Revealing a new project (non-VCF)

[Tony Duell]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 11:09 PM, Evan Koblentz via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Time to reveal a personal project related to vintage computing and unrelated
> to my role at VCFed.
>
> In the past two years, while getting neck-deep in the historic Lego 9700
> "Technic Control Center" set, I learned that there is a TON of information
> about this set (and about various related sets) -- but most of that
> information is missing from the web or at best scattered.
>
> What these programmable robotic sets all have in common is they're all from
> the 10 years BEFORE the modern Mindstorms series, and they run on vintage
> computers!
>
> I decided a few months ago to make a web site about it. I call the site
> www.mindsbeforethestorm.com. The site is under construction but you can
> visit now and see where it is going.

One thing struck me from looking at your schematic of the Apple ][ interface
card (you know me, always looking at the schematics first...)

That card is essentally a 6522 VIA with port B linked to a 20 pin header. The
BBC micro has a user port which is port B of a 6522 linked to a 20 pin header,
and I've just checked the 'Advanced User Guide' and the connections are
essentially a superset of those on your Apple ][ board (pns 2 and 4 would be
the CB1 and CB2 lines on a BBC).

It is my guess that the BBC micro version of this system used the Lego
interface box, but connected it straight to the user port on the BBC.

-tony