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AIM-65 Video Output Success.

pcrary said:
I am also new to the AIM-65 and would be interested in the Gerbers, if you are both willing to share.

I can start a separate thread if preferred, but I just purchased an RM65-7102E GPIB controller on eBay, and I would be willing to undergo a similar recreation process if there is any interest. I have searched for the manual, but cannot seem to locate it anywhere. Does anybody have any tips to locate a scan or physical copy?
Click to expand...
I saw that GBIB controller on ebay and was giving it some consideration before you snapped it up, well done.

In the past I also bought an RM-65 ACIA card, luckily it had the manual. The manuals normally contain the code for the AIM-65 to activate the card. All of these cards were intended to adapt onto the AIM-65 with the standard adapter card like the one I replicated. The ACIA card allows a video output too, by way of connecting to a terminal, or computer acting as a terminal. I'd figured that the GPIB card, would work off the bat with the Taylor Wilson GPIB PET printer interface, another project I did for my PET. It probably would work with the SFD1001 Disk drive too which has a GPIB input, though for that I think some additional firmware would be required for the AIM to drive that, though I am not certain about that, because it is possible that the information to do this sort of thing is in the manual.
 
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I think I can claim a measure of success!

aim65-display-first.JPG

It's not perfect (three bodge wires on the back of the pcboard due to silly mistakes), but it's working! Below is a picture of the board, which I think could be made a little smaller:
aim65-display-board-mounted.JPG
 
I didn't expect anything else. I have been following your projects on your website for a long time. I built various things from there.

Congratulations on this project! A very useful extension for the AIM-65, especially for the Siemens PC-100.

Best regards
Jörg
 
That is interesting. I had thought you were building the RM-65 board and adapter board, but instead you have made new board to go inside the AIM housing....Does it have the same total number of IC's or have you simplified it ?

I used up that space in my AIM to put a Ramrobber board so as to hold the code to activate the RM-65 video board. In my computer the power supply sits just above this area and there was only just enough room for the ramrobber card:

 
I'm going to have to look into the ramrobber. Not aware of that one. :)

The IC count is 17 ICs I count your board at 25 for the board and another 3 for the adapter. Most of the reduction came from me using a couple GAL22V10D to replace all the simple logics (ANDs, ORs, NOTs, XORs, etc). I have three bus interface ICs (two '541 and one '245) that I could probably remove if I wanted to reduce it to 14 ICs.

The ZIF socket on my board supports up to 512K (39SF040). The dip switch selects which 32KB of this ROM is mapped to the ROM space of the AIM, allowing me 16 "rom sets". To do this, I remove all the ROMs from their sockets on the main board. So far I've made rom sets for Basic, Extended Basic, Forth, and PL/65. Unfortunately when I designed this I didn't realize that Pascal used ROM space in the 4000-7FFF area and didn't support that (not sure I want to bother).

Anyone know what exactly is "Extended Basic" ? I found it on one of the web sites.

Scott
 
I have attached the two ROM files with the .BIN extension changed to .pdf so they would upload. I think they might be helpful for @smbaker.

That is a very cool board you have made !
 

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  • CRTCROM.pdf
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  • Chargen.pdf
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Thanks Hugo. I actually managed to figure out all the relocation addresses between the binary that Jörg send me and yours, so I can relocated it anywhere I want now. Interestingly, the screen variation tables differs slightly. Maybe one version rounded up whereas the other version rounded down in one of the variables.

I'm going to have to tweak the screen settings myself -- my flat panel monitor likes to cut off the last line, and has no "vertical size" adjustment. I miss CRTs. :)

Scott
 
smbaker said:
Thanks Hugo. I actually managed to figure out all the relocation addresses between the binary that Jörg send me and yours, so I can relocated it anywhere I want now. Interestingly, the screen variation tables differs slightly. Maybe one version rounded up whereas the other version rounded down in one of the variables.

I'm going to have to tweak the screen settings myself -- my flat panel monitor likes to cut off the last line, and has no "vertical size" adjustment. I miss CRTs. :)

Scott
Click to expand...

Well I know what you mean. I have a love affair with the CRT myself (more like an OCD probably).

I forgot to mention, I also have one of those open frame 5.5" NOS Panasonic VDU's, which has had some cladding added (attractive satin anodized aluminium) and has a chrome handle. It is powered simply by a 12V 1A capable wall wart or similar. The screen picture doesn't do it justice, the screen Text & focus is as sharp as a tack being fed by the RM-65 video board.

If nostalgia got the better of you I could sell it for $250 plus shipping, I think it would be around $50 for Air post shipping to the USA.

Another NOS item I have is the printer units for the AIM-65 , these were made by Shimadzu in Japan, they are a true masterpiece of electro-mechanical engineering and Japanese perfectionism. I had to search the Globe to find them, they are very rare NOS. They cost a small fortune to buy and to bring to Australia, I only have a very small number. Even the parts for these like rubber rollers can sell for outrageous prices, I put one on ebay as an experiment, but of course I'm always open to offers.
 

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  • AIMVDU.jpg
    AIMVDU.jpg
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I'm getting really tempted on that monitor.... :D

I had some success patching BASIC and FORTH tonight to locate their variables after the display adapter's variables, so I don't have to play any tricks with manually changing addresses. I also sent off for the revision on my board, correcting a few errors and adding a 62256 that I think will allow me to backfill the RAM from 0x1000 to 0x8FFF. Might have them for the weekend.

Scott
 
Next up I'm thinking about building a disk controller based on the RM65 disk controller. Used a WD27xx instead of a FDD17xx controller. I know there's the AH5050 ROM that uses the commodore disk drives, but a built in disk controller sounds cool. You know, it'd be nice to have an EPROM programmer too....

Scott
 
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