[N8VEM: 19147] Another Zeta Newbie.

[Gary Kaufman]

I spent some time this week building up a Zeta SBC along with the
parportprop support board.

If anyone could point me to documentation on how to transfer files to the
SDram card I'd appreciate it. I'd rather not have to spend hours with
xmodem if I can write them directly.

Also, what terminal type does the parportprop emulate?



A huge thanks to the group and Sergey for a tremendous little Z80 system!
Having CP/M pre-installed in flash makes it a perfect CP/M starter system.

It reminds me of the Digital Research Corporations "Big Board" of the
1980's, Ampro's "Little Board" or the P112 project - an all inclusive CP/M
system on a single PC board.

I'm waiting for the 9266 FDC controller from UTSource, but the rest of the
board is running nicely.



A few notes from my experience, hopefully this might help someone down the
line:

The documentation is all there, just scattered and at times hard to find.
The ROM files were particularly challenging to locate on the wiki for me.
Look at http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=RomWBW
to find them.
You want ZETA_std.rom initially and ZETA_ppp.rom to access the parportprop
board. The code for the serial eeprom on the ppp board is
ParPortProp.eeprom in the Support subdirectory.

Don't try and substitute a DB9F for the serial console. It "seemed" to
make sense at the time as my USB<-->DB9 adapter had a DB9M and this avoided
the need for an adapter. Wrong, only pin "3" was in the correct place, the
rest were reversed. I could see the turn on screen/prompt but could type
back to the board. You will need a null-modem with most configurations and
the monitor is set for 38,400 baud, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity, no handshake.

Don't mount the 26 pin parallel port connector until you figure out your
configuration. I did and may have to tackle removing it down the line. If
you want the Parportprop board under the Zeta the connector needs to face
down.

For some reason the board doesn't seem to like a Toshiba TMP82C55AP-10. It
does function fine with an Intel 8255-5 (even at 20mhz clock).

The RTC needs to be "Activated" by the program before it starts running.

I was able to achieve 20mhz easily with a Z84C0020PEG CPU and all "LS" ttl
support except for a 74ALS139.

- Gary

[Wayne Warthen]

Hi Gary,

Limited time for a detailed reply right now, but take a look at ImageMaker in the RomWBW folder. It will quickly let you produce an SD or CF card image for RomWBW. You can easily include any CPM files you want. It also includes tools to copy the image onto an SD or CF card.

Thanks,

Wayne

[Bill Lewis]

Wayne,
Do you have a link to ImageMaker? I can't find it in there.

Bill

Post by Wayne Warthen
Hi Gary,
Limited time for a detailed reply right now, but take a look at ImageMaker
in the RomWBW folder. It will quickly let you produce an SD or CF card
image for RomWBW. You can easily include any CPM files you want. It also
includes tools to copy the image onto an SD or CF card.
Thanks,
Wayne

[Wayne Warthen]

Hi Bill,

It is a subdirectory in the RomWBW distribution.

Wayne

[Wayne Warthen]

Sorry, the subdirectory is actually called just "Images" in the newer
distributions.

Post by Wayne Warthen
Hi Bill,
It is a subdirectory in the RomWBW distribution.
Wayne

[Jim Strickland]

Post by Gary Kaufman
I spent some time this week building up a Zeta SBC along with the
parportprop support board.
If anyone could point me to documentation on how to transfer files to the
SDram card I'd appreciate it. I'd rather not have to spend hours with
xmodem if I can write them directly.
There's a project around that uses fuse (in Linux) to mount CP/M

filesystems, and there are definitions around to allow it to mount the
N8VEM standard FS, which is also used in the Zeta. Not only will it work
with the SD card, it works with floppies too. (You know those old usb 3.5
inch floppy drives? Works with those.) That said, I will say that Xmodem at
57600 is a whole different animal from Xmodem at 300 or 1200 baud. :)

Post by Gary Kaufman
Also, what terminal type does the parportprop emulate?
More or less a VT100/ANSI terminal. It's not perfect, but it's good

enough. Wordstar plays nice with it.

Post by Gary Kaufman
A huge thanks to the group and Sergey for a tremendous little Z80 system!
Having CP/M pre-installed in flash makes it a perfect CP/M starter system.
It reminds me of the Digital Research Corporations "Big Board" of the
1980's, Ampro's "Little Board" or the P112 project - an all inclusive CP/M
system on a single PC board.
Heh. I have an Ampro Little Board. It /is/ very reminiscent, but you

swiftly miss the disk space and speed of the Zeta. :)

Post by Gary Kaufman
I'm waiting for the 9266 FDC controller from UTSource, but the rest of the
board is running nicely.
A few notes from my experience, hopefully this might help someone down the
The documentation is all there, just scattered and at times hard to find.
The ROM files were particularly challenging to locate on the wiki for me.
Look at
http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=RomWBW to
find them.
You want ZETA_std.rom initially and ZETA_ppp.rom to access the parportprop
board. The code for the serial eeprom on the ppp board is
ParPortProp.eeprom in the Support subdirectory.
Don't try and substitute a DB9F for the serial console. It "seemed" to
make sense at the time as my USB<-->DB9 adapter had a DB9M and this avoided
the need for an adapter. Wrong, only pin "3" was in the correct place, the
rest were reversed. I could see the turn on screen/prompt but could type
back to the board. You will need a null-modem with most configurations and
the monitor is set for 38,400 baud, 8 data, 1 stop, no parity, no handshake.
Don't mount the 26 pin parallel port connector until you figure out your
configuration. I did and may have to tackle removing it down the line. If
you want the Parportprop board under the Zeta the connector needs to face
down.

If you're going to do much desoldering, and a big connector like that is a
/lot/ of desoldering, I strongly urge you to go to ebay and get a Hakko 808
or similar desoldering tool. Overkill? Yes. Does it make desoldering a lot
more fun and a lot less hazardous to your board? yes, absolutely.

Post by Gary Kaufman
For some reason the board doesn't seem to like a Toshiba TMP82C55AP-10.
It does function fine with an Intel 8255-5 (even at 20mhz clock).
I had this problem too. Apparently the TMP82c55AP-10s can be buggy.
The RTC needs to be "Activated" by the program before it starts running.
I was able to achieve 20mhz easily with a Z84C0020PEG CPU and all "LS" ttl
support except for a 74ALS139.
Wow. I went with all 74F logic to make mine go 20. :)
- Gary

Congrats on your new build. The Zeta's a fun little machine. if you find
yourself using Wordstar regularly, and you'd like a partially complete, but
workable Wordstar to RTF translator, let me know. I'll send you the source.
It has the advantage of producing anatomically correct RTFs (ie: with
linefeeds only at the ends of paragraphs) but it's missing quite a few
wordstar commands and I wrote it before I really understood regex, so some
of the logic is quite tortured.

-JRS