[sdiy] how you got started with your current µC? (was: Re: Most common ICs)

[rsdio at audiobanshee.com]

On Sep 20, 2015, at 1:54 PM, Tim Ressel <timr at circuitabbey.com> wrote:
> My first proc was a COSMAC 1802, on a breadboard, with manual entry switches, powered off a car battery, in a horse barn. (beat that!)
> 
> The 6809 came at my first engineering tech position. It was a hand-wired proto board. Then 68000 and 68020, then Atmel AVR. Recently DSPIC and STM32. These were all pre-made boards.

Tim,

I might not be able to beat that, but here goes: My first processor was the 6502, on a PCB that my uncle and his engineering compatriots had manufactured as a non-commercial Apple II clone. Since all of the chips in the Apple were off-the-shelf until the Apple //c and Apple //e, these guys just did their own layout from the schematic that Apple provided at the time, and socketed everything. That computer, built by hand in the early eighties, is still running today (I use it to burn vintage EPROMs). It had 4 separate power supplies for the +/-5V and +/-12V. The case and keyboard were separate, from surplus sources, and most "interface" cables were soldered to avoid failure of connectors.

Before that, my uncle hand-wire-wrapped an entire Apple II on huge breadboards, but it only lasted a few years. The PCB was an attempt to make something that would last longer than wire-wrapping.

Brian

p.s. As folks may know, the Apple II system ROM had a disassembler, a line-oriented assembler, and even the ability to step through live code one assembly instruction at a time with display of the register changes after each. Great way to learn, and you didn't even need to buy an "emulator" and figure out how to wire it up.