Z80 Note Kit Assembly and Getting Started

[@lightmagick]

I would love to purchase this as a kit to put together on my own. I love these kinds of things.

[@adamsfusion]

10:20 "Flux isn't super conductive but it also isn't non-conductive" This bit me a few years back when building one of Sergey Kiselev's 8088 SBCs. Couldn't get anything on the board to work right, the timing was slightly wonky, a slight buzz from the onboard speaker. Ended up dropping the board in alcohol and taking a tooth brush to it, and that completely fixed the issue. After all that work, it must have been the flux conducting just enough to cause some parts to go into indeterminate states. Wash your flux!

[@donpalmera]

Small cheap ultrasonic cleaner is super handy. I used to manually clean boards and it's messy. Now I solder everything up, stick the board in a ziplock bag with enough flux cleaner to cover the board and then dump that into a little ultrasonic cleaner filled with water. It's also good for SMD soldering with paste as you usually get rogue solder balls that are almost invisible but can cause hard to debug shorts etc. With my method all of those fall off of the board and end up at the bottom of the ziplock bag.

[@Lilithe]

I have an issue where the board boots but yeah the timing looks weird and it never shows a display. (I get the Intel Inside beeps. 2 different VGA cards that both work in 8bit mode on another machine.) So weird. I've been very clean with it. I used no-clean flux and then cleaned it anyway. No dice. Hmm...

[@KillaBitz]

0 flux given. :)

[@Bonswally]

It's more likely that you dislodged something metallic when you cleaned it.

[@MediocreTCG]

Been rewatching a bunch of old stuff you've done and was running out. Its like you knew I needed new content

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

I been fixing up a TRS-80 Model II (Z80 machine from 1978) lately, and I've been really impressed by the simplicity of the Z80 system, even with the full PIO/SIO/timer chipset and DMA.

[@BastetFurry]

"What is a board? A miserable little pile of components! But enough talk, lets solder you!" ;)

[@wiidlbeetle3857]

Joe Blow then Richter whoops dat booty

[@Decco6306]

Furries always seem to gather around tech related videos. Respec

[@wiidlbeetle3857]

Kipper Klank 😆 wha?!

[@Decco6306]

@@wiidlbeetle3857 Serously tho. I am too >.>

[@gradertfamilymakes]

Where do I buy this?

[@therealfox]

Whats the Price?

[@untrust2033]

@@therealfox askin the real questions

[@jaa93997]

I too would like to purchase one

[@IamTHERedStone]

just take my money XD

[@josephroblesjr.8944]

Yeah!

[@twicethemegapower3995]

Bruh, I sat through @18:00 minutes of this before Ben gave us a quote and we got no signing other than the a cappella Castlevania OST. But since both the quote and the song were from SotN, it was worth the wait

[@johnkeeling5629]

I am waiting for the boards I ordered using your BRD file. I am trying to figure out how to import BOM which is trickier than one would expect. Thanks for making all this available for us!

[@android01978]

Ha ha ha. “Happy little clouds” ... he’s the Bob Ross of soldering.

[@squirlmy]

although Bob Ross was a former First Sergeant at an Air Force base in Alaska. I can't get that out of mind now. "You will make your little clouds happy right now, maggot!

[@RanHam]

Got all the parts for 2 kits for around 100 bucks, haven't assembled yet. I'll have to try to do it this weekend.

[@RetroGameCoders]

I have been looking forward to seeing this video since you first started the project, such a shame it was started right as the pandemic took hold. Would love to get one if you do sell them at some point :)

[@BenHeckHacks]

I have the one I just built for this demo. Email me via benheck.com glad to sell it (I already have one for doing code)

[@Skellotronix]

Plandemic

[@waltercomunello121]

@@Skellotronix subtle.

[@CubeBag]

@@Skellotronix Oh get out of here with that conspiracy crap

[@JoepXE]

Will keep following your channel. Can't wait till you make this thing portable.

[@DapperDonald]

Ben, I bodged the board files on Github to do an SMT joystick and a USB-C connector and ordered some boards. If it works (which is a big if since most of my Eagle experience is "watching your videos"), is it cool if I sell the extra boards? One's yours for the asking of course.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Fine by me! If it works maybe I could host the files? Though I hate USB-C :)

[@DapperDonald]

Ooo, the boards came in. Wow those.... Those pads are smaller than they looked on KZbin or in Eagle. I may need to cut a trace and add a bodge wire because it turns out those vias are exceptionally close to things they should connect to.

[@DapperDonald]

Well I forgot the USB data line resistors, but I did flash the Arduino bootloader on the ATMega32U4. First surface-mount soldering completed.

[@DapperDonald]

@@BenHeckHacks Status update: flashed the Arduino Leonardo code, but I still have some debugging to do of my soldering. Joystick down causes an Arduino reset, and the Z80 doesn't run at all. Step by step!

[@DapperDonald]

Fixed the reset, had a bridge to a via, which was a problem because I made a newbie layout decision. Now I can't seem to load/read into RAM. The monitor says all 0xFF...

[@mikehigham23]

Nice to see a Z80 again. Somewhere back in the '70s I built both the Nascom-I and Nascom-II computers. IIRC, the Nascom I had 1,700 thru hole solder connections to make. No surface mount! The Nascom-II had even more. Very powerful for the time. Space Invaders was great! IMO, if IBM had chosen the Zilog Z80 instead in the Intel 8080/8086 for the PC, IT would have advanced in leaps and bounds. Sadly the Z8000 was the end of that family. Zilog instruction set was far more logical and consistent than Intel ever was or will be.

[@juancarlosquintana2111]

The Z8000 was like a dream machine....probably the cost was too high....D.E.C. has the LSI 11 cpu that emulated a pdp-11/03 . But the Z8000 could beat The pdp 11 family and there was one maybe Z8002 or the other has more addressing memory space than the 11. I have a digital drum made by yamaha.....I messed with it and inside I found a Toshiba cpu ...looking for the specifications on that cpu, I found that Toshiba ( now called Renesas something ) put that architecture of a pdp 11 in a musical instrument. ....

[@andrew1977au]

That was gold, ive had this VCR for 25years.... Had me 😂🤣😅🤣🤣😂

[@tango636]

18:00 "Symphony of the Night" had me quoting it and then firing up my trusty raspberry Pi for some Alucard action!

[@himselfe]

Would love a 6502 version of this.

[@1stage]

For those having problems finding IPA, watered-down Mean Green or Krud Kutter is REALLY great at removing flux, rinsed with clean water afterwards, and blown off/dried with compressed air. Also, it won't remove the PRECIOUS Ben Heck signature accidentally, like IPA will.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Goo Gone works well too. Not Good Off which is just acetone in a different bottle.

[@antonnym214]

Well done! I did some z-80 assembly for games programming on the trs-80 model 1 back in the day. It's nice to see the Z-80 is still alive and kicking after all these years. Is it still by Zilog?

[@ImaginationToForm]

Yup, still Zilog.

[@xc68hc705kj1]

Wow! I didn't expect that Castlevania SOTN acting!

[@RobertPendell]

Ben Heck. The Bob Ross of Circuit Boards.

[@donaldklopper]

Happy little clouds... I almost missed that Bob Ross reference!

[@rickhunt3183]

I'd like to see a video on writing the basic command interpreter. The Z80 is still a powerful CPU for what it is. The Z80 has always been a favorite. I'm old school so I know it well. A video on the board's schematic and theory of operation would be nice too. I did lots of home brew computer building in the 80's with this chip except that I was using assembly language and 2 to 8k static rams, but for control applications that's plenty. Seeing that soldering iron with globs of solder on it and not clean was driving me crazy, but you made it work. I always inspect each solder connection with a magnifying glass for perfection, but you're good. The MC68000 would be a good CPU to use also. I love using those in a project..I hope you have a great night...peace out dude.

[@willyarma_uk]

I just noticed by looking at the schematic that if you write to the buttons port it would cause bus contention which might damage something. /BUTTONS could do with being ORed with /RD, this could be achieved by using a 74LS541 instead of the 74LS245, it would require the board layout to be altered tho.

[@teknoman117]

I have some adapters for 386EX CPUs coming in. I can't say I'm not nervous about soldering those PGA-132 packages, especially because of how fragile they were apparently. I'm half thinking about picking up some solder paste so I can use my hot air station.

[@davidboyd8822]

How can I get one

[@UltimatePerfection]

Nice thing, though I would like a fully assembled option (even if I have to pay extra). I often find actually playing with stuff like this more enjoyable than putting them together. I have two left hands when it comes to any stuff like that. I cannot even put an RJ45 (ethernet) ending on a cat5 - like I know order of the vires and such, but I just am physically unable to, always some wire ends up not being all the way in and the entire thing is shot.

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

Would love to see a VGA interface for it.

[@alecdvor]

17:50 One of my favorite rants !

[@GeomancerHT]

You can do a Marvel Cinematic Universe reset on this one? I'll definitely get one!

[@spotterinc.engineering5207]

Now I can finish loading software on the board I got in March and built from bare PCB! Yea!

[@loganjorgensen]

21:06 Whatever shift in setup that was there has an audio level drop. Yeah I can raise the volume but I forget quickly and get blasted by the next video. 26:49 loud again. ^_^ What is that screen, 128x64, nice little menu design that fits such a tiny space? ;) It's a cute little screen but you could probably go a little bigger, reminds of the first televisions in frame to picture scale heh.

[@bf0189]

If you can't find isopropyl locally you can just buy straight up everclear or cheaper knockoffs and will work almost identically as a solvent since it's just ethanol with a very small amount of water basically.

[@TweakTechNow]

But what does it do? What is the good for?

[@Astinsan]

How much? Will it run cp/m? That’s awesome ben

[@dbsoundguy782]

i would love to buy one of these kits if you decide to do another run.

[@lokz9632]

What temperature you use on soldering iron in this video? In Celsius?

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

How familiar is the mos 6502's assembly code with this z80?

[@thatroom]

i know i'm a geek because i recognized the castlevania quote immediately.

[@norapper6182]

I don’t know what this is but I love it 😻 badass little pcb

[@kieferrush6818]

And it's purple LOL

[@NotIT]

Ben doesn’t give a flux about flux. 😎

[@HarrisNewman0208]

I would like to buy one if there are anymore available

[@emotionz3]

I buy a beer to the first person who ports Wolfenstein!

[@Slay1337pl]

Usb Mini B in 2020. Why not USB C?

[@excitableboy7031]

Ben you accidentally bridged two pins in the first chip you soldered

[@miniwarrior7]

Man I'm staring at it like "FIX IT"

[@artstrutzenberg7197]

hmmm....this is a Z80 computer kit..the ColecoVision also used a Z80....how hard do you think it would be to implement something that let you run coleco games off this thing? (I guess emulator would still be the correct term)?

[@BenHeckHacks]

Totally doable. You'd just map the Coleco BIOS and game to the right parts of RAM then the video chip and controls are ports on the Z80.

[@Bewefau]

Hmm, I'm new what is this for?

[@reao]

Can you still buy the kits?

[@EngineeringVignettes]

The camera goes _wiggle wiggle wiggle_ ... :) Curious as to where you got the Z80 chips. Last manufacturer that I knew of was Rabbit (was Z-World). Cheers,

[@BenHeckHacks]

You can still buy them from suppliers. Bought some to fulfill the kits marked as 2019 build.

[@EngineeringVignettes]

@@BenHeckHacks - You know, I never even considered that Zilog was still in business... (checked digikey... yep) That went under my radar. Cheers!

[@mikekopack6441]

How do we get one of these????

[@TanjoGalbi]

Half way through your signature vanished! Did you screw up the one you signed or did you rub off the signature? 😏

[@BenHeckHacks]

Yeah it wasn't a continuous edit. And yes, I erased it then did it again.

[@legnyov]

У меня ещё сохранились несколько компьютеров из 90х! На Z80 3,5 МГц, КР580ВМ80 2,5 МГц (СССР аналог IBM 8080) и др.

[@trendmend]

AYYYYY I was waiting for a new video!

[@TheCode-X]

May it be possible for you to make a re-think of the C64 as you made it with the Z-80? I would really love to get a C64 cheaper than getting the full deluxe kit ppl sell for 200 bucks

[@YourMotherSucksCocksInHell]

The C64 doesn't have a Z80.

[@TheCode-X]

@@YourMotherSucksCocksInHell True, but thats not what i wanted to mean, my idea is: Getting the few unskippable ICs and reducing the board shape to something cheaper maybe with a PS2 keyboard and RCA jack to use any monitor instead of RF stuff

[@Fezzler61]

What would a person use this for?

[@scharkalvin]

I think you can still get those joyswitchs from Adafruit. Is this one similar (www.adafruit.com/product/504)?

[@wmoecke]

So still no avail getting this kit?

[@UKSonicBoomBoy]

Cotton Buds are now banned in the UK since 1st October. What are we all going to use? Ideas?

[@ianhaylock7409]

An old toothbrush works fine. Though you really need a lint free tissue, or cloth to mop up the IPA afterwards.

[@robbiejmsn1]

I'm in Australia, how can I get one of these?

[@human_brian]

Why does it look like Ben's iron isn't hot enough. It seems to barely be melting the solder and it's causing weird blobs to form. That or he needs some flux on those joints to help the solder flow.

[@ianhaylock7409]

He needs flux. Would have been nice to fit some of the chips using flux, to show people how the solder flows better when you use flux.

[@mikehensley78]

HAVE AT YOU! i love those old games. :D

[@neophytealpha]

What exactly is it?

[@josephroblesjr.8944]

I have never sourced parts for something like this but I think it would make a fun project so i'm gonna try. Any advice from anyone here?

[@dctaken]

Ben and Adafruit should partner up. Its a win-win for everybody.

[@codebeat4192]

No, please no. The biggest problem is the business model and the quality of code.

[@The_Vanished]

Better voice acting than the real sotn

[@marksmod]

19:00 what happens?

[@foxhannah]

Is possible to get one?

[@artstrutzenberg7197]

What are resistor arrays typically used for?

[@malloryworlton6359]

For pulling up or down wide parallel buses, because it's very bad to leave them in an indefinite state.

[@farseenabdulsalam6246]

I came to your channel from your comment on technology connections. Your content is really nice. But I would never have clicked on your thumbnails if they ever appeared on my feed because my brain seem to subconciously associate this style with clickbaits.

[@nailuj853]

What Soldering Iron and Solder would you recommend?

[@wolveric0]

If you are a complete beginner like me get a TS100, i got mine with the TS-BC2 tip, it is really compact and work great, you might also want to buy a hot air station if you're planning on working with smd, if so get a chinese 858d clone, they are enough for the hobbiest.

[@YourMotherSucksCocksInHell]

Don't get a TS100; it's a gimmick with a limited number of tips. Get any T-12 clone.

[@brianm6337]

*pictures poor kitty in Kitten Jail playing the harmonica* "Nobody meows the trouble I've seen... Nobody meows but Baaast..."

[@dcmodderful]

Neat but... Will it run crysis? 😶

[@disposablebasterd]

I so wanted one of these,

[@DesignedbyWill2084]

Long live the Z80!

[@allluckyseven]

You haven't done any more podcasts on benheck dot com since January... But I guess there isn't much to talk about in terms of movies and TV shows? I dunno, I haven't followed anything lately. But I sure miss those podcasts!

[@tiporari]

Solder bridge on the switch IC. Twitching 😂

[@BenHeckHacks]

Yeah I found that later on.

[@DC-rq9fr]

Will it play doom?

[@ovalwingnut]

New Viewer! A "suscribeable eXperience" 👍😎

[@mawamatakama5150]

EARTHQUAKEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ... Oh nevermind, It's just come camera shaking at the beginning of the video. @5:05 "If you want to leave a comment below about how I didn't use flux, go ahead, I don't care." - MOM! Ben Heck is bullying me! He doesn't want to use flux!

[@YourMotherSucksCocksInHell]

There's flux in the solder wire and in the solder braid, so he is using flux.

[@mawamatakama5150]

@@YourMotherSucksCocksInHell Fine, I won't tell my mum then.

[@fersunk]

Yeah, I learned the flux is conductive bit the hard way My circuit was acting all funky or just don't working at all I cleaned the shit of the PCB with alcohol and a tooth brush and suddenly work fine

[@mcu_nerd2163]

If you want to save on solder wick, I've found cheapo solder suckers aren't half bad at removing bridges from smd components.

[@jjones503]

Random question. Is that the plunger and tube thing that came in my soldering kit? I'm new to soldering and was wondering wth that thing was for 😅

[@NotChar]

I come for the soldering, I stay for the acapella SotN songs

[@alphatripduce]

Ahh i too dont like to use extra flux. my boss always is like "where is your flux" and I'm like the "solder has enough in it"

[@TheGamingComputerBomb]

That’s all good until you actually need to spread that solder across the other pins.

[@Bonswally]

If you know how to solder you only need flux for the fine pitch stuff.

[@MrDeivisD]

Hi Ben would be nice if you make A DIY 8-bit computer (Dendy, Ending-Man Terminator,ziliton) which use yellow cartridges. Edit- bought as a kid. Thanks Ben

[@MrJunk78]

Are we sure it's not a ZED 80? ;)

[@garrygreig6348]

Matthew, was just thinking exactly the same thing...

[@EndOfLineTech]

He’s not a communist. So no

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Zilog is an American company, so it's zee. I hear a bunch of English and Canadian youtubers call it zed-80, and I threaten to go back to saying zee ecks spectrum.

[@RabbitsInBlack]

What kind of idiot would call it ZED?

[@MrJunk78]

@@RabbitsInBlack You seem fun. It's a reference to this video serious: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHjGqJavgZ5_na8&ab_channel=element14presents

[@ValkGame]

Darn, I was hoping this video meant you'd be selling the kits.

[@norapper6182]

Same I really want one

[@EricPöggeler_Horror]

what is this?

[@hugohugo37]

The odds that I would solder that stuff on without destroying the board are nil. People who solder well make it look easy but I've struggled with it for years.

[@hammathguy3995]

At 9:58: NOR = 00? 74LS00 = NAND. But, other than that, wonderful.

[@danielm2142]

I see "Assembly" and immediately think programming in Z80 ASM instead of building the kit, not disappointed though, would build one myself but I feel far too lazy to solder for pleasure at the moment, I've barely got enough motivation to fix the piles of dead consoles on my shelves.

[@brainache555]

there’s flux in the solder. Hence the smoke.

[@manuellujan666]

Do it runs Crysis?

[@thsinger]

textmode only !

[@mawamatakama5150]

I'm pretty sure it will run Crazies.

[@holderbee7811]

Hey Ben.. 4 words: Automatic. Litter. Box. Please

[@briangoldberg4439]

I wanted to see you play a game on that thing.

[@ShotgunAU]

New Ben is better than old Ben and old Ben was rad af, new Ben is several orders of magnitude more rad af.

Wow! Like

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

This good to learn assembly code in real hardware, and no pay for random software

[@Rudofaux]

5:07 I'm commenting here because you told me to comment about you not using flux.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Ah. Thanks.

[@Rudofaux]

@@BenHeckHacks No problem. Enjoy your work.

[@Zero_Ego]

Awesome, said the geek. :) (The wife rolls her eyes) Woman!

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

Fun fact: I love solder things for no reason and or no sense and or no destination