![[front cover]](mship_revcpan.jpg)
Last updated Jan 19 2012. Edited by Herb Johnson, (c) Herb Johnson, except for content written by Lee Hart and others.
This home page is about Lee Hart's Membership Card kits, based on the RCA COSMAC 1802 processor and the early ELF microcomputer design with that CPU. Current status and prices are below. The Membership Card Product Page is linked here, and the kit support page is at this link which includes the construction manual and schematic.
This page has links to notes on hardware, links to software including an assembler and FORTH; about 1802 history and resources, and other support. A summary history of the Membership card development and revisions is below, including links to discussion and design.
How do I load and run a program? Here's a Web page on how to operate the Membership card. There's example programs, too.
For comments and corrections of content on this and other Membership Card pages, contact Herb at www.retrotechnology.com, an email address is on that page..
Rev C (current)
A "Rev C" card set was developed in July 2010 and is available now. There's very minor changes from the Rev B, plus an additional PC board as a printed front panel cover. Here's the Rev C support Web page. with construction manual and schematic. For prices and contacts, see the details below. Supporting information about the Rev B also applies to the Rev C. The Membership Card Product Sheet is on this Web page.
See the "other people's builds" section for other Membership Card owners' results, and the builds and software they've produced, over all revisions.
![[empty boards]](mship_revbbd1.jpg)
Rev B and owners
A "Rev B" card was announced in mid-August 2010, and sold through July 2011. Here's the Rev B support Web page. Current status and prices are below.
Chuck Bigham and Chuck Yakym completed Rev B kits in Jan 2011, and developed some PC/windows software. See the "others" section below for PC connecting software for the Membership card.
![[assembled kit]](mema_2.jpg)
Rev A and owners
Several "Rev A" prototypes were produced in late 2009 and assembled and tested in 2010. Rev A Web pages are still available and useful.
Here's a photo of the assembled Rev A 1802 Membership Card.
As of Jan 2012, Rev C boards and parts are available. See prices below. .
Rev C Bare Logic Boards (Membership Card and Front Panel): $19.
Includes manual. Add $5 shipping; slightly more outside USA.
Rev C kit (both logic boards and all parts): $79.
Includes manual. Add $10 shipping; slightly more outside USA.
Front Panel Cover board: $10.
Add $2 shipping; slightly more outside USA.
Check the Rev C support page for details of the boards and kits.
How do I load and run a program? Here's a Web page on how to operate the Membership card. There's example programs, too.
CONTACT: Lee Hart can be contacted by email at ![[email addr]](lee.bmp)
This is an image, not an email link.
You can order using Paypal to Lee Hart, or mail a check with your order, contact Lee Hart accordingly.
Lee Hart designs, works on and discusses electric cars and designs EV electronics as products and for construction by individuals. Check my Lee Hart Web page which links to his electric vehicle site. Check the ordering section to contact Lee about the Membership Card.
I'm Herb Johnson, the producer of these pages and owner of this Web domain. Contact me at my home page for "retrotechnology". Wander from there to my other vintage computing and "retrotechnology" interests. This 1802 project is an example of, and a tribute to, the 1970's microcomputing era I'm trying to preserve and support. - Herb Johnson
![[1802 prototype]](mem_07_proto.jpg)
A breadboard of the Membership Card circuits. Ode to Eight Bits, by Lee Hart
The Membership Card has an ELF legacy going back decades; the card itself is a product of years of discussion among 1802 enthusiasts. Here's a summary account of Lee Hart's 1802 work leading to the 1802 Membership Card. See the Membership Card development page for years of discussion about the present Membership Card design, and the philosophy behind it.
RCA developed the COSMAC CMOS product line in 1975 forward, including the 1802 CMOS microprocessor and other support chips. The design engineer also developed the "Elf", a very simple design to program the 1802 with nothing more than toggle switches. Over the years, variations of Elf-like 1802 products and kits were made. In 1982, engineer Lee Hart designed and built an 1802 single board computer called BASYS. He also developed a Forth called "8th", a Tiny BASIC, a ROM-only monitor, and other software tools.
Elf and related 1802 products have been discussed for some time in the Yahoo! cosmacelf discussion group, the Cosmac Elf Web site by Dave Ruske, and other Web sites.
In May 2008, I found out that Lee Hart wanted to resurrect his old 1802 FORTH; I and others helped to gather old code and documents to do that. That's when I found his earlier discussions in cosmacelf about his "membership card". By 2009, Lee was encouraged to pick it up again. He built a prototype and in October 2009 produced a few boards. I found a cross assembler in source form and made that available. I established these Web pages on my site to support the work, and to capture and make available his design discussions.
By February 2010, he produced several "Rev A" cards. After a chip change, in August he produced a "Rev B" run, sold through July 2011. In the summer of 2011, Lee made minor layout changes and added a "cover board" for the front of the Altoids container. Rev C and the new cover board became available in August 2011.
The story of the design and production of the Card is now on a "Membership Card development" Web page. The most recent status of the project, and contact and price information, are given above.
Using the Membership card with a PC parallel port See the Membership Card development page for years of discussion about the present Membership Card design, and the philosophy behind it.
"How do I load and run a program?"Here's a Web page on how to operate the Membership card. There's examples, too.
"Here's a free-running, slow counter in 10 bytes: EF 80 BF AF 9E 5F 1E 64 30 01 . Can it be done in 9?" - Dave Ruske
This links to my Web page of the software I have available specifically for the 1802 and Membership Card. On this Web site, there's a Forth called 8th, a Tiny BASIC, a cross-assembler with C sourse, and PC parallel port software to drive the Card. Links to other sites are below.
P. Todd Decker completed and debugged the rev A kit in May 2010, and provided Lee Hart and myself with discussion about some design issues, resolved in the Rev B version.
hear's Todd's assembly and debugging of a Rev A kit, including notes for a "single-step" device. Todd produced a demonstration video on YouTube in July 2010, titled "COSMAC 1802 Membership Card Checkout" by ptdecker. Photos appear on FLickr titled "1802 Membership Card" by ptdecker. Todd has a Facebook page as ptdecker.
Chuck Bigham completed a Rev B kit in Jan 2011. Chuck has connected his Membership Card to a Windows PC via a Pixaxe conroller
Low power operation of the Membership Card
The OUT instruction and the Membership card
a single-step circuit for the Membership Card.
A description of RUN operation after separating the M/S card set
Some recent notes and comments about Membership card upgrades
Software
Other people's builds, software, hardware for the Membership Card
Chuck Yakym built a Rev B kit in early 2011, and created a Windows 32-bit program (Win XP, 7) to access and program the Membership card through the PC parallel port. Check the software Web page for details and links. Also check the cosmacelf Yahoo site for other 1802 programs by Chuck.
The Rev A prototypes were constructed by several people: here's my build [Herb Johnson] from 2010.
The cosmacelf Yahoo discussion group and the Cosmac Elf Web site by Dave Ruske are notible resources for ELF, ELF derivatives and the 1802.
Documents and articles
Lee Hart suggests A Short Course In Programming by Tom Pittman, provided with permission.
Lee also says "The RCA Microtutor Manual is a good place to start. It was written by Joe Weisbecker himself (inventor of the 1802), and starts right at ground zero, for someone with zero prior microcomputer experience." This is not available online, apparently. Copies and originals are not uncommon.
He also suggests a look at the orignal ELF articles from Popular Electronics. are on Rich Cini's section of the classiccmp.org Web site. The Web page is an index of many documents, look for the Cosmac ELF PDF's. Other sites will likely have copies of these articles.
Steve Gemeny, an active member of Yahoo's cosmacelf group, worked on a number of NASA spacecraft projects at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). In 2002 and 2005, Steve posted in cosmacelf, remarks about his experiences with the 1802 as a teen in the 1970's, and again as a parent showing his 1802 kit to his son. He also describes 1802 history from his experience in aerospace, and examines early use in medicine. Read his remarks, made available on this site in July 2011 with his permission. A further discussion of the 1802 in spacecraft is on another Web page.
Web links to other ELF 1802 sites:
Mny of these references were discussed in the cosmacelf Yahoo group.
Mike Riley's Elf Web page with micro/Elf and pico/Elf designs and considerable software;
Elf 2000 from Spare Time Gizmos;
the tinyELF emulator for Mac OSX (PowerPC or Intel versions);
an ELF simulator in javascript from Poland;
Programs for the COSMAC ELF by Paul C. Moews, on the Web with his permission;
1802 history in space: Note: this section has been moved to its own HTML document. The most notible bits of history, is that contrary to prior information on the Web and elsewhere, The 1802 was not used in the Voyager or Viking planetary spacecraft. It was used in Galileo, and in other craft prior and after. Read the linked document for details and primary references to confirm. - Herb Johnson, Aug 2011
Lee Hart explains why he designed the Membership Card in these notes to HackADay, a popular site for individual projects.
I showed the Membership card at May 14-15 2011 at Vintage Computer Festival - East 7.0. The flyer is based on the product sheet Web page. Several people marveled at it.
Archives of RCA's 1802 development history were moved from Sarnoff Labs to two institutions in 2009-10. A display of artifacts may be available in the near future.
This page and edited content is copyright Herb Johnson (c) 2012. Contact Herb at www.retrotechnology.com, an email address is available on that page..
