What is this PCB? (Slotexpander?)

Page 1/3
| 2 | 3

By Manuel

Ascended (19270)

Manuel's picture

22-12-2015, 23:30

While clearing the attic, I found this PCB:

Looks like a slot expander which was not finished at all.

Does someone recognize it? Can someone tell me more about it?

Login or register to post comments

By Lord_Zett

Paladin (807)

Lord_Zett's picture

22-12-2015, 23:51

Looks like sunrise 8 slots expanderen

By RetroTechie

Paragon (1563)

RetroTechie's picture

23-12-2015, 02:02

Not a slot expander, but an 8-way slot selector card. That is: plug in cartridges, and select which of those you want active (just one at a time I think).

From Dutch Elektuur magazine - white marking below the slots has pcb id #.

Found a .pdf describing it on Hans Otten's page here (scroll down to "Elektuur mei 1986 - MSX Uitbreidingen deel 3").

By Manuel

Ascended (19270)

Manuel's picture

23-12-2015, 12:32

Thanks, RetroTechie!

So, what shall I do with the PCB? Smile

By meits

Scribe (6530)

meits's picture

23-12-2015, 13:46

complete it Smile

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6428)

mars2000you's picture

23-12-2015, 14:35

I don't think that Manuel is an soldering iron maniac ! Wink

By raymond

Hero (627)

raymond's picture

23-12-2015, 14:40

Perhaps will be when he has finished this Big smile Then he can go further with a GR8BIT Wink

By pseen

Resident (61)

pseen's picture

23-12-2015, 15:05

Is there a BOM somewhere?

By SuchAGoonie

Expert (108)

SuchAGoonie's picture

23-12-2015, 16:17

Somewhat on-topic: I'm trying to learn how the PPI / MSX memory works. An 8 slot expander would be impossible as the MSX can only set slot 0-3 in its internal 4 addressing pages, right? So it would have to be a device that selects one of its own slots and just tells the MSX it's always slot 1 or 2 or something, like RetroTechie described I think.

I did try to read the document on Hans Otten's website, by the way, but that was all Chinese to me. (I don't speak Chinese, obviously) Tongue

By Grauw

Ascended (10699)

Grauw's picture

23-12-2015, 16:27

@SuchAGoonie The 4-subslot limit only applies to memory access. For I/O access there is no restriction to the number of expansions. Sunrise sold an 8-slot expander where the first four slots were regular expanded slots, and the latter four were only usable for I/O-only devices such as Music Module, MoonSound, Gfx9000, etc.

(But, that’s not this module obviously as RetroTechie explained.)

By SuchAGoonie

Expert (108)

SuchAGoonie's picture

23-12-2015, 16:31

Ah, I understand. So for memory addressing, you can select slots using the PPI ports (#A8 - #AB) and then just address it normally, and when you want to talk to something other than memory, for example the MoonSound you mentioned, you use the ports that the MoonSound uses.

The MoonSound wasn't part of the official MSX standard, right? Does 3rd party hardware simply select some port numbers that aren't normally used by an MSX and provides its interface via those ports?

Page 1/3
| 2 | 3