Wanted: H8 CPU, memory and I/O board

[Thomas Riesen]

Got this nice H8, it's in a pretty good condition, but it's missing all boards. Does anybody sell me a CPU, Memory and I/O board? Eather original old ones or new reproduction boards.

[Joseph Travis]

http://koyado.com/heathkit/New-H8-Website/

On Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 9:09 AM Thomas Riesen <gast...@gmail.com> wrote:

Got this nice H8, it's in a pretty good condition, but it's missing all boards. Does anybody sell me a CPU, Memory and I/O board? Eather original old ones or new reproduction boards.

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[Les Bird]

If you're patient (a week or two) I'm working on putting together an eBay listing that I'm calling "Heathkit H8 Z80 Plug-n-Play Kit". I'm waiting for some final boards to arrive so I can verify functionality. The kit will consist of a complete ready to go package as follows:

1. A brand new design (2023) H8-Z80-ORG0-64K Z80 CPU card completely assembled (64K RAM, ORG0 for CP/M support built in)

2. A brand new design (2023) H8-4 multi serial port card (2 ports populated with 2 more available) completely assembled with DB9 serial adapters and one serial-to-USB adapter cable to plug into your PC

3. A brand new design (2023) H8-17 disk controller card with accompanying HSFE (hard sector floppy emulator), fully assembled (plus bootable floppy disks on 3.5" media)

4. Two 3.5" USB floppy drives with 34 pin IDC adapter. The IDC adapter converts the USB drive to standard 34 pin so can plug directly into the HSFE

I'm waiting for my H17 card to arrive so I can verify some fixes I had to make. If it works (no more revisions needed) then the kit will be ready to go. I already have the Z80 and H8-4 tested and ready to go.

The idea is you'll be able to get this kit, plug in the cards, and go. Nothing else will be needed - no cables, no floppy drives, no soldering, it is all included.

My listing will be for a Buy It Now of $295 plus shipping which is breaking even. I don't want to make money on this kit, just help people get their H8s running. I plan on building 5 kits initially and more as needed.

Les

[Joseph Travis]

That's a heckuva deal Les!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/d93e60a7-98f8-4fca-b18b-2c2b54389e87n%40googlegroups.com.

[smb...@gmail.com]

To echo Joe, That is one heck of a deal, Les! Are you sure that's not actually below cost?

Are you plan on manufacturing these kits periodically? It'd be great to see some boards out there -- I get the feeling there's a significant segment that buys boards on eBay (often overpaying) because they're either not aware of the new boards, or don't have the skillset to DIY them. You're providing a great service.

Scott

[Glenn Roberts]

This is great Les. I’m thinking of the set of boards you championed back in 2009, so this sounds like the 2023 equivalent. Basically modern reproductions of the basic Heath board sets (with a few modern touches like HSFE).. 

I don’t think it would be cruel to sell these in open bidding. With a low-priced “buy now” a lot of people won’t get a shot at a set (they’ll be snatched up as soon as someone’s search engine finds them). If in fact you are able to keep the pipeline going the open bid price should come down as supply catches up to demand. Just a thought.

Maybe this will motivate me to clear out some of my unused inventory…

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 6, 2023, at 4:16 PM, Les Bird <lesb...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you're patient (a week or two) I'm working on putting together an eBay listing that I'm calling "Heathkit H8 Z80 Plug-n-Play Kit". I'm waiting for some final boards to arrive so I can verify functionality. The kit will consist of a complete ready to go package as follows:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/d93e60a7-98f8-4fca-b18b-2c2b54389e87n%40googlegroups.com.

[smb...@gmail.com]

Not just "snatched up", but potentially snatched up and resold. You could mitigate this behavior if it was clear that you were intending to manufacture multiple sets (heck, the Nabu guy had people trying to resell them at markup while he was selling the originals)

Scott

[Mark Garlanger]

Wow, that is great that you are doing at cost. Don't forget ebay/paypal fees can add up.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/a28e75ea-d91e-46f8-adcb-a833a1c4593cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Steven Feinsmith]

You bought it through eBay from a New Jersey seller without any boards. If you are seeking original boards it will be more difficult to find nowadays. Only you can build boards from Norberto boards designed for the H8 chassis. If you stubbornly seek the original boards it will take you years to collect from eBay if someone is willing to post for sale. For example, I struggled to find a replacement Technical Designs Lab VDB (Video Display Board) that was stolen in 1986 when I moved to South Florida. It took me 36 years of patience and finally, I bought the VDB. Because of very rare items. I think the H8 boards are a bit easier to look at on eBay until you see someone posted and you can try to grab it. I confirmed Norberto provided more variety of modern boards compared to what Heathkit and Trionyx provided many years ago.

One warning to tell you about the H8 chassis. You need to know to reformat the filter capacitors back to the function stage as much as recharge the battery. I can see many people ruined the filter capacitors and will NOT be able to replace them because they were no longer made. It will be smart not to plug your chassis to turn on as it will increase the chance of the filter capacitors' failure. Also, sellers from eBay sell vintage filter capacitors for $$$. They were not functioning because it was non-working. You will find about formatting the electrolytic capacitors available on the Internet.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/CAGQDgBD0xzdtYxQXvzT0OaOcPkBpPcwRrh1JmKLUGSDMi-gG2A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Les Bird]

Scott, what I want is to recoup some of my investment. Not expecting to recoup all of it, so selling these kits at a slight loss is not a big concern to me. And if someone resells these at a higher cost then I'll rethink my strategy. I hope that doesn't become a problem though. And yes hoping to keep kits coming periodically.

Glenn, yes modern reproductions. The H8-17 and H8-4 are based on the Heathkit schematics but cleaned up (no more obsolete LS242s on the H8-4). The Z80 board is an all new from scratch design. On the H8-4 I kept the 15 pin connectors but I made an adapter that plugs in to the 2 connectors and turns them into DB9s so you can plug serial cables directly into them. See pics below. It all fits under the hood.

Mark, yes eBay and Paypal fees. I'll see how it goes with the first couple kits and then maybe adjust price as I go.

Les

[Glenn Roberts]

Nice enhancements Les! Thanks for helping keep the H8 alive!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/cccdf46d-973b-4bfd-816c-ad332aca9f01n%40googlegroups.com.

[smb...@gmail.com]

Makes perfect sense, Les. At various times in my hobby I've been able to recoup a share of the costs. It never made to to break even (and for me never will, certainly with what these fullsize H8 boards cost to fab and ship), but there are ways to at least subsidize the development cost a bit.

Nice idea with the adapters on the serial board.

Scott

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

WOW! That is a lot of soldering and boards for a low price. Why not offer just two boards, the Z180 with 1MB of RAM and the H8-DUAL-CF card. Just installed them and boot from the CF card in seconds. Just two boards and less soldering.

 

Then offer options: H8-4 serial board, H8-Z5 cassette, H17 with HSFE, Z80 board, 8080A board, etc…

 

Your price should be $375.00 to honor the H8 computer. 😊

 

 

Norberto

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[Thomas Riesen]

This sounds great Les!!! There is no problem be patient a few weeks, let me know when the boards are ready. Maybe we can do the deal without eBay, in my eyes it's not necessary to feed eBay with money. 

Thomas

[dmg6385]

That’s great Les!  You could easily sell 10 or more of those kits right here in this group without going through eBay and incurring those fees.  Regardless, this is very generous of you and your time to make the kits.

[geneb]

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023, dmg6385 wrote:

> That’s great Les! You could easily sell 10 or more of those kits right
> here in this group without going through eBay and incurring those fees.
> Regardless, this is very generous of you and your time to make the kits.
>

I'm going to second this - I need more Heathkit computer stuff like I need
a hole in my head, but I'm sorely tempted. :D (I've got two H8 chassis
and a pile of boards, all un-evaluated...)

I suspect all the wiling buyers would rather you get all the money instead
of having to give eBay a cut.

g.


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[Les Bird]

I'm more than happy to sell the kits direct. The reason I wanted to do eBay was to, as Scott pointed out, get the boards out to folks who are unaware of our group and don't know where to go to get boards for their H8s.

I got my H17 card today, built it, and it works perfectly. So all the boards I need for the kit are good to go. What's left is to put together all the parts to make a complete kit (some I will need to order), assemble the boards, and document things.

Will keep you all posted.

Les

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Can you share pictures of the three new boards?

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From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Les Bird <lesb...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 4:00:41 PM

To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Wanted: H8 CPU, memory and I/O board

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[Les Bird]

Here are pics of the boards. All boards will have standard LM7805, LM7812 (H8-4) and LM7912 (H8-4) regulators and filter caps when shipped out. These pics are my test boards. I build my test boards with no filter caps and if they work then I put in the filters.

H8-Z80-ORG0-64K

H8-17 V2.0

H8-4 V2.2 with DB9 adapters.

[smb...@gmail.com]

I remember a blogger, maybe it was eevblog, where he started plucking out filter caps to see if they were really needed.

Scott

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

Looks great. I notice you’re attaching the regulators directly to the PCB. Does that provide enough heat sinking?  Why isn’t it necessary to use the aluminum heat sink brackets like the original Heath design? Also, do you plan to include the brackets with the boards?  What speed(s) are supported on the Z80 board? Jumper configured? You planning to include PAM-37 ROM in addition to the XCON-8?  If PAM-37 then people would want to be able to print/attach new labels to the front panel. I think last time I looked the link to these PDFs was broken on the SEBHC site?  We also had Brother pTouch templates at one point I think?

 

The DB9 adapters are cool – is the spacing the same as on the original H8-4 board (i.e. would these work on one of the original boards too?)

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Les Bird

Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 8:54 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Wanted: H8 CPU, memory and I/O board

 

Here are pics of the boards. All boards will have standard LM7805, LM7812 (H8-4) and LM7912 (H8-4) regulators and filter caps when shipped out. These pics are my test boards. I build my test boards with no filter caps and if they work then I put in the filters.

 

H8-Z80-ORG0-64K

 

 

H8-17 V2.0

 

 

H8-4 V2.2 with DB9 adapters.

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/5ee381cd-0d86-4c18-8d1b-0f36a93e2e23n%40googlegroups.com.

[Les Bird]

The Z80 has a 16.384MHz oscillator (thanks Glenn for the tip about Tayda having them - I ordered 50 from them for a little more than a buck apiece). The 16.384MHz is stepped down via a LS393 counter and jumper selectable from 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 MHz but this board is not designed to run at anything higher then the original 2.048MHz. I was not planning on including the PAM37 ROM but the option is there should anyone choose to go that route.

I tried to split the power evenly between the two 5V regulators so that they're not overloaded. I'll have to do a test in an original H8 chassis to see how hot they get. If they get too hot I'll put heatsinks on them.

For the DB9 adapter the spacing is just a hair off but it will still work. It takes the signals from the DCE connector at the top so as you can see in the photo it doesn't quite plug in to the bottom DTE connector. But that is ok because I did that just for extra support, there are no connections to the DTE connector. You could probably force it in but either way as long as the connections to DCE are there it should work.

[geneb]

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023, Les Bird wrote:

> I'm more than happy to sell the kits direct. The reason I wanted to do eBay
> was to, as Scott pointed out, get the boards out to folks who are unaware
> of our group and don't know where to go to get boards for their H8s.
>
> I got my H17 card today, built it, and it works perfectly. So all the
> boards I need for the kit are good to go. What's left is to put together
> all the parts to make a complete kit (some I will need to order), assemble
> the boards, and document things.
>
> Will keep you all posted.
>
> Les
>

Might as well mark me down for a set. :D Have you thought about setting
up a Tindie store?

[Les Bird]

Gene,

I have not thought about setting up a Tindie store but maybe I'll look into it.

I'll reserve a kit for you.

Les

[Thomas Riesen]

Les, as I wrote, please reserve also a kit for me.

Thomas

[Les Bird]

Yes I already reserved one for you Thomas.

Les

[dmg6385]

I’d like a kit as well if possible.  Thanks

[Les Bird]

Ok Doug, you're on the list.

Les