James Stanley Adds an Altair-Inspired Front Panel to His RC2014 Retro Microcomputer Build

James Stanley has published a build log for an RC2014 Z80 computer with a difference: it features a custom-built front panel inspired by the Altair 8800 and other switch-programmed machines of that era.

A popular vintage-inspired computer kit family, which recently saw the launch of a new model in the form of the more compact RC2014 Micro, the RC2014 is a great way to experience the joys — or the misery, depending on your perspective — of programming and using an eight-bit microcomputer based on the Z80 processor. Stanley, however, wanted to take his own RC2014 a step further — by building a housing and front panel, replete with switches and LEDs, inspired by the Altair 8800 and similar microcomputers of the 1970s and 1980s.

"It allows you to view and alter the contents of memory, read and write to IO devices, and single-step through instructions," explains Stanley of his build. "The RC2014 backplane basically just puts the Z80 CPU pins directly on the bus, so the same panel would work unmodified against almost any Z80-based computer, as long as you broke out the bus onto the 60-pin ribbon cable.

"The only reason I thought I might be remotely capable of this project in the first place is because of an excellent article in the June 1978 issue of Kilobaud Magazine. It's the one starting on page 26: 'Home-Brew Z-80 System ... Part 1: front-panel construction,'" Stanley recounts. "Incidentally, the magazine is a fascinating read just for the products that are advertised in it, even if you ignore the actual content! It includes such gems as 'honestly: how many reasons do you need to make sure your next micro-processor is the original, genuine KIMTM?,' and 'Intertec's SuperDEC: pull out the guts & screw in the brains.'"

Despite lacking a background in electronics, which resulted in a simplification of the design over that described in Kilobaud, the final build is impressive. Designed in the open source KiCad electronic design automation (EDA) package and Inkscape vector illustration tool, the panel includes everything you need to view and toggle memory while stepping through programs one instruction at a time.

While there were a few "blunders" along the way, the build is impressively functional — and will only become more so, with the planned addition of a panel-mount power socket, USB keyboard socket, and rear access to the VGA and serial ports, the latter of which will be used for SLIP networking capabilities.

Stanley's full write-up is available on his blog, Incoherency.