Alien Probes

A board series to help debug hardware at the lowest level

Jacques Pelletier

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Description

This board series include a STM32F405 microcontroler connected to a computer via a CH340G serial to USB chip. The probe is connected in place of the target CPU with a special connector.

Details

The MCU that I use for this series of boards is a STM32F405VGT6. It has ample room for controlling bits, and it can also run a software emulator for most of the 8-bit CPUs out there. The STM can support DMA and interrupts.

I already made a Z80 version and my SoftMicro running on a Black Board (STM32F407ZGT6). I'll port them too on the 'F405 MCU.

Project Logs

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Generic and PC-XT work!
Jacques Pelletier • 12/09/2025 at 05:36 • 0 comments

Just completed the firmware for these 2.
Z80-ICE2 works
Jacques Pelletier • 12/08/2025 at 06:25 • 0 comments

Z80-ICE2 works! Still there is a small glitch to fix when it does a memory write cycle.
Boards assembled
Jacques Pelletier • 12/07/2025 at 05:25 • 0 comments

All the PCB are assembled except for the crystal which needs a patch. Files are not released yet, I'll wait until the PCB are working.
One exception is the Generic Alien probe which had some Vdd pins unconnected. That's part of the game. So this PCB will need to be redone.
PCBs arrived!
Jacques Pelletier • 12/01/2025 at 21:45 • 0 comments

PCBs just came in!
Making it real
Jacques Pelletier • 11/20/2025 at 12:45 • 0 comments

Ordered PCBs and parts, and making the software for the microcontrollers.