Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Hi all,
I want to share this small HW project - Oric extender which I've created recently:
It includes full buffering for address bus, data bus, proper connection for all control signals and a configurable address decoder for the range $300...$3FF in 'slices' of 16 bytes.
Its primary goal is to provide the basis for any hardware project which targets Oric expansion in a stable way - minimizing the number of lose connections with 'dupont' wires.
For those who are really interested in Oric hardware development I have 5-6 spare PCB's which I can share for free, of course schematics and some basic description will be provided too.
I hope to demonstrate the extender in real action soon .
I want to share this small HW project - Oric extender which I've created recently:
It includes full buffering for address bus, data bus, proper connection for all control signals and a configurable address decoder for the range $300...$3FF in 'slices' of 16 bytes.
Its primary goal is to provide the basis for any hardware project which targets Oric expansion in a stable way - minimizing the number of lose connections with 'dupont' wires.
For those who are really interested in Oric hardware development I have 5-6 spare PCB's which I can share for free, of course schematics and some basic description will be provided too.
I hope to demonstrate the extender in real action soon .
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Waou !! That's so creative !!
It's a kind of electronic sand box for extension board designing and testing.
What a good idea !
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Cool, so basically using this as a reference design, it's possible to make cards that can use address spaces that don't overlap on each other and can then run alongside properly?
- ibisum
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Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
If I didn't have a Twilighte boardset, I'd be all over this .. compatible?
EDIT: Looks awesome, btw.
EDIT: Looks awesome, btw.
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Hmmm, yes, but I didn't even thought about such possibility .
For sure there should be added one more 34-pin connector to allow chain-connection of more cards.
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Ok, rhetOrical question: Using the same technology, could you make a board with say, 4 connectors, each with a DIP switch block to select the range like you did on that board, so we could connect existing incompatible Oric hardware at the same time, like:
- Microdisc
- Technimusic Speech Synthesiser
- RS232/Serial interface
- Midi interface
?
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Yes, it's not only possible but also doable .
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
I woud love to have one of this marvel.
Does it come with rippon cable and connector to the Oric extension port ?
Does it come with rippon cable and connector to the Oric extension port ?
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
This looks like a good experimenters board and one I would like to have.
I'd happily pay for 1 of the pcbs.
3 questions.
Does it get power from the Oric expansion port, or use an external supply?
The (what looks like) an arduino, could I use something different in its place such as an ESP32. I would need to make a little converter oard to match the pins like for like.
Is there printer port access on there too or just limited to the expansion port. Printer port would be nice as it gives access to the VIA.
No matter what the answer to the questions, still a very useful piece of kit to make life easier.
1 last very quick question. I'm guessing it would be possible to program a eeprom say , connect it to the board and have it become the oric rom without opening it up? If this is true I definately want one
I'd happily pay for 1 of the pcbs.
3 questions.
Does it get power from the Oric expansion port, or use an external supply?
The (what looks like) an arduino, could I use something different in its place such as an ESP32. I would need to make a little converter oard to match the pins like for like.
Is there printer port access on there too or just limited to the expansion port. Printer port would be nice as it gives access to the VIA.
No matter what the answer to the questions, still a very useful piece of kit to make life easier.
1 last very quick question. I'm guessing it would be possible to program a eeprom say , connect it to the board and have it become the oric rom without opening it up? If this is true I definately want one
Amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic.
- ibisum
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Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
I only hope this doesn't supplant the Twilighte/orix efforts. I mean, actually, maybe it will - I could see orix being put to effective use here as well: joining two Oric's together to make a multi-CPU Oric?
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
I don't think it will, I see it more as a develpment tool to test new hardware etc., before coming up with a final design. Will save a lot of messing around with breadboards and wires and such.
Thats how I see it anyway, and becasue a lot of these hardware projects are done for pleasure rather than for commercial success, I doubt development of any particular thing would stop.
Amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic.
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Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Interesting, although I'm not sure the form factor would fit with what I had in mind for extensions… which way is the expansion connector wired? ie. where would the power jack be related to the board?
I guess it's not that important since it's for prototyping.
I guess it's not that important since it's for prototyping.
Hmm you mean, like remapping the address of those? You could probably AND I/O with the selected range and send this to each card, but then you'd have to remap the address bits you send to the device as well, and of course patch the software because ORIC software usually hardcodes these since there weren't any autodetection mechanism…Dbug wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2020 6:34 am Ok, rhetOrical question: Using the same technology, could you make a board with say, 4 connectors, each with a DIP switch block to select the range like you did on that board, so we could connect existing incompatible Oric hardware at the same time, like:
- Microdisc
- Technimusic Speech Synthesiser
- RS232/Serial interface
- Midi interface
?
-
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Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
By the way, do we have a registry of I/O ports around to know which hardware use which? Some file in the svn repo (CSV?) that could be parsed to generate some wiki table maybe?
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
Some pics:
The form factor is 96mm x 96mm and the only reason for this is the price - the most of PCB producers have a limit for very cheap pcbs 100mm x 100mm - with every mm more the price jumps. I've made this extender exactly for prototyping and only for myself, but because it's actually useful and I have more pieces than I need I decided to share them.
Else, what you see on the second picture is working prototype with so many possibilities that I had to put the project on hold just to enumerate what can be done with it
Re: Oric extender - a basis for DIY projects and experiments
There's an attempt at Seilebost's site (scroll down)
http://passionoric.free.fr/eng/oric.htm
It's already a nice effort, but yeah something more up to date would be cool with all the new hardware around