6502.org

And this is a good thing IMHO. I think it's great that the systems have developed to where more and more people can empower themselves with a computer.

I look at some of the Arduino stuff and see it's targeted at basically artists who want blinking lights in their projects. That's awesome.

I'm a complete and total supporter of end-user programming, things like Excel macros or stitching a table together in MS-Access or FileMaker. Things that make experienced computer folks just CRINGE. The Rube Goldbergian constructs users create.

A favorite anecdote about an encounter that helped me see the light this way was when a young kid working at our office on a project using Delphi and SQL Server. The project was delivered, customer was happy, the stuff worked (tm). I asked him how it was going, how he was finding things.

He said that it's all pretty good, but he kept getting confused and couldn't really tell the difference between RAM and Disk.

That made my heart skip a beat. Here's a guy that doesn't apparently have even the vaguest concept of basic computer architecture. Clearly no clue. I remember back driving with my Dad, as he'd chatter on about microprocessors and what not, and the day I finally "aha'd" what he meant by the word "bus". You know, fundamentals of computer operation.

Yet, even in his ignorance of the man and magic behind the curtain, he was productive, solved a problem, empowered and helped others out of some menial task, and brought new efficiencies and flexibility where none was before for this client.

That's a WIN.

Think of all the mouth breathing, knuckle draggers that Home Depot etc. empower every day with tools and books and such to help ruin their own home (I know this well, I'm one of them...took me an hour to replace an outlet yesterday).

It's all good, partial learning is good. I can look at a clock and watch the sun every day without having a clue about orbital or even quantum mechanics.

So, all hail ubiquitous computing. When I had my fences done, the guy came out with an iPhone and an iPad. He did his scheduling, his invoicing, email, had lots of photos. He's a welder, he's a craftsman. He's not a "computer guy".

End user empowerment. It's all good.

We've had 12 non-intro posts now since alkopop79's introduction, some of them very good; but please, everyone, let's keep this topic to introductions only, and leave the pats on the back and the back-and-forth discussions about projects for other discussions. I might see if we can separate out the other posts and put them in a "shadow" topic. Part of the purpose of this one was for newcomers and even those who may never post, for various reasons, even companies for example, to be able to go through and get a concise picture of of the various members' backgrounds without having to wade through lots of extraneous stuff.

alkopop79, note that you can edit your own posts to add to them or correct something, so it is not necessary to keep adding posts for that. If you are logged in, you'll find the "edit" button in the lower right-hand corner of your own posts. For anyone who has already posted here, if you put up a website or new web pages or complete a new project you want to add to your own history as it continues to develop, you can edit your introductions post to reflect that. Please do. Thanks.

Hi everyone,

This is a great website for new information and picking up some tips for the 65xx processors.

I have used the IIgs with it's 65C816 back in the 80's and in the last 12 years or so I have been using the 816 in some of my projects.
It's great to see that so many here have found the 65816 and the 6502 very useful processors.

See you around the forum.

Welcome, Clockpulse! '816 projects? We'd love to hear about those, if you have time to describe them!

-- Jeff

Thanks for the welcome,

Years ago, my first project was a home alarm system using an old retired Apple II motherboard.
I changed the processor to an 65C816 and used 4 of the card slots to add more memory, Alarm I/O, telephone interface and audio. I also built a 65C816 SBC to connect with Maxim/Dallas 1-wire temperature sensors, iButton and an RC Systems text to speech board.

I haven't been doing anything with SBC's lately but I've been reading the posts here and I'm getting interested in getting back to it.

Interesting. What motivated you to upgrade to the '816? I'm guessing that you didn't need to address more than 64K but instead were attracted by the 816's enhanced assembly-language capabilities. Of course I could be wrong... As for iButtons, those are certainly pretty cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire

If you'd like to reply at length, or if you suspect a discussion may ensue, feel free to start a topic in one of the other categories. And of course you're invited to talk about yourself here in this thread -- your background, what brought you to 65xx chips and this forum... anything you feel may be of interest and help us feel acquainted.
For 65xx tips, be sure to check out our moderator Garth Wilson's web site as well!

cheers
Jeff

Actually, I did have two banks of 64k using the Dallas DS1245 NVRAM with Bank1 for use as data storage.
The added instructions of the 816 were very useful as well.

Thanks for the pointers, I've been looking around quite a bit but will be browsing even more, lots to see.

cp

Welcome clockpulse. Very nice to have you.

But once again gentlemen, please move the follow-up conversations to another topic and leave this one to introductions only!

What if all thousand members jumped in and posted a "Welcome!" and more chatting after every introduction? The topic would be swamped and useless and we wouldn't be able to find anyone's bio.

Hi there,
I love this website, its a great resource for all things 65 and general electronics too.
After recently finding this site I just had to register as a member.

Anyway, I recently found an old weather station datalogger, and curiously enough inside I found a Rockwell R65C02P1E an R65C22P1E VIA and an R65C51P2E ACIA with a 64K Sanyo SRAM and another 4 (32k x8) UMC SRAMs for long term storage(in a weird configuration) The Code is in the form of a NM27C256 256k EPROM(Which I will try and readout soon) all of it being held together by some 74Series Chips. I heard of the 6502 processors before, but only really got interested after finding one myself. So I'll hopefully soon get to post some stuff on the forum and try to reverse engineer it into a little hobby computer since its useless as a weather station to me

Welcome Electrogineer, this is fascinating personally to me because I am curious under what environs it has survived over the ages as a weather datalogger. Maybe you can please start a thread at least! Then if it's not too much to ask, some 'deconstruction' pics. Anyway, welcome and thanks for posting.

We got ourself the 1000-th member here somewhere.

Hi there.

For a year and a half, I did TV and radio repairs in the workshop of a small company.
I worked as a skilled worker in the electronics industry for nearly 6 years.
And since 1999, I've been doing hardware/software design for mad scientists.

I started with the Junior Computer, and I had a C64.
Toyed with 6502, 68000, 68020, PIC12/16/18/30/33, 8031/535/537, etc.,
but I don't remember every little detail.
Maybe I left out something.

Built three TTL CPUs and a transistor CPU.
Toyed with CPLDs and FPGAs, but TTL just works.

I'm building things for the sake of art, not for making money.

My biggest dream would be building a transistor CPU
which understands the 6502 instruction set someday...
and maybe my biggest nightmare too, somehow.

I've been lurking here since 2001...
and I started to like it.