Well, how exciting. The first versions of the PCBs for the Zolatron 64 6502-based homebrew computer have arrived, and they are very pretty. Which is just as well… I say that because at least some of these boards will serve no purpose other than as decoration. I’d made some mistakes – one annoying, one stupid but survivable, and one idiotic… Read more »
Well, it had to happen sometime. I finally killed a Raspberry Pi. Not on purpose, of course. I’m not a psycho. (I’ve been tested.). Nope, it was just sheer impatience and stupidity. But we’ll get to that in due course. First, let’s talk about finishing a project that was already finished. Just when you think you’re out… Sometimes you think… Read more »
When a project doesn’t work, there are so many things that could be wrong. Is it the code? A loose wire? A misconfiguration of some kind? Or do you just not know what you’re doing (my favourite)? The uncertainty is exacerbated when you’re using vintage integrated circuits. Old ICs have a habit of going bad. In some cases, this is… Read more »
You can only go so far with a breadboard. Those things are great for quick and dirty prototypes and experimentation. But there comes a point when a breadboard is an unhealthy basis for a project. And yes, I’m aware that many people have followed Ben Eater‘s lead in building 8-bit processors and 6502-based computers on breadboards. I include myself among… Read more »
In an earlier post, I described how I was parsing commands input (via serial) into the Zolatron 64 8-bit homebrew computer in assembly language. That parsing process matched an input command with an internal list and the result was a ‘token’, a single integer value of $80 or more representing that command that is placed in a memory location. Or… Read more »
Okay, so this is going to be a long one. Grab a coffee, settle down and we’ll begin… The last time we talked, I was able to send messages to the Zolatron 64 6502 homebrew computer via its serial port. But all it could do was print those messages to the LCD screen. It’s time to actually do something with… Read more »