6502.org

I have the RW / PH2 qualifying circuit done, as well as most of the 6502 dedicated data bus.
Just need to get the address bus installed, and the 6502 can wake up to say 'Ello 'Ello!



See the rest of my update here...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74-page-8

Trying to do a bit each week.

Cheers!
Brad

Added the Address Bus latching system and Boot Loader control lines.
The 6502 is only one hacking session away from booting up!

I will probably just sequence 8 LEDs for my Hello World debut.
After that, it will be 8192 Colors on an NTSC screen... yeah baby!



Latest updates and full build log here...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74-page-8/

Cheers,

Radical Brad

I'm trying to visualize the large pile of little, 1/4" snips of wire insulation accumulating under your workbench.

Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-TCvaNuKNQ

So true!
After a day of hackin' it looks as if someone dropped a jar of multi-color cake sprinkles on the floor.
The shop vac gets a workout as part of my session.

Great movie as well.
Brad

I had a day to spend in my Nerd Cave, and managed to get the 6502 up and saying Hello World.
In this case, I used 32 LEDs and did a simple chaser program to test things out...

https://youtu.be/xUNaHIm-lu8

The latest update is here...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74-page-8

I also split this into 10 PIC segments as it will start getting very long soon...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74

Just have to get the IO read working and then I start making the NTSC Frame Generator!



Cheers,
Radical Brad

Looks great - love the long Larson scanner too! Not enough of those in the world

Cheers,

-Gordon

Thanks!
If I only had a chrome helmet or a 1982 Trans Am, I would have a real use for the chaser!

I hope to get some video up in the next few sessions.

Brad

It has been a busy time out here on the farm, but I did manage to run indoors during the last rainfall and get the final IO test done. The 6502 can now read and write to the hardware, so I con move on to more interesting things such as the NTSC Video Frame Generator.



Here is my latest blog page with more details...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/vulcan-74-page-9/

For those who like to put down the soldering iron once and a while and pick up a welding rod, here is the other project I have been working on...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/the-yard-mule/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gen-1-oQk1k

Yep, an electric dump truck / tractor made from stuff I found at the scrap yard.
20,000 watt motor with a 30:1 gear reduction. Should be able to yank a house off the foundation!

Cheers,
Radical Brad

Just wanted to stop by to say hello while I take a break from the 30 degree weather out here on the farm!
Vulcan-74 is taking a back seat to my homesteading chores, but I should be back at it in the fall again.

I did managed to keep my thirst for "makin' stuff" quenched with this latest creation though...
Built it from some junk I found at the local dump such as a truck rear diff, old motorbike front end, and some other scrap parts.

It has a 20 kilowatt electric drive with a 30:1 gear reduction, so it can easily move a ton up a steep hill.
I really like electric vehicles, so clean, quite and maintenance free!

Here is the complete drive system...
For those interested in mechanical beasts of burden, this is my other active Blog besides Vulcan-74...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/blogs/

Ok, back to tilling the field, I only get 5 minutes of break time in a 12 hour work day out here!

Cheers,
Brad

Although I have been too busy to update my Blog, I have had a few rainy days to work out some 3D concept models for my massive Vulcan-74 retro computer, and think this is the final design.

Purchased a huge plate to cut the shapes out of and did a very crude model in SolidWorks to see how it looks.
Plates are just edge snapped together, so the model is ugly, but I need to do it this way to make cut prints.

So here is the basic size. The monitor will be the actual guts of a 1702, and using the plastic bezel.
For styling, I used bent sheet as this is what Commodore could have done in their filing cabinet factory at the time (1979).
The end look is much like a PET, which makes sense, and is age appropriate.



The goal is to use tech and tools of the age, so this square edge cabinet fits the bill quite nicely!

The side wings will display the crazy hand wired logic boards on each side, complete with back lights!
One side is the GPU, and the other is the sounds system.



The keyboard is an actual PET keyboard. I will also add an arcade joystick on the right, and arcade buttons on the left.
That hardware will be actual arcade hardware.



The circuit boards will probably have 400 ICs on each side! Everything is hand wired, no PCB or machine shop involved.
The front will be tinted glass, and the edges will have LED strip lighting like a gaming PC.
It will be a sight to behold!



I hope to weld the case up by next month. I will be cutting the sheet using an angle grinder and zip disc.
The huge breadboards are coming along as well, I think my Blog is up to date there anyhow.

I will add a lot more to this in the fall when the farm isn't demanding so much time...

https://www.atomiczombie.com/blogs/

Since it's far from just a "Game Computer" now, I will just rename it to "Vulcan-74".

Cheers!
Radical Brad

I had more time last weekend to think about my project, and have come to a final cabinet design.
Since Covid is messing with the supply chain in many ways, I wanted to get all of the steel required so I can get the cabinet cut and welded before the snow flies here.

The design posted earlier had some issues such as not enough room for the 600-800 ICs I may require (yes, seriously!), and because it would be difficult to get at the boards for any repairs. I have also been looking at a dual display system so one monitor can do live coding, debugging and single stepping while the other displays the running program. Such a system only requires a text generator, which I can do easily in a few dozen ICs. I also have a stockpile of 1702 monitors with damaged cabinets so this works out perfectly!

The problem of PCB access has already been solved by the elegant PET cabinet design, and since it was my very first home computer, I shall pay tribute to the design, and capture the style for my Vilcan-74 cabinet design.

Here is my final design, modeled so that I can begin cutting plates from the 3D components...



Yep, very much a two headed PET!
For the solution of working on the massive hand wired board (no PCB will be used), I have decided on a hood and a drawer style system that will allow the board to pull out and even tilt up for working on the underside...



The top section is based on fitting the 1702 monitors inside, and has a screen back for optimal cooling. I measured the monitor guts to be sure I would have adequate room inside.



The PET style bezels are my favorite part, and since I am a welder, they will be the most difficult parts to fabricate. i will probably carve them from wood and then epoxy them to make the clean. I really want to capture that vacuum formed llok of the PET bezels, and am not quite sure how to do that yet. Perhaps some kind of sponge painting on the drying epoxy to rough it up a bit. You can see the dimpled look on the original PET bezel...



So that's my new design. I have the 12 gage 4 foot by 10 foot plate sitting here and will start cutting parts as soon as I have an entire day to play.
I would estimate that building this cabinet will be 2 full days of cutting and welding, and will take plenty of photos along the way for the blog.

I know... I need to update the blog soon, but now it is going to be split into several sections; Proto, Case, PCB, GFX, Sound, Monitor, OS, etc.
Thanks to all those who have been visiting my site and emailing me to keep working on this project! It is certainly my favorite WIP!

Later!
Radical Brad

It reminds me of a CDC 6600

Yeah, there is certainly resemblance there!
Maybe I had that in my mind along with the PET styling when I opened SolidWorks this morning.
SpaceWar is going to look great on my 360x230 NTSC display with 16k colors!

Brad

I love the dual-monitor setup and the PET-style case. Two questions:

1. You mention it's all hand-wired, but the concept art doesn't look like your original solderless breadboard designs. Are you switching to wire wrap? (That would no doubt massively increase reliability, but would remove some of the amazing "I can't believe that crazy dude did that on breadboards and actually got it working" feeling. :-))

2. I had thought you were originally doing a higher resolution, something VGA-like. I guess you brought it down so you could use these monitors?

The two headed PET design really looks nice.

When putting two CRT monitors that close together, interference between the two CRT's magnetic fields becomes a topic.

One option is to put a magnetic shielding between them.
(IIRC "in the good old times" Grundig had used Mu_metal for that purpose when it came to "stacking" surveillance CRT monitors).

The other option might be running both monitors from the same HSYNC\VSYNC signals (not sure if this works as intended).