24 Nov
2009
24 Nov
'09
10:33 p.m.
1. I have a need for a DE9 female connector without the metal
housing, something like
(http://www.robotshop.ca/Images/small/en/parallax-basic-stamp-1-serial-adapt…).
I need quite a few of them, so I'd rather not buy DE-9s and rip
off the shielded housing manually. Anyone have ideas?
2. Anyone on list have any experience with MAX 7032A Altera CPLDs?
I'm working on a VIC-20 MIDI interface for a friend in Toronto,
and I'd love to use a small CPLD to make it more cost effective to
produce the MIDI cart. I've found TQFP 7032A units for
$.31/piece, but I've never done CPLD. I want to learn, and
thought if I at least knew someone could help me though the first
few bits (and help with the programming cable, etc., it'd be much
easier.
3. I'm making the journey to Toronto for the World of Commodore 2009
show Dec 5. I'd love to meet list members in the area, and
there'll be some vintage CBM stuff present, if you're into that
sort of machine.
4. Anyone have a source for 28AWG 2 conductor twisted wire?
5. If so, do they make it in 3 conductor?
Those who care about the CBM machines on-list have no doubt heard all of
this, and I don't want to be accused of spamming, but I thought I'd
point out I ran a batch of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have created a
small FLASH replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs. Some of
those might be of use on other 80's era machines.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
24 Nov
24 Nov
10:52 p.m.
On 25 Nov 2009 at 0:33, Jim Brain wrote:
2. Anyone on list have any experience with MAX
7032A Altera CPLDs?
I'm working on a VIC-20 MIDI interface for a friend in Toronto,
and I'd love to use a small CPLD to make it more cost effective
to produce the MIDI cart. I've found TQFP 7032A units for
$.31/piece, but I've never done CPLD. I want to learn, and
thought if I at least knew someone could help me though the
first few bits (and help with the programming cable, etc., it'd
be much easier.
I've done some Max 7000S CPLDs. The ByteBlaster programmer is easy
to build and the Quartus development software is available free on
line. I believe it includes some examples.
After fooling with the awkward Altera tools, I found that I like the
Xilinx XC9500 toolset better.
4. Anyone have a source for 28AWG 2 conductor
twisted wire?
5. If so, do they make it in 3 conductor?
Solid, or stranded? Tinned or bare copper?
--Chuck
11:09 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 25 Nov 2009 at 0:33, Jim Brain wrote:
Can one use the ByteBlaster for Xilinx parts as well, or do I have to
buy two tools (I rather like the Xilinx part options better myself, but
the deal is on Altera stock.)
2. Anyone on list have any experience with MAX
7032A Altera CPLDs?
I'm working on a VIC-20 MIDI interface for a friend in Toronto,
and I'd love to use a small CPLD to make it more cost effective
to produce the MIDI cart. I've found TQFP 7032A units for
$.31/piece, but I've never done CPLD. I want to learn, and
thought if I at least knew someone could help me though the
first few bits (and help with the programming cable, etc., it'd
be much easier.
I've done some Max 7000S CPLDs. The ByteBlaster programmer is easy
to build and the Quartus development software is available free on
line. I believe it includes some examples.
Solid, or stranded? Tinned or bare copper?
stranded, either tinner or bare is fine. Teflon coating would be ideal
for the usage, but I hesitate on it because I can't seem to figure out
how to strip such wire.
--Chuck
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
25 Nov
25 Nov
6:58 a.m.
On Wed, 25 Nov 2009, Jim Brain wrote:
stranded, either tinner or bare is fine. Teflon
coating would be ideal for
the usage, but I hesitate on it because I can't seem to figure out how to
strip such wire.
Aren't thermal strippers used for Teflon wire?
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!
9:34 a.m.
On 25 Nov 2009 at 1:09, Jim Brain wrote:
Can one use the ByteBlaster for Xilinx parts as well,
or do I have to
buy two tools (I rather like the Xilinx part options better myself,
but the deal is on Altera stock.)
Even though the two programmers are essentially JTAG, the connections
to the parallel port are different and the software for CPLD
programming driving them is tailored to a specific programmer.
It's possible that one of the third-party (open source) JTAG
programming software packakges might work; I haven't tried.
The programmers themselves are dirt-simple--a few resistors and a
couple of ICs (tristate buffers). You could build them dead-bug
style in a DB25 connector shell if you wanted. There are
substantially more expensive (and faster) USB programmers available,
but speed of programming isn't usually a consideration on CPLDs;
that's more of an issue with FPGAs.
stranded, either tinner or bare is fine. Teflon
coating would be ideal
for the usage, but I hesitate on it because I can't seem to figure out
how to strip such wire.
I don't know what your application is, but would a strip of ribbon
cable do for what you need? Not twisted, of course.
Cheers,
Chuck
5:14 a.m.
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 01:33, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
?2. Anyone on list have any experience with MAX 7032A
Altera CPLDs? ? ? I'm
working on a VIC-20 MIDI interface for a friend in Toronto,
? ? and I'd love to use a small CPLD to make it more cost effective to
? ? produce the MIDI cart. ?I've found TQFP 7032A units for
? ? $.31/piece, but I've never done CPLD. ?I want to learn, and
? ? thought if I at least knew someone could help me though the first
? ? few bits (and help with the programming cable, etc., it'd be much
? ? easier.
I'm currently teaching myself VHDL using the free Xilinx tools ("ISE
Webpac" or something), using a Spartan3E board and parallel JTAG cable
that was given away at an academic trade show. I think the parallel
JTAG cable can be rebuilt very cheaply; it's just a few level
shifters. Xilinx has a schematic in the JTAG programmer guide.
Universities can be good sources of older FPGA/CPLD development tools
too; about 2 or 3 years ago, McGill (where I am) tossed out nice
Altera boards, and I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing one.
I'm planning to use the Xilinx chips with my old Commodore stuff too,
and one of the problems is the use of 3.3V rather than 5V logic. The
official recommendation from Xilinx for their Spartan devices is to
use simple resistor for connecting 5V out to 3.3V in, and just connect
straight-through for 3.3V out to 5V in. I have no idea how I'd handle
a bidirectional port though; is a resistor good enough or is a level
shifter needed?
Or I could try to find programmable 5V parts instead...
What have you been doing on your replacement ROM parts? (though I
guess on a rom all pins are strictly unidirectional :-)
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem
8:44 a.m.
Joachim Thiemann wrote:
What have you been doing on your replacement ROM parts? (though I
guess on a rom all pins are strictly unidirectional :-)
I found a huge lot of 5V 128kB FLASH parts, so I did not have to deal
with the issue. The MAX 7032A design is 5V tolerant, so I'm still OK there.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
10:20 a.m.
Joachim Thiemann wrote:
I'm currently teaching myself VHDL using the free
Xilinx tools ("ISE
Webpac" or something), using a Spartan3E board
Which one? I've got the Digilent Spartan 3E starter kit. Nice because
it has built-in programmer, ethernet, vga, lcd, etc etc.
I'm in a similar boat and trying to learn Verilog.
I'm planning to use the Xilinx chips with my old
Commodore stuff too,
and one of the problems is the use of 3.3V rather than 5V logic.
Right. This is one place where the straight Spartan-3 is nice because
it was 5v. The Spartan-3 aren't as big, so they aren't as flexible etc.
official recommendation from Xilinx for their Spartan
devices is to
use simple resistor for connecting 5V out to 3.3V in, and just connect
straight-through for 3.3V out to 5V in.
Yes, the value that comes to mind for doing this was 220 ohms. Xilinx
makes boards that are designed to connect to 5v logic, in that case,
they simply put resistors in line on the board itself.
I have no idea how I'd handle
a bidirectional port though; is a resistor good enough or is a level
shifter needed?
That's my (limited) understanding -- that you need a level shifter.
I was nearby McGill University in Montreal a few years back. Stayed at
the Ritz Carlton on Sherbrooke West. Grabbed breakfast at Tim Horton's
now and again.
Greetings from another FPGA newbie.
Keith
11:44 a.m.
On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 13:20, Keith M <keithvz at verizon.net> wrote:
Which one? I've got the Digilent Spartan 3E
starter kit. ?Nice because it
has built-in programmer, ethernet, vga, lcd, etc etc.
I have the Spartan-3E Sample Pack. Spartan indeed: it's a XC3E100E
chip, 8M of parallel flash (configuration and user storage) 7 LEDs and
one pushbutton. A lot of the IO pins are brought out to header pins.
These were given away much like dealers giving away the first free hit
- it worked :-)
I'm in a similar boat and trying to learn Verilog.
I'm still not sure which one is "better" (knowing full well that the
answer will depend on application, personal preference, employer
preference, etc, etc...) but I've decided to go with VHDL since a lot
of the "big" projects available on the net seem to use it. I am
currently implementing a simple computer using the T65 core; without
any practical application goals other than running into problem and
fixing them :-)
Eventually I'm thinking I could make a small single-chip CP/M computer
using just a XC3S250 FPGA, the T80 soft core, and a SD card for
storage; serial I/O instead of adding video and kbd drivers. (T80
seems to be too complex for the 100k gate chip, and it only has 4kb of
BRAM anyways. The 250 comes with 24kb of ram, enough for CP/M.)
[...3.3 to 5V...]
That's my (limited) understanding -- that you need
a level shifter.
I do want to try hooking up some old DRAM to the S3E, I'll try it with
just resistors. If it works, I'll be very happy - if not it'll be a
learning experience :-)
Joe.
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem
12:30 p.m.
Joachim Thiemann wrote:
The minimig (amiga in FPGA) I was interested in studying and learning
about was written in verilog, hence the driving force for me for
verilog. Besides, looking at the syntax, verilog seems closer to C than
VHDL. And I've got a fair bit of C familiarity, so.....
I'm in a
similar boat and trying to learn Verilog.
I'm still not sure which one is "better" (knowing full well that the
answer will depend on application, personal preference, employer
preference, etc, etc...) but I've decided to go with VHDL since a lot
of the "big" projects available on the net seem to use it. I do want to try hooking up some old DRAM to the S3E,
I'll try it with
just resistors. If it works, I'll be very happy - if not it'll be a
learning experience :-)
I've been extremely frustrated with trying to get a WORKING
synthesizable dram controller on the 3E. Despite free controllers @
opencores, and trying to use Memory Interface Generator as part of
CoreGen, it's been impossible.
My board has 64mb of DDR on it.
http://www.xilinx.com/products/devkits/HW-SPAR3E-SK-US-G.htm
I've also played with Microblaze (xilinx's 32-bit soft processor),
Picoblaze (the 8-bit microcontroller), etc. Pretty neat.
Thanks
Keith
10:32 a.m.
On Wed, 25 Nov 2009, Joachim Thiemann wrote:
I'm planning to use the Xilinx chips with my old
Commodore stuff too,
and one of the problems is the use of 3.3V rather than 5V logic. The
official recommendation from Xilinx for their Spartan devices is to
use simple resistor for connecting 5V out to 3.3V in, and just connect
straight-through for 3.3V out to 5V in. I have no idea how I'd handle
a bidirectional port though; is a resistor good enough or is a level
shifter needed?
Resistors are fine for low speed/low drive situations.
A good choice for higher speed/high drive applications is one of the passive
bus switches (made by Pericom etc). They are nice because theres almost no
propagation delay and no direction signals involved (they are bi-directional).
They are basically arrays of NMOS series transistors that just turn off when
the input voltage gets too high (and they lose gate drive)
Peter Wallace
11:15 a.m.
On Nov 25, 2009, at 1:32 PM, Peter C. Wallace wrote:
I use a nice little MOSFET trick to bridge I2C buses
(bidirectional open-drain lines with pull-up resistors) of different
operating voltages. It works very well. I'll have to look at the
circuit again to see if it'd be useful for something with full totem
pole outputs. I can draw it up and share if anyone needs it.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I'm
planning to use the Xilinx chips with my old Commodore stuff too,
and one of the problems is the use of 3.3V rather than 5V logic. The
official recommendation from Xilinx for their Spartan devices is to
use simple resistor for connecting 5V out to 3.3V in, and just
connect
straight-through for 3.3V out to 5V in. I have no idea how I'd
handle
a bidirectional port though; is a resistor good enough or is a level
shifter needed?
Resistors are fine for low speed/low drive situations.
A good choice for higher speed/high drive applications is one of
the passive bus switches (made by Pericom etc). They are nice
because theres almost no propagation delay and no direction signals
involved (they are bi-directional). They are basically arrays of
NMOS series transistors that just turn off when the input voltage
gets too high (and they lose gate drive)
6:57 a.m.
I ran a batch of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have
created a small FLASH
replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs. Some of those might be of
use on other 80's era machines.
I think that those would be quite valuable, especially if you decide to
create variants that allow a similar drop-in replacement for older EPROM
parts.
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!
8:40 a.m.
Gene Buckle wrote:
What EPROMs are you looking to emulate? I'm game to design some
more
layouts.
Jim
I ran a batch
of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have created a small
FLASH replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs. Some of
those might be of use on other 80's era machines.
I think that those would be quite valuable, especially if you decide
to create variants that allow a similar drop-in replacement for older
EPROM parts.
8:55 a.m.
On Wed, 25 Nov 2009, Jim Brain wrote:
Gene Buckle wrote:
What EPROMs are you looking to emulate? I'm game to design some more
layouts.
I don't have anything off hand, but others may. (2716, etc?)
g.
--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!
I ran a
batch of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have created a small FLASH
replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs. Some of those might be
of use on other 80's era machines.
I think that those would be quite valuable, especially if you decide to
create variants that allow a similar drop-in replacement for older EPROM
parts.
9:06 a.m.
On Nov 25, 2009, at 11:55 AM, Gene Buckle wrote:
What EPROMs are you looking to emulate?
I'm game to design some
more layouts.
I don't have anything off hand, but others may. (2716, etc?)
Why would someone want to emulate a 2716? They're easy to find
and easy to program.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
I ran a batch
of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have created a
small FLASH replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs.
Some of those might be of use on other 80's era machines.
I think that those
would be quite valuable, especially if you
decide to create variants that allow a similar drop-in
replacement for older EPROM parts. 
9:15 a.m.
Forgot to ask, do you want the MMU board too?
TTFN - Guy
On Nov 25, 2009, at 9:06 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On Nov 25, 2009, at 11:55 AM, Gene Buckle wrote:
I don't have anything off hand, but others may. (2716, etc?)
Why would someone want to emulate a 2716? They're easy to find and
easy to program.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
> I ran a batch of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have
created a
> small FLASH replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs.
> Some of those might be of use on other 80's era machines.
I think that those would be quite valuable, especially if you
decide to create variants that allow a similar drop-in
replacement for older EPROM parts.
What EPROMs are you looking to emulate?
I'm game to design some
more layouts.
9:20 a.m.
Oops! Replied to wrong message!
TTFN - Guy
On Nov 25, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Guy Sotomayor wrote:
Forgot to ask, do you want the MMU board too?
TTFN - Guy
On Nov 25, 2009, at 9:06 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On Nov 25, 2009, at 11:55 AM, Gene Buckle wrote:
Why would someone want to emulate a 2716? They're easy to find and
easy to program.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
>> I
ran a batch of MOS 6540 adapter PCBs, and I have created a
>> small FLASH replacement for the 2364 and 23128/23256 DIP ROMs.
>> Some of those might be of use on other 80's era machines.
> I think that those would be quite valuable, especially if you
> decide to create variants that allow a similar drop-in
> replacement for older EPROM parts.
What EPROMs are you looking to emulate? I'm game to design some
more layouts.
I don't have anything off hand, but others may. (2716, etc?) 
1:36 p.m.
1. I have a need for a DE9 female connector without the metal
housing, something like
(http://www.robotshop.ca/Images/small/en/parallax-basic-stamp-1-serial-adapt…).
I need quite a few of them, so I'd rather not buy DE-9s and rip
off the shielded housing manually. Anyone have ideas?
A problem with removing the matal housing is that often the insulator is
in 2 parts with the contacts held between them. Remove the metal, and it
all falls apart. I did once cut down the metal on a DE9 socket and solder
the bits togther to hold the insualtor/.contacts in place, but it was
a right kludge.
Last time I needed such connectors, they were to fit the joystick ports
on a Vectrex. At the time (this was some 15 years ago) there was a common
video game console that used DE9 sockets for the joysticks (Sega
Megadrive?). I rememebr buying extension cables from the local games
shop, cutting off theplug and and slightly trimming the edges of the
socket to fit the Vectrex. This cables had all 9 pins wired, I seem to
rememebr there was a similar cable that missed out at least one pin :-(
4. Anyone have a source for 28AWG 2 conductor
twisted wire?
5. If so, do they make it in 3 conductor?
When i needed twisted-pair wire-wrap wire (for modifying a DEC backplane)
I made it myself. Put a couple of reels of wire on a rod clamped in the
bench vice, then put the ends of the wire in the chuck of a wheelbrace
type of hand drill. Got a friend to apply a little backtenstion to the
reels and then walked across the workshop. When I had a suitable lengthm
I stated winding the handle. Didn't take long to get 3 twists per inch
(which is roughyl what yuou need for 100 ohm characteristic impedance).
I see no reason why that woudn't work for 3 wires too.
-tony
5511
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5511
days old
18 comments
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ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
brain＠jbrain.com -
cclist＠sydex.com -
geneb＠deltasoft.com -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
joachim.thiemann＠gmail.com -
keithvz＠verizon.net -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pcw＠mesanet.com