Re: ZipGS and the annunciator ports...any connection?

[scott@alfter.DIESPAMMERSDIE.us (Scott Alfter)]

In article <moege3pei6krnjrosmhg0mrjkqqgtpokl1@4ax.com>,
Steve ][ <sc-ii@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:42:22 -0500, scott@alfter.DIESPAMMERSDIE.us
>(Scott Alfter) wrote:
>
>>This past weekend, I finally unpacked and set up my stealth GS again and got
>>it hooked into the LAN so I can test sstuff built with cc65.  To familiarize
>>myself with cc65 a bit more before I use it to start coding for my
>>6502-based beer-fridge controller board, I plugged one of my joystick-port
>
>[snip]
>
>I would love to see/read more about the beef fridge controller card.
>Or buy one. :)

I'm currently using a IIe (with a little add-on interface board in the
joystick port) to control the temperature of the refrigerator I use when I
make beer.  It maintains proper temperatures for fermentation (which are a
bit warmer than the fridge's built-in thermostat usually allows), and it can
adjust the temperature up/down automatically (so that, for instance, a lager
fermentation can be brought from fermentation temperature up to a diacetyl
rest and then down to lagering temperature without shocking the yeast).

The aforementioned beer-fridge controller board would replace the IIe.  I
have the board layout done, but haven't sent it out for fabrication yet.  It
will use a 65C02 (of course) and will include 32K ROM, 8K RAM, a 128x64
bitmapped-graphics LCD, a 12- or 16-key keypad (depending on what I can
get), a speaker for beeps and buzzes, and a 1-Wire interface (with a 1-Wire
RTC with battery backup onboard).  The fridge will get a smaller board
attached to it that provides a temperature sensor or two and a relay to
switch the fridge on and off; the sensor(s) and relay will be controlled
over the 1-Wire bus.  It should be possible to set up the firmware to
control multiple refrigerators.  It should also be possible to do other
things with the board...a process controller for earlier phases in the
brewing process, a weather station (there's already a weather station
available with a bunch of 1-Wire sensors in it), or nearly anything else
that you can monitor and/or control through 1-Wire devices.

I'm leaning toward making the plans available in some sort of open-source
manner.  Schematic capture and board layout were done with gschem and pcb,
so you can tweak that without spending the big $$$ on something like Protel. 
There is a GAL16V8 in the design; WinCupl is free-as-in-beer and can be
cajoled into running under Wine (but I've started running it under WinXP
under VMware, as I need that environment for my EPROM/PLD burner anyway).  
I most likely won't post anything until I have it up and running...no sense
in putting a possibly-broken design up for people to pull their hair out
over.  Once it's running, though, I'll be bragging about it here and
elsewhere. :-)

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