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Who knows something about the old NEC PC-6001A around here?

A

alank2

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Hi Everyone,

It was my first computer when I was 12. I got one from eBay, but it has issues with the power board that turns the transformer output into DC. I think I can work on it though.

Does anyone have one of these? I'd love to get a 16K ram expansion board for it (or build an equivalent).'

Thanks,

Alan
 
Well, it took some work, but I got it running well now! The power board had a shorted diode causing it to pull 2.5A @ 120VAC. This in turn blew a fuse that I didn't at first see. Once I replaced the fuse, I saw the overcurrent situation and once I found the bad diode I replaced all 4 of them with new ones from Mouser.

pc6001a.jpg

I've got two for fun projects I am going to do for this thing.

The first is that I am going to make a cassette interface that can load/save emulator compatible P6 files to a SDCARD. Some friends have been helping me with the circuits/opamps I need to convert MIC and EAR level signals to microcontroller level signals. The idea is that you can save an image to it and it will listen and decode the audio from the cassette port and store it as a file on the SDCARD. In the reverse direction, using a LCD and a couple of buttons, you can select an image and then "CLOAD" it in.

The second project is that I found a guy in Japan who developed the ultimate all in one cartridge. It has the 16K RAM expansion, DIP switch selectable ROM, and a full emulation of the FDD unit that this machine had for SDCARD. Unfortunately they do not have any of the parts or boards left so I will be left with making my own PCB, but I've got a schematic and the firmware he developed for an ATMEGA164 microcontroller so it shouldn't be impossible to do.
 
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Good work!, the machine looks fab!

The japanese guy must be Nishida Radio, right?, the card must be the SD6031, nice hardware. I've a very old and rough prototype from him that uses a SD card and connects through the joystick port. It works at least with the 6001's big brother, the MkII, never tested it with the 6001.

About the RAM, never tried; but with a PC-6006 cartirdge you can upgrade RAM or add extra ROMs.

EDIT: Seems that the RAM is already built-in as 8x4116 (need to disassemble the cart to check it). The sockets are only used for ROM...
 
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jltursan said:
Good work!, the machine looks fab!
Click to expand...

Thanks!

jltursan said:
The japanese guy must be Nishida Radio, right?, the card must be the SD6031, nice hardware. I've a very old and rough prototype from him that uses a SD card and connects through the joystick port. It works at least with the 6001's big brother, the MkII, never tested it with the 6001.
Click to expand...

Yes! I've emailed back and forth with Mr. Nishida a few times. I'm mostly trying to decide how to implement the FDD selection feature - how do I pick which image file goes into which drive. The firmware has a method via the computer and I've got some sample code, but am not sure how to compile it. Part of me wants to use a slightly larger microcontroller and drive a small 4x7 segment display and use that to pick which image which drive and leave the computer out of it, but that will require changing his schematic and I'm not sure I want to do all that just yet.

jltursan said:
About the RAM, never tried; but with a PC-6006 cartirdge you can upgrade RAM or add extra ROMs.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons I want to make this board is that I don't have a PC-6006 cartridge for more RAM/RAM. The odd thing is I remember having a 16K RAM cartridge back in the 80's, but I don't remember it being as long as the PC-6006 with the door you can open for the ROM, so who knows.

I've got an empty PCB with the card slot built up in my pcb layout program so far...

cart.jpg
 
Thank you for the picture - that is the best image of te PC-6006 I have seen!!!

I wish I had the shell/cartridge from a PC-6006 - the extra long length would help me with the one I want to make. I have a ROM cartridge (Canyon Climber) and am thinking about whether to use a simple tiny HP quad 7 segment bubble LED display on it (will fit the cartridge shell I have), or make the PCB extend past it a bit and use a backlit LCD that will allow me to show filenames on the SDCARD instead of just a numbered image.
 
alank2 said:
Thank you for the picture - that is the best image of te PC-6006 I have seen!!!

I wish I had the shell/cartridge from a PC-6006 - the extra long length would help me with the one I want to make. I have a ROM cartridge (Canyon Climber) and am thinking about whether to use a simple tiny HP quad 7 segment bubble LED display on it (will fit the cartridge shell I have), or make the PCB extend past it a bit and use a backlit LCD that will allow me to show filenames on the SDCARD instead of just a numbered image.
Click to expand...

How cool, do you have a real ROM cart?, have you already dumped it?. I'm also curious about the ROM type used, I guess that it must be something compatible with 2764 ones.

For the prototype, probably the simplest solution is also the best one :). Mr. Nishida has also a big ROM cart with, IIRC, a 256KB flash rom, I can't remember how it manages the different 8KB blocks...
 
I have Canyon Climber. It is already dumped, but I might try to dump it for fun sometime. I've attached a picture.

I was planning on machining away some of the top of it for dip switches or a small display to show through, but my son was encouraging me to leave it stock. Maybe I will.
 

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found from the wayback machine the following dont know if this will help u


Download saver3.lzh
From the actual machine of NEC PC-6001Mk2SR / PC-6601SR, suck out the internal ROM. Similarly, isio's saver 2 is famous but it is an improved version of it. Mainly, the following points have been improved.

It corresponds to suction via 1DD disk. (It is also possible via CMT)
Fixed the problem that CGROM could not be read correctly.
Although it is 1, it is necessary for the real machine to be loaded with disks, and it is necessary to use disk reading and writing tools such as DITT of M88, but realizing suction via the disk. By this, it seems to be definitely possible in a much shorter time than sucking via CMT.

2, but saver 2 had a problem that CGROM could not be read correctly, but I corrected it as well. For details, refer to the attached README file.

By the way, if you are a PC-6001 / PC-6001 mk 2 / PC-6601, we recommend using isio's saver.
Click to expand...

&
Download ksaver.lzh

Suffix Kanji ROM from the extended Kanji ROM cartridge (PC - 6006SR or PC - 6007SR) for P6. Basically, it is via CMT, but for now, SR only supports suction via disk.

For details, refer to the attached README file.

It corresponded with iP6 Plus Rel.4.5. (^ ^;
Click to expand...

taken from a translated http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~windy/pc6001/p6soft.html

also loot at the FAQ http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~windy/pc6001/ip6plus/faq.html


Also look at this link http://www.nicovideo.jp.am/mylist/7689516 and click translate page as its in Japanese
 
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The following is a ROM / RAM cartridge produced by Mr. Nishida on the left with 64 KB version and right side with 16 KB.
The base is a print, the terminal part is from the NES cassette, the memory chip is from the memory for PC purchased with the discard value at the junk shop.
Click to expand...
4wWynEo.jpg


9gU0nds.jpg


vQKZXL1.jpg
 
Thank you for the links/posts inotarobot. Part of the difficulty in this is dealing with the language differences, especially in searching. I've gotten really good at using google translate though!!!
 
jltursan - can you take as good a picture of the back side of the PC-6006 board? I'd like to see that too if you can! Thanks!
 
Hi,

jltursan said:
Yep, I'll take one. Do you have plans to clone it? ;-)
Click to expand...

Yes, I was going to make an all in one card that stuck out the side like Mr. Nishida had, but it was a mess to route signals on and you don't have any choice to plug it all in or unplug it all together.

Here is what I ended up doing - I submitted the order for the PCB's this morning, so hopefully I'll have them soon and can test them out. I went with a modular approach so I made a "slot expander" PCB with plugs into the cartridge and expands it into 4 "slots" that use 2x25 square post header instead of the harder to deal with a pricier card edge.

I then developed a 16K memory expansion module for it (which uses SRAM instead of DRAM), and a ROM expansion module for it (512K FLASH that allows selecting of up to 32 virtual 16KB cartridges).

I still need to design the FDD to microSD emulation module, so that is next on my to do list. I may also make a cassette to microSD module as well, I'm not 100% yet but probably.

I ordered these in white PCB's because they look so cool in white, we'll see how they turn out.

If you would like any of these/this project, I'll make you some at my cost.

The pictures are NOT rendered in white - I used oshpark.com which renders in purple just to show an example of what they will look like.
 

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I've seen a few other SD FDD emulation designs, some even that use the joystick port. Do you know if they have to have an 8255 to be compatible with the original FDD controller/drive hardware? I have to think so...
 
I've not enough AVR programming skills to know if there's some kind of 8255 features implemented in the firmware; but it's highly probable...
 
AVR's are something I know fairly well and the problem is that they don't have a latch type of I/O. For example, when the WR pin goes high, an AVR can have a pin interrupt on it that stops it from what it is doing and then it can jump to an interrupts, but it takes 4-5 cycles to do this which is usually not fast enough. Now, on the other hand, if it was waiting in a tight loop for that pin change, it might be able to respond faster, but there are other conditions it needs to deal with such as is it the one being addressed for that pin change, etc. He is using latches and gates so I suppose he just replaced the 8255 with a different way to do it that requires many less pins.
 
My friends at Elecrow did not disappoint as usual, sending me more boards than I ordered. Can't wait until lunch time, I'll solder some up and see if they work!
 

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