I found some stuff while sorting out some old computer stuff. Way back, when my Amiga was my main computer, i wanted to make my own version. A modular one.
So i started to segmentize the amiga, to put it on several exchangeable cards.
Eurocards are standardized prints 150mm x 100mm, mostly with a DIN41612 connector.
DIN41612
Eurocard example
When you make modules you can change/upgrade/test, you can have a very easy interchangeable system using a backplane like this
So i started planning those modules:
CPU – 68000 but upgradeable to 68030 or alike
Memory – With expansion
Sound
Video
More IO possibilities
Keyboard (see more at the bottom of this page)
I had a nice case which could hold a big backplane, custom powersupply. And a front panel containing drives, leds and knobs. (I know i have more info on this somewhere on my fileserver)
A nice example picture i found on danceswithferrets website
I never finished this project. I used Tech Manuals and print layouts to understand how things where done.
Part of schematic
I started to draw the modules like they where placed on the print on semi transparent (chalk)paper, the kind of paper that was used for electronic and mechanic diagrams.
TOP Part of printBottom part of printBoth on top of eachother
The last days i’ve been selling a lot of my old computers. They have been in my collection for many years, but now its time to part. Time for others to enjoy them.
(Instead of posting which ones are being sold and which i’ve still got on this page i’ll make another post)
I started collecting when i studied computer sciences. It’s a wonder my parents attic wasn’t collapsing. (They let me store many computers on their attic, let me run a mainframe in the house (previous post) and let me have computer-parties (pre-lan) in their home. (They even left, and gave me the space) .. 15+ teens with computers … there was a pingpong table in the livingroom (besides the other tables in the house ) For all computers.
Then i’ve got even more, when living on my own. (At some point about 140. )
A few years later i got rid of uninteresting computers (to my taste at that time) and incomplete ones. Then i filtered-out the non working.
Still leaving with a lot of computers, i kept these for many years.
Now i only want the ones i’ve worked with, or are special to me.
My first computer was a Commodore Vic-20. Friends had the popular C64. So i kept 2 of both. In Junior Technical School i’ve used the BBC Acorn a lot (Funny story below) My then friend Richard had a Atari ST, loads of fun we had with that machine, so i’m keeping a Atari 1040STf. Another friend used a Apple SE, so that one i also keep for now. I’ve been programming a lot on 80×86, the first dos PC’s, i’m still looking for a old machine (Laser XT) which i used way back then. But for now i’ve got a Sinclair PC200. I’ll keep a old Commodore PET 2001, because its cute. Besides having a cute PET, i’ve got a Holborn System. Made in Holland (Enschede), there are only a few left according to some sites: only 200 made! (Holborn means Holland Born) One of the inventors was from Holten, my birthplace. (Polak)
Putting the system together in 2018
At school we kept a list of everyone’s collection.
Soo .. the story about the BBC Acorn.
When i was at school outside study hours, i went to the computer lab. This was one classroom with about 16 BBC Acorns and a master (teacher station). When they saw how enthusiastic i was, i got the key to the classroom. I even got access to the master system. And after a little hacking i’ve gained access to the teachers files. There was a simple network system, i think it was called Econet. The teachers system was the only one with a disk station.
I liked the ‘highres’ line graphics you could make on the machines. (640×256) So i’ve wrote a lot of programs using this mode. I even wrote a program which drew a 3D robotarm on screen using wireframe graphics. At that time my mathematics scores where .. bad. Wasn’t interested i think. But drawing 3D robotic arms are not possible using mathematics, like using sinus, triangulary etcetera. So when my mathematics teacher saw my program, he didn’t believe me. So .. fooling around in the computer lab, i missed start of classes. And later on .. worse .. i almost was not allowed to do my final exams. I was late several times (and one of the first to leave, …. straight from and to the computer lab. )
I’ve got some programs printed on paper, i will use my leftover BBC Acorn (or a emulator) to capture some screen examples.
Sold stuff
UPDATE : Selling a lot, but i’ve bought some others between 2020-2023
SDK-85
Laser Xt/3
80386 DX
Also a “new” 1084 monitor (CRT for a Commodore 64) Now i have to look for a VGA Crt to get old vga-register manipulation programs working.
Still hot outside, and i like coffee. So what about some coffee icecream!
Ingredients:
200ml Milk (whole)
3 spoons coffee
90gr sugar
4 egg yolks
425ml liquid cream
Place a fine meshed strainer over a container. Put the coffee in the seive. Heat the milk (allmost boiling) and pour it over the coffee. Let it cool. Dissolve the sugar in 150ml water. Bring to the boil for a few minutes. Let this also cool for a few minutes. Pour the sugarliquid to the container holding the eggyolks. Add the liquid cream and the coffee-milk solution. Cool in the refrigerator and put into your icecream maker. Thats all.
Icemaker is a Cucina – HR2305
Used this ice maker for many years, a lot of different icecreams we made!
Above is my design for a hex keyboard to enter opcodes in hex using a simple monitor program. i used a 74ls922 which can decode a 4×4 matrix. I’d rather had a 74ls723 which can encode 20 keys.
Nowhere to be found. So i have to think of a new plan.
Now it is configured as follows:
C
D
E
F
8
9
A
B
4
5
6
7
0
1
2
3
When pressing the alternate key
addr (to implement)
run (1/2 implemented)
reset (to implement)
step instruction (to implement)
memory next
memory previous
PCB design for matrix hexboard with place for notes
Meanwhile i’ve ordered new keys (the ones i’ve been using for my photomanager project and wnat to have a setup like this:
?
?
addr
run
reset
C
D
E
F
?
8
9
A
B
step
4
5
6
7
mem next
0
1
2
3
mem prev
When you want to show the status of busses and alike, you can’t use a led and restistor directly on the bus, it will require too much current. So i’ve been using below schematic which uses a darlington array.
Now i can display databus, address bus and i’ve been using this for address decoding logic and hex keyboard.
I’ve implemented a second VIA chip, and ordered components to amplify the SID sound part
I play several instruments, and know a lot of tunes by heart. But for some instruments i’d like to have a music sheet in front of me. When playing new tunes or from my old stash, i need it on paper also. And when i do, I’d like my music nicely printed and in the same style.
So i’ve been using multiple programs and tools to get a result i can live with. I’ve got a huge collection of pipe and folk tunes, but whenever i decide that i’m going to play it more often then i’m going to re-create the music sheet. The musicsheet will be printed and put in a folder. But also as PDF wil be placed in my calibre server, with i use to provide my tablets and phones with a digital version. For automatically generating a PDF musicbook i’ve written some scripts. These PDF’s i can use with my DIY bluetooth page turner.
For my bagpipe tunes i started a long time ago with a dos version of Bagpipe Music Writer. Getting a decent result from your printer was a b*tch. But it was do-able.
Several other programs i’ve tried but few stuck. CelticPipes, Ceol Mor, Bagpipe (French), MusicTex, Lilypond for example. I don’t like to click a symbol and place it on the bars, i like typing .. so i’m a little biased. For midi and printing multi bar/staff music i also used Cakewalk Pro.
I use this mainly for Whistle and skeletal melody lines for Uilleann pipes (no ornaments)
Bagpipe IS possible but hard and ugly.
Multiple voices (harmony) is possible.
Chord names can be places above bars, as well as vocals.
I’ve made scripts with headers and footers to get the same output result.
Creating the music is typing the notes and ornaments in a text file.
Little chords for guitar mandoline are also possible.
# Edit/createing a abc music file
vi musicpiece.abc ; edit with plain editor
abcm2ps musicpiece.abc ; convert to ps
ps2pdf14 Out.ps musicpiece.pdf ; ps convert to pdf
Also EasyABC i use occasionally
Bagpipe music:
I still use Bagpipe Music Writer, but the free Player, which is a full version also. (Long story) Using wine on linux it is usable.
In the past i made a virtual machine which could be controlled by a web form and some CGI scripts. I could paste a “bmw” score in a webform which would be send to the virtual machine, a BMW program would be started, printed the tune as a PDF that was send to the website again.
For a long time i also had a abc music to PDF convertor on my website.
I like the way of writing the tunes .. just type abbreviations of ornaments to print. When you know these you are faster than using a mouse!
There is no way to write harmonies. In the past i’ve been using a pdf editor to merge music bars and align those by hand. I’ve stopped doing that. I just print 2 versions. Sometimes i use MuseScore for harmonies and multiinstrumental sheets
Mhairi Bhan Og with multiple other midi instruments (a test composition I did in 2024)
I’ve used a lot of programming languages, and besides that a few scripting languages.
Scripting is used to automate stuff, but probably use other tools under the hood. A programming language can probably do this by itself. Most of the time a programming language needs compiling into a executable form. Whereas a script is directly intepreted at runtime.
I’m not good at programming, but i understand the syntax and can read most of it. My programming is mostly by example/copy-paste. Below a list of programming languages and a table below that some scripting languages.
Sooo .. what do i like, still use and why?
Bash is my swiss army knife. Making Web stuff? – PHP Iot – C and Javascript Advanced programming/Longer programs or Machine Learning – Python
And because of recent projects … i have to mention 6502 machinecode!
Programming languages i’ve used
Basic
The first programming language i learned. There are many dialects for many different systems.
Pascal
I learned to program in school. Generic pascal and later Turbo Pascal
PLM/86
This is relatively unknown programming language. Written for intel processors. It used a lot of ms-dos subroutines. Like dsso which stands for dos-standard-string-out. dsso(@(‘Print this text’,eos)); And called a dos routine like below (assembly example) mov dx,(messageaddress) mov ah,09h int 21h
Assembly
Started with 6502 assemby on my little home computer (a vic-20). After that i learned to program 8085 assembly in school. Also learned a little Z80 programming. When i got a amiga i started with 68000 assembly. And getting the hang of it, some friends and me started programming 80×86.
C
For a project I needed C programming to control a parallel port, for example for my controllable webcam. Also recently the microcontrollers like the Arduino’s are programmed in C/C++
Perl
Perl was also a interesting language, i bought myself a book and started with the examples. One of my friends was a Perl wizard, but i could never get the hang of it. Even with his help.
Tcl/TK
TCL stands for Tool Command Language, i used the TK extension. So Tcl/TK i used for creating GUI tools in linux. But like what i later used zenity and yad, i think these are more scripting languages.
PHP
PHP i used extensively, one of my first big projects was a tunesearch engine with a mysql database.
Python
The last years i’ve been using python more and more. Python has become the de facto standard for IT.
Haskell
Well .. it is a programming language but i only use it to configure my Xmonad desktop.
Javascript
I’ve made a lot of webbased nonsence. PHP/CGI scripts/flash but i also used javascript. Now i’m primarily using javascript for NodeRed
Scripting languages i’ve used
bat
Dos batch files is a kind of scripting language
Ksh
Korn Shell, i did a workshop ksh because i was a AIX admin. Didn’t use this much, because you could install the linux toolkit, and could use bash after that.
Bash
I write a lot of things in bash, this is my preferred tool for fast and easy automation. When it’s web based i use PHP
Lua
I had to write some plugins for my Flightsim Setup
What about Sql, Dbase, Sed, Puredata and blocky those are all on the Programming Lanuages page of Wikipedia??? Well those i find more of a application markup language. Then you can say abc-music and bmw (bagpipe music writer) are languages also!??
Some call Ansible a programming language, but this is incorrect. It is driven by python scripts and yaml config files.
Below some code part examples of different CPU assembly code
#6502
PUSH CX
PUSH DI
PUSH SI
MOV AX,cry
MOV BX,(2*40)
MUL BX
MOV DI,AX
ADD DI,(2*31)
MOV SI,adr1
SUB SI,8
MOV CX,8
Z80
LD H,00H
LD B,01H
LD A,(IX+00)
OUT (01H),A
LD A,(IY+00)
OUT (02H),A
DJNZ LUS3
LD B,01H
LD A,(IX+07)
OUT (01H),A
LD A,(IY+07)
OUT (02H),A
#8085
LDA 2050
MOV H, A
LDA 2051
ADD H
MOV L, A
MVI A 00
ADC A
MOV H, A
SHLD 3050
HLT
#68000
bsr send
bsr delay2
move.w #$38,d0
bsr send
bsr delay2
move.w #$38,d0
bsr send
bsr delay2
move.w #$01,d0
bsr send
bsr delay2
move.w #$0c,d0
bsr send
move.w #$06,d0
bsr send
rts
#80x68
mov bx,split
and bx,1111111111b
mov dx,3d4h
mov al,18h
mov ah,bl
out dx,ax
mov bl,bh
xor bh,bh
shl bx,1
mov bx,[bx+offset ormsk]
mov al,9
out dx,al
inc dx
in al,dx
and al,10111111b
For assembly i use or used below: vasm – vasm is a portable and retargetable assembler – which can be used for a lot of different CPUs masm – a assembler for 80×86, i used this for programming on DOS machines. Also for little projects i used the alway available debug executable. seka/masterseka – programming 68000 on my amiga
Above is my Kicad design (reverse engineering print below, which was made for my 6802CPU, which i could use to test the 6822 PIA) The 6822 is simular to 6502 in design. So i’m going to redo this for my 6502. The 7 segment displays are a start of hex-keyboard/display combo i’m going to post more of in the next days.
Below a part of the rom for the LCD dual line display.
Part of the ROM assembly code, top part is text (o.a. japanese)
Started to write routines which i can call to manipulate the display. Setting the pointer to a message, setting the line to use and a subset of controlls like: Center, Right, binary to ascii, scrolling, etcetera
lda #0 ; set line number
sta lineno ; store
jsr gotoline ; goto line in display
lda #<message ; get address from message and store for printline subroutine
sta messagestore
lda #>message
sta messagestore+1
jsr printline ; print
lda #1 ; set line number
sta lineno ; store
jsr gotoline
lda #<message2
sta messagestore
lda #>message2
sta messagestore+1
jsr printline
Above additions: New address decoder Below left the new graphical display, below right a test board which shows address lines and decoded chip-enable lines.
A15 high -> ROM A15 && A14 low -> RAM combination of A15 low and A14 high – A13 and A12 wil select peripherals.
Adress decoding
Start of a wirewrapped version
Above is a start of a wirewrapped version, i also started a PCB design in KIcad that will continuously be changed as i alter designs.
UPDATE SID Working! Using new address decoder.
SID = $7000
makesound:
lda #0
sta SID+$5 ; Channel1 - attack/decay
lda #250
sta SID+$6 ; Channel1 - Sustain/Release
lda #$95
sta SID+$0 ; Channel1 - Frequency low-byte
lda #$44
sta SID+$1 ; Channel1 - Frequency high-byte
lda #%00100001
sta SID+$4 ; SAW + Gate
lda #$0f
sta SID+$18 ; Volume max
There was a place i’ve worked, they did something weird with network masks. The cause was probably because of changes in the network, and some things had to be re-routed. When doing routing you use a network mask, this mask is used in tcp/ip routing. When an IP is not in a local network, which boundaries are set by the mask, the protocol will use the gateway to break out of the network.
Example time!
192.168.1.2 – computer IP 192.168.1.0 – network it sees as local 255.255.255.0 – network mask 192.168.1.1 – gateway of example
in binary
11000000.10101000.00000001.00000010 – computer IP 11000000.10101000.00000001.00000000 – network 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 – mask (should be al 1’s until the boundary of the network)
The 1’s in the mask should work as a filter!
What i’ve seen was something like a mask 11111111.1111111.00111111.00000000 ! This gave the network a gap into another network!
This is NOT encouraged, don’t do this. Theoretical and seen in a real live environment .. it CAN work
Another weird one
I was asked to look into a problem at the Johan Cruyff Foundation. Btw I ran into the guy, but I didn’t know who he was, they had to explain. (I ‘m not into football)
Some PC’s sometimes could not connect to the network. Sometimes the printer didn’t work. A colleague of mine looked into it and could not find it.
The order in which powered up the PC’s and printer seems to matter.
From the 7-8 devices only 6 worked.
So I drove to Amsterdam, turned on a pc, and looked at its network settings. It was getting a IP, but it was a PUBLIC one! Looking at another machine, it was also a public one!
The router was locked inside a cabinet, but I knew the famous dutch telecom provider had done something like this! (below)
As it should be (4 ports example)
The organisation had a range of 6 public addresses, thats why not all machines could connect. These windows pc where connected directly to the internet! (Some virusscanning required I think!)
"If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
