Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

I will use this thread to document and discuss a development board that I will be creating and printing for the community, with the help of the community of course.

I have decided to mimic an arduino-type of stackable interface for this single-board computer. The development board will contain headers on all sides to connect and communicate with other boards that will and may follow. The main board will contain the z80 CPU, 56K RAM, 8K ROM, memory decoder, power input & Regulation, crystal with debounce and user-accessible interrupt pins all pull to the appropriate high or low terminals.

The headers surrounding our board are going to be connected to each pin of the CPU and each of the expandable memory controls. I am undecided as to whether I will use many or any SMT components, though these would be preinstalled in the kit I decide to do so.

The first stackable board will contain serial, USB, PS/2 and composite video output. These are the first items to be added and will be included as part of the kit. What good would it be without these? The third stackable board, if made, will be a board that contains many tie points for modification and addition. Again, the memory addressing pins will be connected up to the third board, so adding devices into memory will be easy. SID's, YM2612's, AY-3-8910's, FRAM, floppy drive, SD adapter, etc...etc...

I am also in need of a username change. A name that may be used as a business name and or something to be proud of. I have been using Jazzmarazz since I was 13 and playing NeoPets (hit me up, lol) and it is time for a change. Clearly, you are all aware of what I like to do and what community I cater to, so put on your thinking caps.

Words I like:
Defunct
Obsolescence
micro
byte

I have no need for these words to be included, but it is a start.

Cheers,
~The artist currently known as Jazz

EDIT: Thinking about the computer and I am uncertain if I would like to do a simple dev board without the frills, a full computer or both....Problem is...I want both! I think I shall start with a bare z80, rom/ram setup. Nothing special, but fully moddable. It will cost much less and can be made to do anything, even as much as the full computer I hope to make soon afterward.

EDIT: Finishing up the main tracing and still positioning silk screens stuff. The board is not going to be just square as it is shown, so I may design a bottom half of a housing shell in CATIA. I know nothing about how we can get plastic objects printed though, so if anyone knows, tell me. Here is the basic chip placement:


Resistors will be made Surface Mount to save space and so the ground pour doesn't get chopped up so much. At this point, there are many free headers on either side of the board. Ceramic Caps will remain through-hole so that VCC may be routed on both sides more easily and to offer more coverage of GND.  um...yep. That is all for now.

Last edited by Jazzmarazz (Sep 16, 2013 6:31 pm)

Victory Road
Offline
Gosford, Australia

"jazz micro" - BOOM there you go

Aly James
Offline
FRANCE

Sounds nice, keep this project coming!
"Defunct Bytzz" introducing "Zee-8 Board" smile

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan
Victory Road wrote:

"jazz micro" - BOOM there you go

uJazz

Aly James wrote:

Sounds nice, keep this project coming!
"Defunct Bytzz" introducing "Zee-8 Board" smile

Looking for something a little more refined. Moving away from Ja(zz) all together, though I will never stop listening to it. wink
My endeavors having nothing to do with the genre.

Thanks guys.

DSC
Offline
Jazzmarazz wrote:

I think I shall start with a bare z80, rom/ram setup. Nothing special, but fully moddable. It will cost much less and can be made to do anything, even as much as the full computer I hope to make soon afterward.

I like this approach.  Even a little perfboard on one side to make additional jumper/headers to solder to would be nice.
As far as the moniker, I'm a little surprised you would ask for advice.  Those types of things are always so personal.
It usually will just click, anyway thanks for all of the effort.

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

µjazz as your username.

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan
DSC wrote:
Jazzmarazz wrote:

I think I shall start with a bare z80, rom/ram setup. Nothing special, but fully moddable. It will cost much less and can be made to do anything, even as much as the full computer I hope to make soon afterward.

I like this approach.  Even a little perfboard on one side to make additional jumper/headers to solder to would be nice.
As far as the moniker, I'm a little surprised you would ask for advice.  Those types of things are always so personal.
It usually will just click, anyway thanks for all of the effort.

The board so far has USB (power only) and regulated DC input with a Jumper to select between one or the other. So far, that is all I have added aside from the cpu/rom/ram.

jefftheworld wrote:

µjazz as your username.

I do like it, but it leaves me in the same place. I would like to move away from Jazz altogether. It is the past-me and has no relevance with my goals.

thebitman
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Zen80

Alpine
Offline
UK, Leicester

I'd say keep Jazzmarazz, although it may not represent you now, it's still a name that you've used for a long time, and you've done a lot of stuff under it. It would make it more confusing for people if you changed your name.

rygD
Offline

I think you will find that you like a name better if you decide on it yourself.  Are you looking for a username or a name for your business?  The feel you seem to be going for with the word list can work for both, but the list seems like an ideal starting point for a business name (although then you have to decide on if you are cool keeping things fun and informal, or if it is super serious "all business, all the time").  I can toss some stuff at you for inspiration later.

I would really like a full computer, so I think starting with the dev board for now, and keeping costs down in the short term, may be the best option.  It creates a wider audience in the long run, as people customize their projects.  It would be great if you made both.  It might be difficult to get funding for both projects, although I love that idea (except i so love the old stuff I may use up all my dollars on those).  If you haven't already done so, consider mentioning this on other forums, if you think it might be appropriate.  I will mention it to a few people also.

ps: "Obsolescence" is the direction to go, imo.

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

Obsolesense. Sense of the obsolete.

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

Sorry, I was at work so I couldn't really reply to people.

@Alpine, I am familiar with and attached to Jazzmarazz, so you have a point, although I wouldn't say "A lot of stuff" under it. tongue
Im still just an unknown face on the web.

@rygD, You also have a point, I should come up with it myself but I am having difficulty. I don't want something Super serious, but nothing along the lines of Super-duper-make-cool-stuff Co. either.  lol

As for the board, the bare simple version is coming along well. I have located an ideal regulator in a lovely SOT-233 package, but the thing holding me back seems to be that I have to create a lot of the libraries myself, or modify ones that I already have. The good thing about both drawing a schematic and board layout is that I may choose the packages and parts myself. No one can tell me to go with parts I do not wish to use.

Next I will be changing up the quartz crystal to a larger quartz oscillator in the 014 or 008 package so that users may alter the rate more easily. If I can locate a highly available variable clock IC, I may utilize that but we'll see what happens. After I find these things, I can move on to tracing the rest of the board and then creating a blank "shield" with loads of tie points.

I will be confidant to share photos in a day or two.

EDIT: Got rid of the parallel resonance altogether! DERRR! Why was I messing with a two pin clock at all?!

Last edited by Jazzmarazz (Sep 16, 2013 2:33 am)

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

Finishing up the main tracing and still positioning silk screens stuff. The board is not going to be just square as it is shown, so I may design a bottom half of a housing shell in CATIA. I know nothing about how we can get plastic objects printed though, so if anyone knows, tell me. Here is the basic chip placement:


Resistors will be made Surface Mount to save space and so the ground pour doesn't get chopped up so much. At this point, there are many free headers on either side of the board. Ceramic Caps will remain through-hole so that VCC may be routed on both sides more easily and to offer more coverage of GND.  um...yep. That is all for now.

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

i know a bit about how plastics can be made if you wanna get in touch.

if the run on these is super small, i might be able to do them on my printer also.

a (cheaper) option would be to do an acrylic dovetailed box or something.  if so, cm.o's arfink or nbscloset could help out with making those

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

Yeah, thanks Kitsch. I have looked into the acrylic boxes before because I think they look absolutely perfect for the indie-type of builds. I can't say that we would need a top half, or at least not yet considering the fact that this is stackable. If we were to assume a maximum of three stories (CPU level, serial/usb/video/keyboard level, and a perfboard level) then we could make a whole enclosure I suppose.

As for the size of run, I was going to aim for 10 boards again. We may have to look into half-shells for the GB programmers. They ended up being heavy to one side because of the cart connector, meaning stand-offs don't help a whole lot. Room to learn I suppose.

Anyhow, keep talking to me people! Start thinking about whether you want a colored PCB, ENIG, or if I should do kit-bundles again. Obviously, many parts are obsolete and harder to source, so kits would only include everything minus CPU/RAM/ROM. A pre-soldered kit would have sockets ready to drop your chips in. Then again, I do have a large handful of 27c64's so maybe a pre-programmed BASIC ROM option too.

thebitman
Offline

I would be into these boards like crazy. Would want to order two, FYI smile