cosmac elf

The next step in my homebrew computer adventures is the Cosmac Elf.

The Cosmac Elf was a DIY computer that appeared in Popular Electronics in 1976 and 1977 using the RCA 1802 microprocessor.

/images/cosmac_elf_powered_up_web.jpg

The schematics that I used are here:

ELF Schematic 1

ELF Schematic 2

Other good resources can be found here:

http://www.sunrise-ev.com/vcf-elf.htm

http://www.cosmacelf.com/

I was able to find all of the parts except for the TIL311 displays.

Well, I could find them, but the cheapest I saw was $30 per display, so I ended up using regular 7-segment displays with an arduino driving them. The arduino code is below.

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// Seven Segment Display Connections
#define A_SEGMENT 2
#define B_SEGMENT 3
#define C_SEGMENT 4
#define D_SEGMENT 5
#define E_SEGMENT 6
#define F_SEGMENT 7
#define G_SEGMENT 8

#define DIGIT_1_GND 9
#define DIGIT_2_GND 10

// Data Bus Pins
#define bus0 11
#define bus1 12
#define bus2 13
#define bus3 A0
#define bus4 A1
#define bus5 A2
#define bus6 A3
#define bus7 A4

int COUNT = 0;
  
void setup() {

  TIMSK2 = (TIMSK2 & B11111110) | 0x01;
  TCCR2B = (TCCR2B & B11111000) | 0x05;
  
  pinMode(A_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(B_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(C_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(D_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(E_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(F_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(G_SEGMENT, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(DIGIT_1_GND, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(DIGIT_2_GND, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(bus0, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus1, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus2, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus3, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus4, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus5, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus6, INPUT);
  pinMode(bus7, INPUT);        

}

void loop() {}

void read_bus() {
  
  byte value = 0;
    
  bitWrite(value, 0, digitalRead(bus0));
  bitWrite(value, 1, digitalRead(bus1));
  bitWrite(value, 2, digitalRead(bus2));
  bitWrite(value, 3, digitalRead(bus3));
  bitWrite(value, 4, digitalRead(bus4));
  bitWrite(value, 5, digitalRead(bus5));
  bitWrite(value, 6, digitalRead(bus6));
  bitWrite(value, 7, digitalRead(bus7));

  String output_string =  '0' + String(value, HEX);

  output_string = output_string.substring(output_string.length() - 2, output_string.length()); 
 
  // alternate writes to each display
  if ((COUNT & 0x01) == 0) {
    write_char(output_string.charAt(0), 2);
    write_char(output_string.charAt(1), 1); 
  } else {
    write_char(output_string.charAt(1), 1); 
    write_char(output_string.charAt(0), 2);
  }

  COUNT += 1;
  
}

ISR(TIMER2_OVF_vect) {
  // time based interrupt routine
  read_bus();
}

void write_char(char character, int digit) {

  byte char_val;
  
  switch (character) {
  case '0':
    char_val = 0b11111100; // 0
    break;
  case '1':
    char_val = 0b01100000; // 1
    break;
  case '2':
    char_val = 0b11011010; // 2
    break;
  case '3':
    char_val = 0b11110010; // 3
    break;
  case '4':
    char_val = 0b01100110; // 4
    break;
  case '5':
    char_val = 0b10110110; // 5
    break;
  case '6':
    char_val = 0b10111110; // 6
    break;
  case '7':
    char_val = 0b11100000; // 7
    break;
  case '8':
    char_val = 0b11111110; // 8
    break;
  case '9':
    char_val = 0b11110110; // 9
    break;
  case 'a':
    char_val = 0b11101110; // A
    break;
  case 'b':
    char_val = 0b00111110; // B
    break;
  case 'c':
    char_val = 0b10011100; // C
    break;
  case 'd':
    char_val = 0b01111010; // D
    break;
  case 'e':
    char_val = 0b10011110; // E
    break;
  case 'f':
    char_val = 0b10001110; // F
    break;
  default:
    break;
}

  digitalWrite(A_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b10000000) >> 7 );
  digitalWrite(B_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b01000000) >> 6 );
  digitalWrite(C_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b00100000) >> 5 );
  digitalWrite(D_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b00010000) >> 4 );
  digitalWrite(E_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b00001000) >> 3 );
  digitalWrite(F_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b00000100) >> 2 );
  digitalWrite(G_SEGMENT, (char_val & 0b00000010) >> 1 );


  if ( digit == 1 ) {
    digitalWrite(DIGIT_1_GND, LOW);
    digitalWrite(DIGIT_2_GND, HIGH);
  } else if ( digit == 2 ) {
    digitalWrite(DIGIT_1_GND, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(DIGIT_2_GND, LOW);
  }
  delay(2);

}

The code runs a timer based interrupt and each pass reads the data from the bus, and outputs the correct character to the 7-segment display. That’s all it does really.

There are probably better ways to do this, but this works and I didn’t spend too much time on it. You can see the arduino hiding in the hideous mess of wiring below.

/images/cosmac_elf_underside_web.jpg

Below is a quick video demo of a program that reads the input from the switches and outputs them on the 7-segment displays.