6502.org

In the "Standardizing an I2C pinout: I2C-6" topic, I commented in one post: and André Fachat replied: They will go on my website, making it easiest to make corrections and additions anytime I want (which will probably come frequently at first). If there's something you would like to see covered, email or PM me; but it is already a small book. It was going to be all one article but it got to be way, way too long, so I decided it would have to be split up into many articles, with an index table and <--Previous and Next--> buttons. The different articles will cover different areas, like

• why a 6502 for the project,
• address decoding,
• memory map arrangement,
• logic families,
• clock generation,
• reset circuits,
• what to do with the "mystery" pins (sync, RDY, BE, etc.),
• I/O ICs,
• expansion,
• construction,
• wire-wrap questions and doubts answered,
• displays,
• general order of steps for making the project happen successfully,
• how to write your program for an assembler,
• how to debug (hardware and software),
• basic programming tips, and
• basic workbench equipment.

There are loads of pictures and diagrams and a gazilion links. This is for relative beginners, so it will not cover things like

• DMA
• DRAM management
• programmable logic
• MMUs
• disc drives
• video
• USB
• Ethernet

Edit: It's up, at http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/index.html

That's a great thing you're doing!

Did you consider setting it up in a wiki or in a shared repository, and find co-authors?
I would probably at least do some commenting.

(For example I am waiting for Mike to open up a wiki on 6502.org to put the PETindex there, to unleash the power of crowdsourcing.....)

Edit: but I can fully understand if you want to keep it "your baby" - I might even do so myself if I would work on such a book...

André

We have a 6502 wiki at http://6502org.wikidot.com/ .

Initially I'll put it on my own website. There are lots of links in the articles 6502.org pages and forum posts for if someone wants to go further with whatever is being discussed, so the reader will definitely know about the forum. I should put some links to the wiki too. I don't think about it much because I still don't know how to use a wiki (other than reading it). Perhaps I should post the articles on the wiki, as long as I still have access to keep improving them. With the current plan, between forum posts and emails telling me of embarrassing errors, or of things that would be good to add, or of things that need clarification, or alerting me to more good links to add, I'm sure I will be making improvements frequently for awhile. The subject matter is from posts ranging from the mid-1990's to the present.

Does Mike still promote articles into the Tutorials and Primers section of this site?

(It's on the site front page, but not on the top-right list of five - perhaps it could be? Or perhaps just a More link at top right which links to the front page - that list of subpages is well-indexed by the search engines but not very obvious to someone who lands on the forum)

Cheers
Ed

I know he wants more, but I sense that he can't put as much time into it as he once did, so it helps if your submission doesn't take much work to convert it to finished HTML. When I gave him the material for my project pages many years ago, it was just one long text file, and I think he had to scan at least some of the pictures. (I didn't have a scanner yet.) He separated it into subjects and made what you see there now. He wanted to make it nice, but I wonder if he found that he got himself into more work than he bargained for. My other articles were probably less work, but still not trivial. Over two years ago I sent updates for my project pages (especially the workbench computer), but he still hasn't gotten them up. I understand that part was done in an old version of HTML or with old software that's hard to use, and he was hoping I could do it myself now. My assumption was that he meant I should put it on my own website, but now I think I might have misunderstood, because if the HTML is finished, I should be able to send the zipped files and it would be very easy for him to post them.

I know very little HTML so my web pages are extremely plain, but the first priority is to just get the material up, available, although it's like a forum post where you can have different font features, links, lists, pictures always left-justified, and that's about it. It won't look professional, but that's ok. Hopefully later I'll get some help from my soon-to-be daughter-in-law who's a computer-science major. The first thing there might be to make the website so I can take credit-card orders online.

My web page, also hosted here, is in a repository, and every time I create a new tag the post-commit script publishes the new version, without any effort for Mike. Maybe you want to ask him about that.

André

I'm thinking that a Wordpress site: http://wordpress.org/ would have tools that would allow you to publish without knowing HTML. I'm also thinking that blogger (blogspot.com) has tools as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing your articles. I got my tax return money and I'm thinking about an Apatco computer as I am tempted by it. I also don't know if I need a Oscilloscope to be in this hobby.

You might think about publishing your articles on the Amazon E-reader called the Kindle. You could get paid for people downloading your book.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your articles. Thank you in advance.

The Apatco is nice. Got one. Plenty of versatility there.

I don't know if you need a 'scope but I find one indispensable as I tinker with my toys.

I got my sbc working without using any oscilloscope, i just bought it recently...

Ok it's up. It will be subject to constant improvement and updates, depending on feedback and future forum posts showing the need.
http://wilsonminesco.com/6502primer/index.html

Garth, I just checked out your WireWrap section. I am impressed at the level of detail! Awesome dude. However, you asked for critiques, so here is one to consider for the WW section, if I may: WW is WW using WW sockets and tools. It's an interesting technique to solder those fine wires using a soldering gun, but honestly the only time I used a soldering gun on any of my WW projects was on the bypass capacitors with some heat shrink tubing. Maybe keep the soldering part for the last section? I've posted some amount of where to get the proper tools for cheap here somewhere on 6502.org... Remember, I think it was kc5tja that pointed out in one of my projects that the CRAY supercomputer running at close to 90MHz was fully constructed with WW techniques. *sigh*, those were the days of genius.
I hope you accept this criticism with cheer! As I know you have done ALOT of work and I by no means point out any kind of error, just my opinion.

I look forward to reading more...

EDIT: I am reading more.. I see my earlier statements are in error! I highly recommend any hobbyist read this, especially those considering higher speeds >4MHz with reliable operation. It's above and beyond the typical 'breadboard' construction we always read about.

We always check out the pictures first... Electronics is pron to some of us .

Maybe show some close up pics of proper WW at the beginning, maybe even some of the more complicated 6502 WW stuff... Then what NOT to do later on...

Ok, that's it for me tonight. I'm wiped out...

Garth:

An excellent site. Thanks for posting it.

I read your articles, and they are great, i only wish you wrote them sooner, they could had saved me lots of time, when i started building my sbc... My initial design was a small sbc with few ic, and some expansion sockets. As the building was progressing, i decided to expand it a bit, and add the back plane. In your articles, you don't recommend backplanes and you are right, but i still plan to keep mine, since there is no way to fit all the components on one board(in my sbc). Also there is the problem with reflecting signals(that video of mine, you could use it, just to demonstrate how things can go wrong with no obvious reason). You might also add the schematic for the 7705 reset ic, i used it and it is very practical (i saw it for the first time in André's Gecko), it as usually detects spikes in the power supply and automatically resets the sbc, also you could say something about em interference and how it affects the buses, and how cross talk might do problems when the wires are a messy knot...
You could also set up a Wordpress site, it is fairly simple to get it working, and it looks much better(and more attractive to newbies that plain text), of course i hope you get a full site design up soon...

Edit: I would love to see some beginners tutorials for cc65, and how to set it up for our own homebrew sbc...