SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

Name: SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit
SKU: 19490
Price: 80.00 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.95 (45 reviews)

(45 Reviews)

Pocket-sized retro computer in a small case running RomWBW CP/M

Designed by Stephen C Cousins in United Kingdom

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2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Grey case green panels 3 - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-12T20:09:46.485Z-SC131 Kit options - 3x2 - labelledSD.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Assembled PCB - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-19T15:50:27.364Z-SC131 Colour combinations 12 - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-Case colours top view - 3x2 - labelled.jpg

2020-03-19T15:50:59.349Z-SC131 Panel colours 1 - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-19T15:50:59.349Z-SC131 Panel 18 GHz - 3x2.jpg

2021-03-22T13:47:38.873Z-SC131 red panels - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-12T09:57:50.340Z-SC131 Kit contents - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Grey case green panels back - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Grey case green panels 2 - 3x2 - labelled.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Blue case green panels - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Black case green panels - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Inside the case - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-SC131 v1.0 Greyblack case green panels - 3x2.jpg

2020-03-11T18:59:37.087Z-Serial cables - 3x2 - labelled.jpg

$80.00

Quantity*

+ —

Main PCB*

Component set*

Case shell*

Case panel (pair)*

USB to serial adapter*

For more accessories, search Tindie for "Components for RC2014 and Z50Bus"

USB cable*

For a full kit select an item from each menu option above

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EU countries: Please note Tindie does not collect VAT. You will be charged VAT and a handling fee by your government when the parcel arrives in your country.

Pocket-sized retro computer in a small case running RomWBW CP/M

The aim of this design is to provide a low-cost CP/M system in a nice neat case. It uses the Z180 CPU for good performance and RomWBW firmware for a robust implementation of CP/M. To order a full kit…

Documentation

The documentation can be found at www.scc.me.uk

Purchasing the PCB only

The purchase options shown at the top right of this listing allow for purchasing of the main PCB on its own.

Dimensions

The assembled kit is approximately 11cm (4.5") x 7.5cm (3") x 2.5cm (1"). It is supplied in a box approximately 22cm (9") x 16cm (6.5") x 2.5cm (1") weighing about 240g (0.53lbs).

Notes

This product is supplied as a kit of parts which require assembly.
It is your responsibility to pay any import duty or taxes charged by your home country.
This product is designed for hobby use and is not suitable for industrial, commercial or safety-critical applications.
RomWBW has been provided free of charge by its author Wayne Warthen.

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EU countries: Please note Tindie does not collect VAT. You will be charged VAT and a handling fee by your government when the parcel arrives in your country.

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.98)

Documentation: (4.96)

Shipping: (4.93)

Communication: (4.93)

Robert | June 6, 2024

Very fun project to build and explore

I purchased this set about a week ago. Delivery was fast and it is a very fun project to assemble. It took me about 4 hours to put it together. After starting up, it turned out that there were already more than expected programs on the ROM.

The only thing that disappointed me a bit is that the SD card interface does not sit comfortably in the box, so in the end I mounted it without a socket, just soldered the pins directly to the PCB. Then it straightens and fits properly into the housing.

What I also wondered, there is no SD card included, is there a link somewhere where you can download an image with programs, otherwise I don't really understand the usefulness of the SD card.

This set is highly recommended, but not for the beginner.

Gary | May 30, 2024

Great all round experience

Kit was delivered promptly, comms were great and the instructions were straight forward and clear with checks as you progress to ensure everything is correct. I highly recommend, assembled and working in under 3 hours despite my very rusty soldering skills.

Jonas | April 17, 2024

Easy kit to build, good instructions, great fun to play with

This review is a bit overdue, but better late than never.
I've ordered several kits from SC, but this was the first I built.
Kit is well packaged, parts easy to sort out and instructions excellent.
I ran into a problem with a cold solder, but managed to figure out the approximate whereabouts on the PCB and after that it was a breeze.
Kit works as advertised and I am really impressed at the !/$ factor.

William | March 21, 2024

Exceeded expectations

This was an interesting kit to build. The documentation was great, and included various points to test to ensure a smooth build. The only issue I had was forming the LEDs, but that's due to my sausage fingers. I did have to remove the LEDs to re-form them. While doing so, I noticed there are tiny flange-like protrusions on the legs of the LEDs and that was my marker. As soon as I powered on the finished board, I had two reactions: one, it booted first time! Second was "dang this thing is fast!". I built it over the course of two after-work sessions. Like usual, take your time, take a break if necessary. Would recommend.

Eric | Jan. 29, 2024

Great kit! No trouble with assembly!

The assembly went very smoothly using the online documentation that walks you through the process. The only thing I did differently was I desoldered the right angle headers from the SD card adapter and soldered new, straight header pins rather than bending the right-angle header pins straight and then trimming them.

I did not use an FTDI serial adapter with RTS and CTS pins. I used a generic CHM340-based USB to serial adapter. It wasn't a problem. I used PuTTY as my terminal software and was able to connect without issue.

I look forward to exploring the SC131.

Huw | Sept. 13, 2022

Superb kit

This was great fun to put together, I built it over three evenings taking my time particularly in making sure the components that line up with case cut-outs were well positioned. The documentation is first rate, the design itself is very well thought-out, and the various test steps (from using a meter to watching the behaviour of the LEDs) build confidence as you go. There are some slightly fiddly parts around getting the board to fit into the case; if you have a dremel-type tool then it's a breeze to remove the required case pillar and shave away plastic to add a fraction more headroom for the SD card reader, though the "official" method of using a drill and cutters/knife would work too. I'd recommend this kit to any intermediate solderer/builder who wants a compact, attractive and well-specified Z80 system.

Joey | April 18, 2022

AWESOME KIT!

Just finished building my 2nd SC131--each took about 6 hours being very careful. Each powered right up after configuring my terminal software settings. I am now running CP/M and BASIC again and enjoying as I did in yesteryear. This is really an outstanding kit, priced well, very well thought out, very robust even including tests along the building path. This kit far exceeding my expectations in terms of part and finished product quality, overall operation, and really has some of the best kit documentation I've ever experienced. Sincere KUDOs to Mr. Stephen Cousins for your accomplishment here and your significant contribution to the retro hobby enthusiast! I could not be happier with this product and kit! Thank you tindie for your retro computer kit business and facilitating the sale of great retro computer kits to this community.

Tony | March 25, 2022

Great Kit, Great Documentation and Great/Fast service.

This has got to be the best documented kit, I've ever built! It all went together easily in a couple of hours, and worked first go.
Highly recommended for Z80 fans :-)

Duncan | Jan. 12, 2022

Very functional kit, easy to assemble, great documentation

5 stars for everything. The item was with me in under 48 hours from ordering before Christmas, I doubt it could have got to me any quicker so top marks for shipping speed. The product itself contains a number of different boot up options; the built in ROM is loaded with various languages and operating systems. The documentation is exemplary - at each stage, red outlines are shown on a picture of the board so there can be no mix-ups with components. A visual Bill Of Materials is also a great help. Everything went together well, the "test as you go" advice using the LED indicators was very helpful and gave confidence during the build. In total it took about 1.5-2.0 hours to make the kit which worked right first time. I'm delighted with it.

Joseph | Jan. 11, 2022

Excellent small CP/M computer

I simply could not be happier with this kit. All components were provided, as well as excellent assembly instructions. If you are looking for a simple, attractive, cp/m all-in-one kit, this is a great choice. Thanks!

Jonathan | Jan. 4, 2022

Fantastic Kit

This is a fantastic computer kit. It was simple to assemble (requiring soldering - but only of large through-hole components). The circuit board is well marked. The instructions are crystal clear and guide you through each step in the build process. All required parts were included in the kit. The case is a great addition and adds to the overall "polish" of the kit.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the quality of the kit and would recommend this to anyone who is interested in building a peppy little z180 computer.

Joseph | Dec. 3, 2021

Buy this, build this, have all the fun.

First off, the quality and attention to detail of this kit is excellent. The board is of excellent quality, and all the components are carefully packaged. The inventory of parts was perfect- Nothing missing or damaged. The illustrated color sheet included in the package makes an initial inventory of the parts a snap.

Assembling the kit was a pleasure. I took my time and double checked each detail as I went along. Though I have an electronics background and experience building many kits, I followed the assembly guide step by step. The clearly silkscreened board made component placement a breeze. Everything worked perfectly on first power-up.

This is an excellent kit that's fun to assemble. The final product is a tiny, fast and genuinely useful computer.

I have to say, the inclusion of an enclosure on this project helps to make this little jewel a lot more useful. Nearly all the small computer kits here on Tindie and elsewhere could take a lesson here. I'm not afraid to take this with me and share it with friends- I just toss it in a little zip case, and away we go. Having it in a small, sturdy and attractive case really adds shine to this little gem!

That being said, this is not a kit for a beginner. The excellent instructions have everything the experienced tech needs to build this little treasure with no trouble. But the close fit of the components requires at least intermediate soldering skills and careful attention to detail, and the PLCC socket can be a little tricky. The instructions, though very well written, lack a lot of information that would help the beginner- Static precautions, for instance, are never mentioned. Hints like bending the leads inward on the DIP components to help put them in their sockets, and more detail on hooking up the FTDI adapter would really help the newer kit builder.

All in all, I highly recommend this excellent kit. You'll end up with a fast little CP/M (or Z-System or FORTH or ROM BASIC) computer that you can slip in a backpack and enjoy anywhere!

Megan | Oct. 19, 2021

I'm quite pleased!

The kit came to the US in a little under 3 weeks, for COVID times I'm quite happy with that. The notification that it was sent reached me the day after I put in the order. Clearly, Mr. Cousins is on top of his game.

The kit itself couldn't have been easier to put together. I spent about 3 hours on it including a couple of breaks. The instructions are very good, but if you've got even the most basic assembly skills you'll find that it's obvious which parts go where and in what order. I found that the SD card adaptor mounts with less fussing if one takes the pin headers out of it and replaces them with regular straight headers rather than straightening and shortening the pins it comes with. The whole kit is clearly high quality and extremely well designed and thought through. And even though I ignored the instructions until the very end, it booted right up. It's really not a hard build, rather it's a nice way to spend an afternoon after you've gotten your responsibilities out of the way.

I'm looking forward to getting to grips with a CP/M machine, and seeing what kind of fun I can have with it. Thank you for making such a graceful and inexpensive little kit to tinker with.

Huw | Aug. 30, 2021

Fantasic kit, just buy one!

I haven't built it yet - it's in the to be built queue. Kit was well packaged and delivered when I expected. Hopefully it will get built next weekend (not much to do during lockdown other than gardening so this will be a priority :-))

Stuart | Aug. 29, 2021

A very nice, neat and powerful CP/M computer project!

Well, first of all I ordered the SC131 from Germany on Wednesday 11 August 2021 and it arrived on Saturday the 21st August, so just 10 days, which was a lot sooner than I expected considering the Brexit supply issues that I kept hearing about, where I had to pay about €17= in customs duty, etc., so not too bad!

This is a very well thought out and neat design, it took me several hours to solder using a fine soldering iron, I took my time to do it neatly, I then cleaned the PCP with PCB cleaner, and examined the circuit board, for dry joints, shorts, etc. with no issues found. I then carried out the initial recommended tests before inserting the IC's, again without any issues.

After inserting the IC's, I thought I would test it using a terminal emulation program, but something wasn't right, as I was not getting the boot screen, and the reset and status LED's were flashing, so I then went though the trouble shooting guide, but again I couldn't find any issues, so I inspected the board again, again I could find anything obviously wrong.

However, the supplied USB cable is a bit short, so I had used a slightly longer lead from another project that apart from being slightly longer, appeared to be exactly the same, so I thought well let try using the supplied USB cable just in case, and sure enough, the unit immediately displayed it test and boot screen, so I then installed the PCB in its very neat case without too much difficulty and tested the unit again without any problems.

I am very impressed with this very neat and interesting project together with its website documentation, etc. and to now be an owner of such a powerful CP/M machine. Many thanks for all of the work required in making such a nice project available to the hobby and retro computer community!

James | May 24, 2021

A wonderful little kit

I can't recommend this kit highly enough. Brillianly designed, packaged, documented and excellent value for money. Took me 3 hours to put together, but only because I havn't built anything like this for 30+ years. Enjoyed every minute of it and haven't stopped playing with CP/M apps over the weekend. Would definitely buy other kits from Stephen Cousins.

Gwendolyn | March 4, 2021

An adorable little machine you'll leave connected 24/7!

I'm a big fan of retro computing. I cut my teeth on a Sigma 9 mainframe, learning both FORTRAN and BASIC on it, using a briefcase-model printing terminal with an acoustic coupler. But the real fun started when *personal* computers became a thing. My father got a TI 99/4a, and later, an Apple II, then an IBM XT clone. At college, I worked with Apple II, II+, IIe, and that newfangled "IBM PC" the library bought on an educational institution discount. After I graduated, I briefly worked for Radio Shack, and got their "Model 100" proto-laptop, but a later employer had a roomful of old computers we could buy. I paid $50 for a complete NEC 8001 computer, with two floppy drives and a green-screen text monitor. It ran a version of CP/M that was so efficient, it fit in 2K, leaving 62K -- a huge amount of RAM for the day! -- left for the user. My first shareware programs were written on that beast in Z80 assembler.

I built an Altair-Duino a couple of years ago, and I love it a lot, but it's a) an emulation of CP/M, and b) an 8080 emulation at that. So a lot of my favorite programs wouldn't work on it. So when I saw the SC131, and what it could do, I snapped it up. I even sprung for the extra couple of bucks for the pretty translucent blue case. When it arrived, I dove into construction, and had it built in an evening.

I. Love. This. Computer.

The manual suggests just leaving it up and running all the time, and I do. I've had uptimes around 400-500 hours without a reboot. I downloaded a bunch of programs for it, and use ExtraPuTTY to access it. ExtraPuTTY is a fork of PuTTY that has built-in file transfer, so I could use Xmodem to send my downloaded code to the SC131. Shortly, I had both Turbo Pascal and dBase running perfectly on it! Super Star Trek, the Colossal Cave, and some useful utilities were also installed. (I'm still looking for a pseudo-Lord of the Rings D&D-type game I once saw in the early 70's called "Hobbit" that I played on a mainframe while at the sci-fi convention Windycon III. I know it mentions a deity named Yngwie in it, but haven't found it yet. I don't THINK it's a reference to Yngwie Malmsteen...but I'm not 100% certain.)

The kit does require some care when constructing it. The tolerances when fitting the case are very tight, and you do need to clip your pins and leads after soldering. I filed a couple down as well. I also installed a socket for the crystal oscillator. One was mentioned, but not actually supplied...but I had a bunch of the correct socket, so I supplied my own. My next trick will be fitting a tiny project box around the FTDI serial board, with strain reliefs to prevent the USB or ribbon cable from disconnecting, and protecting the board from the environment. But, even these fiddly bits made it a fun little project to build. If you enjoy such projects, and love retro computing and operating systems like CP/M, this is a great little kit to build.

Gunnar | Dec. 12, 2020

Excellent

Everything about this is excellent, cant ask fore more.
Arrived in Sweden after 20 days, but that's due to Swedish postal service that sucks big time, the seller is not to blame here.

Karsten | Dec. 11, 2020

Worth the wait

After 1,5 weeks the little package arrived me (to Germany) . It took about three hours to solder and build the kit. I had no problems because of the very extensive online manual. Now the sc131 has Geoff's VT-100 terminal (and a VGA monitor) with three lines (RX,TX,GND) on serial port A and the powered USB connection to my Mac mini with the »Serial« app on serial port B. Both connections work at the same time. The file upload to the sc131 with XMODEM (xm.com) on CP/M 2 works with 115.200,N,8,1 without any problems.

Conclusion:
- a fair price
- PCB, case, accessories, cables – excellent quality.
- the three front LED's – a must have ;)

Yesterday I compiled the Turbo Pascal version from the CP/M game »Ladder« with the TINST setting of 15 Mhz, which is okay for me to handle the lads …

Finally I would like to thank Stephen for this kit.

Jean-Michel | Nov. 19, 2020

Excellent

A very nice way to retrieve flavor of the good old time. Kit quality is excellent, easy to build. Worked like a charm when power on.

Mogens | Nov. 13, 2020

Compact, reliable and fun!

This kit is an excellent compact and portable computer. Having built other high-quality kits from Steve, this one is definitely no exception: Fast and safe packaging and shipping. Clear and accurate documentation. Nice PCB layout. Excellent case. Everything OK!

Take your time when preparing and assembling the case and the SD card reader; it is a tight fit, but indeed a fit. If in doubt, read the documentation and study the pictures one more time!

My kit worked on first power-up. The software included in the ROM, and the downloads with SD card images for RomWBW is great stuff. I decided to run my system using CP/M 3, which I like a lot. Both hardware and software is very stable and bug-free. I find it is a very robust and reliable system.

I highly recommend this kit if you want to bring your Z180 system with you everywhere - and who doesn’t?

Scott | Nov. 9, 2020

High quality, quality product

High quality, easy to build and the finished product is better than I expected. I've built a few Z80 SBC's before and all have been great fun but the quality of the SC131 'Elite' is right up there with the best. It looks great in the plastic case, sits nicely on my desk next to my Mac. I would recommend this build to anyone who wants to get into Z80 SBC's and have fun.

Keith | Nov. 5, 2020

Excellent kit

Ordered Friday, arrived Monday, I am in the UK.
Assembly guide is clear, good photos to back the instructions up.
RomWBW is the icing on a fine piece of hardware.

Masaki | Aug. 10, 2020

Excellent kit

Ordered late July and received in less than two weeks. (I live in Michigan USA). Spend two sitting, 2 hours each in my work station and I had a working CP/M computer. As many have mentioned, the assembly instruction is very easy to follow, and the quality of PCB is excellent. Attention to detail, such as there is a silk screen on the back of PCB that says "solder on this side" shows how much care was given to the design of this board. I was a bit afraid of the size of the components and PCB (I am 67 years old and my eyes are quickly deteriorating) but this was very easy assembly, again thanks to the excellent assembly instruction. I don't think I had such a fun soldering a kit since early days of HeathKit.

Piero | July 14, 2020

Great kit!

This kit is really great. The PCB gives a feeling of precise working, and when soldering you can feel the Copper of the Ground and Vcc traces...
Once solved a little problem (caused by a superficial testing on my side) it works better than "the real thing" I used "in the times when". Thanks to the generosity of several software houses, a lot of old commercial CP/M software is now available freely, including plenty of programming language suites. Maybe I will get a chance to refine some really old programs of mine. All in all, it's a breath of youth!

Mark | June 27, 2020

Fantastic little kit

I purchased just the PCB and components and designed a little case for 3D printing. The STLs can be downloaded here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4505086

Jessica | June 6, 2020

Quite an amazing kit

This is an awesome kit. The best I've assembled yet. Very simple to assemble with the instructions from the website. The packaging is nice withe the parts divided up sensibly. Everything fits together perfectly and the layout leaves plenty of space to solder everything.

I assembled the LEDs the way Phillip Stevens did and it worked out well.

Clive | June 4, 2020

High quality kit

This kit arrived promptly, was well packaged with ESD protection as well. Highly quality pcb ,case and instructions. Assembly was straightforward -no smt. Worked first time.
Now I just need to find how to load up my sd card with Star Trek..

Franklin | June 2, 2020

Detailed assembly guide makes for very nice build

I just finished building the SC131 kit and was very pleased with how precisely everything went together according to plan. A very nice, quality kit. I only have two comments I'd like to make (not complaints, just little surprises):

1) I run my 48-Watt soldering iron at ~450 degrees and use eutectic Ersin or Alpha Metals Sn-Pb solder. I noticed that any pad that was connected to a ground plane on both sides of the board required significantly longer to reach the 361 degree melting point of the solder and thus for the solder to flow on the pad. Thus while most pins required ~3 or 4 seconds to solder, those with the ground plane pads took more like 8 seconds to flow; this was most noticeable when soldering the decoupling capacitors. After I noticed this, I cranked up the temperature a little bit on the iron for these pads.

2) When time came to test with terminal software (I use TeraTerm) talking to the USB-FTDI adapter, I found that on Windows 10, the appropriate USB-FTDI driver was not automatically installed. Rather, I needed to run Windows Update to install the driver. Also note that the terminal software does not connect quickly enough to the FTDI adapter to catch the initial power-up messages after plugging in the USB; the RESET button must be pressed to see those messages after power up.

For preliminary testing, I booted the ROM-based CP/M and transferred a .COM utility to the RAM Disk using XMODEM; it worked fine. Now I just need to read all the documentation to find out how to use the SD card for non-volatile disk storage. I was somewhat astonished to see the contents of the RAM Disk are retained for up to 15 seconds after removal of power; I have no idea how this is possible, but I see it with my own eyes.

Scott | May 29, 2020

Excellent little kit. Works great for CP/M.

Excellent little kit. Fast to put together. Excellent documentation. Gives photos for everything, recommended order for installing parts and even little tips on when to test for shorts.
Gives you old school Z80 on a faster Z180 with 512KB RAM and 512KB ROM and micro-SD expansion. Extra memory shows up as spare drives.
CP/M as well as Forth and a couple versions of BASIC come on the default image.
Good for retro memories as well as can be used for real things too.

Anatoly | May 24, 2020

Great Z180 Complete Kit

This is a well designed Z180 kit including the enclosure. Stephen Cousins does his typical excellent job with the documentation and details for assembly. This kit includes some minor component modifications to get the board and enclosure to fit together. The instructions for these are explained clearly in the documentation including pictures of what needs to be done. The design only has 5 IC's, so it assembled very quickly. After assembly and close inspection of all the solder joints, I applied power and the Z180 system came to life. If you are interested in building a Z180 system, the SC131 is a good selection.

Steven | May 24, 2020

Great cp/m kit

Excellent assembly guide, the best documentation I have seen for any kit on tindie, If your a beginner then this is a really good retrobrew computer to get started with. Had no difficulties and the board fitted just fine in the case without any major adjustments. Its fun to use CP/M again.

Juan | May 23, 2020

Great Kit

This shipped quickly - Thanks.

The detailed instructions & Troubleshooting guide really helped me get this together and fix it. The only problem I had was with the serial interface. I would recommend including the USB-Serial adapter in this kit as one I already owned did not provide a stable power supply.

Fun to build and there is quite a lot you can do with this when it is complete, the case makes it look very neat and hides my terrible soldering nicely.

cheers,
Juan

Gianluca | May 14, 2020

a great cp/m computer in a pocket size

The kit is easy and fun to build, I'm not an expert in soldering and it took me a couple of hours to build it.
The on-line documentation is quite useful and complete.
In order to get the software working, I recommend to read the "RomWBW Getting Started.pdf", I have installed the "hd_combo.img" in my SD to have a full choice of operative systems, and even wordstar 4!
If you, like me, want to use wordstar, don't forget to launch winstall.com (or wschange.com) first, and choose the correct type of terminal (vt-100/ansi).

I am quite happy with my sc131; now I have a small cp/m retro computer to play with.

Jim | May 3, 2020

SC131 Good Z80 CP?M kit

This is a well documented key thats an easy to assemble, and is a good "Z80" CP/M computer. 512 of RAM, fast processor, two serial ports (one used for the console). It has the basic OS's stored in flash (which can be write protected), it also can boot from and/or run programs stored on the SD card. The package comes with a nice case, font and rear panels. This would be a good project for a beginner or someone who wants a portable CP/M computer.

Stephen | April 24, 2020

Perfect

This is one of the best kits I have ever purchased. The ICs are carefully packed in anti-static bags. The color documentation was very clear and concise. Best yet, it worked on first power-up.
Shipping and communication was wonderful. I am in the USA and was surprised at how quickly the kit arrived.
I would not hesitate to buy anything from this seller.

Yves | April 22, 2020

Great kit, lovingly put together

If you're looking for an easy-to-build Z80 kit - this is it!
I had mine up and running in less than 2 hours.

The documentation on the website is great - lots of attention paid to details.
I can for sure say that there has been a lot of work flowing into getting a documentation on that level of consistency (also true for the website)
The software support is also great, as the SC131 is directly supported as target platform by the ROMWBW
Again, this doesn't happen spontaneously, but only by intensive cooperation between the two authors and designers.

Thanks a lot for this nice piece of equipment.
Yves

Jay | April 19, 2020

Great kit

This is a great kit. It was easy to assemble and works very well. I bought the SC126 earlier but bought this one because it is very portable. I didn't use the other as much because it was a large open circuit board. I can take this from room to room with my laptop. I wish the USB connector was also in the case, but that's a minor complaint for a great kit.

Theo | April 18, 2020

Little black dressed Z180

Very nice build, exciting to do but not difficult. Worked first time of course, as I come to expect from SCC designs. I chose the case design in black, and it looks very smart, with a black USB cable coming out of it. And this little Z180 board is very functional out of the box, lots of software already available in ROM and more easy to add via the SD card. Good quality Z180 kit, very detailed instructions, the pretty case is a tight fit of course but that is actually a strong selling point.
I copied the suggestions of Phillip Stevens below to hide an FTDI adapter inside the box, and it works as described. Only thing I did different is that a removed the black plastic spacers at the bottom of those header pins after straightening and shortening them to make an even easier fit.

David | April 17, 2020

Great little kit

Clearest and most comprehensive set of instructions I've seen yet on anything bought from tindie. Everything from component identification to assembly is very clear and precise.

Kit was straightforward to assemble and worked first time.

Bruce | April 13, 2020

An affordable quality Z180 project for beginners or anyone

The kit is a very well documented, easy to build system. It is a sharp looking quality product that can be built in a few hours. It provide endless possibilities for retro-computing experimentation with CP/M, ZPM, FreeRTOS, Forth, Basic or any other system hat can be loaded from storage (micro-SD card). I love how small and portable it is. This is my first non-simulated CP/M system and look forward to learning on real hardware and firmware. I see my oscilloscope and logic analyzer getting exercised. The documentation and friendly ecosystem makes all the difference.

Stephen | April 12, 2020

Nice mini system from Mr Cousins.

It makes an excellent mobile CP/M system when connected to a light laptop, netbook, etc which acts as a serial terminal.. The SC131 is small enough to fit in a pocket and can use a single USB cable to provide power and serial connections. Non-volatile storage is limited to a single micro SD card (not supplied).

It's nice to have everything you need to produce a cased system in a single kit.

The kit is easy to build, although a little more fiddly than its bigger cousins such as SC126 and SC131, but should not be beyond anyone who can tie their own shoelaces.

The optional TTL to USB serial adapter delivered with my system was DOA, but I used an Adafruit USB to TTL Serial Cable (Product ID 954) which I already owned instead. In retrospect I would use this solution instead of the external adapter board which is offered with the kit.

I highly recommend this system for those who don't feel they need the possibility of expansion and are content with the slower speed of an SD card.

Phillip | April 4, 2020

Ideal portable z80/z180 development platform, with CP/M.

I was lucky enough to get one of the early systems, and documented my build here.
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/retro-comp/T-Z6CfPsFBM/gxidXENQAwAJ

Whilst it is a small neat package, I thought I could make the SC131 a bit neater and "robust" by a bit of tweaking.
Essentially, I put the FTDI adapter inside the case, so that all that leaves the case is a USB pigtail with a male A Connector.
Then nothing at all can go wrong. It can plug directly into any computer. And there's nothing to break off.

First, a saw cut through the back panel to let the USB cable out.
I thought putting the connector inside and using a cable relief (cable tie) was the best option available.
I've done another inside photo with the cable running down the edge of the case the way I prefer.
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/retro-comp/T-Z6CfPsFBM/qPlGWR4EBgAJ

The final result is a "Customline" edition of the SC131.

Richard | April 2, 2020

Great Kit

Really pleased with this little kit. I don’t think many people will have problems with it.

The only mod I think I will carry out is to add an RTC.

Glad there are people around who supply good quality kits like this.

Karl Albert | April 2, 2020

Great Product for beginners

As usual from this seller, a brilliant product.
This is not a product for someone wanting a system to expand and modify, it is very limited in that way.
But it gives the full CP/M experience and is one of a few kits which is perfect for beginners.

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$80.00