Disk drive controller board for the H88

[hl...@aol.com]

I am new to the SEBHC group, but I have an operating H8 and H88 computer that I want to "upgrade".

 

I am trying to upgrade my old H88 compute, which currently has the cassette interface. I am able to read and write programs but it is certainly very limited. I would like to install a disk drive controller board but I can't find one. Are there any controller boards to be found?

 

I have seen many new improvements for the H8 including redesigned boards. Are these boards available for purchase?

 

Thanks,

Harold

[Glenn Roberts]

So I’m clearly showing my bias but if you have a choice you might find the options for upgrading the H8 to be a bit richer and more rewarding. 

 

Les Bird developed a set of replacement boards for the H8, including:

 

                Backplane

                Z80 CPU (with 64K SRAM, GIDE, etc.)

                4 port serial card

                H17 controller card

                64K SRAM board

                “zero org” memory card

 

These are essentially modern exact replacements for the old Heathkit cards.  More on his site:  http://www.lesbird.com/sebhc

 

Norberto Collado has also done some wonderful boards for the H8, including an H37 (soft sectored) disk controller board, H67 (SASI hard drive interface) and a wonderful Z67-IDE card which emulates the old Z67 storage device.  Populate the card with 4 Gig of Compact Flash cards and you can have more storage than you ever dreamed of.   He’s also got a speed mod board, and is working on USB, Ethernet, and real time clock cards.  More at http://www.koyado.com/.  Norberto sometimes has some blank boards available for some of his cards – he usually lists that on his site.

 

We all do this for a hobby so if Les or Norberto don’t have any blank boards it would be necessary to order more.  The good news is you can often get enough people on the list interested to do a group buy – there are relatively inexpensive companies on the Internet that will fab the boards.  You also have to order all the parts and assemble it yourself, but if you’re a Heathkit fan you should love that!  Whenever Norberto comes out with a new board he typically polls the group for interest and we all partake in a group buy.

 

So welcome to the group.  perhaps you could post a little more detail on your systems…

 

-          Glenn

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SEBHC" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sebhc+un...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to se...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sebhc/-/qfmpUwvEWlsJ.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Norberto Collado]

As suggested by Glenn, we will need to know your systems configuration before suggesting any upgrades.  

 

Norberto

[hl...@aol.com]

Hi,

 

I built my H8 around 1980. This was my first kit project.  I have collected many different types of computers over the years, but my favorite is still the H8.

The boards installed are:

The 8080 CPU board

2- 8K memory boards

1- 16K memory board

Serial I/O and cassette interface card H8-5.

Disk drive controller board H17. I have one drive connected.

Extended configuration board H8-8.

prototype board with hand wired  PIA 8255.

 

I can boot to HDOS or CP/M.

I have the PIA output connected to a Radio Shack Speech Processor (SP0256). I use Basic to program the speech processor.

 

I guess I would be interested in an upgrade to 64K memory and maybe a hard drive?

[Glenn Roberts]

Wow.  I remember life with a single H17 drive. It was painful!  And with the low reliability of these 30+ year old drives it’s nearly impossible to do anything serious with it today.  You could try building Les’ Z80 card with GIDE support.  That would get you a 64K Z80-based system and if you include the GIDE pieces you could directly hook up an IDE disk drive.

 

To then go to Norberto’s more powerful solution you’d have to first build the Z80 card, then build one of his H8-Z67 hard drive controller cards (which provides the SASI drive interface) and finally the drive itself which is his Z-67 IDE or  Z-67 IDE Plus.

 

A lot depends on

                Your budget

                Your comfort level in ordering components and assembling & testing boards

                Your time availability and interest

 

If you can find Heathkit Z80 and WH8-37 boards used (they’re rare) then you’d only need to build the Z-67 IDE board to add a hard disk.  You can’t do the ‘37/’67 stuff without moving to the Z80.

 

To start with something simpler you could build Les’ 64K SRAM board (though if you later go to the Z80 board you won’t need that  - the RAM’s built in on the Z80 board).  He might even still have some blank RAM boards (?) – not too long ago a number of folks on the list bought boards from him and assembled these…

[Mark Garlanger]

Hi Harold,

   Were you able to find a disk controller for your H88? If not, there are 2 on ebay right now for only $12 ea/ and free shipping - http://www.ebay.com/itm/121110989171

They are 'as-is', but that is fairly typical for these old boards.

Mark

--

[hl...@aol.com]

Mark,

Yes, I went ahead and bought it. Thanks for the help.

Harold

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Garlanger <garl...@gmail.com>
To: sebhc <se...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, May 15, 2013 11:26 am
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Disk drive controller board for the H88

[hl...@aol.com]

Hi Mark,

 

I just went to your Software Toolworks area and downloaded the C/80 Compiler manual. I was able to copy the C/80 .H8D files from the SEBHC software, but I felt I needed a manual. Most of my programming has been in compiled Basic.

 

Anyway, I wanted to let you know in case I am supposed to pay.

 

Thanks,

Harold

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Garlanger <garl...@gmail.com>
To: sebhc <se...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, May 15, 2013 11:26 am
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Disk drive controller board for the H88

[Glenn Roberts]

I have the manual for c80 (if its not on any of our repositories).  

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/8D025E1DC158D1C-21E8-943A%40webmail-m141.sysops.aol.com?hl=en-US.

[Mark Garlanger]

Hi Harold,

  Absolutely not. Everything on the site is to help preserve the information and history of these early computers. Also, when I received permission to post these things from the original copyright owner, it was specifically for 'non-commercial' use. Glad you found it helpful.

Mark

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/8D025E1DC158D1C-21E8-943A%40webmail-m141.sysops.aol.com?hl=en-US.