Hi everyone,

It's been about a year since I've even touched the ZTO-80 project, and closer to two since I've made any meaningful updates or changes.

When I started the ZTO-80 project, I was a freshman in high school, and worked alongside my schoolwork to design the computer and document my progress. As I approached junior year, work got more challenging, and I chose to focus my efforts on school, the robotics team I was part of, and film photography, a new hobby I had just picked up.

Fast forward to now and I'm about to go into my second semester in college, where I'm studying electrical and computer engineering. I heavily referenced my work on the ZTO-80 project in my college applications, and it was a big reason I was accepted to the college I'm in now.

College has reignited my interest in engineering, and for a while I've been trying to find an excuse to continue working on the ZTO-80. I left it while I still had tons of ideas for future designs and features, but I just haven't had the time or motivation to sit down and do the work required to implement them. But now that I'm on winter break and have a few weeks of free time to get things in order, I've decided to pick the project up again.

Obviously, picking up a project after two years of neglect isn't easy, but all of the documentation I've kept should make it a lot easier for me. Once I get up to speed again, I have a bunch of ideas I can work with. Here's a non-exhaustive list:

• SBC Modular Backplane. In my last project log, I mentioned that I was creating a modular backplane to connect to the SBC. This board has been designed and I plan to continue with that idea. Keep an eye out for a future project log dedicated to that.
• ZTO-80 CP/M. I'm reaching the limits of a computer with no operating system, and can only run code in either BASIC or Assembly. I have plans to design a ZTO-80 SBC (and potentially a modular system as well) which is capable of running CP/M, a common operating system in the 1970's and early 80's which could run on the Z80. This will require significant hardware changes and would be a big project, so expect a delay before updates. I will still support and update the BASIC ZTO-80 while I work on the CP/M version.
• KiCad migration. When I first started this project, I was using EasyEDA to design my boards, but I quickly moved over to KiCad and have since been using that. However, most of my modular system boards are still in EasyEDA. Because some of these modules need improvements anyways, I will be redesigning each module in KiCad.
• Organization changes. I plan to make changes to how the GitHub repository is organized in order to provide more files and make them easier to access. This will also help me stay organized as I work on the project.
• Updating documentation. As well as better organization, I plan to update the ZTO-80 project pages and documentation (here and on GitHub) to better describe the goals, capabilities, and future improvements to the project
• And more!

I'll be working on all of these ideas and posting project logs and updates as I do, so stay tuned for that.

Obviously, college isn't easy, and I may not be able to work on the project consistently, but I'll definitely be working while I can and update as often as possible!

-Jacob