Stephen C Cousins

3,373 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

Dominic | June 23, 2020

Exceeds expectations, this is an excellent project.

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

Price was excellent, delivery across the pond was swift. This was a well packaged and well presented project. You can begin assembly as soon as you open the box. I had a question about file transfer I put the the seller that was immediately replied to. thanks!

The PCB is labeled on both sides, assembly will take 2 plus hours there is mercifully no surface mount soldering so anyone with a decent soldering iron and moderate experience can put this together. Don't rush, take your time and give the instructions a once over before diving in. The high definition photo online and the excellent silkscreen text on the PCB are very helpful. Once assembled and connected serially (I recommend using ExtrapuTTy because it has built in xmodem file transfer) the ROM based CP/M has xm.com to initiate xmodem file transfer with your host. Loading up your CP/M games is easy once you get started. Controlling the output to the LED readout on the board is a simple command in mbasic or assembler so let your first program be some kind of blinky lights to celebrate a job well done.

One more thing my other z80 projects ran at 2 to 4 mhz, this board is much faster and the 115200 baud rate is also much faster than what I was used to. Very responsive

other nice things: Battery backed RTC, all glue logic done with TTL, SD card "hard drive" all indicators of a well engineered project.

Highly recommended to anyone even slightly interested in retro computing, you wont regret this purchase.

Kurt | June 22, 2020

SC114

For SC114 RCBus-40pin Z80 SBC/Motherboard Kit

A very good product.
Simple construction thanks to a very good description.
The support is excellent.
All around a successful product.
Unreservedly recommended.

Kurt

John | June 15, 2020

Good project, lots of extras, and open to abuse

For SC112 Modular Backplane Kit for RC2014

The "SC" kits are always very well presented, spec'd and great value for money. This backplane was no different, and fit my needs perfectly.

The "open to abuse" part comes about because it's easy to adapt the kit to exactly what you need. For example, I needed a way to add a bus to another Z80/RC2014 computer, but I needed to connect to it from a header soldered underneath the board. Not a problem: with the right headers I had it working first time, and now I've a flexible system that meets my needs. Thank you!

Jessica | June 6, 2020

Quite an amazing kit

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

Kurt | June 2, 2020

SC130

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

This small system is outstanding.
Very suitable for the first steps with CP / M.
I have some programs (BASCOM, C and ASM)
tested. It works and is a real pleasure.
1984-1990 I have div. Software programmed.
They were used on Kaypro and Sharp.

I can't get KSAM to work. I suspect the Z180 doesn't work with KSAM. With a Z80 could work.
KSAM supports index sequential file management.

I can fully recommend the system.

Kurt Pieper

Franklin | June 2, 2020

Detailed assembly guide makes for very nice build

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

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.

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

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.

Ed | May 29, 2020

Five-star kit, would buy again.

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

This is a very nice kit, superbly packaged and with comprehensive documentation in the box and on www.scc.me.uk. Shipping to Switzerland took just a week even with the current delays.

Construction was straightforward; a few of the ground plane connections took a while to warm up and I had to go over those again (a couple of LED cathodes, and the battery holder) after running through the checklist in the assembly instructions. Once those were fixed it was ready to go and since then I've been playing Zork on it non-stop.

The next time I build one I'd fit the resistor network RP1 before the IC sockets; it was a bit fiddly dropping it in the holes with the obstacles in the way on either side. I had to double-check the pictures before plugging in the SD card adapter because both slots are labelled "SPI SD Card 2".

It's very convenient to be able to power the board from the plug-in USB serial adapter; it keeps the space on my desk much tidier than it would be with a separate power cable, and having to find somewhere to plug in another supply.

Daria | May 28, 2020

Wow! ... Fantastic product and great documentation!

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

Love it, very simple to put together and it just works. Must have card for simple IO tinkering and testing. Great price too!

Steven | May 24, 2020

Great cp/m kit

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

Anatoly | May 24, 2020

Great Z180 Complete Kit

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

Juan | May 23, 2020

Great Kit

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer 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

Mogens | May 23, 2020

Excellent Quality

For SC114 RCBus-40pin Z80 SBC/Motherboard Kit

I got my SC114 kit after about one week, everything carefully packed.

The kit is very high quality, and very well documented. If you read and follow the instructions, the kit is easy to assemble (very little soldering experience needed).
The software included in the ROM is also excellent, and quickly gets you started in either BASIC or Z80 assembler.

To me, this is a fun trip down memory lane; I was hacking along on the ZX81 in assembler nearly 40 years ago... I have been playing with some of the nice Z80 software emulators, but nothing beats the feel of coding to the "bare metal"!
Also, I like the simplicity of the kit, which actually makes it possible to understand how everything works in detail at the hardware level.

Thank you very much for a great kit - I highly recommend it for everyone who wants to try REAL retro-computing.

Radek | May 19, 2020

I'm very satisfied with this product.

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

The SC126 has very good documentation at it was easy to assembly it.
It is good product with excellent balance between functionality and complexity.

David | May 16, 2020

Wonderful SBC!

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

I was looking for an old school project to keep me busy and discovered RC2014. After spending time looking at options decided on this kit and absolutely glad I did.

Packaging - small box with all you need.
Documentation - brilliant. Can't understate how easy and simple the documents are to follow. Sheets to check you have all the components, assembly guides to make sure you do things in the right order and finally checks to make sure you haven't broken it as you go along!

Support - there is a massive and friendly base of people using and looking at old school electronics like this.

Software - comes with latest RomWBW so you can run CP/M 2.2 out of the box! And two different BASIC to play with.

Highly recommended kit - you can't go wrong here!

Already bought two more to expand and have digital IO as well as sound!

Thanks Steven.

Simon | May 15, 2020

Very professional kit

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

I bought this kit a few weeks ago to play around with the Z180: it's nice to be able to program the microprocessor directly and not have layers of operating system in the way!
This is a very professionally produced kit and the instructions are both clear and comprehensive. The guide to building the kit as well as simple testing and trouble shooting are excellent.
I have subsequently bought a number of other kits form Steve and they are all excellent quality with great documentation as well as being very good value.
I would also add that even with the delays due to the virus, all the kits arrived very quickly and very well packed.
I cannot recommend these kits highly enough.

Gianluca | May 14, 2020

a great cp/m computer in a pocket size

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

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.

Xander | May 13, 2020

Super easy to assemble and even easier to use!

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

I got this together with my SC126, as a first step into the world of Retro Computing. The building instructions for this were very easy to follow and it worked perfectly after the assembly. I am very pleased. Plus it's got lots of colourful LEDs, who doesn't love those?

Catalin | May 5, 2020

Excellent product

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

From our very first interactions Steve went above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. It's very clear he's very passionate and loves these products.

The board and all associated components were received a couple days later, very well packaged. Every little detail has been well thought out and shows the love for the product and respect for the customers.

Included in the package is a A4 page with the kit contents. Taking the components from the shipping bags and placing them in the proper spots on this page took about 30 minutes, including measuring the resistors with a multimeter to double check the matched color codes to values.

Next step was to visit the assembly instructions web page on Steve's site (also printed on the above mentioned A4 paper) to get a general idea of the assembly process. Everything is straightforward, and all components are clearly printed on the board itself. If you have basic experience you don't even need to refer back to the web page while soldering the entire board.

Soldering took about a day. Sure, it could've been done in 2 - 3 hours, but why rush? Better savor the experience, like a good box of fine chocolates. Then, as told on the assembly instructions, followed up with thorough visual inspection of the solder joints and multimeter checks for shorts in various key places on the board. I confess I skipped on the voltage checks, but can you blame me? By that point I was getting impatient to get the whole thing running and trusted Steve had already checked the components for correct functioning.

Placed in the ICs and oscillator, hooked up the serial to Usb converter and the SD card adapter, triple checked that all jumpers were in the right positions according to the user guide and proceeded to connect it all to the computer. The 8 on board leds proceeded to light up one after the other as the system was starting up. Then, much to my surprise, all of them stayed lit...

This caused a bit of confusion. According to the assembly instructions the leds should've all turned off at some point. A quick check on the common errors page cleared the confusion. See, the system comes with 2 Flash chips. Apparently the led behavior described in the assembly instructions is for the Small Computer Monitor (SCM). But if the jumpers are placed in the positions shown in the assembly instructions RomWBW is used on power up and not SCM. And with RomWBW the leds all stay lit until a boot device is selected thru the terminal. Phew!

On Windows 10 the drivers for the serial to USB converter board included in my package weren't automatically installed, but were easy to install manually. After installing Tera Term I was able to see the boot messages from the board and then fun began. There's a lot packed in the RomWBW Flash chip, from CP/M to Z-System and even a small game so you can hit the ground running and already have a lot of stuff to play with immediately after assembly.

To sum up, apart from the small confusion with the leds which perhaps can be cleared in future by minor edits to the assembly instructions the entire build process was extremely fun and smooth and the system ran on first power on. Looking forward to playing with it further and expanding it's possibilities over time with more hardware and software.

If you're a computer enthusiast looking to build your own 8 bit computer you can't go wrong buying this product. Highly recommended!

Response from Stephen C Cousins | May 6, 2020

Thanks for the feedback.
I've now included a short description in the assembly guide to clarify what the LEDs indicate at power-up for RomWBW. The description for the Small Computer Monitor remains as it depends on which position you fit the ROMs as to which will run with the default jumper settings.

Xander | May 3, 2020

So much fun to put together and play with!

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

I ordered this kit as my first step into the world of Retro Computing. It's a lot of fun to solder together. The instructions on the site are very clear, with a couple of steps long the way, where you check your work, make sure everything is still as it should be, before proceeding any further. The board worked right off the bat, once I had all the chips inserted, so that was a great experience. The creator is active on the Google group, and very helpful.
Now I just need to figure out all the amazing things I can do with it!

Jim | May 3, 2020

SC131 Good Z80 CP?M kit

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

Gerald | May 2, 2020

More Quality Product for the SC range

For SC113 Modular Backplane Kit for RC2014

This product provides a backplane extension to some of the other SC computing products. It offers six extra 80-pin slots but could, with a little diligence, provide you with slots for a hybrid/standalone computing solution using SC or RC2014 compatible plugin cards.

Product quality is very good, including the assembly and user guides.

In my particular case, it has provided a very robust bus extension for my SC126.

Gerald | May 2, 2020

Top Quality Product

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

The board and components supplied in this kit are very good quality. I'm doing some exploration of the 8-bit retro micro market and in doing so, discovered this kit.

It's a very straightforward assembly, well-documented and includes 'waypoint' testing, to ensure you haven't had any construction faux pas. As the Z180 is a superset version of the Z80, many retro fans are likely to be familiar with this architecture but as it also includes many of the most useful peripherals on the same chip, including a Memory Management Unit which extends the memory scope from 64Kbytes to 1Mbytes. Rom options are supplied so you can install the designer's own ROM (which has all the yesteryear features of a 'Monitor' similar to the NASCOM...) as well as a RomWBW that provides a ROM-based CP/M, Z OS, MBasic (similar to RC2014's Basic ROM), Tiny Basic, Forth.

If you're looking for something with expandability that's got a lot straight out of the starting blocks, I recommend this as a great choice.

Miodrag | April 25, 2020

Best kit ever

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

This one is best kit ever, by my opinion. It is complete system based on Z180 and have all capabilities you seen to enjoy world of CP/M. Stephen did a great job documenting assembly process (including all options) and it was really joy soldering kit and playing with it.

Miodrag | April 25, 2020

Great product

For SC114 RCBus-40pin Z80 SBC/Motherboard Kit

Very easy to build with complete assembly instructions, so even plain beginners can solder it.
Complete SBC for those that would just like to try out but also with ability to expand.
Great documentation and communication from Stephen side.

Stephen | April 24, 2020

Perfect

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

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

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

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

For SC131 Pocket-sized Z180 RomWBW CP/M computer 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

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

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

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

Anatoly | April 14, 2020

A Great kit for a Z180 system with expansion capability

For SC203 RCBus Modular Z180 Computer Kit

After building a number of RC2014 Z80 systems and boards, I saw this system kit and decided to go for a Z180 system. As usual the documentation was very good with all the parts included and easy to follow instructions for both assembly and setup. The Z180 board and 512k Memory boards were very straightforward to assemble and solder. The 6 slot backplane took a bit longer because of the dual row 2x40 connectors. The 3 slot backplane board is a nice extra. It is supplied as a bare board, but I had enough components around to build it up as well. As usual, I inspected all solder joints and cleaned the boards with IPA. After installing all the IC's, I was ready to apply first power. The system come up with no issues. The firmware included both the SCM or WBW ROM. It's nice to have either to choose from with just a jumper option. Overall I'm very pleased with the SC203 System. A nice addition the to RC2014 family.

Bruce | April 13, 2020

An affordable quality Z180 project for beginners or anyone

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

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.

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

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.

Alexander | April 12, 2020

Good z80 sbc!

For SC126 RCBus Z180 SBC/Motherboard Kit

Fair price especially for full kir, works flawless, very good extension capabilities.
Sent fast and well packed.
Like it a lot 👍 and recommend if you want to make fast / extensive and useable cpm sbc.

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