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Thanks, Bill!

So the Z8 is *not* the Z80... and is there *any* compatibility??? This new group setup is something I wanted to try... and no one seems to be posting. So yes, I can look all this up... but I just expect the short answer Charles Richmond -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

I recently updated the Z80 Membership Card CPU card to rev.B, and the Front Panel card to rev.D. No big changes; but here are the improvements: CPU rev.B The 5v regulator U8 has been flipped upside down, so its metal tab faces up (away from the board) instead of down (against the board). This improves its ability to dissipate heat if you're running with an unregulated 6-9vdc supply. I added a 6-pin power/serial connector P4. Its pinouts are the same as P4 on on the Front Panel, so a Sparkfun 5v USB-serial cable #9718 plugs right in. This connector is located in the same place as U8; so install one or the other (not both). If you are getting 5v power from the USB-serial cable, then you don't need the U8 regulator. P3 was added to jumper the serial input to the Z80 /INT input. This connection was made on the Front Panel; but with the P3 jumper, you can use the CPU board all by itself (no front panel). Use a serial terminal to talk to the monitor or run BASIC or other programs. Options were added to jumper bus P2 pin 28 to HALT or /BUSAK, and bus P2 pin 29 to /NMI or BUSRQ. This provides access to these pins if needed for your own accessory cards. Front Panel rev.D I replaced the hard-to-find LED-photoresistor coupler with a standard LED-phototransistor coupler. This required a new pulllup resistor, R2D. The optocouplers I bought seem to have a little too much gain. Some users have found that they can still hear the piezo when it should be off. My hearing isn't good enought to tell! If you hear it, try a lower value pullup for R2D, or replace the optocoupler with a lower-gain part. Forward into the past, Lee Hart -- There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's very serious, and interferes completely with your work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them! (Richard Feynman) -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

Hi, I've been going over some bugs that Bob Kircher has been encountering. There are 4 bugs identified 1. Some sort of Buffer problem (I need to dig into much earlier emails to recall this problem) No action has been taken. 2. CP/M XModem not working. This is the XModem that is on the DISK-A image. It's Martin Eberhard's XModem, very nicely written and configurable. It will need the correct XModem.cfg file with the following /X2 ;use custom port defined here/Z2 ;2 MHz CPU /E ;RDR port returns with Z set when no chr waiting /MDirect I/O is configured for Z80MC ACE Port /P CD C8 01 01 20 ;Port A /Q 3. CP/M Programs that use the alternate register set will not work. This is because the ISR that runs for the bit banged serial and the Front Panel Timer / LED driver is using the alternate register set. This was done to improve response time to the point where serial data can be reliably received. While the ISR mainly (solely) uses the A and HL registers, there are other things that make it complicated, namely the bank switching as you never know if the CPU is running from ROM or RAM at the time of an ISR. A possible fix for #3 is to turn off the interrupts. This of course can be done by simply running the SIO and CPU cards without the FP board (the firmware will never receive an interrupt). Another (less attractive) fix is to re-code the program to not use alternate registers (but this is more complex, needs source code and hopefully it isn't constrained by the quick timing possible when using alternate registers). 4. DDT debugger is not working. This is a bug related to #3, because if you run CP/M without the FP board, this program also works. Some how related, this is also a bug on the new ALTAID 8800, and it's also resolved by turning off Timer Interrupts. But not a bug on the JAIR system (which doesn't use any interrupts). This will be a more tricky bug to solve. The ALTAID runs on an 8080, so it does not have any Alternate Register set, but some how the changing RAM (scan lines) is affecting DDT. Perhaps DDT is using High RAM for scratch? Comments / questions by Bob: a. So running CP/M without the front panel is certainly an option. b. I'm sure Lee's not thrilled about it though; that front panel is a nifty piece of work. c. Admittedly though it's far more useful running programs with the monitor and only limited usefulness with CP/M. d. Would increasing the interval between timer interrupts help? Would it even be practical? e. Ideally we should be able to run anything under CP/M with the front panel attached. I agree, getting the FP running seamlessly with CP/M is a worthy goal. Timer interrupt interval is fixed by hardware and corresponds with the LED display scanning. Regards, Josh Bensadon

Bob Kircher wrote in, "If I were to write a program to run on the Z80MC in high memory (not under CPM) what is the preferred way to return to the monitor? I had been using JP 0042H ( JP VMAIN_MENU ) but I recently discovered I can not change any registers after I get back to the monitor. I can also return by jumping to location zero but I'd better be quick about hitting the M key else I accidentally boot CP/M." Great question, worth posting to the forum. I'm not 100% sure what I wrote and debugged but having a quick look at the source code it appears only execution to 0000 will save the registers. As such, when executing the G command, the monitor places 0000 on stack as the return address. So your code needs to only RET to get back to the monitor. LD HL,0 ;10 Set Default return address as 0000 (Restart/Save Registers) PUSH HL ;11 & Put on stack Now, it should know/resolve the restart type and not prompt you to press M for monitor... but I'm not sure if that works... certainly won't be the only bug in the system. If you really want, you can fake the M key by entering it into the buffer yourself before returning to 0000. Here's a snipit of the code that saves the bit banged character to the buffer. IRXD_SAVE LD A,H ;4 ;Fetch received byte LD HL,(RXBHEAD) ;16 ;Advance Head Ptr of RX Buffer, Head = Head + 1 INC L ;4 LD (RXBHEAD),HL ;16 LD (HL),A ;7 ;Save Received byte into RX Buffer Actually, instead of faking the M key, you can set the SOFT_RST_FLAG value (I think the firmware might already be doing this.. but I cant' figure out where). When the firmware boots up, it runs code to check this flag as follows. If you set this flag to 0xD1 (single step return), it should return to the monitor and automatically dump the registers. ;Determine why the CPU is executing A RESET. ; -Power on (RAM signature will be wrong) ; -F-0 Reset Switch (one of the switches will still be pressed) ; -RST 0 (look for C7 at previous location given by stack) ; -External /RESET OR User program branches to 0000 ; ;RC_TYPE ;0 COLD RESET (NO RAM SIGNATURE) ;1 F-E Soft Reset (SOFT_RST_FLAG = FE) ;2 Single Step (SOFT_RST_FLAG = D1) ;3 <Ctrl>-C (SOFT_RST_FLAG = CC) ;4 HALT (SOFT_RST_FLAG = 76) ;5 F-0 (F or 0 key on FP still down) ;6 RST0 ( M(PC-1) = C7) ;7 HARD RESET (Default if SOFT_RST_FLAG not set) Hopefully the RET should work fine, but if not, it's definitely one of the things I will be addressing in the next version of firmware. Regards, Josh

Hello All: I have Z80MC + SIO card. No FP. If I wish to implement the single-step feature of the ZMC monitor, is it as easy as providing a 1KHz interrupt (derived and thus sync'd with Z80 clock) and changing the "HW_LIST" at memory address 0xFF95 to 0x03 (SIO + FP)? Can I use single-step in the console mode or must I use the FP? Thank you. Peace and blessings.

Hello All: I have the Z80MC w/ SIO (no FP). I know there are some Z80MC specific programs supplied within the DISK-A.BIN image but I see no source code for them. I see no files populating the "Files" section of this group, how does one obtain the source code for: XMODEM modified for Z80MC SIO support SURVEY MON-32K (which does not work on my Z80MC) Peace and blessings.

Hi Charles. This group is centered around the Z80 Membership Card. The Z8MC was just my clumsy abbreviation. I was not aware that there was such a thing as a Z8 till yesterday. I don’t know anything about compatibility. in a few days I’ll rename the group to Z80MC unless someone has a better idea. That will change the email address so I’m going to wait until membership settles down. sorry for the confusion.

I'm going to pull the trigger on changing the group email and name to Z80MC from Z8MC. I'm sending this out before the change and i'll send a confirmation later.

If you get this you are subscribed to the z80 Membership Card User Group mailing list at [email protected]

ajparent1/kb1gmx wrote: > FYI 64180 and Z180 are to most still a z80 and programs at the > application level (CP/M) the same. Yes. Besides the P112, there have in fact been many follow-in enhancements to the Z80 family. The current TI-84 calculators still use them today. > Z180/64180 were z80s aka 8-bitters. 8088 and z8000 and 68000 were bigger > word size and minimally 16-bit. Sort of... 8- vs. 16-bit is a blurry line. It's hard to call the 8088 a 16-bit CPU, except in marketing. At the same clock speed, the Z80 easily out-performed it. The Z180 was even faster, and had a bigger address space as well. > 8088 was Totally program (binary) incompatable. But it was a thing. Yep. Marketing over engineering. Lee -- A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

Richard Cini wrote: > Lee -- I know decidedly unvintage, but you can use an ATMEGA88 as a composite > color video chip... Of course I can. *Any* modern micro can generate video. For that matter, there are many little boards I can buy that do it all for me. Nothing to design, no software to write. But what's the fun in that? :-) I guess it's like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You could just buy the finished picture; no assembly required. But the fun is in the assembly. And for me, the fun is in the design. Not the modern "beat every problem to death with a sledgehammer" approach, but rather the Dr. Dobbs "running light without overbyte" philosophy. So, I set a hard goal for myself, and then see if I can achieve it. How simple can it be and still do the job? For inspiration, I look back on things like the Heathkit H19 terminal (1979), Sinclair ZX80 (1980), and Voja Antonic's Galaksija computers (1982). They all used a Z80 with minimal vintage hardware to produce a terminal with keyboard and video. There are also Don Lancaster's "cheap video" tricks, which mostly centered on the 6502. I have several designs that *almost* fit on an Altoids size card. But none have quite given me that "aha" moment yet. Lee Hart -- "We do these things not because they are easy; but because they are hard." -- President Jack Kennedy, on the Apollo moon mission -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

Paul Bigwood wrote: > There is Lynx of course. This is a linux text based browser that renders > webpages into text like your vcfmw.org page. > > Maybe something like that could be ported to z80 code, if there arent > already some z80 based browsers already? I've never used Lynx. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip! However, I have my doubts. Modern web pages insist on using javascript, CSS, images of text instead of text itself, etc. Then, they depend on a mouse to navigate and click links; no keyboard inputs. VCFMW's own web page depends on them to display what looks like a vintage terminal. I think a Z80 would have a tough time rendering them. My own website <http://www.sunrise-ev.com> doesn't use any javascript, CSS, or images to display text. But, I don't know how to have plain old HTML read or respond to keystrokes. Lee Hart -- A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. -- Antoine de Saint Exupery -- Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com

I've got wierd problem on my Front panel board. All keys work fine and display and LEDs are ok, but the F+E soft reset doesnt do anything. F+0 does a Hard Reset with display showing F-0 01,, after a power up, but after doing something like E 8000 and a few steps up or down ,pressing F+E for a Soft reset does nothing. Pressing F+0 displays Soft 01? Ive checked the board for shorts, and component values ( wondered if one of the R1 10k had gone o/c but cant work out what has gone wrong. Any pointers appreciated. Paul G3WYW

All – Just a fun thing to do with the Z80MC and SIO card. With some great detective work from Josh and a little bit of tinkering, I was able to get the SIO connected to a Hayesmodem 300 and to get an old CP/M program called “MODM221A” running. MODM221A is a derivative of the original MODEM program from Ward Christensen. Using this combination, there are a few things to note. First, you have to boot to the monitor and make sure that console input is the bit-banger only, and then load CP/M manually. There’s probably a way to permanently do this, but it would require modifying the system ROM. Second, since DTR and RTS are used as address bits, the ACE initialization in MODM221 has to disable DTR and RTS (or, if those are needed, then the RAM needs to be reduced to 32K and 5V re-routed to put it in the right place for the 32K RAM). I don’t have a BBS setup, but I do have all the parts for it – a computer with a Digi 8-port serial board and an analog telephone switch. So, that will be my next project. Enjoy. Thanks again Josh for the help. Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32 Get Outlook for iOS

Hello everyone, hope you're having a fine day! I just picked up this kit a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to get the SIO card working. The front panel and CPU card work fine together but if I have the SIO card installed nothing seems to work. I have tried it with and without the front panel card. When I plug the SIO card in the only thing that happens is the LEDs flash a few times then stay on or turn off. Nothing comes out over the terminal connection (assuming the setting are the same as the front panel settings, which work fine). As for troubleshooting, I have checked to make sure there is no solder bridges that are obvious, and I tried to reflow the joints to be sure I didn't mess any up. I reseated the socketed chips and made sure that there was continuity between the pins and the solder joints on the underside of the board. I did replace R6 in a really stupid way because I somehow missed that it was supposed to look like it did. I honestly don't know how I missed that considering all the times I read through trying to figure out where I went wrong. Hopefully I didn't screw it up worse with that. I've swapped the files on the SD card multiple times to make sure I didn't mess that up but I've had no luck with that. And at this point I have exhausted my ability to troubleshoot and I'm hoping someone here can give me a hand in getting this running. I'm sure its going to be something stupidly simple because I always miss the easy stuff. I have some closeups of my boards if anyone wants to see them to make sure its not a stupid mistake: https://imgur.com/a/F8lnKHT Thanks for any help you can give! Morgan

Hi there, I am sourcing the components for the Z80MC, which have brought me to a halt trying to find the pre-biased transistors Q1-Q5 used on the front panel (FJN3303R, FJN4303R) and even their equivalents (NTE2358, NTE2357). The TO92 versions all seem to be out of production... Are there any other equivalents that could be used instead? Glad if anybody could point me in the right direction. Cheers

Good morning all, This is proving to be another hard to find component, so I got a 2MHz one instead. If I understood correctly there's a direct correlation with the terminal baud rate provided by the UART. Would 200KHz make much diference? Cheers