A prototype board for MSX would be a PCB without components but with at least a quality double sided goldplated edge slotconnector and enough holes in a standard grid.

Hard to find for the older computers like the MSX alas. Kludges like recycling ISA board connectors might help, but a real prototyping board is a better starting point.

I have found this site: http://www.8bitbaby.de where a general purpose prototype board is shown and seems to go in production soon. Not only suitable for MSX and Apple II (both have 2x25 edge slot connectors, but also for other computers.

Will become available as bareboard, also available with an Altera MAX 3032 or 3064 CPLD.

Estimated price 10 euro for a bareboard. No ordering yet!

I go to this site as fast as I can !

Thanks !

The 8bit baby is born.



This prototype board is now available, and for a low price, see http://www.8bitbaby.de/

Quote from the webstore at http://www.siliconsonic.de/news/news108_e.htm


It's an experimenting-board for hobbyists who want to develop hardware on their own. As the name already suggests, the board aims at users of the popular 8-bit computers of the 80s. These computers all have expansion ports that carry all important signals. Unfortunately, most hobbyists do not have the chance to make their own expansions, because experimenting boards normally do not have slot-connectors.

This problem is now solved with the "8 Bit Baby". The board has a special connector for a computer on each of the four sides:
for C64: 44-pin, raster 2,54mm
for VIC-20: 44-pin, raster 3,96mm
for C16/C116/plus-4: 50-pin, raster 2,0mm
for Apple II: 50-pin, raster 2,54mm (which is identical to MSX raster)
The board is prepared for a programmable logic chip by Altera in order to bring hardware development up-to-date. The EPM3064 can replace many TTL-chips with it's 64 macrocells and up to 34 IO-pins.

Thanks for the great tip Hans! I will order some asap

Individual Computers makes quality hardware, at least the Catweasel cards that I have.

this post is very old, but...
the site 8bitbaby is down. does anybody has any news about it?
best regards
carlos

No, unfortunately. The board is still available though for order.

Individual Computers (manufacturer)
http://www.jschoenfeld.com

Protovision (reseller)
http://www.protovision-online.de/hardw/hardwstart.htm#baby

GGS-Data (Swedish reseller)
http://www.ggsdata.se/Datorer/8bitbaby.html

I didn't know this. Very nice!

Does this board allow to pin components without soldering? (like if it were a breadboard)

Ooooh... I want oneeee!

No, it has through plated holes.

There are holes for the bus so using a 1 pin line socket and a prototyping board will give you a nice dev kit.

I was just wondering if I would be able to plug the following in this board without having to solder:

http://wiznet.co.kr/pro_iin_wiz810mj.htm

You have to solder the bus connectors once and then add a solderless breadboard.

Hi there,
I got two of these cards, and some CPLD 3064.

But I could never program the cpld successfully.
There is a nice startup page here: http://www.themotionstore.com/leeedavison/misc/cpld/flash/index.html

I must have burned out the 3.3v regulator, resistors and capacitors when soldering it. I may have even burned the cpld.
I have two more, but will need to buy other components and try again.

Have someone else tried there cards, and could program the cpld?

So, no one interested in this topic anymore?

This weekend, i managed to make my 8bitbaby prototype work... I did not burn it after all.

It has a long time since I last developed anything for the MSX, so I spend some time reading some MSX hardware specifications, regarding to the slots expansion.

I want to make a simple hardware device, connected to the slot, to understand how it works, and how I can address the hardware connected to the slots by memmory mapped io.

The idea is: turn on some leds connected to the prototype board.

I have developed this VHDL code, and need some opinions if this might work, or, if I am going to burn something inside my MSX:

------------------------------------------------
entity msx_top is
port
(
msx_clock : in std_logic;
led : out std_logic;
cs1_n : in std_logic;
int_n : out std_logic;
busdir_n : out std_logic;
iorq_n : in std_logic;
mreq_n : in std_logic;
wr_n : in std_logic;
rd_n : in std_logic;
reset_n : out std_logic;
a : in std_logic_vector(11 downto 0);
d : inout std_logic_vector(7 downto 0)
);
end msx_top;


architecture rtl of msx_top is
begin

led <= rd_n and cs1_n;

process (msx_clock)
begin
if msx_clock'event and msx_clock = '1' then
if cs1_n = '0' and rd_n = '0' then
case a is
when "000000000000" =>
d <= "01000010"; -- 42h
when "000000000001" =>
d <= "01000001"; -- 41h
when "000000000010" =>
d <= "01000000"; -- 40h
when "000000000011" =>
d <= "00000000"; -- 00h
when others =>
d <= "10101010"; -- AAh
end case;
end if;
end if;
end process;

end rtl;
------------------------------------------------

Little explanation:
I simulate a ROM cartdrige (headers 4241h), and INIT address 4000h.

All read access, to whatever address, will always return AAAAh (binary 10101010). The CPLD EPM3064 does not have much space for memory emulation.

A led will light up for every read access.

This is the beginning.
Later, I will check the write date, and turn on leds according to the values sent by the MSX. This way, I will know how communication works and will step forward to create something useful, like MMC/SD access or something else.

I will publish the Quartus Project on my site when it is working, but, before connecting to my MSX, I will need some advice from you hardware guys, if there is something critical I must now and change.

Thanks,
Roni

I'm not a hardware or VHDL expert, but I think it will not work.

The ROM header is wrong. It is #41, #42 and not #42, #41
The INIT address points to #0040 (somewhere in the BIOS). You have to change the bytes order. Furthermore, in #4000 there is no code at all, so the program will crash.
Also "led <= rd_n and cs1_n" will make almost imposible to see it, since the signals change too fast.

What about making a simple example that stores bit 0 of data bus when you write to #4000-#BFFF (/CS2). You can use that bit to control the led.
In that way you can test it easily from BASIC and don't need to simulate a ROM.

See ? My MSX stayed too much time boxed...

I am missing something...
You mean, a hardware device can interface with the MSX when /CS2 is asserted, using address 4000h to BFFFh ? That easy?

I emulated ROM just because did not know other way to make the interface, but will try you suggestion. Thanks.

One bad thing about the 8bitbaby is that it is not possible to just connect it to the MSX slot. The pins are there, but the board are too wide and will not fit into the slot. I am already thinking about using a damaged cartdridge I have as part of the prototype board, and wire it up to the 8bitbaby. Makes testing faster.

Guillian, if you have more suggestions, you are welcome.
Thaks.

Quote:

You mean, a hardware device can interface with the MSX when /CS2 is asserted, using address 4000h to BFFFh ? That easy?

I wanted to mean that checking /CS2 signal you know if that cartridge slot is being accesed in #4000-#BFFF
Then you can check /WR to know if it is a writing operation and D0 to get bit 0 of the data bus.

In this way you can make simple test from BASIC:

poke &hf677,&hc0  <= change BASIC program memory area
out &ha8,&b11010000 <= select slot 1 in #8000-#BFFF (short way)
out &ha8,inp(&ha8)AND&b11001111OR&b00010000 <= select slot 1 in #8000-#BFFF (long way)
poke &h8000,1 <= D0 = 1 - Led ON
poke &h8000,0 <= D0 = 0 - Led OFF