23 May
2013
23 May
'13
2:20 p.m.
On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 03:56:30PM -0400, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I would think it would be easy to build a clone. One
could use
a microcontroller, of course (Re: recent discussions), but I
don't think it would be tough to use an IM6402 UART and
a 4060-based baud rate generator, and add a bit of logic to
fiddle the handshake lines when a new byte comes in.
If it's just a Data Products interface (I've never had an LA180), I did an
i8051-based (actually Dallas DS5000) RS232-to-DP adapter a few years ago and
it was a piece of cake (most of the effort came from getting sidetracked with
adding a command prompt and saving various settings in a 93C46 EEPROM). Yes
I agree it could be done in loose parts too (although flow-control could get
interesting, especially if it's XON/XOFF). But if anybody wants schematics
or gerbers or firmware (assembled with Alan Baldwin's RT-11 cross-assembler,
if I remember right), drop me a line. The PCB uses a Centronics connector
with a pinout to fit the Black Box Cent-to-Winchester cable, which at the
time (10+ years ago) was the cheapest/only way I could find to get new Winch
connectors.
John Wilson
D Bit