[sci.electronics] Amstrad PCW8256/PCW8512 serial port

a.guillaume@trl.oz.au (andrew guillaume) (04/19/91)

G'day all !

If this is not the right place to post this, don't flame me, just tell me
where to post.

I'm trying to help out my dad who has one of the above mentioned beasts
(the PCW8516). This thing comes with an expansion "port" at the back, which
is in fact just a connector edge of the internal pcb. Now he also has a
Heathkit H89, running cp/m, and would like to have the two machines talking
to each other. The expansion "port" of the PCW8512 has all the signals from
the Z80 (address, data, control). I figured that all I would need is something
like an 8251 or a Z80-SIO, plus the required TTL<->RS232 chips. Now before
I start reinventing the wheel, I'd like to know from anybody who might be
familiar with the Amstrad, whether they know if this is already available
from Amstrad, whether this might exist in kit form, whether this problem has
already been tackled and solved, and whether my assumptions as to it being
a simple h/w job are correct. BTW, I am an EE, so soldering is no problem :-),
although all the programming stuff might be a little bit more challenging :-)

Email me, or post, and I will send any "me too" requests a summary.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Andrew Guillaume

Internet : a.guillaume@trl.oz.au