Has anyone ever built a ZAP Computer ....

[Aaron Teeling]

... From Steve Ciarcia's book, 'Build Your Own Z80 Computer'

The book continues to be much sought after on Amazon and eBay, so I was wondering if anyone has built one.

 

[NobodyIsHere]

Hi,

I have the book and have bought some of the parts but so far have not assembled it. The book is a fascinating read but the parts for the ZAP are difficult to find.

Rather than building a ZAP, have you considered just a home brew Z80 SBC?

At the moment, I am working on (well, planning mostly) another build of a from scratch Z80 computer. I built one last year and it works OK but I used prototype boards and point to point soldered wiring which gets to be a complicated mess (ie, a ratsnest) that is hard to work on.

I think the way to go is to build a PCB at home instead of a prototype board. That is a complication itself though and the challenge is to make a PCB. The current "toy" SBC I am working on is this one:

http://www.z80.info/gfx/z80test.gif

I've been investigating various CAD programs. Eagle (non profit version) seems to be the best so far I have found library wise but it only supports a maximum PCB size of 100mm x 160mm which is not very big. It costs $125.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

 

[NobodyIsHere]

Here is the PCB layout for the Thomas Scherrer Z80 project computer. It is as small as but still meaningful Z80 project as you can get, I think.

http://wpage.unina.it/progetto/z80_ts.html

The schematic is available on the http://z80.info page and there is a source listing for the simple monitor for the EPROM. I seem to recall having to do some simple modifications to get the monitor to work with the IO ports.

Best of luck!

Andrew Lynch