Ok, we are going to make a email list to notify you when we will be taking preorders for the Altair 8800 micro. feel free to email me at vbriel@yahoo.com and I will put you down on the list. I will send out an email once we are ready for preorders. Those on the list will get one days advance notice before we make the announcement on the forum. Preorders will begin in May, so the time is getting near.

Well, great news!  The new front panel pcb’s arrived today along with prototypes of the front panels. The new panel looks great with switches and appears to fit good. The momentary switches for step, exam/exam next and deposit/deposit next is exactly like the original Altair. I have the switches sitting deeper in the case so only the toggle paddle is out making the switches look smaller.

Here’s a quick picture of the new front panel. The hole cutouts are not perfect due to mfg issue but the production version will look great. If you look close you can see that the top row of switches is close to the bottom row of switches. This is one of the issues I expected to have going from the tiny slide to the much larger toggle switches. Still, way better feel to the machine.

Looking at a upper view you can see that the switches don’t appear to stick out too far and compliment the case just fine. Overall, I’m really happy with the new look of the Altair 8800 micro. The final prototype mainboards are due in Friday or Monday and I’ll get more pictures out of those too.

A long overdue forum update is finished. This update keeps bots out while allowing new users to sign up more easily. The forums help users connect and share projects and get help when needed.

Come take a look: forums

The Altair 8800 micro is getting closer to completion. We have just sent off for a final prototype to test. The latest prototype will have toggle switches for a more authentic look and feel. We are targetting June for the release and will probably take preorders in May. The estimated price is $199 but the formal announcement will be made once we get confirmation on production prices. Work will begin on the manual soon since there are many features on the micro that were not on the original Altair. Photo’s of the final prototype will be available when it is built.

Well, something happened to the web site while trying out a new wordpress forum plugin. All the pages, comments were lost. I’m looking into what happened but I think I have the posts back up. I’m having some issues but should have everything worked out soon.

To order from Briel Computers, please visit our order page here:

http://www.brielcomputers.com/store.html

After a month of intense programming, the Altair 8800 Micro is now functional. Early tests show it runs all 4K BASIC commands and 8K is now being tested. The Micro version is one of 3 planned versions of the Altair replica line. The full sized panel will also be available with a future option of the AltairPC, a complete PC Case with the look of a Altair and your latest PC inside!

As of April 3, 2010 the project is nearing production status. The final prototypes are being designed and will be tested thru May. It is looking like June we will start taking preorders.

The apple ][ super encoder is a replacement board for the apple II and II plus computer keyboards that have the seperate encoder on an attached board on the keyboard. This product is not designed to work with the apple IIe/IIc or IIgs computers. If you have an original apple II or apple II plus you can open the lid and look under the keyboard. If there is a smaller board attached to the keyboard pcb than the super encoder board will replace it. Click on the Ordering tab to the left to order yours. This is a limited edition board.

So, what is the big deal with this super encoder? Well, it makes a nice replacement for those keyboards that have bad encoders. The other advantage is that it has a ps/2 keyboard port. With this port you can have 2 keyboards, the built in apple II keyboard and a standard pc keyboard. You can use both at the same time so it will be easier for two player games. Please note that the cable is NOT included. You can use the cable that is currently on the keyboard.

To install, you must unplug your apple II. Remove the screws around the outside of the case and carefully open up until you can access the keyboard cable. Carefully unplug the cable paying attention to the orientation so you don’t plug it back in backwards. Now you can lay the lid upside down on your work area to access the keyboard encoder. To seperate the encoder from the keyboard you must squeeze the white plastic tab of the post and gently seperate the two boards until the encoder slides all the way out. Remove the cable and install it on the new super encoder board. Install the super encoder as shown in the picture above so the chip is facing toward you and the pins face into the keyboard until the spacers lock into the holes. At this time you can attach a ps/2 keyboard cable or attach one at a later time if you wish.

Things have been very busy around here. Orders have been flying off the shelf and there hasn’t been much time to work on things. However, the Altair project has received some attention and I think we are gaining traction. It is still a long ways off, and anything can go wrong to blow up the project, but there is a prototype. My idea is to have 2-3 different versions of the Altair, one as a PC that looks like an Altair, and the front panel can be programmed via the switches and run BASIC. Inside, you can have your latest Intel machine running Linux or Windows. A front panel only option will be made available for those who don’t want a full PC case.

The 3rd option is what I’m working on right now. It is code named Altair8800 Micro. It is a small (10″X7″.5X3″) case containing the Altair prototype and the PockeTerm terminal all in one case. The hardware testing phase is 95% complete and I am onto creating the Altair in firmware. This is a long and slow process, but things are moving along.

The front panel on the Micro is not exactly the same as the full size Altair. The toggle switches are replaced with small slide switches. There are also 4 less status LED’s. Programming the memory is identical to the Altair.

A custom version of the PockeTerm is incorporated onboard with VGA and composite video output choices (or both), PS/2 keyboard.

I’ve also added a SD card slot that the PockeTerm can use to send programs into the Altair. This section I have not yet tested and it will be the last thing I add in features.

So, where is the project right now. I have the LED’s and switches tested working. I have the core emulation written and can do simple instructions like JMP and NOP.

I can single step through instructions (that was not easy to do) and that appears to be working great.

I am slowly adding instructions but this will take a while. Anybody who might see this and have Atmel AVR experience that can help with the 8080 emulation, feel free to email me. I’m still many days/weeks away from adding all the instructions but right now things are looking good. Once all the instructions are in I’ll work on debugging instruction errors. Please understand that I’m a 6502 guy and the 8080 is pretty new to me. I’m looking into painting the case blue to match the Altair color scheme.

I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up, anything major can still go wrong to blow up the project but I know people have emulated 8080 machines with Atmel AVR microcontrollers so it is very possible. I’m not using their code but I use it as a reference when needed.

Specs:

Emulated 8080 run at speed or faster than original
32K RAM with BASIC loaded at power up (still in the works may have to load from SD card)
VGA or composite TV video output to a monitor
PS/2 keyboard
SD card slot to load/store software through terminal section
Battery option (not tested, may not work well with so many LED’s)
Diode circuit protection for battery/DC input.

More to come…

We are currently out of stock on the 4Meg GS RAM Card until a new source of RAM Chips can be located. We sell the card unpopulated for $49

This is the 4MB RAM card for the Apple II GS. It is a similar design to a card that was developed for Garberstreet Enterprizes a few years ago. After several requests to produce this card, the result is this new card. They are tested on ROM01 GS systems with CFFA cards. They are not tested with speed enhanced systems or systems with SCSI cards. Boards have not been tested with other cards installed. The price of the card is $49 plus shipping.

Recently Juiced.GS did a review of the card

The Test:

• Conducted by: Ewen Wannop
• Tested system setup
• Computer: Apple IIGS ROM 03
• Acceleration: 12.49MHz Transwarp card
• Storage: Apple High-Speed SCSI card, and CFFA card

“Not only does this board use SIMM modules-it comes populated with the full four megabytes, and sells at the moment for a bargain price of $49!”