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Who knows something about the old NEC PC-6001A around here?

The 16K RAM board works beautifully, the system comes up 32K now and I made a memory test program to test it which is working great.

The ROM board was a little more trouble. This PCB has a couple of issues that I will need to resolve. The 74LS00 SO IC is wider than the footprint I used for it so I had to cut the pins a bit off and bend them to make them contact the PCB. Also, I forgot to put a hole in the back of the PLCC so it could be pushed out if seated too deep. One of the 12V rails didn't have enough solder mask and was shorted to ground resulting in a very bizarre video of odd characters and lines. Once I fixed that it began working as expected. I can finally load extended basic!

The little switch on top allows you to enable or disable the board without having to unplug it...

pc6pcbs2.jpg
 
The 16K RAM board works beautifully, the system comes up 32K now and I made a memory test program to test it which is working great.
Click to expand...

Wow, how cool!, a pity that the ROM board proto has some flaws. As per the pic, you haven't tested yet the full ROM space installing the DIP Switch; but I suppose that after your fixes all must work fine.

About the PLCC, can't you drill a hole throug PLCC socket and PCB?

I have the 6001's cassette player. PC-6082, no cables. I also have a 6001A but I have done nothing much with it.
Click to expand...

The PC-6001/NEC Trek is a not too fancy machine, a Z80 paired with the dreaded 6847 it's not even a novelty, Laser machines (200,300) are pretty similar. It's simply a nice and robust machine, easily expandable and from the point of view of USA consumers, a rare bird.
 
jltursan said:
Wow, how cool!, a pity that the ROM board proto has some flaws. As per the pic, you haven't tested yet the full ROM space installing the DIP Switch; but I suppose that after your fixes all must work fine. About the PLCC, can't you drill a hole throug PLCC socket and PCB?
Click to expand...

For $4.90, I'll order some revised ROM boards to correct the issues. I wasn't sure which dip switch I wanted to install as I've got another one coming, but I finally just threw it on there since there were other issues anyway. I thought about drilling a hole, and I may still do that on this one. It worked pretty smoothly switching from one ROM to another, I even tried a custom ROM I made using z88dk and it also worked which was pretty cool.
 
I still haven't laid out the FDD emulator board yet, but I did make a board that I hope will dump a ROM. A guy on eBay bought a collection that came with a number of cartridges that I've never seen dumped before.

Here is my cartridge dump board - it will use a FTDI USB to TTL level serial cable to do a hex dump of the ROM to a PC.

dump.png
 
My cartridge dump tool is working. I'm going to get it off to the guy who has some cartridges to dump.

cart1.jpg

cart2.jpg

cart3.jpg
 
Ones I have from a tosec collection:

N60 Extended BASIC
The Curse of Crowley Manor (RAM=16k)
Moon Raiders (RAM=32k)
Canyon Climber
The Electric Pencil (RAM=32k)
Music Editor
Micro-Painter
Touch Panel

Ones he has gotten in the auction that I don't have:

Chicken
Mazes & Monsters
Video Calc
Meteor Evader
Sea Bomber
Pillbox
Shamus
 
alank2 said:
My cartridge dump tool is working. I'm going to get it off to the guy who has some cartridges to dump.

View attachment 41327
Click to expand...

People tell me I'm wrong when I pronounce NEC as "neck"... they insist it should be said as letters (N.E.C.).

But doesn't the name "NEC Trek" imply that NEC meant for it to be pronounced "neck", at least in America?
 
I agree with you. I've always called is "neck" not that that means I'm right!
 
I've worked on tons of NEC PBX's primarily in the NEC NEAX series and the name was always spoken as "neck knee-ack" even during training.
 
Congrats! What cartridges do you have if any? Are your two machines the same or slightly different from each other?
 
Two machines

Two machines

alank2 said:
Congrats! What cartridges do you have if any? Are your two machines the same or slightly different from each other?
Click to expand...

They are still in boxes. I don't have any cartridges. I actually haven't seen one before, just tape games. I just ordered a joystick. I think they sold this machine for a very short time in California. Any English manuals floating around (I can speak Japanese, but reading is tough beyond 800 characters I know.)

Cheers
 
Just going through this thread. I'm keen on expanding the memory and adding some storage via SD Card. I lived in Japan for 14+ years and visit from time to time. I have been ordering various things on Yahoo Auction for the 6001 and others in that line. My interest in the machine stems from my love of old 8 bits, plus it features the 6847, which is in my first love; TRS-80 Color Computer.

Cheers
 
Post some pics of them!!

I am still working on the SD card FDD emulation, I've got too many projects going so it is taking a bit of time.

I lived in Japan for a few years too in the early 80's. I've got two manuals for the PC-6001A that are English which I could try to scan to PDF at some point.

I can make you a backplane/ram/rom board, or send you parts if you can solder/build them. Contact me via PM if you are interested. At some point I have to finish the SD/FDD card for it as well.
 
Yep!, pics or it didn't happen! :)

I also love the way the 6847 was used in the 6001/Trek series, external character ROM (recently a PCB with this feature has been produced for the CoCo) or inverse text screens among others. The games have also extremely creative use of color, love some of them: Magnetic Fields, Pyramid, DoorDoor...

I'm eager to see your developments alank2!
 
I'm still trying to decide whether to make the SD/FDD have a tiny internal display with a couple of buttons that allows you to "change disks" or use some sort of PC-6001 program you can load to do that using its UI. Been too busy on other projects lately and need to get back to it.
 
By the way... the NEC 6001 used the Motorola 6847 VDP. Over in the Color Computer world, there is a team that is working on a replacement for the 6847. A bit like the BBC Atom that also used the 6847. This product, CoCoVGA, offers RGB output via an FPGA. It also allows for different color palettes and text colors to be used. Thinking of the potential for use of this device on a PC6001 (with modifications)

http://cocovga.com/about/
 
Non working 6001s

Non working 6001s

So took my three 6001s out of their boxes. One worked fine. Next one looked dead... no video. Third one powered on but had screen full of characters.

I will open two bad ones, clean them.
Then I'll reseat any sockets chips.
Check power supply on number 2.
Number 3 sounds like RAM issue?

What are other common failure points?

Anyone have a service manual?
Carlos
 
Mine was consuming too much current, the 4 diodes on the power board (rectifier) had 1 bad one (shorted).
--you can use one of those kill-a-watt power monitors that plug into the wall to see how much current it draws when the power is on. There are a couple of fuses on the power board, but if they blow there is probably a reason--

I also saw a screen full of characters when there was a short on the power rail as well, so look for something shorting a power rail and then try to find out what it is.

I have some schematics that a Japanese guy was kind enough to point me to - I'll post them up later today.
 
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