.

[floobydust]

First, thanks to Edzard for building one of my projects, glad it worked out! Hoping you get many fun hours with it... I've had 4 of them up and running for over 2+ years... none have failed.

A few things:
1- The design runs flawlessly at 6MHz (design point) limited by the older SCC2691.
2- Power supply should ideally deliver 5.1V regulated to the power connector.
3- Noting the above input voltage, you might find some SCC2691 will run with an 8MHz CPU clock.
4- Maybe build the RTC/CF-Card adapter next

Thanks to BDD for Gerbers... I was able to request them when I did the recent RTC/CF adapter. The number of files provided and their extensions differ from what you were able to generate (from the C02 SBC)... but maybe you can generate Gerbers (for the adapter) and compare to what ExpressPCB provides.

CXEA9191A.zip

(47.53 KiB) Downloaded 92 times

I'm hoping Edzard requested Gerbers when he ordered the PCBs....

[BigDumbDinosaur]

floobydust wrote:

Thanks to BDD for Gerbers... I was able to request them when I did the recent RTC/CF adapter. The number of files provided and their extensions differ from what you were able to generate (from the C02 SBC)... but maybe you can generate Gerbers (for the adapter) and compare to what ExpressPCB provides.

Here are the Gerbers I generated for your layout.

CXEA9191A.zip

RTC/CF Adapter PCB Gerbers

(20.07 KiB) Downloaded 84 times

[Michael]

Kevin (floobydust):

Any chance you can post a PDF schematic, please?

Cheerful regards, Mike, K8LH

[floobydust]

Hi Mike,

Ask and ye shall receive... at least for PDFs....

C02_Pocket_SBC.pdf

(393.92 KiB) Downloaded 108 times

[Edzard]

Hello All,

Here are the Gerber files for the C02-Pocket PCB. It's a 4 layer PCB.
Dimension is 97 x 64 mm.

Each file can be identify by it's extension:

.TSK = top silkscreen layer
.TSM = top solder mask layer
.TOP = top copper layer
.GTP = top paste layer
.IPT = top inner copper layer
.BOT = bottom copper layer
.IPB = bottom inner copper layer
.BSM= bottom solder mask layer
.GBP = bottom paste layer
.DRI = drill file
.OLN = board outline
.CSV = pick and place

So when ordering by jlcpcb.com they will ask to fill in your Layer stackup/layer sequence.

L1(Top layer) RNHE9297R.top
L2(Inner layer1) RNHE9297R.ipt
L3(Inner layer2) RNHE9297R.ipb
L4(Bottom layer) RNHE9297R.bot


Best regards,

Edzard

[Jmstein7]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

Edzard wrote:

Thought I would document my build of Kevin's C02 Pocket PCB.

Very good!

For the benefit of anyone else who wishes to build the Pocket SBC2, attached are the Gerbers for making the PCB. Many PCB manufacturers such as JLCPCB (who made the PCB for my POC V1.3) are a lot less expensive than ExpressPCB. I suspect delivery to Netherlands is less than the amount charged by EPCB.

I've never made a pcb. And, I am terrible with soldering. Is there a way to order these things where all the parts are installed, and all you have left to do is seat the chips in their ic sockets? I mean, can they install all the resistors, capacitors, and all the other components (except the chips)? I would love to make some 65xx pmods, HATs, and shields. I just lack the PCB know-how.

Jon

[Edzard]

Hello Jon,

Where do you live?

I can send you a PCB. The soldering is not that difficult, even for one without any (soldering) experience.


Best regards,


Edzard

[Jmstein7]

Edzard wrote:

Hello Jon,

Where do you live?

I can send you a PCB. The soldering is not that difficult, even for one without any (soldering) experience.


Best regards,


Edzard

New York (downstate). So, who would the best PCB manufacturer be for me? (Ya, know - closest, most reliable, quickest shipping...) And, let's say I order one, can Ipay a little more and get them to install all that stuff? I literally just looked into pcbs for the first time yesterday. I'm tired of all the wires, and there are so many good pcb solutions.

[floobydust]

Hi Jon,

I'm located in South Florida... I currently have 4- complete C02 Pocket SBCs running with the RTC/Compact Flash adapter. If you're interested, I'd be happy to sell you one.... complete with power supply. You simply plug it in, attach to a USB port on any modern computer (with a good serial terminal emulator) and you're up and running. It will include CF Card running with DOS/65 as well. A fairly complete system setup.

Easy-Peasy! Lemme know.

[Jmstein7]

floobydust wrote:

Hi Jon,

I'm located in South Florida... I currently have 4- complete C02 Pocket SBCs running with the RTC/Compact Flash adapter. If you're interested, I'd be happy to sell you one.... complete with power supply. You simply plug it in, attach to a USB port on any modern computer (with a good serial terminal emulator) and you're up and running. It will include CF Card running with DOS/65 as well. A fairly complete system setup.

Easy-Peasy! Lemme know.

That sounds cool, but I already have the WDC65c02sxb for a single-board reference system. What I really need to be able to do is have the ability to pop my 65xx chips into custom pmods and/or shields and then plug-n-play into my FPGAs and microcontrollers.

Jon

[floobydust]

Jmstein7 wrote:

floobydust wrote:

Hi Jon,

I'm located in South Florida... I currently have 4- complete C02 Pocket SBCs running with the RTC/Compact Flash adapter. If you're interested, I'd be happy to sell you one.... complete with power supply. You simply plug it in, attach to a USB port on any modern computer (with a good serial terminal emulator) and you're up and running. It will include CF Card running with DOS/65 as well. A fairly complete system setup.

Easy-Peasy! Lemme know.

That sounds cool, but I already have the WDC65c02sxb for a single-board reference system. What I really need to be able to do is have the ability to pop my 65xx chips into custom pmods and/or shields and then plug-n-play into my FPGAs and microcontrollers.

Jon

Okay, sounds good... so, the best advice I can give you is to learn to solder... and get a good quality iron as well. Beyond that, start learning a PCB layout tool that also includes schematic entry linkage. I've been using ExpressPCB for many years... and have created a bunch of custom parts for both schematics and PCBs... so I'll continue to use them. There are other ways to get Gerber files from the ExpressPCB format, so there are always options on getting things made.

Finding a place to make the PCBs and install parts is unlikely to be cost-effective, as I suspect you're only looking at a very small number of boards. We're all here to help of course.

[Jmstein7]

floobydust wrote:

Finding a place to make the PCBs and install parts is unlikely to be cost-effective, as I suspect you're only looking at a very small number of boards. We're all here to help of course.

You're right, and, yes, I am beyond appreciative for the thriving, helpful community, here. It was a slow, lonely process before I jumped-in here. Now, I'm having a blast with this.

Jon