SuperSoft HRx - Versuch eines Neubaus

  • Prinzipiell gabs die Karte für fast alle Pets. Als HR40 für 9Zöller, als HR40B für 12Zoll 40Zeichen Geräte und als HR80 für die 80Zeichen Serien. Für letztere auch mit 640*200 Zumindest die 40b und die 80 sind bis auf einen 74er Chip und um den herum ein paar Layoutänderungen auf den ersten Blick identisch. Die 40er scheint vor allem einen anderen Formfaktor zu haben und ist fiddeliger eingebunden, mit einem Haufen Huckepackadaptern.


    Für die 40b hab ich Bilder eines unbestückten Boards, von der 80er die Rückseite und bestückte Boards, von der 40 nur ein paar Bilder. Also erst mal die 40b.

    I have the 9 inch hr-40 board which can be found on my Flickr account.

    Can you post a picture of this board? I don't have a Flickr account.

  • That's very different to the graphics board for the universal boards.

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  • It is. Don’t know if it was Supersoft (commercial) or someone else (DIY), took that board and changed how it connected to make it work on a Universal motherboard….


    The Supersofts HR-40B design utilises the CRTC chip unlike this one. The picture below was captured from an eBay auction (didn’t bid for it) and you can follow the connections Including the addition of diodes for the blue wire (middle) and red wire (bottom right). Yellow is untouched.




    8 Mal editiert, zuletzt von AndyG ()

  • have the 9 inch hr-40 board which can be found on my Flickr account.


    I only have one board (unlike the hr-40b) so am reluctant to remove IC’s …. though … I can photograph it in more detail as needed ….

    Totally understand that you don't want to rip the ICs from it. But yea if you can make some nice pics from the underside and like - every side of the ics and maybe also keep a continuity tester in reach xD

  • HR80 is also figured out and the schematic is drawn.

    The additional LS157 Multiplexer is used to double the pixels

    Its 4 outputs are each connected (through some NANDs to allow mixing text and graphic) to 2 "neighboring datalines of the Charrom socket.

    First, the Bit 0-3 from the RAM data are written out:

    Bit 0 -> Charrom Bits 0 & 1

    Bit 1 -> Charrom Bits 2 & 3

    Bit 2 -> Charrom Bits 4 & 5

    Bit 3 -> Charrom Bits 6 & 7


    then the multiplexer switches to the upper bits, allowing the pet to draw the space of what would be the next character:


    Bit 4 -> Charrom Bits 0 & 1

    Bit 5 -> Charrom Bits 2 & 3

    Bit 6 -> Charrom Bits 4 & 5

    Bit 7 -> Charrom Bits 6 & 7


    Btw. the latest version of the HR exhibition flyer talks about the existence of yet another version, the HR80PLUS, with 16K of Ram, allowing for a 640*200 output! Combined with the reported HR82 that makes 5 different HR graphics boards in total :)

  • Great work ….. Look forward to building up one of these boards from new.


    Supersoft were very active back in the day. I made a full scan of their Winter 1982 catalogue where these other boards are also talked about but no pictures. I have never seen the HR80 plus.


    supersoft.pdf

  • Current state: HR40b and HR80 more or less done. I crated a github repository. Still private, as usual but if someone wants to look...


    im starting to get behind the differences between the HR40 (non CRTC) and the HR40b (CRTC) board. identified the chips that are absent (most "CRT-related" as far as i get it)and trying to understand a bit more of everything.


    I catched a flu and feel quite ill the last days, so no soldering yet on the data pecker, unfortunately.

  • thanks :)

    in the meantime: what does that do? the video latch signal runs through this chain of inverters and the final nand stage, while on the non CRTC board the video latch signal is used directly. in both cases its then used to latch the graphic ram datalines onto the the charom datalines.


    If i understand that correctly its delaying the transition from low to high and high to low?



    only have to find out how they do the switching between chars and gfx on the 40 then the 40 shematics should be complete, too

  • Naja es ist wohl sowas wie ein Flanken Detektor?


    Es nützt die Gatter Laufzeit. Dadurch wird ein Impuls erzeugt wenn das Eingangssignal auf High geht, dann geht das Ausgangssignal für ein paar Nano Sekunden auf Low?

  • I found these two photos in my Flickr album which may be useful. Will take more this weekend.. the IC sockets for the character rom and ram chips are solid so you cannot see tracks that run underneath them. I would imagine though for the big chips the tracks are similar to the HR40b?


    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von AndyG ()

  • Thanks for that.


    I think i have it boiled down to 4 questions that im 90% sure of should be okay.

    Could you please check if these are true:

    • IC7 Pin 2,3,8 and IC10 Pin5 are connected
    • Blue clip wire (near IC10) and IC9 Pin 10 and IC6 Pin2 are connected
    • IC 3 Pin3 and CHARROM-Adapter Pin 15 are connected
    • Red clip wire (near IC4) and IC4 Pin 11 and the small trace under UD3 are connected



    Unfortunately the HR40 has a multitude of traces and vias clearly going nowhere, which made it harder to identify the hidden traces.

    But with these 4 questions answered, the card should be complete.

  • Just checked

    • IC7 Pin 2,3,8 IC10 Pin5 are connected - YES
    • Blue clip wire (near IC10) and IC9 Pin 10 and IC6 Pin2 are connected - YES
    • IC 3 Pin3 and CHARROM-Adapter Pin 15 are connected - YES. The adapter but not charm IC itself
    • Red clip wire (near IC4) and IC4 Pin 11 and the small trace under UD3 are connected - YES. The trace by UD3 where I tested was infant of the IC by the UDS label
  • I hate auto correct - was turned back on after an update.... sorry. I tested the trace under UD3 as requested and they are connected.


    Also Pin11 of IC4 is connected to this track. My test point for that was the point circled on the left in front of UD3 label to pin 11 of UC4.


    147407-pasted-from-clipboard-png

  • Haha yea autocorrect made me say things i dont wanna type here xD


    But that's great news, so everything turns out to be correct. And it makes sense in the schematic, too, as far as i can see (especially that long "dead" wire - its the VIDEO_LATCH signal from the pet. Goes directly in ICPin11 and should not go anywhere else. Maybe they intended to supply different possibilities of attaching the flyout wire.


    NO WAIT... just checked that HR40b issue1 board you posted from the ebay auction - there you can see, they connected it on a universal board (i think) from UD1 Pin13 - that IS VIDEO_LATCH and also from UA2 Pin7, that is _CLK16 / CLK8 there. Both via diode and they a pulldown (?) - and that is on that seemingly nonsense Pin - oh.. can you please check if this lone thick trace is GND or +5V? Now i bet its 5V




    With this.. next step would be a physical prototype of the HR40, HR40b and HR80 cards =O