ROSCO M68k Computer Build and Showoff

Please support this project and have some fun building the kit yourself.
Tindie Store; www.tindie.com/stores/rosco/
Project Website; rosco-m68k.com/
Project Repo; github.com/rosco-m68k

[@RockwellAIM65]

I never had much luck with the first 68000 it was kind of a slowpoke. What I did like was Motorola's decoupling of the DSP so you could run some things fast on a slow system. I used to run NeXT machines at work (the 040-33 mono slab was the best one) and really liked those until I discovered PA-RISC, which runs the same OS+software.
I also kinda like the 68332 Motorola made a "credit card computer" engineering product out of that it was just stellar.
I think nowadays the most fun way of doing all this would be to pair a CPU with a FPGA supported by open-source tools. By going that route you can build all kinds of two-chip solutions using vintage electronics... no need for high chip count anymore. I mean before the pandemic you could get SRAMs for free practically but now golly- I think if you have the original CPU and an FGPA then it's enough.
Put another way if you're going to make a 68000 board then y'know that chip's appeal is really just the novelty of its form-factor... so nice maybe to pair it up next to a big honking brushed metal Xilinx part from 2013 or so!

[@derekchristenson5711]

Thank you for making this! I just got around to building mine, fired it up, and just got garbage over the serial line. The instructions clearly showed 9600 baud, but when I saw your Dymo label reminder of 115,200 baud, I switched my terminal to that, and presto! 🥳 Nicely done video, BTW, and a nice case idea. I've been paralyzed by analysis paralysis on building / selecting cases for my various hobbyist computers, myself, but I think I'm going to have to finally get around to doing that, so these fun little machines don't get broken.

[@patkelley8293]

I like your organization. I've had issues where something sticks to my hand and gets lost. Of course you won't know till the end.

[@darkwinter6028]

I’ve had good results holding parts in place with BlueTak. It’s just stickey enough to hold the parts, but doesn’t leave a residue.

[@burntsemiconductor]

Great idea man, love it- thanks for sharing.

[@m1geo]

I built a 68Katy a few years back. Good fun! Ended up with Linux 2.6 booting on it (of sorts). Enjoy!

[@somacruz8272]

What was happening to your mic in this video? Great project regardless thank you very much

[@telesniper2]

neat!

[@sergioa.melendezpadilla6579]

What type of kester solder did you use in the video?

[@burntsemiconductor]

Here is the Digikey PN: KE1860-ND

[@Dreamshadow1977]

Where do you buy this from in 2023?

[@burntsemiconductor]

You can join the waiting list on tindie if there is one or ask on the discord chat for the project. Not sure if they were just hit by the chip shortage or got tired of kitting the project for others.

[@Dreamshadow1977]

@@burntsemiconductor Got it, I signed up for notifications right away. Thank you!