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The original
concept
The original concept, believe
it or not, was to be a device to open and close my
curtains at specific times. This was abandoned on
two points, firstly it seemed rather uninspired and secondly I
don't have
curtains (I have a
shutter).
Evolution
The curtain opener used a stepper motor,
and sensors. It didn't seem beyond the realms of possibility
to add
another motor and suddenly the motors can be rear wheels
of a little 'bot (which I refer to as "RICKBOT (version
1)" - don't laugh, I very nearly called it "BUFFYBOT 1"!). That
is where Amélie rests
today.
Please note
that this part of my website describes the creation of
"Amélie". Go here for details
specific to "RickBot".
The
future?
Because of the "open spec"
design, Amélie can lend herself to many other
applications, such as:
I say
"smart" in each case as the potential is limited only by the
ROM space (4K is loads though) and your imagination.
These sorts of ideas are further discussed in the possibilities document.
What
exactly is
Amélie?
Amélie is an
"embedded" system based upon an NMOS 6502
processor, a VIA, an ACIA, 2K RAM and 8K
EPROM. She is not designed to be
a "computer" in the general sense, but rather is intended to
be applied to a specific task.
The I/O is provided within
Amélie but the interface (stepper motor driver, relay
driver, etc) is provided on a separate piece of veroboard so
that the same base (i.e. Amélie) can be applied to
numerous applications with no more than a change of interface
board and new firmware.
But wait! RICKBOT? Amélie? What gives
with the two names?!?
It's all part of the versatility of
the Amélie
project. You want a RICKBOT? Insert the RICKBOT firmware
EPROM and connect the RICKBOT interface daughter-board -
which contains hardware specific to RICKBOT (i.e. stepper motor drivers). If you'd
rather something to control your central heating, change the EPROM
and the interface board.
You can see the way everything fits
together in this diagram:
Why
"Amélie"?
It is due
to a habit - all of my computers have girl's names beginning
with the letter "A". My original Acorn A3000 is called
Anna (the other one is Amy). The A310 is
Arabella. The later A5000 is Angela. The
RiscPC is Alyson, and the laptop PC upon which I
am writing this is called Angelique.
Therefore, it
sorta makes sense that Amélie be called
Amélie.
And before
you ask if it has any connection to the Jean-Pierre Junet
film... yes. It does.
(otherwise I suspect this would have
been called Auralie)
Somebody emailed me to ask how I do the 'é' character.
Under Windows , on an English-International keyboard
layout I can press
Ctrl-Alt-e
to get this character. Failing that, hold ALT
and tap 0 2 3 3 on the numeric
keypad. French keyboards have this on the key, I think
pressing the '6' key does it, but I don't remember exactly.
On RISC OS
, hold ALT and tap
'[', let go of
ALTand then press
'e'.
On the Acorn
PocketBook II / Psion Organiser 3a, hold
Control andtap 4, let go of
Control and then press
'e'.
The original
schematic
The original
'working concept' schematic was drawn onto a piece of paper,
and then recreated line by line in !DrawPlus (yes, it took a
while!).
Click on the picture to look at a
larger
version (895x664, 25K), or you can look at a really
big version (1814x1326, 55K).
Can you spot the "deliberate error"?
(that's my excuse :-) ). Note that the memory decode is
performed on a plug-in daughterboard in this
design.
Veroboard design
The
first version of Amélie board that I make will be built onto a
piece of veroboard (stripboard). This isn't the best
solution, given the number of data/address/control lines, but
it is the cheapest and simplest system.
Customised
circuitry
In the
future, when I can look to designing printed circuit boards,
the second version of Amélie will
be designed on a compact PCB. There is a company - ExpressPCB - that will produce a
double-sided board for a reasonable price. They are based in
the US and will ship to France.
Certainly, by using a
proper board we can make it look more like a little computer
board and less like a mess assembled onto a piece of
veroboard!
The interface boards, however, will probably remain assembled onto
vero...
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