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Elektor EC-68 (also sometime EC-6809)

Wawavoun

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May 17, 2020
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Alsace Yo !
Good evening all,

In its No. 100 of October 1986 Elektor published schematics for a computer called EC-6809.

It fits on two europe boards :
- uc + ram
- video (6845) + floppy interface (WDC 1770).

I have the project to rebuild one so I am looking for:

- a correct photo of the copper side of the video / floppy card (this view was not given in the article) and possibly of the other three sides as well,

- the ESS540, ESS541 and ESS542 eprom images,
These images are listed on txt files located on the system floppy provided at that time.
ESS541 is Assist09 from Motorola (may be adapted ?) and ESS542 is a characters generator so only ESS540 is a real problem.

Informations about other 6809 sbc able to run Flex09 on floppy is interesting....
If to many information's are lacking about Elektor system then I will try to switch to another solution able to run Flex09.

Thank you all for your help.
Regards.
Philippe
 
Last edited:
Hello,

Some news from this project :

The two boards are manufactured and tested.
The CPU board is working with a modified Assist09 monitor.
The interface board video part is working with a modified character generator coming from the Junior Computer. The floppy interface part have not been tested yet.

I renew my call for any information about the ESS-540 and ESS-541 eprom (dump, listing, asm source..., whatever you have).
If anybody have this system or can help in this topic please take contact !

Regards.
Philippe
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Hello Philippe...

May I ask where you get the PCB's for this project ? Did you create these yourself ?

Thanks in advance..
 
Hello,

Sorry for the late answer.

The CPU pcb is a original Elektor I found during my search about the rom content and also an adapted Flex. But I have take good picture before assembly so doing gerber will be easy.

The FDC + VDU board is a new one I redesign and same for the bus board.

I can give gerber files but be aware that the cpu one will be a non tested design.

I have eprom (Assist 09 based) which do the job and can boot an adapted Flex version.
But there remain in this Flex version some bugs to found and kill and at that moment I have different other projects on the way.
May be later ?

You can send a pm if you are interested to get some details.

Regards.
Philippe
 
Hello Philippe... Thanks for your feedback. Currently I'm busy with a BigBoard II from Mr Ferguson. It is almost there. I found issues on the PCB (short cuts!!) and replacing all IC sockets with good ones. I'm able to have the prompt on the serial line of the board. Next step is the Video Display and finally the floppy part.

Next step is to have a closer look at the 6809 system and this flex09 Operating System. But if I'm at that stage, let me contact you again...

Thanks in advance
Paul
 
Great stuff Philippe...

I love this with graphics capabilities. But are the parts not hard too find ? 7220, WD2123, 6883 ?

Let me finish the Bigboard II first and maybe I will dive into such a project.

Thanks in advance
Paul
 
In case of...

Finally somebody located west of France found in his archive the 3 (ESS540, ESS541 and ESS542) original eprom dumps.
I test them and they works well !

Now I am on the way to disassemble everything so Flex can be adapted again to the system.

If you are interested feel free to take contact.

Regards.
Philippe
 
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