28 Mar
2003
28 Mar
'03
10:40 a.m.
--- Charles <charlesmorris(a)direcway.com> wrote:
That's good enough to find it. Thanks.
Interesting. Can't wait to see the plans.
:-) indeed.
Well... that's easy to build, anyway. I suppose it would be easy enough
to make a parallel-port NVRAM programmer...
Thanks,
-ethan
B) Would you
write up where you attached your pullups?
Check the schematic, it was on the preset lines to the 7474
containing stop bit 1 and stop bit 2... Are you using a
microprocessor on your DF32x4? FPGAs? PALs? TTL?
Plain old 74LS and a Dallas Semi DS1258 128kx16 NVRAM. How are you
handling the cabling issue?
Cables :) (I also laid out a PCB to plug in the backplane and
accept a
standard 40 pin IDC header connector). Had five fabricated and
made 3 foot ribbon cables.
Sounds great. If several folks wanted to get into a bulk-buy, we
could probably get a stack of those cheap. I was getting 12" long
boards with inches of gold fingers (GG2 Bus+ - 100-pin Zorro plus
16-bit ISA) for well under $20 each, q 100., with silk screen and
solder mask. Panelled out, something like this could be as cheap
as a few bucks each in sufficient quantity.
No matter what the device (external memory, external disk, etc.),
I'd *love* to have a stack of inexpensive paddle cards to interconnect
a variety of devices I have. Another bonus is that the modern
end of the cable does *not* have to resort to hard-to-find DEC-style
slots and fingers. 40-pin IDC stuff is about as cheap as it gets.
Also, it might be interesting to experiment with them as a base for
simple prototype modules (I keep kicking around an idea for a
crystal-controlled M452 replacement for higher-than-110-baud use
on an M706/M707 set) - just attach the "device" to the 40-pin
spot and go.
I could probably put dozens of these to use in the first few months,
all by myself. I would probably even be willing to act as a point-of
contact on a group order. The more the merrier.
Do you have a
way to load
the emulated disk devices "out of band"? (i.e., can you get data into
it in any way other than the databreak interface to the -8?)
No, I took the DF32 manual and copied the specs as closely as
possible. The 8/L should "think" it has a real DF32 and three
expansion DS32's attached. What's the
picture of?
Pic is of the DF32x4 on the workbench. I'll send you a copy
direct.