Re: [N8VEM-S100:2259] Re: My recently completed S-100 test setup

[Jeff Galinat <jgal...@optonline.net>]

Hi Joe, Fabio & John,
 Thanks for the kind words.  I am making progress on the other S-100 
boards also.  The extender board is complete except for the 2 buzzers.  
I just finished the Z-80 board today.  I now have to jumper it properly 
and burn the monitor into an eprom.  The ZFDC is almost complete except 
for the trimmer capacitor and populating the sockets with chips.  The 
Serial I/O is complete except I am still making up my mind whether I 
want to add the speaker & V-stamp voice synthesizer to it.  The V-stamp 
is $75 US & I am trying to decide whether the coolness factor of the 
voice synthesizer outweighs the cost of the module and the loss of 1 of 
the 2 serial ports on the board.  I am leaning toward going without the 
V-stamp initially.  The 4 meg Ram board is done except for a few 
different colored LEDs.  I feel the unique LED colors would help me 
distinguish the indicators in a crowded machine.  I started the 
Propeller driven console I/O board but currently only have the sockets 
installed so I have a way to go on that one.  I haven't even started the 
Dual IDE board as I wanted to get a floppy based system working first.
  I have been accumulating 7400, 7400LS series chips & micros for about 
35 years from hamfests, computer fests and electronic store liquidations 
so it is finally nice to put a lot of them to use. I only plan on 
running the board at 4mhz so all 74LS parts should be fine.   I have a 
Leap LP-1 IC tester so I am testing every TTL chip before I put them on 
the board as some of these chips are 40 years old.  For instance, I had 
every chip for the Z-80 board except for 1 74LS165.   I have to place a 
order with Jade for the buzzers, speaker, LEDs & a few other items so I 
will also get a 74LS165 but I have a tube of 74HCT165's which I believe 
should work in it's place anyway.
Regards,
Jeff