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System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - CheshireNoir - 12-11-2022
So I've been looking at the schematics for the System 80 X-4010 expansion unit, in the vague thought of putting it into KiCAD, with a long term "goal" of being able to produce a replica. (Hey, a guy can dream, right?)
Looking through the design, I don't see any ROMs to enable any sort of booting. Am I missing something?
I mean, it may do something "clever" and not need a ROM...
Mostly just curious. I plan to encode a page every few days until either I get it all in there or, more likely, I get fed up with the whole thing and move it to the great "back-burner" in the sky.
John
RE: System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - ChickenMan - 12-11-2022
No rom needed, the System 80 ROMs check to see if an Expansion box is connected and if a disk is in the drive, it will boot it. Its recommended you turn on the monitor first, then disk drives, then Expansion box and finally the System 80. If I do that on my System 80, I get a screen full of garbage, so I turn on the System 80 (which turns on my Gotek also) before the Expansion box. Hit reset and it boots whatever the Gotek is set at.
RE: System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - RedskullDC - 12-11-2022
(12-11-2022, 05:27 PM)CheshireNoir Wrote: .... I don't see any ROMs to enable any sort of booting. Am I missing something?
I mean, it may do something "clever" and not need a ROM...
Hi John,
Code to boot the floppy drive is already in the Level 2 BASIC roms in the main unit.
Looks for a disk controller at $37EC, if found it loads Track 0, Sector 0 to $4200 and jumps there.
(Don't have tech docs with me, but I'm reasonably sure that those are the correct addresses).
If no controller found, just jumps to the LV2 BASIC "READY>" prompt.
Cheers,
Leslie
RE: System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - CheshireNoir - 13-11-2022
Thanks Leslie and ChickenMan
Ah some nice forward thinking there in the design.
Good to know :-)
John
RE: System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - IBM Portable PC - 12-06-2024
How is this project progressing?
As a suggestion, TRS-80 pinout 40 and 50 pin expansion headers would be a great addition to the device.
An S-100 card with the headers would perhaps be the best way to achieve this?
RE: System 80 X-4010 Expansion System - CheshireNoir - 13-06-2024
Well, I ended up taking a detour and never got much further. Instead I got a TRS-80. I have done a remake of a board to allow the System 80 to use the Expansion Interface, but it's sitting in my queue, waiting for me to order it.
I haven't worked on Retro stuff for a while, and I need to learn how all the TRS-80 stuff works before I go any further with anything related to it. Life keeps getting in the way.
John