Stephen C Cousins

3,397 orders since Sep 20, 2018

Stowmarket, Suffolk, United Kingdom

Ships from United Kingdom.

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Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.97)

Documentation: (4.90)

Shipping: (4.91)

Communication: (4.92)

All Reviews

Donald | March 15, 2021

SC118 Z80 Processor Card Kit is a great product

For SC118 Z80 Processor Card Kit for Z50Bus

SC118 Z80 Processor Card Kit is easy to assemble. Initial powerup testing indicated that the system BIOS runs correctly with a flashing of the green LED.

Donald | March 15, 2021

The SC128 Modular Backplane Kit for Z50Bus works well

For SC128 Modular Backplane Kit for Z50Bus

The SC128 Modular Backplane Kit for Z50Bus was relatively easy to assemble. A few of the small pads take a bit extra heating when soldering. Overall the Modular Backplane Kit functions as expected.

Jeff | March 13, 2021

High quality kits, easy assembly, fast shipping

For SC130 RomWBW CP/M Computer Kit for RCBus-40pin

Four of us at my company each bought the SC130 computer kit and the SC129 Digital I/O board, just for fun. I haven't soldered in a decade but I put the kit together easily. I think it took about 3 hours for both the SC129 and SC130 kits, not rushing. The computer started up on the first try. I've been having fun writing blinkenlights programs in BASIC.

It took about 7 days for the kits to arrive, shipped from England to the east coast of the USA. This was in Feb of 2021.

It was a pleasure doing business with Steven Cousins. Thanks!

Kurt | March 12, 2021

SC203 Kit

For SC203 RCBus Modular Z180 Computer Kit

Today I received the SC203 kit.
It all works very well, which I did after the first
Applications can say.
The boards are superbly made.
It took me 4 hours to assemble.

The disadvantage for me is that deliveries from England have become around 20% more expensive.
Brexit is to blame?

Kurt

Roger | March 8, 2021

Great kit, both to build and use

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Excellent construction instructions and documentation about the card.
Had a wonderful and relaxing time building it, and then starting to play with it.
Very happy with it.

Mogens | March 5, 2021

Perfect kit for a Z50Bus CP/M 3 system

For SC140 Z180 Processor Card Kit for Z50Bus

Top quality! Everything packed safely, no missing parts, quick delivery.
Clear and easy to follow assembly instructions, including nice hints for testing the assembled board before mounting ICs, thus reducing the risk of error.
This is a reasonably easy build if you have a little soldering experience.
I really like the Z50Bus, which is mechanically stable, making it easy to insert and remove additional cards safely.
My setup is built on an SC128 backplane, also available from Steve.
The kit worked 100% on first power-on after assembly.
The RomWBW software provided with the kit contains much useful CP/M software. Personally, I am using CP/M 3 which runs very well on the SC140.

If you want to build a robust Z50Bus system, this card and the SC128 backplane is the perfect start (note that the SC140 can run completely standalone as a single-board computer).

I highly recommend this product, and also the other kits provided by Steve.

Gwendolyn | March 4, 2021

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

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

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.

Carsten | Feb. 25, 2021

Works great, but not with the ROM that comes with RC2014 Pro

For SC110 RCBus-40pin+ Serial and Timer Kit for RC2014

I ordered this board as a kit to substitute the SIO/2 board in my RC2014 Pro. I wanted a timer in my machine and the SC110 offers the CTC chip for that.
The build was easy, the kit quality is great but it looks like the software in the Pro ROM has some timing issues. The ROM works together with the SIO/2 board, but not in all slots. The SC110 board does send correct characters to the terminal but the firmware is not able to receive from the SC110 module. No problems with RomWBW*, though, so I think it‘s a software bug of the RC2014 Pro.
There is great documentation with example code and lots of other interesting stuff on Stephen C Cousin‘s web site.

* The CTC driver of RomWBW needs the output of timer channel 3 to be connected to the clock input of timer channel 4 in order to generate the 50Hz signal for the HBIOS timer tick. I connected pin 9 to pin 20 of the CTC on the board in order to achieve that.

Andy | Feb. 13, 2021

Prompt delivery, high quality kit as always from Stephen

For SC129 Digital I/O Kit for RC2014/RCBus-40pin+

Was bought to give me some more general purpose I/O for my SC126. Excellent quality kit. Clear instructions, neatly arranged, very easy to assemble.

Kurt | Feb. 8, 2021

SC138

For SC138 I2C Memory Card Kit

Great, fits exactly into the collection.
I2C with Z80 have not yet used 1984-85.

I'm looking forward to more kits from Steven.

Kurt

Terry | Feb. 3, 2021

Another wonderful kit!

For SC130 RomWBW CP/M Computer Kit for RCBus-40pin

The kit was packaged great. It was put together in almost no time at all, and works great! I previously built an RC2014, SC126, and SC131, they are a joy to build and fun to use. I also have some S100 machines and other SBCs, these SC-series boards are a super edition to my stuff!
Terry, N4TLF (formally WB4JFI)

Vladimir | Jan. 29, 2021

Great DIY computer kit

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Shipping was fast, despite COVID-19 situation. SC126 (small computer 126 i think) very smart designed and easy to assemble. Documentation written own by Stephen is comprehensive, easy to read (even with my skill, ha ha). I highly recommend this kit for purchase.

James | Jan. 28, 2021

It's really fantastic

For SC114 Z80 Motherboard Kit for RC2014/RCBus-40pin

I'm one of those who didn't grow up with the machines the RC2014 design was inspired by, so when I wanted to get into hardware that wasn't a microcontroller, I grabbed one of these, due to the low cost and obvious simplicity.

The build process is very easy and quick, thanks in no small part to the stellar documentation. The quality of the boards is very good, and the entire kit went together for me in less than two hours (it even worked on the first boot!)

I also had a lot of questions, since usually my RAM, ROM and CPU aren't separate entities sharing a single bus, and Stephen was very kindly able to offer me answers and the tools to look for more information. With this kit, I went from knowing relatively little about the whole enterprise to designing some of my own add on boards for specific projects I wanted to tackle.

I really can't recommend the SC114 (or probably any board Stephen makes) enough!

Kurt | Jan. 26, 2021

SC137+SC38

For SC137 I2C Bus Master Kit for RC2014/RCBus-40pin

A wonderful part. The kit was described very well. No problems building up.
The instructions for the test are very good again. The kit sc138 is worthwhile and should also be bought.
I2C has always been with me. I have rewritten Steven's program a bit to work directly under CP / M.
To be recommended without reservation.
Kurt

James | Jan. 19, 2021

Quality product

For SC127 Compact Flash Interface Kit for Z50Bus

This is a very simple design, with little to go wrong. Quality board, quality parts. Note that this won't work with the SC126 SBC or any other RC2014 system - it's made for the Z50 bus. I (wrongly) assumed that Z50 was a subset of RC2014, but it's not. My fault for not reading more carefully. I suppose one could fashion an adapter, but it would be kludgy. Anyway, don't hesitate to buy this if you have a Z50 board/system - I just wanted to note my mistake in case anyone else is confused about Z50 vs. RC2014.

James | Jan. 19, 2021

Great kit!

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

This was a very easy kit to put together with clear instructions. I had it assembled in an hour and a half, and it worked the first time! The board is silkscreened on BOTH sides and you could put it together from that information alone. The more in-depth operational info is on Stephen's website - everything is there, if a little scattered. It took a month to ship from the UK to the USA - I was starting to worry, but it finally arrived in good shape.

Pavel | Jan. 16, 2021

Completely great product

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Order without problems. Shipping was very fast (to Czechia). SC126 is very good product - hardware is smart designed and software is excellent (RomWBW). Documentacion is also very good, I would invite user manual in PDF format. Thanks to all for my silicon honey.

Michael | Jan. 13, 2021

Great hardware kit - very, very complete

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Easy and simple build, documentation was fair and aimed at people with little experience. Would have been nice to have a summary of all the IO addresses in the documentation. Otherwise, a good kit.

A | Jan. 2, 2021

A brilliant all in one kit for beginers or lazy old hands ..

For SC130 RomWBW CP/M Computer Kit for RCBus-40pin

I have been tinkering with old tech for decades and always wanted a simple easy to use cpm machine with enough expansion to let me mess around. I decided to go with a semi retro solution i.e. not a purist old z80 design just to get my feet wet. Well it was worth it. It took an hour and a half one evening and it was up and running. The kit is idiot proof. It even included rubber feet for the PCB so you can power it up on a table surface without risking scratching your dining room table (in my case). The documentation is clear and the creator totally responsive. I am already planning to expand it further. If you want to get a CPM beast up and running in under 2 hours... this kit is totally for you.

Andy | Jan. 1, 2021

Great kit, fast postage, great support, many thanks!

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

I bought this to learn Z80 assembly - something I failed to do when I was younger with my ZX Spectrum, but always felt it's something I should return to now I know a little more about how things work ;-) The quality of this kit is fantastic - really good instructions to follow, great support materials with the schematics, board layout and firmware source all easily available. Plus, plenty of explansion and development available to go beyond the board in the future.

A couple of suggestions for Stephen:

(1) a "getting started" guide which takes you through accessing the onboard peripherals. I'm aiming to drive a TFT LCD through the SPI and I've been digging around the documentation a fair bit to find out how to access it and drive things like the CS. All part of the learning though!

(2) provide a header for the 8 output LEDs, so it's easy for them to drive other things. I need an extra output pin and I've ended up using the I2C port's SCL but it would have been easier to have started with the LED output port.

Thanks again for a great product - really enjoying my return to the Z80 :-)

Richard | Dec. 27, 2020

Excellent

For SC130 RomWBW CP/M Computer Kit for RCBus-40pin

Received my SC130 quickly but only allowed to assemble it after Christmas! Full documentation and assembly guide, well packaged. Printed circuit very good quality. Assembly took 45 mins but may be longer if not experienced. Worked first time. Just written first 8080 style code with Ed. Takes me back! This is not the first kit or board from this seller and all are excellent with very efficient service. Richard Wilkins

Gunnar | Dec. 12, 2020

Excellent

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

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

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

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.

Marcin | Dec. 9, 2020

Excellent

For Pick'n'Mix Boards for RCBus/RC2014

Very good PCB quality, very good online documentation, fast shipping - everything is just fine.
Many thanks!

Marcin | Dec. 9, 2020

Excellent

For SC202 Boards for a flexible Z80 computer

Very good PCB quality, very good online documentation, fast shipping - everything is just fine.
I had lot of fun putting it together, and now I have working RC2014-compatible system.
Many thanks!

Michael | Dec. 4, 2020

Excellent kit, worked first time.

For SC132 Z80 SIO/0 Module Kit for RC2014/RCBus-40pin+

As with all Steven's kits, this one is thoughtfully designed and very well documented. Good quality PCB and components. Very configurable, with options for different clock sources. There are links to isolate the rx/rx signals from the bus and for address selection, avoiding conflict with a second serial card should you need one. Unlike some other serial boards, the RTS and CTS signals are brought out to the FTDI connector for hardware handshaking. Recommended.

Mark | Nov. 25, 2020

SC-126 Z180 SBC and SC-129 Digital I/O Kit

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Thank you Stephen! Great quality kit. Really like having CP/M 3, MBASIC and the Z80 Assembler all working on one small portable and reliable board. Love the RTC feature and using the Micro SD adapter with my 16GB card on the SPI Card SD 1 port works great. Looking forward to using the I2C port with a PCA9685. I'm using the USB serial adapter on Serial Port A which works really well, could not get USB Serial Port B to work, probably something I am not aware of and not the fault of the board, any tips would be appreciated. Your online detailed instructions were excellent, especially the recommended steps to check my assembly work of the board(s) before powering up. No missing parts, packaged and labeled well. The only issue I had was having to lightly burnish the land patterns on the board (and some of the edge connector pins) for better solder flow. Also, I built the SC-129 Digital I/O card which is working great as well, having 8 LEDs for both the input port and output port is a nice feature and the edge connector with both input and output pins exposed is what I plan to be using for adding external hardware like sensors etc. All in all a great kit, would definitely recommend for any one who likes to build hardware and use multiple programming languages for the Z80 processor. Thanks again!

John | Nov. 20, 2020

Excellent Kit and Seller

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Well packaged, fast ship, PCB of excellent quality and well marked component ID/values, as are all parts supplied. On Line documentation is excellent, even for a novice constructor (but previous soldering experience or practice would be helpful, considering the close pin/pad alignments). Highly recommended.

Jean-Michel | Nov. 19, 2020

Excellent

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

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.

Clyde | Nov. 16, 2020

A well-priced, quality board with some handy features.

For SC112 Modular Backplane Kit for RC2014

The SC112 backplane is of good quality. I like the full double row sockets. The horizontally mounted expansion socket at the end of the board is very useful for troubleshooting. The troublesome board can be plugged in there with the component side up for easy access with scope probes or logic analyzer probes. I would advise not installing the jumper headers until you need them. A full length, densely populated board may touch the headers when plugged in with unpredictable results. The 5 volt and ground buss traces are extra wide. If you don't need the voltage regulator footprint on the RC2014 Backplane Pro, you can buy an SC112 and an SC113 extension and get 12 slots for about half the cost of the Backplane Pro.

Mogens | Nov. 13, 2020

Compact, reliable and fun!

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer kit

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?

Jeremy | Nov. 11, 2020

Fun retro-computing project

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Even as someone new to soldering it was a breeze to put this kit together thanks to the excellent documentation and information available on the Small Computer Central web site. In fact my biggest mistake was inadvertently switching the 74AHCT139 and 74HCT138 ICs around in U4 and U10, which resulted in a very unhappy Z180 CPU. After sourcing a replacement CPU the system booted up just fine and appears to have suffered no ill effects. The size of the parcel was a nice surprise - it's amazing how Stephen managed to fit everything in such a well layed out yet modestly sized parcel which should fit most mailboxes. I've since then ordered the SC131 which I finished assembling today - it booted up on its first try!

Eric | Nov. 9, 2020

Awesome product and excellent communication.

For SC119 Z180 Memory Module Kit for RCBus-80pin

Had a very good experience, asked if the system would work with the modules I had selected an got direct feedback.
My 11 yo son soldered the modules together and apart from a solder bridge on the backboard it started up immediately.

Thanks for a great product!!!

Alexander | Nov. 9, 2020

Really cool product

For SC126 Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit for RCBus

Soldered the kit in 4 hours, runs immediately despite my incredible soldering competence. Included ROMs have lots of good software to get you started quickly. The expansion possibilities are enormous due to the many slots.

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