I'm definitely in support of the idea, but I'll second the comment - why so small? One of the reasons why my 102s have been with me for so long is how comfortable they are. I'd be in geek heaven if I could get one with high contrast backlit screen, more memory, and faster, but not smaller.
Anyway, impressive work! On Feb 6, 2018 8:00 AM, "VANDEN BOSSCHE JAN" <jan.vandenboss...@vivaqua.be> wrote: > Hallo Jeroen, > Groetjes uit de lage landen. > Ik doe verder in het Engels, dan verstaat iedereen het hier. > > That is very impressive tinkering. But it is obvious that you also have > the technical skills and knowledge to make such things. > > You want to build a replica of the Model T (not much difference between a > Model 100 or a Tandy 102) with modern technology, but why ... small ? > Wouldn't it be more useful to build a full-size device? Packaged as a kit, > it could also be a commercial product. If it has a good keyboard and a not > too small screen, it might attract attention. > > Anyway, if you want some pointers: > - connection was always the essence of the Model Ts. Make sure a serial > and/or USB connection works. > - try to incorporate/emulate software on ROM. See the REX initiative > > Greetings from the TyRannoSaurus > _________/////////// Jan-80@work > > -----Original Message----- > From: M100 [mailto:m100-boun...@lists.bitchin100.com] On Behalf Of Jeroen > Domburg > Sent: dinsdag 6 februari 2018 13:05 > To: m...@bitchin100.com > Subject: [M100] New M100 hardware > > Hi all, > > TL;DR: I'm building a tiny M102. > > Let me first re-introduce myself on this list. Hi, I'm Jeroen, also > known as Sprite_tm on the wider Internets. I was on this list around > 2001, which is way longer ago than I thought it was. At that time, I > wanted to see if I could convert the Olivetti M10 I bought at a flea > market to accept M100 roms. I actually succeeded: took but a small > conversion routine for the different keyboard layout to make the M100 > ROM work in the M10. Talked to Rick Hanson at that time to ask if he > could send me some ROM images. I'm sad to read he has passed a while > ago... always seemed like such a pleasant guy in the email conversations. > > Anyway, why am I back? I nowadays live in Shanghai, doing electronics > stuff, and recently I directed my hobby into re-making the machines I > enjoyed back in the days This already has resulted in a matchbox-sized > Game Boy > (https://hackaday.com/2016/11/28/tiniest-game-boy-hides-in-your-pocket/), > and a tiny Macintosh Plus (http://spritesmods.com/?art=minimacplus). > > Now, I decided to see if I could do something similar to this: make a > tiny version of the TRS80 Model 100 or 102 (haven't decided yet). The > plan is to use a newfangled low-power STM32 ARM processor for this; the > processors that are around nowadays are actually pretty quick (80MHz), > have a fair amount of RAM (64K, twice what the M100 had at maximum > capacity!) and are even more efficient than the 80c85 (a few micro-amps > per megahertz). Also, they have a bunch of peripherals integrated, so I > can get away with not much more than that chip. > > Here in China, it's actually pretty easy to get the basic parts for > this. The most important part, obviously, are the LCD and the keys, so I > decided to start there. I found a nice and tiny (and cheap!) 256x64 > display, which could be a nice stand-in for the 240x64 LCD in the > original hardware. To test it out, I connected it to my laptop and did a > hack to get VirtualT outputting data to it: > http://j0h.nl/AqkB > (And yes, it's a bad picture... I shouldn't take pics in bad lighting > around midnight, I guess. For reference, the purple thing underneath is > a credit-card sized metro transportation card.) > > For the keyboard, I decided to go with the bare metal domes you > sometimes see in somewhat cheap-ish but still ok feeling keyboards for > remote controls, old-school brick phones etc. The nice thing is that > these domes are about US$0.005 each. The bad thing is that they need a > specific PCB layout to work... so I had to make a PCB for this. Luckily, > this is also cheap-ish here, although the gold-plating set me back a few > quid more than I'd liked, and I'll probably re-spin these because they > have a few mistakes in them. The keyboard part seems to work, however. > Here it is while building it up: > http://j0h.nl/AaoB > > And here is where I am now. I've used kapton to hold down the rubber > domes, and I can actually already type on this; the domes are all well > worth the half a cent each I paid for them, nice and clicky. I also > installed the microprocessor and USB-port, and at this stage I can blink > the power LED, so at least the hardware seems mostly okay. > http://j0h.nl/AKsB > http://j0h.nl/B6wB > > > So, why am I posting this? I dunno, I like writing about this I guess, > and maybe you guys have some good ideas for continuing. I'm pretty sure > I can write the emulator without too much effort. The USB port is > probably going to be used for a serial port; I may also use it to upload > things like option ROMs. (The microcontroller has 256K of flash, so I > should be able to fit a few.) I also need to think about a case: I have > a pretty kick-ass Formlabs 3d-printer at work, but my workshop does not > have many mechanical tools. In the end, I'll also add a LiIon battery: a > tiny 150mAh one probably is long enough to let the entire thing actively > work for 80 hours or so. > > Hope a project like this is appreciated on this list; if not, I'll > happily keep working on this in silence. My experience with the M100 is > nil, however, so if you people see things I missed to make it an even > better M102 replica, I'd love to hear this. > > Cheers, > Jeroen > > > > > > > > VIVAQUA et HYDROBRU ont fusionné. > VIVAQUA est votre société d'eau en Région de Bruxelles-Capitale. > > VIVAQUA en HYDROBRU zijn gefusioneerd. > VIVAQUA is uw waterbedrijf in het Brusselse Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. > > [http://www.vivaqua.be/facebook.png] Rejoignez-nous sur Facebook - Volg > ons op Facebook > > DISCLAIMER > Pensez à l'environnement, n'imprimez cette page et ses annexes que si > c'est nécessaire. Ce message électronique, y compris ses annexes, est > confidentiel et réservé à l’attention de son destinataire. Si vous n'êtes > pas le destinataire de ce message, merci de le détruire et d’en informer > l’expéditeur. Toute divulgation, copie ou utilisation de ce mail est dans > ce cas interdite. La sécurité et l'exactitude des transmissions de messages > électroniques ne peuvent être garanties. > Denk aan het milieu; druk deze pagina en de bijlagen alleen af als het > nodig is. Dit e-mailbericht (inclusief zijn bijlagen) is vertrouwelijk en > is uitsluitend bestemd voor de geadresseerde. Als dit bericht niet voor u > bestemd is, wordt u verzocht het te wissen en de afzender te informeren. > Het is in dat geval niet toegestaan dit bericht te verspreiden, te kopiëren > of te gebruiken. We kunnen niet garanderen dat de gegevensoverdracht via > het internet veilig en nauwkeurig is. >
