1980's goodness - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2012, 09:46:02 pm
content: Bought,..... well a box of junk really off ebay a while ago for a quid (figured I wouldn't need to find much usable to be up on the deal). In amongst were about 10* (some unused) CPU cards for an industrial flow controller. Loads of TTL, 6502's + peripherals, static RAMs, EPROMS and other good stuff from the 1980s. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but it's all useful for repairs of older equipment.* Edit: 12, in fact, now I've counted properly.Thought I'd share a picture of the board which is simply enormous 15x10.5", before I do though - I've identified just about all the ICs except the PLCC device at the top of the board. It's a Motorola device - the markings are:ZC98376CFNMED92B95TQQQY8925The last line is obviously the date code (week 25 1989, presumably) and I guess that the ZC98376CFN is the part No but Googling that yields no useful hits. One of the other boards has a 68HC11 in that position so I'm assuming that's what it actually is - anybody any idea?Anyway here it is!

author: IanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2012, 10:17:53 pm
content: Quote from: grumpydoc on June 14, 2012, 09:46:02 pmYou can say that again! I can barely see a quarter of the picture in the post window

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 07:12:41 am
content: It would be nice if the forum made image display a bit easier.Normally I'd have reduced the image dimensions more but wanted to convey the sheer size of it - at 263x385mm it has almost the same area as a full sized AT motherboard.It has three 8-bit CPUs, the mystery ?68HC11 and two more 6502's together with boatloads of digital and analogue I/OI suspect you could replace the whole thing with an AVR these days

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 09:01:03 am
content: I've found some Motorola/Freescale documentation that states:'An "SC" or "ZC" prefix denotes special/custom device.'Might be mask ROM or have some other interesting peripherals built in.The 68HC11 you found makes this likely to use the same core too.(It's probably not related to theMC68376, which is a 32-bit device from the 90s.)

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 09:18:01 am
content: Video Arcade game mainboard? multiple CPU's lots of EEPROMS , digital and analog I/O... could be?

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 09:58:22 am
content: its very late 80's, you dont get quite as much of the beauty of the early 80's high density high speed logic boards, where they almost enforce vertical on one side, horizontal on the other, and a few very odd angle ones, all packed so tightly you become amazed when you find they are length matched traces,

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 10:29:56 am
content: QuoteAh, thanks - so no way of knowing except, by inference, it's probably some flavour of a 68HC11.I have 12 of these boards. The whole area seems to be an option as the area with the processor and it's associated support chips is unpopulated on some. I also have at least two versions of the board and on the obviously older version the same circuit is on a daughter board. However there isn't any difference between the ones that have the mystery chip and the ones which have a straight 68HC11 in terms of the support chips (eg both have external EPROM)QuoteYes it looks like it, doesn't it. Especially when you note the 6845 CRT timing generator on the right hand edge.However the packaging was marked "SFC 3000 main board" - Googling turns up an SFC 3000 flow computer and I got the boards from an outfit which is likely to use that sort of industrial control stuff so it seems likely that's what they're for.Sadly I don't think they're ressurectable - even the 4 that look to be unused in their original packaging. They have a 3.6V backup battery - probably ni-cad but I've not looked exactly what it is. All 12 have leaked over the PCB and lifted tracks under the battery (and for some distance away).

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 12:01:38 pm
content: Nice. Industrial boards are great for salvaging parts. Ne'er a risk of counterfeit there, low cost, low demand, lots of goodies. Its like a Jameco grab bag on the cheap. This is my preference for stocking parts.

author: IanJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 05:54:11 pm
content: Guessing here:-"Supercritical Fluid Chromatograph SFC-3000 from Carlo Erba"....................So isCarloErba anything to do withCE Instrumentswhich is etched on your board.Pic of an SFC-3000

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 06:03:31 pm
content: given the presnece of the hybrid input conditioners, and what looks like a precision A/D bottom left : the chromatograph could be a winner ..

author: grumpydoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2012, 06:36:27 pm
content: As it turns out I think that IanJ and free_electron are spot on the money.It was an odd transaction in some ways - I won the auction months ago and, after a bit of negotiation the seller agreed to drop the bits off the next time they had client business near me.In the end that wasn't until yesterday, so I've only just paid and therefore only just seen the actual email address rather than communicating via ebay.It was, of course, CE instruments.So the board is almost certainly from the SFC-3000 chromatograph.