I know that a few of you have built your #RC2014 Mini II Picasso. Now that Easter is upon us, how many of you have found the #EasterEgg in it?

Did you even know there is a Easter Egg hidden inside?

A new piece of art has arrived #picasso

@rc2014 #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #z80 #rc2014 #zilog

Hey @rc2014 my RC2014 Mini II Picasso is beautiful! And it booted up correctly first time! (don't know if I was a little disappointed to not be troubleshooting! ;-) )

Now it's time to connect it to other things... the fun awaits! :-)

I have a breadboard 6502 (ala Ben Eater) that's dying to meet it.

When I thought about the #RC2014 Mini II Picasso, art was absolutely central to my design.

No, really it was! Look. Right there in the centre. Art!

https://z80kits.com/shop/rc2014-mini-ii-picasso/

Printing a base for my #RC2014

Overnight I've successfully compiled the sources for the #FUZIX operating system on my #Linux box and this morning, my #SC130 successfully booted into FUZIX ... yay!

https://www.fuzix.org/

#rc2014
#z80

My dual keypad module for the #RC2014.

This takes advantage on the Z80 IN instruction where the value of A is output on the upper 8 address lines. For keypad 1 I load either 1,2,4, or 8 into the A register, then read the value from the defined IO address. This puts a high across the row, and if a button is being pressed the row that button is in will also be high. In this case I am outputting the values of the column and row to the digital IO module to prove it is working.

I have been away for a fantastic few days, but with limited and sporadic access to Mastodon. I think I have caught up with all the #RC2014 posts now, but if there's anything I have missed, or you're still waiting for a reply, please let me know.

+++ SYSOP NEWS +++ SYSOP NEWS +++

As you may remember, RC-BOX BBS - the world's first and (currently) only RC2014 based BBS - has been struggling with connectivity issues.

The good news: I have finally been able to successfully mitigate these.

Some background info: in October last year, I decided to do some maintenance on the system, updating my WiFi modem firmware and replacing the SC132 serial I/O module (using a 6.144 KHz crystal for a fixed 9600 bps) with its cousin, the SC110 serial I/O module which features a CTC chip so it can dynamically set any baud rate.

Turns out that while the module is techincally 100% okay, it sometimes locks up when being used with the BYE.COM program for CP/M.

I think this has to do with BYE.COM setting the CTC to the selected bps during initializiation (which happens after each hangup). For some reason, this often works but occasionally causes the SIO/2 to lock up.

Sometimes, without any reason, BYE.COM would drop into an +++ATH loop although no one was connected, not being able to actually perform the AT command.

It took me weeks to finally realize this, because I was so sure the problem originated from the Zimodem firmware and because the issue only showed up occasionally. It was very annyoing to debug.

So as a result of this finding, I've put the SC132 with the fixed 9600 bps back into the system. Since then, no more of these issues occurred.

As always, you can find all info on how to connect to RC-BOX BBS in my profile info.

P.S.: so now I think the problem originates from the BYE.COM code. But since everything is working properly again, I don't have the desire to dig into the BYE.ASM code any time in the future. There are other projects that I'd like to go on with first.

#rcbox
#bbs
#rc2014
#rc2014bbs
#retrocomputing
#newretro
#z80

I've written up how I got my ZX Printer compatible Alphacom 32 printer working on my #rc2014

https://www.robertprice.co.uk/robblog/using-a-zx-printer-on-an-rc2014/

Anyone having success running #FUZIX on the #RC2014 ?

#RC2014 Emulation for
#MiST and #SiDi #FPGA
available at
https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=44842

I designed an address decoder for the #RC2014 that uses two 7400 ICs instead of a 74138. Reading any I/O port between 0x00-0x7f should return the state of the button in the least significant bit. 74125 /1OE should be low if RC2014 /IORQ and A7 are low and /M1 and /WR are high.

Edit: forgot the 100 nF capacitor.

This kit has the most sculptural soldering I’ve been called on to do!
#RC2014

Tonight’s the night!
#RC2014

Out there, in the worrying world of today is a little #Zilog #Z80 computer with a mere 64KB of #RAM and running the #1970s CP/M operating system.

This little machine is connected to the #intertubes and it's serving a #singleuser #bulletinboardsystem for you, the worrying souls of #yesteryears to visit.

Take a break from today, connect like it's 1985 - here on RC-BOX BBS, the world's first and (currently) only #rc2014 based bulletin board system in the world!

Check out the #alttext or my #profile info for information on how to connect.

#bbs
#rc2014bbs
#rcbox