#easyz80 — Public Fediverse posts

RC2014 Bus Reverser

I’m not sure quite how universal this is, but this started because I wanted to add a single RC2014 card to my Easy Z80, which supports an RC2014 bus interface.

Easy, I thought, just add a 40-way socket and the card will plug in. And in principle it would. I would end up with something like this.

But then I realised that the orientation of the RC2014 bus was probably meant to be used for pin headers to make the EasyZ80 be more of a CPU card in a bus system, as shown below.

But what I’m heading towards is being able to plug in a compact flash card, which means connecting the following:

And in either of the above configurations, the cards will be sticking out at odd angles, and feeling somewhat precarious. It would be great if I could just connect them horizontally as shown above.

So that is what I’ve built.

This is an RC2014 bus pin reverser. In the photo above pin 1 is at the bottom on the left hand side and at the top of the right hand side.

There is an option to not pass through VCC, just in case at some point I wanted to connect two independently powered systems.

Originally I envisaged the silkscreen as shown above being the top, but it turns out I got things the wrong way round for that to happen. And it does need to be the right way around as the VCC connection is a wider track and GND connects to the GND fill. Also the jumper and capacitor would be between the wrong two connections if I tried to connect it up the other way round. I guess what I’m saying is that it is not a fully symmetrical reversal of all 40 pins.

It actually works quite well for any “all in one” CPU card being connected to a single IO card. Below I have my RC2014 Micro connected to the digital IO module.

There isn’t a lot else to say really. The BOM is pretty minimal: just two 40-way right angle headers in addition to the PCB, capacitor and jumper. The capacitor and jumper are optional and the jumper can be replaced with a wire link if required.

The schematic and PCB files can be found on GitHub here.

I originally thought the converter would have pin headers on one side and a pin socket on the other. But once I realised I really wanted to connect a card to a card, the use of two sets of pin sockets seemed right. But really, any combination can obviously be used if it works.

Note: I have no idea what this does to any signal integrity. There is certainly no attempt to keep trace lengths equal or anything like that. But I figure if the RC22014 can get away with pin headers in the first place, I suspect that kind of thing is not going to be a big issue.

Kevin

RC2014 Bus Reverser

I’m not sure quite how universal this is, but this started because I wanted to add a single RC2014 card to my Easy Z80, which supports an RC2014 bus interface.

Easy, I thought, just add a 40-way socket and the card will plug in. And in principle it would. I would end up with something like this.

But then I realised that the orientation of the RC2014 bus was probably meant to be used for pin headers to make the EasyZ80 be more of a CPU card in a bus system, as shown below.

But what I’m heading towards is being able to plug in a compact flash card, which means connecting the following:

And in either of the above configurations, the cards will be sticking out at odd angles, and feeling somewhat precarious. It would be great if I could just connect them horizontally as shown above.

So that is what I’ve built.

This is an RC2014 bus pin reverser. In the photo above pin 1 is at the bottom on the left hand side and at the top of the right hand side.

There is an option to not pass through VCC, just in case at some point I wanted to connect two independently powered systems.

Originally I envisaged the silkscreen as shown above being the top, but it turns out I got things the wrong way round for that to happen. And it does need to be the right way around as the VCC connection is a wider track and GND connects to the GND fill. Also the jumper and capacitor would be between the wrong two connections if I tried to connect it up the other way round. I guess what I’m saying is that it is not a fully symmetrical reversal of all 40 pins.

It actually works quite well for any “all in one” CPU card being connected to a single IO card. Below I have my RC2014 Micro connected to the digital IO module.

There isn’t a lot else to say really. The BOM is pretty minimal: just two 40-way right angle headers in addition to the PCB, capacitor and jumper. The capacitor and jumper are optional and the jumper can be replaced with a wire link if required.

The schematic and PCB files can be found on GitHub here.

I originally thought the converter would have pin headers on one side and a pin socket on the other. But once I realised I really wanted to connect a card to a card, the use of two sets of pin sockets seemed right. But really, any combination can obviously be used if it works.

Note: I have no idea what this does to any signal integrity. There is certainly no attempt to keep trace lengths equal or anything like that. But I figure if the RC22014 can get away with pin headers in the first place, I suspect that kind of thing is not going to be a big issue.

Kevin

RC2014 Bus Reverser

I’m not sure quite how universal this is, but this started because I wanted to add a single RC2014 card to my Easy Z80, which supports an RC2014 bus interface.

Easy, I thought, just add a 40-way socket and the card will plug in. And in principle it would. I would end up with something like this.

But then I realised that the orientation of the RC2014 bus was probably meant to be used for pin headers to make the EasyZ80 be more of a CPU card in a bus system, as shown below.

But what I’m heading towards is being able to plug in a compact flash card, which means connecting the following:

And in either of the above configurations, the cards will be sticking out at odd angles, and feeling somewhat precarious. It would be great if I could just connect them horizontally as shown above.

So that is what I’ve built.

This is an RC2014 bus pin reverser. In the photo above pin 1 is at the bottom on the left hand side and at the top of the right hand side.

There is an option to not pass through VCC, just in case at some point I wanted to connect two independently powered systems.

Originally I envisaged the silkscreen as shown above being the top, but it turns out I got things the wrong way round for that to happen. And it does need to be the right way around as the VCC connection is a wider track and GND connects to the GND fill. Also the jumper and capacitor would be between the wrong two connections if I tried to connect it up the other way round. I guess what I’m saying is that it is not a fully symmetrical reversal of all 40 pins.

It actually works quite well for any “all in one” CPU card being connected to a single IO card. Below I have my RC2014 Micro connected to the digital IO module.

There isn’t a lot else to say really. The BOM is pretty minimal: just two 40-way right angle headers in addition to the PCB, capacitor and jumper. The capacitor and jumper are optional and the jumper can be replaced with a wire link if required.

The schematic and PCB files can be found on GitHub here.

I originally thought the converter would have pin headers on one side and a pin socket on the other. But once I realised I really wanted to connect a card to a card, the use of two sets of pin sockets seemed right. But really, any combination can obviously be used if it works.

Note: I have no idea what this does to any signal integrity. There is certainly no attempt to keep trace lengths equal or anything like that. But I figure if the RC22014 can get away with pin headers in the first place, I suspect that kind of thing is not going to be a big issue.

Kevin

RC2014 Bus Reverser

I’m not sure quite how universal this is, but this started because I wanted to add a single RC2014 card to my Easy Z80, which supports an RC2014 bus interface.

Easy, I thought, just add a 40-way socket and the card will plug in. And in principle it would. I would end up with something like this.

But then I realised that the orientation of the RC2014 bus was probably meant to be used for pin headers to make the EasyZ80 be more of a CPU card in a bus system, as shown below.

But what I’m heading towards is being able to plug in a compact flash card, which means connecting the following:

And in either of the above configurations, the cards will be sticking out at odd angles, and feeling somewhat precarious. It would be great if I could just connect them horizontally as shown above.

So that is what I’ve built.

This is an RC2014 bus pin reverser. In the photo above pin 1 is at the bottom on the left hand side and at the top of the right hand side.

There is an option to not pass through VCC, just in case at some point I wanted to connect two independently powered systems.

Originally I envisaged the silkscreen as shown above being the top, but it turns out I got things the wrong way round for that to happen. And it does need to be the right way around as the VCC connection is a wider track and GND connects to the GND fill. Also the jumper and capacitor would be between the wrong two connections if I tried to connect it up the other way round. I guess what I’m saying is that it is not a fully symmetrical reversal of all 40 pins.

It actually works quite well for any “all in one” CPU card being connected to a single IO card. Below I have my RC2014 Micro connected to the digital IO module.

There isn’t a lot else to say really. The BOM is pretty minimal: just two 40-way right angle headers in addition to the PCB, capacitor and jumper. The capacitor and jumper are optional and the jumper can be replaced with a wire link if required.

The schematic and PCB files can be found on GitHub here.

I originally thought the converter would have pin headers on one side and a pin socket on the other. But once I realised I really wanted to connect a card to a card, the use of two sets of pin sockets seemed right. But really, any combination can obviously be used if it works.

Note: I have no idea what this does to any signal integrity. There is certainly no attempt to keep trace lengths equal or anything like that. But I figure if the RC22014 can get away with pin headers in the first place, I suspect that kind of thing is not going to be a big issue.

Kevin

RC2014 Bus Reverser

I’m not sure quite how universal this is, but this started because I wanted to add a single RC2014 card to my Easy Z80, which supports an RC2014 bus interface.

Easy, I thought, just add a 40-way socket and the card will plug in. And in principle it would. I would end up with something like this.

But then I realised that the orientation of the RC2014 bus was probably meant to be used for pin headers to make the EasyZ80 be more of a CPU card in a bus system, as shown below.

But what I’m heading towards is being able to plug in a compact flash card, which means connecting the following:

And in either of the above configurations, the cards will be sticking out at odd angles, and feeling somewhat precarious. It would be great if I could just connect them horizontally as shown above.

So that is what I’ve built.

This is an RC2014 bus pin reverser. In the photo above pin 1 is at the bottom on the left hand side and at the top of the right hand side.

There is an option to not pass through VCC, just in case at some point I wanted to connect two independently powered systems.

Originally I envisaged the silkscreen as shown above being the top, but it turns out I got things the wrong way round for that to happen. And it does need to be the right way around as the VCC connection is a wider track and GND connects to the GND fill. Also the jumper and capacitor would be between the wrong two connections if I tried to connect it up the other way round. I guess what I’m saying is that it is not a fully symmetrical reversal of all 40 pins.

It actually works quite well for any “all in one” CPU card being connected to a single IO card. Below I have my RC2014 Micro connected to the digital IO module.

There isn’t a lot else to say really. The BOM is pretty minimal: just two 40-way right angle headers in addition to the PCB, capacitor and jumper. The capacitor and jumper are optional and the jumper can be replaced with a wire link if required.

The schematic and PCB files can be found on GitHub here.

I originally thought the converter would have pin headers on one side and a pin socket on the other. But once I realised I really wanted to connect a card to a card, the use of two sets of pin sockets seemed right. But really, any combination can obviously be used if it works.

Note: I have no idea what this does to any signal integrity. There is certainly no attempt to keep trace lengths equal or anything like that. But I figure if the RC22014 can get away with pin headers in the first place, I suspect that kind of thing is not going to be a big issue.

Kevin