N* Question

Without a boot disk, your only option is to make use of the 1K ROM socket on the CPU card - it takes a 2708, but you can build an adapter to use a larger device if you don't have or can't program a 2708 - you can even use something like the Dallas battery-backed-up RAM chips (**) which make erase/program cycles very fast -keep in mind that you don't need it to look pretty - you only need it until you have a boot disk up and running, and you can put the CPU back a couple of slots to allow room for the adapter.

(** if you go this route, know that the DS chips have a power-monitor which may not release until after the simple CPU reset circuit - so you may have to power- up and then issue a reset to get it to start properly). The console will probably be at 9600 (unless someone has changed it). Check the jumpers to be sure. As noted above, make sure you can deselect a suitable area of the memory map to make room for the monitor. Remove anything un-necessary when getting the monitor up and running - that means pull the FDC (and the 8" one if you haven't already) - since my monitor does not require RAM, you can pull the RAM card as well - so all you will have in the system at first is the CPU. Set the ROM address, and POJ (power-on-jump) headers to the address where you origned the code for the ROM (I provide a utility that will show you the correct settings for any given address). If the monitor does not "come up", and you have access to a scope, check out the ddress us while it is running - since it will be sitting in a very tight loop, you should see a recognizable pattern - several cycles within the ROM address space (only the lower few address lines should toggle) and one access to the UART I/O address. If that doesn't seem right, then you can use tricks like tying the ROM select to the wait line - it should halt at the startng address of the ROM. Also, with a storage scope and a little patience, you can capture the first few bus cycles - you should be able to see the power-on-jump address at the beginning. ... But this is getting beyond the scope of this reply. Once you see it's running it's polling loop, then you can track down the accesses to the UART to debug it at the hardware level if necessary. Once you get to the monitor '>' prompt, you are well on your way! Put the RAM card back in, and verfy that the monitor still runs (ie: you did de- select a block for it properly) - then use it to write and readback some locations where there should be RAM and confirm that it appears to be there and holds it's content. Then put the N*FDC back in and confirm that the monitor runs - from there, you can proceed to the documentation in my simulator/NST package which should give you enough information to create a boot disk (Assuming the FDC works - debugging that is another excercise).