Pete's Log: Z80 and stuff
Entry #1976, (Life in General, Parenthood, Smokepacking)(posted when I was 43 years old.)
The issue with my Z80 processor turned out to be a couple of loose connections. Today I noticed that the LED was a bit flaky when I picked up the unit so I wound up doing a continuity test on all the pins in the socket. A couple pins were not making good connections and when I pulled the processor out, I realized all the pins were at least a millimeter shorter than the pins on the 6052. After some finessing, I got all the pins to maintain contact and with that accomplished was able to boot the BASIC sketch and type in a few BASIC programs. Very exciting to see it working. I'm stupidly excited to be upping my obsolete processor inventory again.
I'm guessing that when this particular Z80 was salvaged, it may have been removed from its previous home by having its leads snipped instead of desoldered. No way of knowing, though. In this regard the 6052 should be easier to get running once I have a replacement capacitor. I did end up ordering that SMT component book, and it should be here in time for the weekend.
JB came home from daycare today with some sniffles again. She's in good spirits and doesn't have a fever and I'm sure if we weren't in the never-ending middle of a pandemic we'd send her back, but as things stand, Jamie and I are in agreement that we'll keep her home tomorrow.
This pandemic thing is becoming increasingly exhausting. After the three or so weeks we had with no new cases in Brookfield, the past couple weeks have seen cases on the rise again. It's incredibly infuriating. We had felt excited this summer to try to go to the Renaissance Faire, to maybe go to Riot Fest, and to try hosting a party. But right now all those things are off the table. Please just get the vaccine, y'all.