Description
The RC2040 is a PI PICO emulated RC2014 kit with CP/M-80. It is capable of running the stock ROM images currently supported by the RC2014 (except RomWBW) which gives you a number of monitors and ROM based BASIC
Within CP/M, the kit will allow you to run a number of 1980’s Z80 text based games and features a port of Microsoft BASIC (MBASIC) and run any CP/M-80 compatible software.
Software can be downloaded and pasted into your serial console, or placed directly onto the SD card using a number of freely available tools.
The kit will allow you to connect to the emulated RC2014 either by USB serial or a FDTI compatible serial cable with a suitable serial emulator like TeraTerm, or minicom.
The kit is capable of running either of the serial variants(SIO/ACIA) of the RC2014
The kit comes with a PCB, SD card holder, buttons, links, resistors and an acrylic base with silicone feet. You also have the option of adding a programmed PI Pico and a programmed 500M SD Card.
There is also an option add to the kit a programmed PI PICO and a Programmed SD card, so you can dive into 80’s retro computing with no programming/setup required.
The SD card and Pico come programmed with the RC2040 Software and RC2014 standard ROMS including CPM monitor and CPM utilities.
There are three jumpers on the kit to select the ROM settings for A13,A14 & A15 and a jumper to select FDTI or USB serial.
There are also three buttons. Currently programmed to do a Z80 reset, and one to dump the RAM contents to both the SD card and terminal for debugging.
A third button is provided for Fast file transfer. This allows files to be sent to the CPM File system without removing the SD card from the RC2040. Details here https://github.com/ExtremeElectronics/RC20XX-file-transfer-programs
I/O Port 0 is brought out to a connector ans can be used as an 8bit in/out port similar to the digital IO board of the RC2014
There is also a built in SPO256AL2 emulation for 80’s style speech synthesis (requires an amplifier or small speaker)
The software for the emulated RC2040 is still evolving and there are other features that can be found by looking at the RC2040 git hub pages.
This kit is a great simple, inexpensive introduction to retro programming, but of course for the full experience and a complete modular Z80 system you can’t beat the original RC2014
Details of the RC2040 project so far are here
And the software is open source and available on the Ext Kits Github Here
The SD images are compatible with the RC2014 Micro SD Card Module ( https://extkits.co.uk/product/rc2014-micro-sd-card-module/ )
and FFS (Fast File Serial) is implemented so you can transfer files directly to the RC2040 details here ( https://github.com/ExtremeElectronics/RC20XX-file-transfer-programs )
Also the RC2040 will now run ROMWBW (with no FFS). Details of the build are here https://github.com/ExtremeElectronics/RC2040-ROMWBW and more details on ROMWBW are here https://github.com/wwarthen/RomWBW and thanks to Wayne Warthen for his help sorting out memory banks.ROMWBW is now offered as an option for the pre-programmed PiPico and SD card.
Also, thanks to work done by Guido Lehwalder , This kit’s hardware now has support for RunCPM as well as the CP/M-80 / RC2014 emulation, the source & binary is available at https://github.com/guidol70/RunCPM_RPi_Pico (unfortunately, I’m unable to give support for RunCPM)
Also (again) thanks to the work of Alan Cox and David Given the RC2040 can run FUZIX a small UNIX – details here https://extkits.co.uk/fuzix-on-the-rc2040-board
All trademarks, software and company names are the property of their respective owners
Notes:
The SD card connector requires some fine (1mm pitch) soldering, if you are unused to this sort of surface mount soldering, or are unsure, please ask when you order, and I will solder it for you.
