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A little while ago I acquired a set of KLyballs's really cool OSI replica boards for the 600D the 610 and a copy of his own data separator. My intention was to build them up after I had my memory boards tested and manufactured. However, after running into a snag with that which seem, right now, to be a problem with my Superboard I decided to start the build of replica 600D. This way I'll have a known stable machine to continue testing my memory boards with and hopefully wrap that project up to.

I had some time today to get cracking on it. I made a parts list and went digging through my bins to see what I had. I was pleasantly surprised to find I had most of the ICs and nearly all the discrete components. Mostly what I'm lacking is sockets and key switches. I soldered up what I could, tested the oscillator (why not?), and ordered up the remaining parts I need. I've not been to choosey in areas I don't really care about, like the cassette interface, but will fix them up if and when...

One departure I'm going to take from the normal is to use screw terminals instead for the .156" Molex connectors. To me, this will make the board far more user friendly.

So far KLyball has been a great resource in answering my questions, like "Where did you get ... ?" But I will have many more, I'm sure, like: Does anyone know if the character generator is the same as the 600B? How about the monitor rom?

I'll log the build here as I go along. Here's where I got to today.

How amazing that this is now possible!

It is amazing isn't it? Thanks to Grant!

Hi Bill,

Great work, so far!
Which Cherry Keyswitch model, part number did you order for the board? Also, were you able to get a shift lock key?

/Jeff

I ordered the "brown" plunger switch to give a little tactile feel.

No on the shift lock. They are gold and it seems very, very hard to come by. I called Cherry and they said they would manufacture them for me, but I needed to buy a minimum of 4000. That's not going to happen. There is a guy in the UK that is taking pre-orders for them ( http://deskthority.net/group-buys-f50/c ... t2760.html listed as MXLOCK), but it may be years before he has sufficient quantities to get the order in to Cherry. I'll be looking to source one from a used keyboard some day.

For now I am going to use the auxiliary slide switch allowed for by Grant.

The part number is: http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/0/360-2977-ND

I agree the Cherry MX Brown has a nice feel. I got a sampler kit and tried out the different varieties, and felt Red was closest to the original--no click and not very stiff. The black was similar, but slightly more resistance to the keypress.

I found a used gaming keyboard on Ebay featuring Cherry MX Red keys, for less than $40, and harvested 102 keys, working out to about 40 cents/key. A little work, but worth it.

Dave

My sockets came today. I'll be warming up the soldering iron tomorrow to get them mounted and will probably start with the 610 and DS boards too while I'm waiting. I have all the ICs for everything. Just waiting on the Cherry browns to get the 600 operational.

That's exciting, Bill! I have a 600D and another 610 raw boards sitting in a drawer as a retirement project, but your progress on the 600 has me wanting to pull them out and build them! I am planning on collecting all the parts, burning the EPROMS and then putting it all in a box for later.

/Jeff

What CPU are you gentlemen using and what max speed is possible ?

I haven't ordered yet, but I'm thinking a 6502B from unicorn should do the trick. It's rated at 3mhz.
/Jeff