Real Time Clock Board

[CraigsBar]

Me, too! Hoping for a correct desktop clock in SymbOS =)

indeed, that's what I want one for too. Then my justcpc will be my main symbos machine. With the 3 inboard slots occupied by xmem, xmass and rtc.

[radu14m]

indeed, that's what I want one for too. Then my justcpc will be my main symbos machine. With the 3 inboard slots occupied by xmem, xmass and rtc.

yes, thats the only usage place i see. It"s a nice to have board imho.
Or i am missing something ?

[CraigsBar]

yes, thats the only usage place i see. It"s a nice to have board imho.
Or i am missing something ?

FutureOS as well, and I am hoping that ACMEDos will support timestamping on a FAT 32 filesystem...

[radu14m]

ACMEDos... when it will be released ?

[TotO]

SyX will be back this summer. So, please, wait... 

[dxs]

AFAIK this kind of RTC is not supported by SymbOS at the moment. However, as stated, FutureOS does support it.

[TFM]

The Dobbertin RTC (that's what we are talking about here) is supported by (nearly) everything:
- Firmware (TimeROM)
- CP/M Plust (TimeROM+.COM)
- 63 KB Dobbertin CP/M 2.2
- FutureOS


There are lots of usages aside of the Time stamp (CP/M Plus or ACMEDOS). Use your fantasy 

[tonio8bits]

I'm interested in one board too !

[dxs]

Yesterday the first boards showed up in the mail, so I fired the soldering iron today and to my complete surprise the board / software is fully working as expected. Compatibility was checked with other MX4 extensions, everything is fine (I couldn't check regarding X-Mass as I'm waiting for the AcmeROM to be released).
I'll get back to interested people and also report in this thread. Price and details will be announced then, 20 pieces will be made, first come first serve.








The full stack 



French software version, Di = dimanche = sunday.



This is the final production board, except you won't get socketed ICs (except for the EPROM), and the EPROM will actually be an EEPROM (the same as in the MFII reproduction by Talrek).

[CraigsBar]

Great news interested in 2 of these please. One for my just CPC and one for my other machines

[Gryzor]

Damn, I'll be on vacation then Can't I pre-order one piece?

[radu14m]

Interested in one piece, depending of the cost 

[remax]

Interested in one piece, depending of the cost 

Same for me

[TFM]

Yesterday the first boards showed up in the mail, so I fired the soldering iron today and to my complete surprise the board / software is fully working as expected. Compatibility was checked with other MX4 extensions, everything is fine (I couldn't check regarding X-Mass as I'm waiting for the AcmeROM to be released).
I still have to make the user manual, and I'm overloaded with stuff until mid-july, so orders will be taken around mid-summer, I'll get back to interested people and also report in this thread. Price and details will be announced then, 20 pieces will be made, first come first serve.

This is awesome. I would like to take one for sure. 

[dxs]

Actually I decided to start taking orders right now, so everybody who expressed interest in this thread should have received a PM with details. Shipping will take place from mid-july up to end of august.


Price has been set: including tracked shipping is 33.90e (36.90e) within France (Europe) for the first board. Each additional board is 30e.


If you want one and didn't post in this thread or didn't receive my PM, please get in touch I might have a few left.

[qbert]

ok dxs, then I'm up for one more ! (I haven't expressed my interest to this day).
Please just confirm availability.

Actually I decided to start taking orders right now, so everybody who expressed interest in this thread should have received a PM with details. Shipping will take place from mid-july up to end of august.

[dxs]

qbert: PM sent

[Bryce]

I don't want one, but full marks for keeping the design so "old school", no CPLD, FPGA etc, just good old TTL and through-hole parts! Beautiful.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Hi @dxs : What are the jumpers good for? One switches the ROM off right?


On which number is the ROM located?


Can you please tell us a bit more? Finally a dream comes true for me! 

[dxs]

Yeah well maybe I couldn't have FPGA'ed it    This is my first eagle project btw. If this was to be redone I would program a GAL to replace TTL parts.

A full documentation will be supplied, along with the software to be programmed into X-Mem / MegaFlash for use in parallel with such a board. The 3 jumpers are to be used to select the mode:
  - all 3 to INT: internal eprom is used, this way the RTC can be used on it's own. ROM is at position 2. You don't need anything else to use the RTC.
  - all 3 to EXT: external rom from romboard is used, this way the RTC can be paralleled with your X-Mem. The RTC module is at position &72 (decimal 114) and this info will be useful when installing FutureOS !
[ There are 3 jumpers because 3 bits from the databus are inverted, (&72 is 111 0010 and &2 is  10). ]

The RTC module I'm using is a modded Dallas DS1216, allowing using external battery and physically separating the RTC from EPROM. Regarding software, the mods I made are:
  - a translation to English and French (there's not much into it actually, just the days of the week and a few other lines)
  - correcting Y2K bug. This is how it's done: the leap years during 20th and 21th century are, by definition, at the same tens and units of years. I mean: leap years were 1904 1908 1912 ... and now they are 2004 2008 2012... So for any given date, the day of the week between 20th and 21th century is shifted by a fixed amount: -1.Meaning: 22/06/1915: Tuesday (day of week 2)                22/06/2015: Monday (day of week 1)and this is true for any day of the year.So I hex edited the two letter codes for the days, replacing TUesday by MOnday, etc etc.
  - changing the way the software searches for the RTC module, allowing to find it at &72 or &2


However the board is really simple to use, thanks to the TIMEROM software. I'll give details later, I'm working on the user manual.

[Gryzor]

I don't want one, but full marks for keeping the design so "old school", no CPLD, FPGA etc, just good old TTL and through-hole parts! Beautiful.

Bryce.

How about a few cogs, two or three arms and a flip-calendar?

[Bryce]

How about a few cogs, two or three arms and a flip-calendar?

That's steampunk, not retro

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Ah yes, do add some copper pipes in while you're at it.

[CraigsBar]

Copper pipes, of course, an rtc must need some serious cooling

[Gryzor]

Unfortunately it can only have two dials at most... Or maybe three.