Btw, theres a very small update on the propeller elf ii ready for posting. At the height of its popularity, an article in popular electronics could make or break a company. Through the back pages of electronics magazines, both netronics and quest electronics. The kit comes with the mcsmp20 monitor, rca basic3, and chip8 programming language all in rom. The 1802 microprocessor was originally known as the rca cdp1802. While the group is generally selfpolicing and needs little in the way of moderation, this. Media in category popular electronics the following 21 files are in this category, out of 21 total. There is a pdf manual covering the installation and operation both elfos and sbasic. Microcomputer retrokits that fit in altoids candy cans. The cosmac elf rca 1802 collection internet archive. The first production model was the twochip cdp1801r and cdp1801u, which were later combined into the singlechip cdp1802. Theres a number of cosmac elf computer developers through the decades, since the original elf article by joe weisbecker in the 1976 popular electronics magazine. Although we tried to keep the look and feel of the original, we had no hesitation about updating the elf 2000 with the latest.
The cosmac elf was an rca 1802 microprocessorbased computer described in a series of construction articles in popular electronics magazine in 1976 and 1977. Jul 25, 2016 my memories of popular electronics is around seeing the diagrams for a simple microcomputer, the cosmac elf which was based on rcas 1802 cpu. The circulation hit 240,000 by 1957, and it exceeded 400,000 by 1963. It is a large scale integration lsi microprocessor p chip that is implemented using socalled cosmac complementary symmetry monolithic array computer architecture. Mar 02, 2018 rca studio ii and studio iii home tv programmer. Design ideas book for the cdp1802 cosmac microprocessor by the rca.
This modification to the elf involves a lilliputian outlay of cash. Rca 1802 retrochallenge 201704 retro challenge 201704 main contest page update 8282017. Super elf operates like the quest super elf system. The person listing it had no way to test it, so it was a gamble whether it was complete and working or not. The spare time gizmos cosmac elf 2000 is a reproduction of the original cosmac elf as published in the pages of popular electronics magazine, august 1976.
This item does not appear to have any files that can be experienced on. I am a collector of all things cosmac so when i saw this netronics elf ii system appear on ebay, i decided to give it a shot and try to win it. In 1978, the netronics elf ii was released a cheaper and improved version with all the parts required to build your own worlds most. These old issues were made for thinkers, tinkerers, doers. The 1802 membership card is a direct descendant of the cosmac elf.
The objectives of this note is to develop an understanding of the characteristics and operation of modern electronics. Download bullzip pdf printer, cutepdf or pdf printer for windows. A good web site on the history of elfs is operated by dave ruske and called. The following are photos and information on my first computer project which was started in 1977 while i was still in high school. The kits sales web page, links to documents and describes the current features of the 1802 membership card. The original cosmac elf was a construction project printed in the august 1976 issue of popular electronics. With this tool it is possible to see the tpa, tpb, mrd. As soon i get back to the printer at the home base, i can do the front panel instrument control prints. It has flexible programmed io and programinterrupt modes. At this point the cpu is in the process of executing the current instruction cycle.
They use the vip2ks keyboard and video for user input and output, and the serial port for loadsave. When popular electronics detailed the original cosmac elf in 1976, the. It works in all modern web browsers, and on computers, tablets, and telephones. The membership card is a reproduction of the original popular electronics elf computer. Complete collection of popular electronics 19541982 as pdf. Cosmac elf users manual page 3 overview the cosmac elf was a microcomputer design by joseph weisbecker that was featured and announced in the pages of the august 1976 edition of popular electronics magazine.
The super elf has the ability to step through programs one machine cycle at a time. Spare time gizmos cosmac elf 2000 users manual 1 overview the spare time gizmos cosmac elf 2000 is a reproduction of the original cosmac elf as published in the pages of popular electronics magazine, august 1976. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. Standard operates like the elf project in popular electronics. All cosmac elf 2000 files are copyrighted by spare time gizmos andor. The other replaces the pc with an 18f2620, an sd card, oled display and rotary encoder to make a standalone system. Nov 26, 2014 i was looking at some of the old magazines from the 1924 days. The most popular computer with a 1802 of the time was the cosmac elf, which came in many shapes and sizes.
Introduction to electronics xvi 1 i use the word supposedly because, in my view, the official rewards for textbook authoring fall far short of what is appropriate and what is achievable through an equivalent. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the creative commons cc0 license. The cosmac 1802 was created in the 1970s at the dawn of the microcomputer revolution. Nov 20, 2008 heres a round up of the greatest defunct tech mags ever it includes one of my favorites, popular electronics. For all intents and purposes, it works just like the microtrainer system. The system was a very early singleboard personal computer. The cosmac elf is a great little machine built around a 40pin rca 1802 processor, and for many was the first computer they owned.
Its built entirely with vintage parts and techniques available back then and still available today. However rca is not responsible for any of the material in this booklet. Very few people in 1976 had computers, or keyboards, or anything digital so the elf operated from lights and switches in binary. Cdp1802, cosmac, cosmac elf, elf, popular electronics, rca 1802. For many of us, it was the rca 1802 thanks to the cosmac elf articles that ran in popular electronics. But its based on the popular electronics magazine cosmac elf from 1976 which preceeded many personal computers so the elf had to be simple. Popular electronics, all issues online, for free ocsmag. The cosmac elf was an rca 1802 microprocessorbased computer described in a series of construction articles in popular electronics magazine in 1976 and. Theres links and documents there with more information and resources.
I bought and built a cosmac super elf sbc long, long ago. Rc1802 cosmac elf cpu module revision f share project. Joshs unit is a replica from the cosmac elf construction article from the aug 1976 and later issues of popular electronics magazine. Recently i started back up and got rs232 communication working in the opposite direction. There is still an active cosmac community around these days. The programs described here have been thoroughly tested on a number of versions of the cosmac elf as described in popular electronics articles and are believed to be reliable but there is, of course, still the possibility that they contain unexpected errors. The system is also known as the rca studio 2 and studio 3 video game console. Rc1802 cosmac elf ui module revision f share project. Popular electronics 19541982 available as pdf downloads. Geological survey, open file report 82167 onward with the cosmac elf.
Build the cosmac elf a lowcost experimenters microcomputer. The programs described have been thoroughly tested on a number of versions of the cosmac elf as described in the popular electronics articles and are believed to be reliable. Mostly one legendary cover storyathe january 1975 one about the mits altair microcomputer kit. In the august 1976 pdf issue of popular electronics, weisbecker detailed plans for building the 1802based cosmac elf. Popular electronics 1954 1985 what made it special. This is an implementation of the cosmac elf, constructed in going by the issues of popular electronics, with additional articles in march and july popular electronics was famous for the article introducing the altair ran on building a very simple computer called the cosmac elf. Contribute to petersiegcosmacelf development by creating an account on github. The series of documents, of which this user manual is part, is based on the. The cosmac elf was a microcomputer design by joseph weisbecker that was. We have the original tom pittman tiny basic manual from download and can do a fairly good. The pc software can load svg formatted files like those produced by inkscape and either drive the drawing machine directly or create drawing files that can be stored on an sd card and drawn later without a pc. Popular electronics was famous for the article introducing the altair 8800 back in 1975 well, the cover date was 1975. Jun 22, 2019 some bm2 files may be boardmaker interactive board files instead of graphic files.
It wasnt the popular electronics unit i still have that issue in a box somewhere, but was likely derived or inspired by it. We featured the online archive of the entire popular electronics collection, but hit up page 33 of this pdf if you want to jump right to the article that started it all. First test of a new build of the classic cosmac elf computer. Although i tried to keep the look and feel of the original, i had no hesitation about updating the elf 2000 with the latest in hardware. So, i have opted to try building a small computer with a prebuilt retro cpu. For those just tuning in, the membership card is a reproduction of the original popular electronics cosmac 1802 elf computer, but shrunk to fit in an altoids tin. In case anybody else comes here wondering what a cosmac elf is, heres the answer i found on wikipedia. The elf was a strippeddown computer that let users enter programs by. I do own a couple of those chips, so i might get tempted to build a cosmac elf some day. First of all, you are welcome to download the users manual and the firmware for free.
Lee harts 1802 membership card is a reproduction of the original popular electronics cosmac 1802 elf computer thats been shrunken down to fit in an altoids tin. Some files for cosmac elf self build simple computer based on 1976 article in popular electronics based on cdp1802 cpu. But its based on the popular electronics magazine cosmac elf. Due to cost constraints and my skill level in electronics i dont think i can do this at the current time. How can i build a simple computer around a retro cpu like. The group has been around since spring of 2001, moved to yahoo at the end of 2001, and moved to groups. Vintage cosmac elf is pretty close to original hackaday. Nov 27, 2014 thanks to its indepth and educational articles, popular electronics soon became the worlds largestselling electronics magazine. The following zipped file contains not only the elfos image files, but also included are images for some new elfos enhancements, rcbasicl2, rcfourth and superbasic. Dec 14, 2012 homebrew computer a pcb with among other electronics a hexkeypad and some 7 segment displays around a 1802. Construction of a lowcost microcomputer and some simple examples of programming. L8k ja6 i have put together a list of all articles in popular electronics dealing with rca1802 based elf microcomputer. I was looking at some of the old magazines from the 1924 days. Ch ting to make his figforth manual available in amazons kindle format.
It is historically notable as the first cmos microprocessor. The cosmac elf was a microcomputer design by joseph weisbecker that was featured and announced in the pages of the august 1976 edition of popular electronics. Simpletobuild computer trainer can be expanded for. The chip can use any combination of standard ram and rom devices and can address up to 65,536 65 k bytes of memory. Personally i have never built something around an 1802 thus far. This is the home page for lee harts 1802 membership card kits, based on the rca cosmac 1802 processor and the early elf microcomputer design with that cpu. I do not want a computer with extra capabilities like serial output or the ability to drive a display.
This is a picture of the video output from the 1861 vdc running on my fpga, using the classic test program that was apart of the article on adding it to the cosmac elf in the popular electronics magazine. The design of a microprocessorbased data logger, kenneth j. The vcf elf is an original elf, built for the 2016 vintage computer fair midwest. As photographed, this unit was completed by josh bensadon in august 2014. The membership card is a miniature version of the original popular electronics elf, repackaged to fit in an altoidstm tin. While the programs in this booklet are recreational in nature it is hoped. Elf ll, presented here, incorpo rates all these upgraded features plus.
The interface is designed like the original cosmac elf as published in the 1975 popular electronics magazine article. Cosmac elf popular electronics pdf the cosmac elf was a microcomputer design by joseph weisbecker that was announced in the pages of the august edition of popular electronics. However the programs will also run in expanded memory systems like the 114 k elfw described in the march, 1977 issue of popular electronics. Jitterjunction popular electronics cosmac elf project. The cosmac elf was an rca 1802 microprocessorbased computer based on a series of construction articles in popular electronics magazine in 1976 and 1977. Autocad 2010, and rendered to pdf using adobe acrobat. Back in 1976, i saw the popular electronics magazine article for building the very inexpensive cosmac elf microcomputer project, and wanted. Jan 01, 2020 this is an implementation of the cosmac elf, constructed in going by the issues of popular electronics, with additional articles in march and july popular electronics was famous for the article introducing the altair ran on building a very simple computer called the cosmac elf. Boardmaker studio in the top right, change the printer dropdown to read the name of the. The project was a small experimenter computer based on the rca1802 processor built from plans in the 1976 edition of popular electronics on the cosmac elf micro computer. The instruction set timing diagrams in appendix b should be consulted to determine the hardware. Execution is halted at the negative edge of the tpa signal in each machine cycle. The zip file also has a vcd viewer that i wrote that can be used to load the vcd file and examine the bus cycles.
There is a scan of the pcb which i have uploaded first, hoping to ask communitys opinion if there is a chance to have it reproduced or if there is even any interest on it. The computer is based on the cosmac elf and 1802 membership card, so the same software works with little or no change. As you know, the propeller elf ii is a work in progress, com ing to shape with stolen moments of time from a really busy travel sc hedule. That was so popular no pun intended, that they ran more computer construction articles, including the swtpc 680 late in 1975. My kit had 256 bytes of ram, a hexadecimal keypad with unfortunate bounce issues, six fnd500 seven segment led for address and data, and composite video output. Aug 19, 2019 afcsm 36699 pdf the armed forces civilian service medal afcsm is established to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of the u. Building the classic 1976 cosmac elf microcomputer. Popular electronics, followed by a series of articles that introduced new features. The 1802 membership card kit will be ten years in production as of oct 2020. All documents referring to the 1802s internal operation andor instruction set use the. I have uploaded so far 4 pdf files to a folder called 1980 vica 1802. The cosmac is an 8bit microprocessor family introduced by rca. The 1802 represented the majority of cosmac production, and today the entire line is known simply as the rca 1802.