Pseudonymous maker “Electro Boy” has blended two giants of expertise collectively in a conflict of eras: an Arduino UNO-layout growth board powered by the venerable Intel 8051 — or, no less than, a contemporary equal of 1.
“I do know it’s fairly outdated, and it’s the first microcontroller I had began with,” Electro Boy writes of the Intel 8051. “It was [one of] the primary microcontroller[s] [from] Intel, launched again in 1980, and the pc period began from there. That is very fashionable and even these days there are few purposes like calculators [and] automotive purposes that are working on it. Within the Nineteen Eighties there was no idea of flash ROM, and even at the moment this MCU [Microcontroller Unit] got here with Harvard structure during which code and knowledge reminiscence are separated from one another.”
The 8051 Dev Board turns one in every of Intel’s first microcontrollers, launched in 1980, into an Arduino UNO-style growth gadget. (📷: Electro Boy)
To function a bunch for the Intel chip, Electro Boy turned to one of many longest-enduring hobbyist microcontroller board designs round: the Arduino UNO. There is a catch, in fact: the Intel 8051, extra correctly generally known as the Intel MCS-51, is long-discontinued — which is the place Microchip’s AT89S52-24PU chip is available in. “[The] 80S52 has increased efficiency and higher options than [the] unique microcontroller,” Electro Boy notes, “with 8kB [of] onboard flash as program reminiscence.”
Utilizing the AT89S52 means an easier circuit design with fewer exterior parts: the chunky 40-pin DIP chip slots right into a socket within the heart of a board with little or no else past a handful of passives, some LEDs, a 12MHz crystal oscillator, a 5V regulator related to a 12V barrel-jack DC energy connector, and a USB Kind-C connector — good for energy solely, the 8051 predating the Common Serial Bus normal by a couple of many years.
The board features a USB Kind-C connector, nevertheless it’s for energy solely — the 8051 being slightly older than USB. (📷: Electro Boy)
“I took inspiration from [the] Arduino UNO and designed a PCB with all of the controls on it, the programming headers are positioned on one header, and all of the 4 ports have twin headers,” Electro Boy explains. “I additionally designed the facility part with some capacitors, DC jack, and linear voltage regulator on the identical board. I enlarged the dimension[s] slightly, and positioned all of the 4 ports accordingly.”
Electro Boy has printed the mission right here on Hackster, with schematics and Gerber information for the PCB out there beneath the reciprocal GNU Normal Public License 3.