Reproduction Altair 88-UIO Universal I/O Board

[tep392]

I've been working on reproducing the MITS 88-UIO board. This board provides one serial I/O port and an ACR cassette interface. Deramp has produced a few video's demonstrating this board (link below). The board is a nice solution for adding a terminal and cassette to the Altair 8800 but is quite rare, so I decided to reproduce the board. I am nearing the finish line with the board design and will be ordering a prototype to verify the design. If it goes well, I could order a batch of production quality boards for sale. Depending on how many I order I will sell them for $40-$50 USD.

I would like to get an idea of the interest level so please respond if you might be interested in buying a board.

in progress repro board design

Mikes 88-UIO demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edCOd68iGI


Thanks!
Perry

[Wayne Parham]

I'm in for a couple!

[toml_12953]

I've been working on reproducing the MITS 88-UIO board. This board provide one serial I/O port and an ACR cassette interface. Deramp has produced a few video's demonstrating this board (link below). The board is a nice solution for adding a terminal and cassette to the Altair 8800 but is quite rare, so I decided to reproduce the board. I am nearing the finish line with the board design and will be ordering a prototype to verify the design. If it goes well, I could order a batch of production quality boards for sale. Depending on how many I order I will sell them for $40-$50 USD.

I would like to get an idea of the interest level so please respond if you might be interested in buying a board.

Board Progress 10Jan24.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edCOd68iGI


Thanks!
Perry

Count me in for two. I've been waiting for this exact board!

Tom Lake

[tubarespect]

You can put me down for one also.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[toml_12953]

I've been working on reproducing the MITS 88-UIO board.

Do you happen to have a user manual for it? The only docs I've found are just single pages with switch settings.

[tep392]

I've been working on reproducing the MITS 88-UIO board.

Do you happen to have a user manual for it? The only docs I've found are just single pages with switch settings.

Mike has documents posted here that seem to cover everything one would need to get the 88-UIO working. https://deramp.com/downloads/altair/hardware/88-UIO/

I have put together a parts list that I will be including with the boards, so it should be fairly easy to order everything needed to build one.

[toml_12953]

I've been working on reproducing the MITS 88-UIO board.

Do you happen to have a user manual for it? The only docs I've found are just single pages with switch settings.

Mike has documents posted here that seem to cover everything one would need to get the 88-UIO working. https://deramp.com/downloads/altair/hardware/88-UIO/

I have put together a parts list that I will be including with the boards, so it should be fairly easy to order everything needed to build one.

Thanks, but those are the docs I already have. Is the BOM available somewhere so I can get started ordering parts before you start selling the repros or is the sale too far in the future?

[tep392]

Thanks, but those are the docs I already have. Is the BOM available somewhere so I can get started ordering parts before you start selling the repros or is the sale too far in the future?

I want to build up and test the board before posting the parts list. After I've verified it's working I will order production boards. I can also post the parts list here at that time if you want to order parts ahead of the board.

I'll be ordering a prototype board in a few days so it won't be long.

Perry

[toml_12953]

Thanks, but those are the docs I already have. Is the BOM available somewhere so I can get started ordering parts before you start selling the repros or is the sale too far in the future?

I want to build up and test the board before posting the parts list. After I've verified it's working I will order production boards. I can also post the parts list here at that time if you want to order parts ahead of the board.

I'll be ordering a prototype board in a few days so it won't be long.

Perry

That'd be great! I really appreciate your effort in getting a repro of this board out. Repros of any original Altair boards are always welcome. The originals have aging parts and sometimes require
too much debugging to be worth it.

Tom L

[tep392]

There were a couple minor errors on the board, but it is now working. Here is a pic of it running 4k BASIC loaded from cassette.