Teaching kids about computers...

someone said something about a pic. Thing is you'll be writing the code for it on a pc, and transferring it via serial cable, no? I do like the single-board approach. But something to which you could interface a terminal at least. All this is getting very involved for an introduction no doubt. But there is a project in Radio Electronics that I've mentioned many times. It's a single-board "robot brain" that except for expansion slots, is a full fledged peecee mobo (more or less, don't count on 100% compatibility). You have to use a terminal with it (I think, unless it's meant to have it's warez downloaded like a pic). After the necessary introductory material (which in itself could take many months I guess) imagine a kid building (w/dad) a working controller. I guess you could do this with a much simpler architecture though (and greatly increase the chance of success! given the usual pitfalls). Yeah, I like the sbc approach with a terminal. More illustrative of what's going on. I sent for some toner-transfer sheets by which I hope to etch 1 or more boards for this project. The chips aren't as easy to find as they used to be, but they're around. The only oddball is a WD1770 or 1771, can't remember off the top of my head. I managed to scarf all (I believe) of the firmware from the original manufacturer (yes there was a commercially had equivalent by Vesta Tech.) so I'm good to go I guess. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs