I have an Atari 1040STFM. These can still be had for reasonable prices and the aftermarket is pretty neat. In fact, you can build your own 030 accelerator for like $100 all told (if you’re handy with a soldering iron!)

cloverskull wrote on 2024-01-12, 07:02:

I have an Atari 1040STFM. These can still be had for reasonable prices and the aftermarket is pretty neat. In fact, you can build your own 030 accelerator for like $100 all told (if you’re handy with a soldering iron!)

I have been building accelerators and peripherals for my A500 for a while now. I was never an ST guy, jumped ship from the 800XL to the A500 back in the day and always looked upon the ST line with scorn, but I am happy to give it a try these days, particularly to see their MIDI capabilities in first person. I hope to find a 520ST or 1040ST locally some day. Who knows. They don't seem to have gone crazy in terms of price like the A1200s..

appiah4 wrote on 2024-01-12, 07:30:

cloverskull wrote on 2024-01-12, 07:02:

I have an Atari 1040STFM. These can still be had for reasonable prices and the aftermarket is pretty neat. In fact, you can build your own 030 accelerator for like $100 all told (if you’re handy with a soldering iron!)

I have been building accelerators and peripherals for my A500 for a while now. I was never an ST guy, jumped ship from the 800XL to the A500 back in the day and always looked upon the ST line with scorn, but I am happy to give it a try these days, particularly to see their MIDI capabilities in first person. I hope to find a 520ST or 1040ST locally some day. Who knows. They don't seem to have gone crazy in terms of price like the A1200s..

Yeah that's true about the Atari ST, they can be had fairly cheaply compared with even the Amiga 500. When I got my STE a couple of years back, I'd budgeted for at least twice the price I ended up paying. I got a 520 STE with a 4160 STE case badge indicating the RAM banks were fully populated to 4MB. Mine was even modded with a dual TOS switch. The demand for the ST seems quite low compared with the Amiga, which is crazy as they are very capable machines.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-01-10, 19:19:

Yay! I think that's cool. The TNCs were (are) intelligent modems. They do have a terminal mode, in which you can interact in Eng […]
Show full quote

Yay! I think that's cool. The TNCs were (are) intelligent modems.
They do have a terminal mode, in which you can interact in English with them.
Those with the original, American TAPR firmware, I mean.
It was used to operate the TNC from within a real glass terminal or home computer+terminal software.

Unfortunately, we Europeans dropped terminal mode in the 90s and began to use Hayes-like abbreviations in our TNC firmware ("The Firmware", TF). *sigh*
The idea was to use a computer optimized communication instead.

Hardware wise, these TNCs are Z80 single board computers. They technically could run CP/M, if enough RAM was installed.
Some even have an memory expansion, to allow for a mailbox (users can store messages in your TNC).

Here's a quick video of my PK-232, to give an idea.
It's a multi-mode model, with its own firmware. It can be replaced TF, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_PNpWEhNc

Interesting is the auto-baud detection.
By typing a star (*), the TNC firmware would try to detect the terminal baudrate.

The same method was used in the days of our X.25 service (Datex-P, by our Federal Postal Agency/later operated by Telekom here).
The local PAD you'd called with your telephone modem or acoustic coupler had an automatic baud rate detection.
It was a dot ("."), followed by pressing the enter key.

Edit: Anyway, I didn't mean to spam this topic. I just meant to say that your chassis is a good choice.
SBCs were actually installed in such chassis in the 8-Bit era.
And in case you need further inspiration, you may want to have a look at some RTTY decoders of the 70s/80s.
They've used panels with switches and lights, too.

That's actually pretty cool! Kinda wish I had one to play with now. 😜

Growing up, my dad and many family friends were hams and used RTTY in the early 80's, I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time! I do miss those days.

I'm always looking for new ideas on where to cram an MBC2, I still have enough parts to build 3 more. 😁

maxtherabbit wrote on 2024-01-11, 01:19:

I have absolutely no interest in the mass produced "home computers" of the 80s, but the 70s homebrew/kit scene has quite a bit of appeal. I could also see myself getting into 80s business class machines like the 8" floppy trs-80 line for example.

Sadly, I have the bug for both. If time, space, and money were no object, I would probably have at least one of each and have my own museum by now. 😜

Since they are not, I stick to modern homebrews, recreations, and emulation for that era. 🙁

Well, I just stated a "custom" version build of another non-x86 project, the PicoMite VGA.

If you're not familiar, the PicoMite VGA is a Raspberry Pi Pico based "computer" that runs a custom open-source version of the BASIC programming language called MMBASIC. It was created for use on MaxiMite computers, all of this being the brainchild of a gentleman named Geoff Graham. Sadly, by the time I discovered the MaxiMite, and that it was something I would have loved to play around with, they were impossible to find and parts to build your own were also unobtanium.

Thankfully, Geoff decided to port MMBASIC over to the Raspberry Pi Pico, making it really easy to create your own simple little BASIC computer, all you had to do was handle all the IO. I built my first one using a PCB designed by LandBoards that you could pick up for about $12. So I ordered all the parts I needed and put it together back in May 2024, just to see if it was something I wanted to play with. I think it turned out quite well.

https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2024/05/p … basic-home.html

Back then I wanted to also build my own version, inspired by the YT channel Explaining Computers, and I'm just now getting around to it. Once I have it all done, I will post it here, but in a nutshell I want this version to look more like an 80's computer and use a traditional 5V power source instead of USB. The only thing I need to figure out yet is what style of case I want it all to go in, the rest I have and will be easy to wire up.

Either way, I wanted to post this just in case anyone might want to mess around with one themselves. You can check it all out over on Geoff's website. It's a really cool and very simple project.

https://geoffg.net/picomitevga.html

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-10, 10:03:

My "biggest" pull was to explore an era I missed out on, the late 70's. I didn't get my first PC until 1981. (TI-99/4A)

If you would like to see many systems from that era (and before), have a look at "Daves Old Computers"
to see most of the systems I had or used at one time. If you would like to experience actually using some
of these, go to "Download Simulators and Emulators" near the bottom of the main page.

There are dozens of emulators, but I'll specifically mention these few, as they
were systems that I actually owned and used a LOT, and I wrote fully functional
and accurate emulators for those exact systems.

1974 MIL Mod-8 (8008)
1975 Mits Altair 8800A (8080)
1976 NorthStar Horizon / Vector 1+ (Z80)
1977 Heathkit H8 (8080)
1983 D6809 (homebuilt 6809 portable)
198? PIMPS (8085 a friends university graduate thesis)

Yes - I wrote these "years ago" and they run under DOS - but they work
very well is DosBox!

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

StriderTR wrote on 2024-01-12, 18:35:

That's actually pretty cool! Kinda wish I had one to play with now. :P […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote on 2024-01-10, 19:19:

Yay! I think that's cool. The TNCs were (are) intelligent modems. They do have a terminal mode, in which you can interact in Eng […]
Show full quote

Yay! I think that's cool. The TNCs were (are) intelligent modems.
They do have a terminal mode, in which you can interact in English with them.
Those with the original, American TAPR firmware, I mean.
It was used to operate the TNC from within a real glass terminal or home computer+terminal software.

Unfortunately, we Europeans dropped terminal mode in the 90s and began to use Hayes-like abbreviations in our TNC firmware ("The Firmware", TF). *sigh*
The idea was to use a computer optimized communication instead.

Hardware wise, these TNCs are Z80 single board computers. They technically could run CP/M, if enough RAM was installed.
Some even have an memory expansion, to allow for a mailbox (users can store messages in your TNC).

Here's a quick video of my PK-232, to give an idea.
It's a multi-mode model, with its own firmware. It can be replaced TF, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_PNpWEhNc

Interesting is the auto-baud detection.
By typing a star (*), the TNC firmware would try to detect the terminal baudrate.

The same method was used in the days of our X.25 service (Datex-P, by our Federal Postal Agency/later operated by Telekom here).
The local PAD you'd called with your telephone modem or acoustic coupler had an automatic baud rate detection.
It was a dot ("."), followed by pressing the enter key.

Edit: Anyway, I didn't mean to spam this topic. I just meant to say that your chassis is a good choice.
SBCs were actually installed in such chassis in the 8-Bit era.
And in case you need further inspiration, you may want to have a look at some RTTY decoders of the 70s/80s.
They've used panels with switches and lights, too.

That's actually pretty cool! Kinda wish I had one to play with now. 😜

Growing up, my dad and many family friends were hams and used RTTY in the early 80's, I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time! I do miss those days.

I'm always looking for new ideas on where to cram an MBC2, I still have enough parts to build 3 more. 😁

Hi there again! Glad to hear! ^^
I just want to say that you can build yourself a little TNC using an Arduino Uno R3. Maybe as a weekend project?
It uses the Mobilinkd firmware and runs in KISS mode.

http://www.mobilinkd.com/2014/09/11/arduino-kiss-tnc/

The tricky part is to set the voltage divider correctly, though the firmware warns you via message on the terminal.

You can use it to play around with to decode APRS at 1200 Baud.
By using websdr site, you can listen to APRS frequencies (say 144,390 MHz) all around globe and feed the audio signal into the TNC.
As a map software/terminal you can use UI-View (Win16 free, Win32 reg.+free) and Xastir (Linux). Both can use KISS TNCs on a serial port (RS232 or USB).

Normal Packet Radio works same, of course.
But it's kinda fun to have the APRS digipeater of the ISS appear on your FM receiver (145,825 MHz) and PC monitor.
The classic STS Plus program on DOS can predict a fly over very well, too, by the way!

There are a few videos I made years ago, maybe they're useful.
Maybe you'll also find some time taking a ham exam, there are licenses like Technician who're aimed at beginners. 🙂👍

Edited.

DaveDDS wrote on 2024-11-23, 22:23:

1975 Mits Altair 8800A (8080)
1983 D6809 (homebuilt 6809 portable)

Looking back at this stuff .. kinda interesting, My D6809 (Homebuild 6809)
has SIM80.EXE (yeah, I used .EXE for an executable .. before I ever saw DOS),
an 8080 emulator I wrote back in the day to be able to run some of the code
I'd written for the Altair .. which I had first.

So for example, running: SIM80 BASIC
Would launch SIM80 which then loaded and ran BASIC.80, a Basic interpreter I'd
written for the Altair in 8080 assembly language.

This means on my modern X86-64 desktop, I'm running BASIC through FOUR levels
of different CPU emulation:

MainPC -> DosBox -> D6809 -> Sim80
x86-64 -> X86-16 -> 6809 -> 8080

Surprisingly, it works so well you can't really tell, and it's just as fast
(or perhaps faster) then it was on the original Altair!

(I guess it's *only* three levels of CPU emulation, the x86-64 is real)

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

My intrest in non-x86 was mostly concentrated on UNIX variants and workstations. I still have a NeXTStation Turbo. Along with entirely too many Sun and SGI machines.
I was concentrating on bringing as many back up as possible. Unfortunately I haven't had the drive to keep going. One of my r5k Indys died from a shorted tantalum on the mainboard, taking a power supply with it.

DaveDDS wrote on 2024-11-23, 22:23:

If you would like to see many systems from that era (and before), have a look at "Daves Old Computers"
to see most of the systems I had or used at one time. If you would like to experience actually using some
of these, go to "Download Simulators and Emulators" near the bottom of the main page.

I love a good "retro" site full of useful information! Thanks for sharing it, it's now added to my "collection" of such sites I use for reference material.

I really wish I had the time and space for a nice collection of actual hardware, but perhaps it's better that I don't, there are simply too many systems I would want. 😀

Jo22 wrote on 2024-01-10, 19:19:

Hi there again! Glad to hear! ^^ I just want to say that you can build yourself a little TNC using an Arduino Uno R3. Maybe as a […]
Show full quote

Hi there again! Glad to hear! ^^
I just want to say that you can build yourself a little TNC using an Arduino Uno R3. Maybe as a weekend project?
It uses the Mobilinkd firmware and runs in KISS mode.

http://www.mobilinkd.com/2014/09/11/arduino-kiss-tnc/

The tricky part is to set the voltage divider correctly, though the firmware warns you via message on the terminal.

You can use it to play around with to decode APRS at 1200 Baud.
By using websdr site, you can listen to APRS frequencies (say 144,390 MHz) all around globe and feed the audio signal into the TNC.
As a map software/terminal you can use UI-View (Win16 free, Win32 reg.+free) and Xastir (Linux). Both can use KISS TNCs on a serial port (RS232 or USB).

Normal Packet Radio works same, of course.
But it's kinda fun to have the APRS digipeater of the ISS appear on your FM receiver (145,825 MHz) and PC monitor.
The classic STS Plus program on DOS can predict a fly over very well, too, by the way!

There are a few videos I made years ago, maybe they're useful.
Maybe you'll also find some time taking a ham exam, there are licenses like Technician who're aimed at beginners. 🙂👍

I have considered doing something like this a few times, and I likely will sometime between now and next summer when camping season begins. I was recently looking into creating a LoRa mesh kit I could take and setup anywhere. for no good reason, except I think it's cool and would compliment my current "off-grid" comms kit.

We already have a nice set of GMRS radios for basic communication without our cells, but I could use a LoRa setup for encrypted text messaging within it's range. My travel kit already also includes a nice little multi-band portable radio for shortwave and weather and an SDR kit I use just for "browsing" the local airwaves.

akimmet wrote on 2024-11-24, 14:35:

My intrest in non-x86 was mostly concentrated on UNIX variants and workstations. I still have a NeXTStation Turbo. Along with entirely too many Sun and SGI machines.
I was concentrating on bringing as many back up as possible. Unfortunately I haven't had the drive to keep going. One of my r5k Indys died from a shorted tantalum on the mainboard, taking a power supply with it.

This is one of the main factors, other than lack of space, in not keeping as much classic real hardware around and running as I would like. The time I would want to invest in it is far beyond what I have available right now. The thing about the "modern homebrew" style systems is once they're built, you don't have to invest much time into maintaining them, and they're considerably cheaper as well.

I used to work with SGI machines back in the 90's when I moonlighted for my small hometown ISP, amazing machines for their time. Good times!

My retro-mania actually started 2 years ago with ZX Spectrum (I dreamed about in my childhood 😀 ) and then I got myself C64 and Amiga1200 just to see what are those (had never seen them before I got them as I was raised on the other side of the "Iron Curtain"). Then I found couple old soviet machines in Slovakia I used to have those in my teen years (BK-0011M) . Now I moved on to PCs. Built 486 dx66 (we bought the similar one back in 1996 with four my friends while were studying in University and living in dormitory.) Now I'm building a Socket-A based machine, the one I bought when I got my first job in Moscow.

But I have a suspicion that this entire collection will have no value as soon as I'm gone from this world. My daughter doesn't understand why I keep all this garbage 😀

Ujeen wrote on 2024-12-01, 04:32:

My retro-mania actually started 2 years ago with ZX Spectrum (I dreamed about in my childhood 😀 ) and then I got myself C64 and Amiga1200 just to see what are those (had never seen them before I got them as I was raised on the other side of the "Iron Curtain"). Then I found couple old soviet machines in Slovakia I used to have those in my teen years (BK-0011M) . Now I moved on to PCs. Built 486 dx66 (we bought the similar one back in 1996 with four my friends while were studying in University and living in dormitory.) Now I'm building a Socket-A based machine, the one I bought when I got my first job in Moscow.

But I have a suspicion that this entire collection will have no value as soon as I'm gone from this world. My daughter doesn't understand why I keep all this garbage 😀

I'm in my mid 40s and, barring a rather unlikely turn of events, my wife an I will never had children. I have friends more or less my age who do have children (mostly teenaged or older).

Of these children
- none seem to have an inclination toward pursuing a career connected to IT or engineering
- none have an interest in computing related hobbies (save for playing video games)
- none have an interest in computing computing (even old video games)

My brother-in-law is a health care professional in his early 30s. He does have an interest in current computer related matters and, tangentially, some older stuff, in addition to video games .

I know that there are others, young and old, who will keep the dream alive (after myself and others are gone). There are probably quite a few, actually (and some are not yet born). However, it would be nice to get to meet some in person before the day when I eventually cease to be and join the bleedin' choir invisible.

darry wrote on 2024-12-01, 05:17:

Of these children - none seem to have an inclination toward pursuing a career connected to IT or engineering - none have an int […]
Show full quote

Of these children
- none seem to have an inclination toward pursuing a career connected to IT or engineering
- none have an interest in computing related hobbies (save for playing video games)
- none have an interest in computing computing (even old video games)

Same here I've never met anyone younger than 30 yet who would be interested in IT related things. It's just not on their radar, just non-romantic boring part of live 😀

To befair, working in IT is nolonger fun. It's stress. The smartphone, software‐as-a-service and web applications have replaced traditional computing on desktop PC, mainframe etc.
Back in the 70s you had CP/M and DIY kits, in the 80s the home computers and BBSes and in the 90s 486 PCs, novell networks and Visual Basic, Delphi etc.
Then the 2000s came around the corner and bloated websites with scripts were everywhere.
Then the iPhone came and killed the desktop internet, apps replaced websites and the remaining websites look like bland WAP/WRML sites, but are taking up 10.000 times the resources.

Edit: Ok, maybe a bit too oversimplified.. But in a nutshell, that's the experience.
Back in the 90s, a carrer in IT or telecommunications seemed still fun.
Write custom applications, install network cables, do the phone wiring/install wall sockets, install fax machines and phones, maintenance printers and copier machines etc.
It felt like a real job, still, like being a plumber or working as an eletrician.
Not something totally detached, mental ill like it's normal now.
Back the day you could still explain your profession to ordinary people in a few simple words using everyday language.

Edit: It's also the demands that have risen, without being willed to give something in return.
Nowadays, large and bloated frameworks are being used in IT.
Be it for web applications, apps or game development (off-the-shelf engines).

Edit: And sonce most recently, in EU, software developers are being made legally liable for bugs in their products.
Maybe even free stuff, if I understand correctly.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-12-01, 05:33:

It's also the demands that have risen, without being willed to give something in return. Nowadays, large and bloated frameworks are being used in IT ...

I think with AI era this is gonna come to the end, which I'm very glad about 😀 Probably programming and software development days are over soon. We will be very nostalgic about those days soon 😀

I've got 4 kids, all adults now, but only one went into IT, and it was for the military, and they dropped it as soon as they got out. None of them have interest beyond playing video games. I think that's a common theme these days. Though in reality, has it really changed all that much from when we were younger? I can recall when I was growing up, just like today, far more people were interested in using technology than learning how it works.

On the non-x86 topic, I've got 4 Z80-MBC2 boards sitting here, and one more uTerm board, so I think I am going to perhaps work on a different style of Z80 CP/M build, I'm just not sure how I want to go about it. A more compact version perhaps? A fully portable version? Or something completely different. It's one of those situations where I have all the parts on hard, but no idea how I want to put it all together.

😜

A very non x86 systems. Guys from Eastern Europe probably remember these Nintendo clones: