I'm a bit late to the party but I finally decided to build a Gigatron and ended up buying enough components to make 2 of them. One Gigatron is now fully assembled and it became my test board, this is a kit that I put together to build another one.
For more info on the Gigatron:
gigatron.io
(A few components are missing in the photo)
All chips have been tested on my board and the kit also includes sockets for all of them. The sockets are optional and some other kits don't include them but it's much better to have a socketed board, if you accidentally solder a chip in the wrong place or the wrong way around it's a pain to desolder it unless you have a desoldering station
The Pluggy McPlugface adapter is also included, it plugs into the joystick port and allows connecting a PS/2 keyboard to the Gigatron.
With the Pluggy you can also load TinyBASIC and some extra programs from its internal memory.
Changes from the original kit:
RAM: Modern 45ns SRAM with an adapter to convert it from SMD to DIP. Why? The circuit description says 70ns RAM should work but I had issues with it working intermittently, maybe the timings are marginal or I got a bad chip, but with 45ns ram I didn't have any issues and it's better to have some room for overclocking (yes you can technically overclock the Gigatron
)
ROM: Flash memory on a custom adapter board instead of an EPROM. The old EPROMs are getting harder to find and this flash memory is easier to reprogram if you ever need to upgrade the ROM or if you want to experiment with coding your own rom for the Gigatron. With the appropriate adapter it can be flashed using the common TL866 programmer.
The ROM is already pre-programmed with the latest version (v6) and the ATTiny chip for the Pluggy McPlugface is also preloaded with the correct firmware.
Price: 120€ + shipping
I don't know how much the kits were originally sold for because they are sold out on the official site, there are just a couple of shops that have them in stock now
(You can probably build a Gigatron for less if you order the chips from Aliexpress or similar, but I didn't want to risk getting bad chips (sometimes it happens) so I my components are all from Mouser/LCSC and I tested them on my board as I mentioned above. If you go the Aliexpress/eBay route you would also need an EPROM, UV eraser and programmer.)
If you want this assembled just ask, but in my opinion 90% of the fun is building it yourself
For more info on the Gigatron:
Gigatron – TTL microcomputer
gigatron.io
(A few components are missing in the photo)
All chips have been tested on my board and the kit also includes sockets for all of them. The sockets are optional and some other kits don't include them but it's much better to have a socketed board, if you accidentally solder a chip in the wrong place or the wrong way around it's a pain to desolder it unless you have a desoldering station
The Pluggy McPlugface adapter is also included, it plugs into the joystick port and allows connecting a PS/2 keyboard to the Gigatron.
With the Pluggy you can also load TinyBASIC and some extra programs from its internal memory.
Changes from the original kit:
RAM: Modern 45ns SRAM with an adapter to convert it from SMD to DIP. Why? The circuit description says 70ns RAM should work but I had issues with it working intermittently, maybe the timings are marginal or I got a bad chip, but with 45ns ram I didn't have any issues and it's better to have some room for overclocking (yes you can technically overclock the Gigatron
)ROM: Flash memory on a custom adapter board instead of an EPROM. The old EPROMs are getting harder to find and this flash memory is easier to reprogram if you ever need to upgrade the ROM or if you want to experiment with coding your own rom for the Gigatron. With the appropriate adapter it can be flashed using the common TL866 programmer.
The ROM is already pre-programmed with the latest version (v6) and the ATTiny chip for the Pluggy McPlugface is also preloaded with the correct firmware.
Price: 120€ + shipping
I don't know how much the kits were originally sold for because they are sold out on the official site, there are just a couple of shops that have them in stock now
(You can probably build a Gigatron for less if you order the chips from Aliexpress or similar, but I didn't want to risk getting bad chips (sometimes it happens) so I my components are all from Mouser/LCSC and I tested them on my board as I mentioned above. If you go the Aliexpress/eBay route you would also need an EPROM, UV eraser and programmer.)
If you want this assembled just ask, but in my opinion 90% of the fun is building it yourself
