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Digital Group Z80 to 8080 Fun

Hi All;

Brad, Thank You for Your Response and Question..
I have a Non-working 8080 CPU Board and that is all, and Glitch has what I had left of any Z-80 CPU Boards and no 8080 Board from me..
I had pulled an 8080 Cassette tape from what I sent to You, Not realizing I had the other 8080 Cassette tape buried with some other Tapes..
And so I am Hoping to use Audacity to make the necessary copies of all 12 Tapes that I have and put them somewhere where they can be accessed by all..
At Present Glitch has been kind enough to let me have a spot to test my first short segment of tape as a trial Tape, and hopefully then You can access it and try it on Your 8080 machine and see if You get any results from it..

THANK YOU Marty
 
I've only got Z80 boards, though I'll probably look for an 8080 board after I get my system up and going.
 
Ok.. well let me know when we have something available to test. I have the board in a state where it consistently appears to be reading tapes.. but of course.. theyre z80 tapes so it just loads and crashes.
 
Hi All;

Glitch, Thank You for posting this file, THANK YOU !! THANK YOU !!
I have sent another email, as when I tried to send the next file, it Quit about half way into sending it..
Should I try again ?? Do You need more Information ?? It was a Large file about 171 MB..

THANK YOU Marty
 
It works!

20160616_134226.jpg

So yeah.. only issue seems to be my 64 char vid card. If I had the ability to alter the eprom to 64char and burn it back I would.. but.. I dont. Still.. great to see the board actually works. Hopefully over time more 8080 software can be discovered, although it sounds like the 8080 was only in with DG for a short while until the Z80 supplanted it. Maybe there isn't much out there?

Thanks Marty and Glitch for making this happen!
 
Hi All;

Glitch, I have finished sending the Larger file.. Thank You..
The First file is from tape A and is only a small portion of the whole tape, which I have to Re-do for an even longer Tape..
The Second file is from Tape B and is the Whole thing, this Tape is the 8080 Release Cassette Tape..
If this file is Bad, Possibly from a Bad Transfer, I will Rename it and Re-submit it..

Brad, after posting this I see, that it works, there are 8080 files coming Your way, as further on the next tape file named 8080DG, there are other variations for You to Load, You need to just wait till Glitch has a chance to upload this next file..

THANK YOU Marty
 
Definitely have some issues with this 8080 board. And I think, for once, it's the crystal. Sometimes it just doesn't load anything, or it crashes with a full screen of garbage. If I pull the card and give the crystal a tap.. it'll work again for a while.

The other thing it's doing is sometimes watching the numbers as the program loads.. sometimes they're going too fast, sometimes too slow. When they do that the program doesn't load properly.

Also I just noticed the other software included in that first wav file. I was wondering why it was 2+ minutes long. Some HAM radio stuff.. neat!
 
Hi All;

Brad, there are a number of files, a memory test, a flag waving program, the Ham Program and some more that I can't remember, anymore..
Sometimes, if it doesn't get the Reset pushed so that it sees both '123's, then the numbers can and do vary..
Also, if You have Audacity, there is a function to Vary the Speed of the Playback file being played..

THANK YOU Marty
 
Thanks Marty. I'm looking around for 18.000MHZ crystals on ebay, just to go after my hunch. But they're all low profile.. wonder if that matters? Or is an 18.000mhz crystal an 18.000mhz crystal?
 
Hi All;

Brad, No difference, whether it's low profile or like what it has at Present..
I would say for now, You can get a small one to use for now, and then take Your Time Looking for one that is like the one in card..
I have been out, so I haven't checked what Glitch has uploaded, and I still have one more file to get ready and to upload, which will probably not be today.. But, who know's..

THANK YOU Marty
 
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Hi All;

Glitch, Thank You for the Latest upload, Now it is up to Brad, to try this file out, and there is alot there for Him to try out..

THANK YOU Marty
 
I'd like to try to encode the WAVs as Ogg Vorbis compressed audio and see if they still work, it would be a substantial space savings if it's an acceptable loss level. If not, then FLAAC would still be a space savings, though not as great.
 
Hi All;

Glitch, I have 'no' idea of what You are talking about, but it would not be a first time..
If You know how to make the files You are talking about and then put them there for Brad to upload and try out and then both You and He can then let the rest of us know the results of Your findings and what to do..
It is and would be fine by me..
Once Brad has had working and tried out a given file, then use that for testing these other modes that You are proposing..

THANK YOU Marty
 
I'm quite confident the tape files thus far are good enough quality. I think my 8080 board just has some issues. Not really sure where to go on this one beyond tapping it gently when it seizes up.
 
Hi All;

Brad, Just go ahead and get another crystal, just in case that is the problem.. If it isn't then You have a spare crystal..
Also, check the (I think) 74S00, or at least it should be an S, near or next to the crystal, and make sure all of the Pins are Clean and making good contact..

Glitch, I have given You the Last of the DG 8080 files, for tonight..
The Rest of them are either ICOSE or Z-80-ICOSE related tapes..

THANK YOU Marty
 
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