Retro Board Schematic Tools

The purpose of this project is to provide tools and data that help in navigating the retro-computing motherboard's circuitry.

It is a work in progress that just started. Contributions are welcome!

You are also welcome to visit my collection of vintage computers:

• oldcrap.org
• Facebook: Old Crap Vintage Computing.

Content:

• data - post-processed JSON files describing boards and components
• original - stuff related to the original pre-processed content
• pictures - pictures of the boards and components
• board.py - script to display and visualize board information

board.py

With this script it is possible to display information about board components and traces. Script loads and parses a board wire list from a JSON file. JSON files are contained in data directory.

SYNTAX:

./board.py [options]

MANDATORY PARAMETERS:

-j or --json=board-file.json

Provide a file describing the board to operate on.

-c or --component <ID1>,<ID2>,...

Select IDs of components to display information about. Only one of -t, -c can be selected at the same time.

• Single ID is case insensitive, e.g.: U128 or r5
• Single ID can use file-style wildcards, e.g.: U* or C1?
• Multiple IDs can be separated by commas, e.g.: U128,R5,C10 or with wildcards: U10?,R*,X2

-t or --trace <ID1>,<ID2>,...

Selects IDs of traces on board. Only one of -t, -c can be selected at the same time.

• Single ID is case insensitive, e.g. sync or A13
• Single ID can use file-style wildcards, e.g.: A1? or PRAS*
• Multiple IDs can be separated by commas, e.g.: A1,A2,A3 or with wildcards: A*,SYNC?

OPTIONS:

--colors

Display board image in colors. By default the board image is displyed in black and white, to contrast with added annotations and to save space when saving to PDF. This option affects both displayed and saved pictures.

-g or --graphics

Display an image with the motherboard and mark the location of components and/or traces.

-h or --help

Display tool help (usage).

-m or --merge

By default the components or traces are displayed one by one with all the details related to each of them. With -m option, additionally the following information will be displayed:

• With -c: traces from all components will be combined and presented together
• With -t: all selected traces will be combined and presented together

-n or --neighbors

When -c is selected together with -g, adding -n will draw all neighboring components and link them to the queried component(s).