CCS S-100 woes

[Chuck(G)]

Shame that there isn't a better scan of the schematic for the CCS CPU board. As it is, it's unreadable--just a mass of blobs.

 

[billdeg]

I have at least these manuals, and maybe a CPU manual, not sure which at home, I'd have to check when I get home from work. I know at least I have a CCS CP/M manual too.
http://vintagecomputer.net/California_Computer_Systems/ccs_2200_manuals.jpg
Bill

 

[QuantumII]

http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=31

I have been swapping cards in and out, but to tell you the truth other projects have bumped this one back a bit. I do want to get some sort of IO going, I have a bitstreamer II in this system.

What I need is a PROM with monitor that will work with the Bitstreamer II, any port. With more work I could probably get something going, but so far I have not got it to work yet.

Bill

Nice site I saw it when googling for the CCS system.
I will have to pause this project for a few days (Read: Friday and Saturday) due to wedding preparations.

I have seen some S-100 cards which have video output. Is this something we could get running in the CCS machine ?

At the haul place, I remember seeing an Altos S-100 cabinet there as well. I'll try to schedule a second trip asap (To the vintage haul place). I will look for anything S-100 and get as much of it as possible. A VT100 is also on my list (I know they're there but I need to search for a keyboard)

The story behind the HUGE collection is a guy who collected vintage computers for over 20 years, and then died from heart failure. The persons who inherited everything is giving it away for free. It has not been stored in ideal conditions, but it's at least dry.

Sorry for rambling here, but now you know where I got this things.

I hope the logic probe works OK

 

[RickNel]

Heart failure and collecting

Heart failure and collecting

Thanks for the warning about health hazards of collecting.

There are a good few contributors to this forum who have survived >20yrs of collecting. In my case, I've only collected one vintage computer that I've owned nearly 30yrs.

Doctors say that regular brain exercise is the best tonic against senile dementia, but no doubt the frustrations of trying to get incomplete and undocumented s-100 systems back up and running could stress the heart, while buffing the brain.

Whatever, its better thaqn dying from TV rage. :wink:

 

[Vindicator-1]

You initially say that both the VR and the CPU are hot. If anybody has been working on the CPU board, you should check to verify that the CPU is oriented correctly on the socket.

 

[1980s_john]

Hi

I'll start a new topic here regarding getting the CCS system running.

Old discussion is here

Long story short, I got a CCS S-100 system for free a while ago, which I cannot get to work properly.


It has those cards inside, all CCS:

- CCS 2065 64K RAM
- CCS 2422 FDC
- CCS 2810 CPU
- CCS Paralell/Serial card

Is this your CPU card: http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware Folder/CCS/Z80 CPU Board/Z80.htm

At least everything is socketed. Does yours have the same masked PROM (labelled MOS?) rather than an EPROM (with a window), as either can lose bits over several decades.

I would suggest adding a reset switch so you can check from a known state each time. Keep a paper note of each test you do and the results, very easy to go round in circles. Check the address and data buses for activity on each pin, and check on this bus.

May be one IC failed such as a bus transceiver or 74xx logic gate, this is where a methodical check with a logic probe comparing inputs and outputs is needed.

Similarly on the memory card a memory chip might have failed. If you had a second working S100 system you could test the memory card there for example.

No easy shortcuts with the tools you have (ie no Z80 bus analyser), so good luck!

Regards,
John

 

[BubbaShakers]

I have a 2810 CPU card (as well as a 2065 DRAM Card). The 2810 was not functional when i received it.

Some 2810's were apparently sold without the EPROM, and if the system also had an FDC with it's own EPROM, the one on the 2810 may be disabled even it is physically present on the board. The 2810 I received had no EPROM installed, but I was able to download the ROM (cc2810.rom - it's in the Maslin archives) and burn it to a 2716. I then enabled the ROM and setup the power-on-jump circuitry to jump to F000 on power up (the ROM uses F000-F7FF). The ROM requires the serial port to be enabled and set up for the standard port addresses. All of the jumper settings needed are described in the manual. Since your system has an FDC with it's own onboard ROM as well as a dedicated I/O card, it's possible that both the onboard monitor ROM and serial port are disabled on the CPU card. You may need to temporarily reconfigure the card to get a minimal system with just CPU and Memory running.

When I first tried to get the 2810 running I found the CPU chip to bad along with a couple of other chips (all of this found by swapping parts). After replacing the bad chips the board and onboard monitor / serial port work in my IMSAI (it still doesn't completely work with the IMSAI's front panel -- even after trying the mods suggested suggested by Martin Eberhard -- but that's a different topic). The CPU on mine does not get hot (even it 4MHz), though the IC in U9 does get quite warm.

Note that when you power up the system you will not see anything on the terminal until you hit enter a few times.

-Jason