Introduction

on
Main board at 8 weeks
A few months ago I found a series of videos about building a 6502 computer published on YouTube by Ben Eater and quickly I became hooked.  The computer now has ROM, RAM, an LCD display and a hex keypad.

 Reaching this point has been a journey of problems and finding solutions.  Often help and ideas came from blogs about similar projects.  Those author's  experience and knowledge has helped me figure out solutions and have been a huge source of motivation when things got difficult.
So I thought I would try to add a little to that body of knowledge for anyone else embarking on a similar project.

 And it writing notes on what worked and what didn't is a good discipline for me!

The blog posts are going to start where the project is now.  I will add blogs covering each new step I take, but really I should go back to document the first stages and all the learning I had to go through.  That might mean the posts will not follow the actual sequence of my build!
Power module with reset

 My goals are to:
  • Document the steps along my journey in sufficient detail that they could  be followed by others (including me in a few months time!)
  • Provide schematics and photos to clarify details
  • Explain what didn't work as well as what did
  • Outline how decisions about design were made
If anyone finds it useful I'd love to know, along with questions or suggestions.

Anyone interested in reading this far will likely be interested in two Facebook groups based on the 6502.

Comments

  1. Jean-Michel Paris17 May 2020 at 08:46

    Nicely done. Keep going!

    Ben Eater videos are indeed amazing. I wish I have time to do every project I'd like.

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  2. Robin18 May 2020 at 18:01

    Thank you Jean-Michel. I appreciate your kind feedback and it encourages me to keep going!

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  3. Unknown19 May 2020 at 12:19

    Great project. Thank you for taking the time to document it and exchange ideas! Looking forward to future posts and developments.

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  4. Jim19 May 2020 at 16:47

    I just ordered an "PROM" programmer to follow along with all the online project like this.

    While documenting the process, I would also add some way for those of us following to download the ROM code or the source code to build the ROM.

    Also, I think parts list are underrated. I keep having to place multiple orders and wait when I find out I don't have some part. :(

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    Replies
    1. Robin19 May 2020 at 18:02

      Hi Jim, thanks for your feedback. I have just found a way of linking to a 'Gist' for sharing code and will make sure I include these from now on. Gists are usually a single file and are offered free by GitHub. So from a link (which I will provide) you will be able to download my code.

      I try to write comments in my code which make it clear how it is working - both for me and for any readers!

      I use an Arduino Mega as my ROM programmer. Soon I want to add a serial connection so I use my laptop to load object code directly into RAM and run it. Currently I flash experimental code to ROM each time and it is getting a bit tedious!

      Delete
    2. Robin19 May 2020 at 18:03

      Also noted your request for parts lists. I can do that! Good observation.

      Delete

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