New AMPRO Z80/SCSI board

[Norberto Collado]

Now that we have the Z53C8003 SCSI controller, the WD2797 soft sector floppy controller, the AS6C1008 RAM, & the 10MHz Z80, I do not see why I cannot put together an AMPRO Z80 Little Board/Plus. I think it is safe to conclude that we have access to an AMPRO board that supports the SCSI interface along with the PROM’s and the software. Please let me know otherwise. Also I saw the schematics in the Internet for such board.

Thanks,

Norberto :)

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Norberto,

I have an Ampro LB running two 20 Megabyte SCSI drives.  Let me know what I can do to assist you.

Later, -- ken

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[Lee Hart]

On 4/17/2012 5:29 PM, Norberto Collado wrote:
> Now that we have the Z53C8003 SCSI controller, the WD2797 soft sector

> floppy controller, the AS6C1008RAM, & the 10MHz Z80, I do not see why I

> cannot put together an AMPRO Z80 Little Board/Plus. I think it is safe
> to conclude that we have access to an AMPRO board that supports the SCSI

> interface along with the PROM�s and the software. Please let me know

> otherwise. Also I saw the schematics in the Internet for such board.

You know, you could probably design a single board that goes in the H8
with all the Ampro Littleboard features. But would it still be an H8?
Would it run HDOS? :-)

--
An engineer can do for a nickel what any damn fool can do for a dollar.
-- Henry Ford
--
Lee A. Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, leeahart at earthlink.net

[Norby]

Lets plan for fall time frame. What I need from you are the EPROMS and
the PAL to make copies if possible.

Also I'm updating the Z67-IDE controller to take in the Z53C8003 SCSI
controller to make it compatible with the Ampro LB. I have a proto
ready to take in the new code and hopefully it will work. It is using
Pseudo DMA mode transfers to get the best performance. I just want to
boot HDOS when the Z80 is running at 8 MHz. :)

Thanks,

Norberto

[Norby]

Hello Lee,

I was thinking in having the board inside the small ATX enclosure,
small external hard drive enclosure or the H19 terminal. All the parts
are available to create a small board. This could be a Fall/Winter
project.

Norberto

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Norberto,

That's doable!

Later, -- ken

[Lee Hart]

On 4/18/2012 12:31 AM, Norby wrote:
> I was thinking in having the board inside the small ATX enclosure,
> small external hard drive enclosure or the H19 terminal. All the parts
> are available to create a small board. This could be a Fall/Winter
> project.

I'm trying to understand the direction of the project. The Littleboard
was a complete CP/M computer all by itself. Are you thinking of making a
clone of it, to operate as a completely stand-alone computer?

Or, to replace the H8's CPU board with a clone of the Littleboard,
adding the SCSI hard disk and its other peripherals in the process?

Or would the Littleboard just be a host controller, that an H8 or H89
talks to via some parallel I/O port like the H67?

--
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
-- Leonard Cohen, from "Anthem"

[Chris Elmquist]

On Wednesday (04/18/2012 at 10:04AM -0500), Lee Hart wrote:
> On 4/18/2012 12:31 AM, Norby wrote:
> >I was thinking in having the board inside the small ATX enclosure,
> >small external hard drive enclosure or the H19 terminal. All the parts
> >are available to create a small board. This could be a Fall/Winter
> >project.
>
> I'm trying to understand the direction of the project. The
> Littleboard was a complete CP/M computer all by itself. Are you
> thinking of making a clone of it, to operate as a completely
> stand-alone computer?
>
> Or, to replace the H8's CPU board with a clone of the Littleboard,
> adding the SCSI hard disk and its other peripherals in the process?
>
> Or would the Littleboard just be a host controller, that an H8 or
> H89 talks to via some parallel I/O port like the H67?

One of my high school buddies replaced his H89 CPU board with an Ampro
LittleBoard and ran with that system for years. It was one way to get
a more "standard" CP/M platform with soft-sector floppy controller,
hard disk interface, etc. He just bolted it to a plate that slid right
into the same slot as the H89 CPU board and then he made various adaptive
cabling for power, serial to the TLB, floppies, etc.

Going a little more off-topic, but I have an Ampro LB186, which is the
80186 version that they did. I have very old PCDOS that it will boot but
I never had drivers for the NCR 5380 SCSI controller on that platform.
Did anyone play with the LB186 and possibly have the SCSI working there?

Chris
--
Chris Elmquist

[Max Scane]

Have you considered the Mini-ITX form factor?  The board size of  17 x 17 cm would be perfect for this.  Also there are a number of small fan-less cases that would be suitable.

Cheers!

Max

[snhirsch]

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 4:53:41 PM UTC-4, N0JCF wrote:

80186 version that they did.  I have very old PCDOS that it will boot but
I never had drivers for the NCR 5380 SCSI controller on that platform.
Did anyone play with the LB186 and possibly have the SCSI working there?

I have a Little Board/PC (NEC V40) with complete documentation and a bunch of diskettes. Among these are a booklet labeled "SCSI Utilities User's Manual" and a disk labeled "PC-DOS SCSI SUPPORT OBJECT".  The manual mentions it as being applicable to both the LB/PC and LB/186 SBCs.  I don't know if the diskette is readable, but the docs are 3-ring bound and could be scanned easily enough.

Contact me privately if you want copies.

[snhirsch]

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 4:53:41 PM UTC-4, N0JCF wrote:

80186 version that they did.  I have very old PCDOS that it will boot but
I never had drivers for the NCR 5380 SCSI controller on that platform.
Did anyone play with the LB186 and possibly have the SCSI working there?

I have documentation and diskettes for the LB/PC and LB/186 SCSI support.  Contact me privately if you want copies.
 

[Chris Elmquist]

Steve was having trouble getting his messages to make it to the list.
Looks like they finally got through.

Thanks Steve. I've emailed you off the list to discuss further.

Chris

--
Chris Elmquist

[snhirsch]

On Thursday, April 19, 2012 9:50:07 AM UTC-4, N0JCF wrote:

Steve was having trouble getting his messages to make it to the list.
Looks like they finally got through.

Thanks Steve.  I've emailed you off the list to discuss further

Sorry for the noise!  I entered those messages through Google's web interface and they were immediately marked as deleted.  Just reinforces my already poor opinion of Google Groups.
 

[Bruce H McIntosh]

On Apr 18, 4:53 pm, Chris Elmquist <chris.elmqu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> One of my high school buddies replaced his H89 CPU board with an Ampro
> LittleBoard and ran with that system for years.  It was one way to get
> a more "standard" CP/M platform with soft-sector floppy controller,
> hard disk interface, etc.   He just bolted it to a plate that slid right
> into the same slot as the H89 CPU board and then he made various adaptive
> cabling for power, serial to the TLB, floppies, etc.

I did exactly that sometime in 1989 or 90, when a lightning strike
nuked my 89. I never did go back and determine if the CPU board or the
CDR RAMdisk board was what died. I've got the 89 here at work, with a
towering 100MB SCSI HD hanging off the side of it. I still play
Adventure on it once in a while. At some point I'm gonna have to
clear some office space at the house and return it home with all due
honor. :-)