3 Jul
2018
3 Jul
'18
5:05 a.m.
On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 11:09 PM, Evan Koblentz via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Time to reveal a personal project related to vintage
computing and unrelated
to my role at VCFed.
In the past two years, while getting neck-deep in the historic Lego 9700
"Technic Control Center" set, I learned that there is a TON of information
about this set (and about various related sets) -- but most of that
information is missing from the web or at best scattered.
What these programmable robotic sets all have in common is they're all from
the 10 years BEFORE the modern Mindstorms series, and they run on vintage
computers!
I decided a few months ago to make a web site about it. I call the site
www.mindsbeforethestorm.com. The site is under construction but you can
visit now and see where it is going.
One thing struck me from looking at your schematic of the Apple ][ interface
card (you know me, always looking at the schematics first...)
That card is essentally a 6522 VIA with port B linked to a 20 pin header. The
BBC micro has a user port which is port B of a 6522 linked to a 20 pin header,
and I've just checked the 'Advanced User Guide' and the connections are
essentially a superset of those on your Apple ][ board (pns 2 and 4 would be
the CB1 and CB2 lines on a BBC).
It is my guess that the BBC micro version of this system used the Lego
interface box, but connected it straight to the user port on the BBC.
-tony