ZX ROMKEY - wilf rigter
A simple ZX/PC project
This is my "reductio ad absurdum" ZX81 hardware project and I have just
about eliminated all components with a surprising result: it does more!
It must be running on paradox power! You may recall this started out as
trip down memory lane, revisiting a 1986 6 chip joystick interface project
called ZEX. But along the way I lost 5 chips (good riddance) and in the
process got the ultimate PC to ZX81 interface. This little treasure
allows you to use your PC keyboard as a transparent substitute for the
old ZX81 membrane. You can reset the ZX81 with a PC keystroke.
You can send a batch file to load a communication (or any other) program
to the ZX81 and run the program to upload or download programs or data
at high speed all without touching the ZX81 keyboard.
How's that for a controller application? Add a battery to the ZX81 and
when the PC is shut down, the ZX81 continues to run your security or data
logging system. The hardware couldn't be simpler than this: just 1 chip,
3 diodes and a some resistors. I have the ROMKEY circuit working on a
PROTO board and a single sided PCB is in the works.
THE ZX ROMKEY CIRCUIT
ZX81 PCB REAR ZX ROM KEY PC PRINTER PORT
EDGE CONNECTOR 27C256 DB 25
______________ _________
|
| | pin name|
D0 ---------------11| D0
A8 |25-----| O2 D0 |
D1 ---------------12| D1 A9 |24-----| O3 D1 |
D2 ---------------13| D2 A10 |21-----| O4 D2 |
D3 ---------------15| D3 A11 |23-----| O5 D3 |
D4 ---------------16| D4 A12 |2------| O6 D4 |
A8 ---------------10| A0 A13 |26-----| O7 D5 |
A9 ----------------9| A1 A14 |27-----| O8 D6 |
A10 ----------------8|
A2 OE |22-----| O1 STB |-+-[10K]-- +5V
A11 ----------------7|
A3 D5 |17-----| 10 ACK |-+--||---- GND
A12 ----------------6|
A4 D6 |18-----| 11 RDY |-+--||---- GND
A13 ----------------5|
A5 D7 |19-----| 12 INI |-+--||---- GND
A14 ----------------4|
A6 | ___ | 24 GND | | 0.01
A15 ----------------3|
A7 | | _| 14 ALF | |
A0 ______|\|______20| CE | | | |_________| |
|/| | |______________| | | |
| |
| [100k]
IORQ _____|\|_____| 1N918A | | |
|/| | | |
+5V
| | |
RD _____|\|_____| | |
| |/| | | |
| | | |
[10K] [10K] | |
| | | |
+5V | | |
0V _____________|____________________| |
RST _____________________________________|
HOW ZX ROMKEY WORKS
SCANNING THE KEYBOARD
I won't go over old ground in detail here: suffice it to say that the
ROMKEY EPROM converts ASCII from the PC parallel port to ZX81 scan codes.
The PC LPT data register feeds data to D0-6 and the LPT control register
STB bit supplies the OE signal to enable the EPROM D0-D4 on the ZX81 data
bus. The ZX81 supplies the normal keyboard row scanning via the A8-A15
lines and enables the EPROM CE at the normal keyboard I/O address (FE).
The whole communication process described below is booted with a simple
keyboard batch file ie. what you could normally type in from the keyboard
but which is performed by the PC as a batch file of keyboard codes.
Needless to say the keyboard boot loads slowly (about 10 characters/s)
since it has to be de-bounced by the key scanning software but once the 100
or so characters are loaded it runs a much faster loader which in turn
loads the communication program above RAMTOP.
Can you guess the first 2 characters of the boot-strap routine?
If you said FAST N/L you win the prize! This is just like the old days
when the boot software had to be the simplest little program since it had
to be manually typed in (did someone say loaded from front panel toggle
switches). So now you get to use the PC to do all the typing for you but
because the keyboard has a slow data rate the sooner you can use a more
direct method to load data, the better.
RESETTING THE ZX
The ZX81 RESET line can be asserted with the ALF bit in the LPT
control register allowing the PC to take full control of the ZX81.
LOADING DATA FROM PC TO ZX
The same keyboard interface can also be used as a high speed
communication channel to load hex data from the PC printer port at up to
20Kbytes/s. The data path from the PC to the ZX81 is 4 bits plus one
control bit. This makes it possible to load programs and data in a few
seconds. The data is transferred from the PC to the ZX81 using hex format
plus a control bit. The data is read as a single row of data using the unique
row address on A8-A15 of FF together with PC ASCII codes 00 - 1F which are
read on the ZX81 data bus D0-D4. Codes 00-0F are hex data codes signified
by the MS bit low. I propose to reserve the following control codes:
(all have the MS bit high but at least one other bit low) - Code 1E is the
clock code, 1D is the start code , 1B is the stop code and 17 is the address
code. Code 1F is the NULL or inter character code with all bits high.
This leaves 10 other unique control codes that can be used for other
applications.
SAVING DATA FROM ZX TO PC
The unused EPROM data bits (D5-D7) have been programmed to
allow transfer of data from the ZX81 to the PC via the LPT status
register. The data path from the ZX to the PC it is 2 bits plus a
control bit. This means that only 4 control codes (code 4-7 including
NULL code 7)) are available and the 2 bit data path (code 0-3) will
of course limit the data transfer bandwidth. Moreover, in order to
stretch the data output duration, the outputs are equipped with .01
capacitors and 100K pull-up resistors. This means that the 2 bit data is
available and must be read within 500 usec ( no problem for a XT and up
computer) and that the maximum practical data rate is about 100 bytes/s.
The remarkable fact remains that you can send data to the PC by READING
ZX81 I/O address FE with 7 unique scan codes (00-07) on A8-A15, which enables
data 0-7 on the D5-D7 lines connected to the LPT status bits.
FUTURE PLANS
Well there it is in a nutshell: The simplest of ZX81 hardware projects and
yet ... perhaps the most talented of my ZX81 peripherals. I am sure there is
some more hidden potential there and a better definition of control codes
and data transfer protocol is required (on this subject I could really use some
input before further development). I am not altogether happy with the
capacitor solution to stretching the ZX > PC data but I am loath to add
more hardware. However there must be an optimum level of simplicity and a
3 bit latch on the EPROM D5-D7 lines providing a 5 Kbyte/s ZX > PC data
transfer rates may be the solution. But I will leave that to a future article.
2005 Update – Still not fully implemented but here are the ROMKEY files:
enjoy
wilf