• First testing: Mistake happens

    Pascal05/17/2020 at 12:32 0 comments

    Or how one should never trust existing footprint libraries without double and triple checking everything!

    This morning I decided to finally test the Computer with all cards inserted and... no clock! Not only did I swapped X1 and X2 on the CPU board, which was quickly fixed with a bit of copper and a sharp knife, but the CPU's Reset Line constantly was held high, at which the Clock Circuit of the CPU gets halted. After measuring a few times, checking the datasheet and the schematic of the switch, I found the reason why:

    One would assume that the Reset Line is connected to 5V when the button is pressed. The footprint fitted perfectly to the switch I ordered on digikey, and even the symbol was nearly the same as in the datasheet. The only thing that I miss to check, and that could go wrong: Pins swapped!

    In the actual datasheet, 2 and 0 are by default connected. Sadly the default library I found for it (Part "5501" in library "switch") has Pin 1 and 2 swapped.

    I have to admit, that I rushed the creation of these PCBs a little, as I guessed that with the current COVID situation, shipping would get worse from China. In the hope to safe time by using as many existing libraries and parts, mistakes happend. Time to fix all 4 Buttons/Switches, but after that everything should work. Depending on the amount of errors, there will be a revision B at some point.

  • Assembly done

    Pascal05/12/2020 at 15:50 0 comments

    Finally all boards have been fully assembled and powered-on individually to check if any of them are faulty - so far, so good! The next step will be to test them on the main board, enter basic commands and see if it's running. Here are the pictures so far:

  • PCBs arrived & Mainboard assembled

    Pascal05/04/2020 at 17:40 0 comments

    Finally the PCBs from china arrived, and that with a corona-bonus in the delivery costs (70$ instead of the usual 20$ on DHL)

    But at least, the PCBs all look as expected:

    Found some time to assemble and test the main board as well. The Buck Converter delivered 5.04V - good enough for 1 bit computer! To my surprise, the card-edge-connectors hold the single PCB Modules better than expected as well, which were the only thing that worried me.

  • CPU Board

    Pascal04/24/2020 at 19:01 0 comments

    Last but not least, the CPU Board that holds the MC14500 ICU, together with a 8-Bit Input and 8-Bit Output IC. Instead of the MC14599 Input / Output chip, I use the MC14099BCP instead - or it's still available equivalent, the CD4099B, that is still sold and available on DigiKey.

    With all boards organized and planned, there is nothing to start the production of them and ordering the components.


  • Monitor Board

    Pascal04/24/2020 at 18:44 0 comments

    A classic computer build isn't fully classic to me, until there is a panel full with blinkenlights!

    So of course, this is a goal for me as well. As LED Driver I just went with the same ones that were used on the original WDR computer, the ULN2003.

    To my surprise, fitting two A4 schematic pages worth of LEDs, Drivers and Resistors onto a 100x100mm board (which 28mm is taken up by the Card-Edge Connector) was not that easily - but that didn't stop me of course.

    Had to get a bit creative with the way the LEDs are arranged, but I think it works out just fine like that. Basic Letters and Numbers in the top copper layer provide the basic info to quickly see which LED represents which signal from the BUS.

  • Memory Card

    Pascal04/24/2020 at 18:22 0 comments

    With the mainboard taken care of, and a proper bus pinout defined, I decided to tackle the memory as next target. Compared to the original, I don't plan to use the old-style Intel 2112 RAM chips, but instead went for the cheapest non-volatile storage I could find on DigiKey:
    The SST39SF010A

    With it's 128k Bytes of flash memory, it's a beast compared to the original 256 Bytes of RAM. Not sure what I will do with so much RAM, but since it's also one of the cheapest solutions with 1.13CHF, I decided to stick with it.

    To handle the 17 Address Lines, I use four 4-Bit Counters (74HCT193) which leaves only one address pin left - A0.

    A0 is hooked to a jumper, which by default is connected to ground, so the Computer behaves just like the original WDR one. Alternatively and with bit of solder and a knife, it can be connected to the clock signal instead. This allows to turn it inot a interlaced memory board, which brings a 12bit wide IO structure, compared to the default 4bit one. More about it can be found in Motorola's handbook about the MC14500.


    A layout goal for the Computer Cards, are to stay within 100 x 100 mm of size. Here's the resulting layout:

    The connector on the right is hooked right up to the Address Counters, allowing to load a new address and to make it easier to implement a future, possible "jump & return" function.

  • BUS System & Mainboard

    Pascal04/11/2020 at 18:08 0 comments

    After taking a closer look at the "BUS System" that the original 1-Bit-Computers used, I decided to make my own one which allowed for more flexbility. For that, I plan to use the card edge connector 6364666-1 by TE.

    The mainboard is finally also done. Instead of no BUS slot but an expansion header, I added 4 unused expansion cards and the classic expansion header for downward compability. Also added a proper connector to add a external keyboard. The schematics are uploaded as .PDF together with a parts list.

    (Also, still figuring out how this online HaDIO Web Editor works)



    This is the BUS definition:


    Pin Row 1
    NameDescriptionPin Row 2
    NameDescription
    1+5VVoltage Rail
    62+5VVoltage Rail
    2GNDVoltage Rail
    61GNDVoltage Rail
    3INST0Instructions (IO Address)
    60PCNT0Program Address / Counter
    4INST1Instructions (IO Address)59PCNT1Program Address / Counter
    5INST2Instructions (IO Address)58PCNT2Program Address / Counter
    6-Omitted Pin & Hole
    57PCNT3Program Address / Counter
    7INST3Instructions (IO Address)56PCNT4Program Address / Counter
    8INST4Instructions (Actual Instruction)55PCNT5Program Address / Counter
    9INST5Instructions (Actual Instruction)54PCNT6Program Address / Counter
    10INST6Instructions (Actual Instruction)53PCNT7Program Address / Counter
    11INST7Instructions (Actual Instruction)52PCNT8Program Address / Counter
    12CLK IN
    MC14500 Clock IN
    (Used to define the clock)
    51PCNT9Program Address / Counter
    13CLK OUT
    MC14500 Clock Out
    (Used for Peripherals)
    50PCNT10Program Address / Counter
    14JMPJump Signal (Not used)
    49PCNT11Program Address / Counter
    15RTNReturn Signal (Not used)
    48PCNT12Program Address / Counter
    16FLAG 0
    Flag 0 Signal (Not used)
    47PCNT13Program Address / Counter
    17FLAG F
    Flag F Signal (Causes the
    Program Counter to (Preset/) Reset
    46PCNT14Program Address / Counter
    18WR/!RDWrite / Read IO
    45PCNT15Program Address / Counter
    19DATAData BUS
    44OUT0
    Output
    20RRResult Register Output
    43OUT1Output
    21MEMWRITEWrite-Enable Signal for
    the Program Memory
    42OUT2
    Output
    22RESET CPU
    Resets the CPU and
    IO Peripherals
    41OUT3Output
    23IN0Input (connected to
    the Result Register)
    40OUT4Output
    24IN1Input39OUT5Output
    25IN2Input38OUT6Output
    26IN3Input37OUT7Output
    27IN4Input36N.U.Not used, but routed on the Main Board
    28IN5Input (connected to Out 5 on
    CPU Board by a Jumper)
    35N.U.Not used, but routed on the Main Board
    29IN6Input (connected to Out 6 on
    CPU Board by a Jumper)
    34N.U.Not used, but routed on the Main Board
    30IN7Input (connected to Out 7 on
    CPU Board by a Jumper)
    33N.U.Not used, but routed on the Main Board
    31N.U.Not used,
    but routed on the Main Board
    32N.U.Not used, but routed on the Main Board

  • Collecting infos of the real computer

    Pascal03/25/2020 at 11:32 0 comments

    I've been looking for some documentation and data about both the computer and some of the special parts for a while now, and lucky there is a website that seems to provide a lot of scanned data and even pictures, with a second website showing a different-looking version of it.

    1: http://wdr-1-bit-computer.talentraspel.de/
    2: https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=834 and
    3: https://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos.asp?t=1&c=834&st=1

    The training computer on the pictures from the old-computers website shows quite a some differences compared to the scanned documents and pictures on the wdr-1-bit-computer website. I assume that one computer was built according to the WDR instructions, while the other might have been built like it is printed on the cqDL Magazine.

    It seems like the cqDL (lower schematic picture) version seems to have some additional features compared to the more lightweight WDR version, but it also looks like that both versions are software compatible to eachother. The idea of manually setable program address and to have another I/O-select-Address compared to the WDR version definitely will be integrated into my version, if not further expanded.

    Both magazines provide excellent documentation and will be used as references. The WDR Magazine seems to be more a guide, teaching the very basics as well, but also shows many possible expansion modules and their features, while the cqDL Magazine prints it more compact.

    Now the next step for me is to see which components are still available, where I can get them and which components I can replace with newer ones. I can imagine the biggest issue will be the 1-bit CPU MC14500 itself, but luckly I got 5 of them from ebay. But if I ever decide to turn this into a full kit, I gotta think of an alternative.