RC2014 Pro – Homebrew Z80 Computer Kit Assembly Tips

[Jerry Barnett]

Attached you can find a PDF that I created on some tips I picked up along the way to assembling the RC2014 Pro kit.  I hope it is found to be useful, and welcome any comments and/or suggestions. 

Spencer, I will email you the word document as well so you may include it on your website as you desire.

[Gary Boone]

Hi, Jerry. Thanks for writing up this very helpful guide. One note: I don't believe header alignment method shown in the photo will work as intended. You may want to update the guide, if you agree, so people don't end up with bent headers.

What I found was that only every other header aligns correctly. That is, odd slots or even slots can align, but not both at the same time. The misaligned slot are actually halfway between pins. This can be easily verified by holding a header up against the backside of the board (if already assembled) and checking how the pins align. I have a v1.0 board.

I suppose you could remove some pins from an extra header to create an alignment jig. But I found it simple enough to use the cardboard the kit came in to flip over the board while the headers were loose, then solder them.

--Gary

[Jerry Barnett]

Gary,

  The method for getting the backplane sockets to line up is taken from AstroBob's post HERE.  I personally haven't tried his method but assumed due to the lack of posts against it, that it works.  Anyway, thanks for the feedback.  I am currently troubleshooting my kit because I had it working one day and the next it seemed dead.  

Spencer gave me some additional steps (like verifying if BASIC will boot,) and I think I have a bad RAM chip.  So ESD may be the culprit.  Anyway, once I get done I will be adding his additional steps to my document and reposting.

-- Jerry