MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

arnuphis
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by arnuphis »

I am ready to buy a board and components. Just let me know price and when they are ready. Alternately if you want to sell a completed board that works too. HxC is arriving today so I will see if it works with the 80-FIO card.
psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

Ok, will let you know, just waiting for the boards and parts. I decided to go with 74LS devices, as per the original card and ordered them from ebay so just a matter of waiting until they all arrive. I should be able to put a kit of parts together or build them and will advise accordingly.

Good luck with the HxC, hope it works ok.
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arnuphis
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by arnuphis »

Thank you. No dice with the Lotharek. The Sharp seeks and pops up a 'RA' message on the Lotharek display but goes no further. So frustrating.
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dat-alex
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by dat-alex »

psmart wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 10:16 am This is just a test of the GAL (to replace the PAL) in the original board. The new boards are almost the same (different routing and copper fills) so I dont expect any gotcha's, made several tests to verify the hand drawn schematic against the physical card. Just waiting for the parts to arrive, hopefully this week.

As mentioned to arnuphis/alo2004, if you want a PCB/GAL then I can send one at cost, the PCB's were US$63 for 10 and the GAL's were GBP1 each. The SFD800 may be good reference to complete the FPGA design.
I am really interested for a pcb (only if I pay for it +shipping) in order to test my future forthcoming fpga design approach I already have an original WD1773 ready to be tested
I'm looking for a good VHDL WD1773 reference design for my Sharp MZ Emulator, have found Verilog compatibles which I may translate if a vhdl version isnt forthcoming.
I have only managed to find an ST1040 project WD172 vhdl (I had no luck finding a WD1773 core so far).
The problem is 1772 core has no READY signal opposed to wd1773 who 'includes' ready signal function inside the chip.
That's the reason I decided to order first and use original WD1773 in my FPGA design and after it works ok I will try to use a WD1773 core (maybe update wd1772 core to implement ready signal) ;)

(p.s: my slowly progressing SFD800 fpga design https://www.youtube.com/embed/di7DZzzmDsc )
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psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

@dat-alex - looking good, what package are you using, Quartus II schematic capture? I havent studied the differences between the 1772/1773 but I should image it wont take much effort to update the 1772 design. I will take a look soon as Im currently porting my Sharp MZ Series emulator to a Cyclone IV device with less resources, modularising at the same time, once done I will advance by adding the missing FDC controller.

Re SFD800 PCB - I received the PCB's but found a serious mistake generated by Kicad. The SFD800 uses hand drawn (or similar) tracks and the power supply tracks are very wide, probably overkill. Rather than creating several large track types in the Kicad definition, I laid out the power supply using parallel 0.802mm wide tracks with a gap in between with the intention to copper fill so that the a large single track is created. After complete PCB layout and DRC checks I first made GND copper fills and made a DRC check then +5V copper fills (to fill in the gap between the 0.802mm parallel tracks). After a final DRC some issues were flagged relating to distance between tracks too close but mainly on the board edge so it wasnt an issue. Well, PCB's ordered and arrived, I thought I'd make some checks and noticed that GND and +5V were shorted. After closer inspection GND and+5V copper fills had actually merged. If you shorted GND and +5V together on Kicad PCB the DRC would flag a short but making two copper fills, it not only shorts them together but the DRC doesnt flag the error! I retried the board making the copper fills and found that the moment you made two copper fills using different nets, it shorted them!!!! I've had a few issues with Kicad and always put it down to my fault or computer crash but this is actually a reproducible error!

Short explanation long, I redid the PCB using only GND copper fills and manually filled in the +5V gap between the parallel 0.802mm tracks, made extra extra checks and the PCB is with the manufacturer being posted today! I'm still waiting on some parts so hopefully next week I'll get the chance to assemble and test a board and if all ok let you/arnuphis know.

Kicad is great software but a few issues like the above can really emphasise I need to check and triple check!
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psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

arnuphis wrote: Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:12 am Thank you. No dice with the Lotharek. The Sharp seeks and pops up a 'RA' message on the Lotharek display but goes no further. So frustrating.
Looks like a controller issue then, perhaps make some simple voltage checks on the interface IC's, ie. IC24 (75452). IC21 (7414), IC19 (74145) as these may have been damaged being external facing. ie. 75452 is being used as an inverting driver so the output should be inverse of the input, just a simple check as it may throw up a candidate. Same for the 7414 schottky input buffers.

Will let you know once I can send an SFD800, hopefully no more gotchas as mentioned above!!!
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psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

psmart wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 11:38 am I will take a look soon as Im currently porting my Sharp MZ Series emulator to a Cyclone IV device with less resources, modularising at the same time, once done I will advance by adding the missing FDC controller.
If anyone is interested, a Sharp MZ-80A running on a Sharp MZ-700 Host using the MZ-700 tape deck. This is a fusion of the Sharp MZ Series Emulator and real host hardware. I'm currently porting and modularising the emulator so that it runs standalone on the MiSTer project but also inside a Sharp host utilising original hardware where available.
EMUZ - 1.png
EMUZ - 1.png (378.12 KiB) Viewed 4649 times
EMUZ - 2.png
EMUZ - 2.png (381.5 KiB) Viewed 4649 times
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psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

Just an update on the new board.

PCB's received and first sample built (below). Powered up and it seeks the drive but always ends up with a loading error (screen below). I set about analysing the original board and the new board and found the XTAL circuit on the new board was outputting 8MHz when it should be 16MHz. Seem Ebay was a bad choice for the crystal, clearly marked 16MHz but not outputting 16MHz!!!!!!

Will change the crystal next Im in my workshop and rerun the test, but looking good.
SFD800 - 1 (1).png
SFD800 - 2.png
SFD800 - 1 (2).png
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arnuphis
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by arnuphis »

Looking good. Shame about that crystal but at least its an easy fix
psmart
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Re: MZ-80b FI/O to HxC Cable

Post by psmart »

All working, it wasn't the crystal per-se, slightly different crystal spec (it was bought from RS not Ebay!!!!) and needed the bias adjusting (R1/R2) and now ticks happily at 16MHz.

I put together the BOM which can be found here: https://eaw.app/Downloads/SFD800.xlsx

Total cost of parts is GBP26.98 - the BOM contains links to the source of each part, some are from China, others from RS and Ebay suppliers.

I can send you just the PCB at GBP4.93 + Postage, or a complete kit of parts for 26.98 + Postage or I can assemble and test, just round up to 30.00 + Postage. In terms of the 34pin IDC connector, I need to find a better source. RS have the ideal part but it is on back order, I ordered the next best one where the bolt holes aren't aligned. Will have a look around and see if I can source a better part.
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