pidp8 and sbc6120?

[hush]

hey all! i've been recently hankering to build both an sbc6120 and a pidp8, and i started wondering if it is possible to drive the pidp8 console via the sbc6120, and vice versa. the sbc6120 is meant to support a console, but i think that these are long gone now and i lack the design and woodworking skills to make my own

has anyone attempted this? potential mounting issues aside is it even possible?

 

[g4ugm]

I have thought about it, but I think you would need an adaptor of some king....

 

[daver2]

The SBC6120 expects a number of latches, buffers and decoding logic to be present. Each LED is then driven by a latch and each switch is read by a buffer.

Oscar's Pidp8 front panel, on the other hand, has a multiplexed matrix of LEDs and switches.

On the surface of it, it would appear that the two designs are incompatible with each other. However, with modern CPLDs and FPGAs, that is no longer the case.

The interface between the two should be possible using an FPGA (for example).

The SBC6120 interface would look like the original logic interface did. However, the latches and buffers would drive (and be driven by) a self-clocked multiplexer arrangement to suite the Pidp8's panel.

That is my first thought having looked at both schematics...

Dave

 

[vrs42]

Since the PiDP front panel is basically a PCB and so is the FP6120, what I'd suggest is to take the FP6120 front panel artwork and PCB and scale/redesign it to have PiDP case dimensions. Or perhaps you can find a bamboo silverware box with the FP6120 dimensions .

Another issue with trying to interface directly to the PiDP panel is the lack of an equivalent to the rotary switch. I haven't looked at the pin-out of the SBC6120 recently to see how to get at the AC and MQ values, for example, You do have front panel memory in the SBC, which can make up for a lot if you are prepared to do custom firmware.

Vince

 

[hush]

thank you all for your thoughts! so not impossible, but it will take a bit more work than i was expecting. i'll start poking around at it once i have the bandwidth.