I recently acquired a good looking KIM-3B myself. Nothing new, all is already known about it. Now with photos made by myself!

The KIM-1 Interface permits easy access to the input/output ports on the KIM-1. Other connections such as power, ground, tape recorder input and input and output are accessible by solderless connectors.

The KIM-1 Interface permits easy access to the input/output ports on the KIM-1. Other connections such as power, ground, tape recorder input and input and output are accessible by solderless connectors.

Scroll, copy paste of the console.

New versions of KIM-1 and TIM Simulator with thanks to Eduardo Casino.

The tester is available on Tindie.

Selectable clock frequency 1MHz, 2MHz, 4MHz and 8MHz with DIP switch. Supported CPUs are NMOS 6502, CMOS W65C02 (selectable by switch) and rare 6502C “Sally” CPU used in ATARI computers and some arcade games (6502 switch position). Identifying “Sally” is simple by pressing the HALT button, program execution stops immediately. The HALT button press doesn’t influence function when testing standard 6502 NMOS/CMOS CPUs.

External EEPROM contains test software exercising address lines A0-A15 and showing running light on port P0-P7. All LEDs A0-A15 must be active during the test (lighting or flashing) to prove address bus functionality.

The test result is shown as an animation. No detection of NMOS or CMOS or ROR instruction. See it as a NOP tester with adjustable clock speed and more instructions tested than just NOP.
As it is the only tester with adjustable clock speed it has value. For example, I see the 6502 run OK at 2 MHz, and the R65C02p2 (the 2 means 2 MHz) at 4 MHz.

The 680x/650x board uses expansion boards, as well as a new feature called the PCP (Pin Configuration Panel). The PCP handles differences in pin-puts for the various chips to be tested and configures the base system to know which chip is being used. The expansions boards handle anything else, as well as providing LEDs for additional testing of some chips.

The photo above shows the tester examining this very old 6502, from week 45 1975. The extended test shows this CPU is missing the ROR instruction, added to the 6502 in 1976.
And it also shows it is a NMOS IC.

The quality of the board, the flexibility and wide support for so many MC680X and MCS6502 family CPU’s makes this my favorite tester among the 6502 testers.

The board consists of the base components of a MC680x/MCS650x system:
• 40-pin ZIF socket – for the tested CPU – provides easy replacement of the CPUs.
• Clock generator with 4MHz crystal oscillator for generating 1, 2 or 4MHz system clock of the CPU (not user selectable alas)
• 2K x 8bit (HM6116/TC5516) static RAM for variable and stack area.
• 8K x 8bit (D2764) EPROM holds the test programs. This program supports 4 push buttons as inputs, and 8 LEDs, as output devices. It also provides basic and special feature test routines.
• 24-pin header provides facility to configure the different function pins of different CPU/MCU types.

The board requires a single +5V power supply (200mA) provided through a mini-USB connector.
There is a power switch and power indicator LED in the lower right corner of the test board.

You can buy a basic system, which allows to test the more common CPU’s:
6800 Family (NMOS, any speed/manufacture)
6800
6802
6808
6502 Family (any manufacture/speed)
6502/65C02 NMOS/CMOS
65C02S
6512/65SC12
65C102/65SC102
65C112/65SC112
65SC802
65C816/65SC816

The full and more expensive system comes with many more expansions and PCPs.
It allows to test:
6800 Family (NMOS, any speed/manufacture)
6800
6801
6803
6802
6808
6809/E
6502 Family (any manufacture/speed)
6502/65C02 NMOS/CMOS
65C02
6503/04/05/06/07/08/09
WD65C02S
6510 (as used in Commodores)
6512/65SC12
6513/14/15
65C102/65SC102
65C112/65SC112
65SC802
65C816/65SC816
8500/8501/7501 (as used by Commodore)
Ricoh 2A03/2A07 Nintendo CPU

Special feature test (available for 6502 family CPUs)
To activate the special feature test SW1 and SW4 should be pressed together and held for 3 seconds.
 The program checks if the ROR bug is present.
 Then checks if jump error on page boundaries is present.
 Finally checks the technology of the inserted CPU, NMOS or CMOS
 And also checks if this is a 16 bit 65816 CPU

D1 – ROR bug detected
D2 – Jump page boundaries bug detected
D3 – not used
D4 – not used
D5 – NMOS CPU detected
D6 – CMOS CPU detected
D7 – 65C802 or 65C816 CPU detected
D8 – not used

This device can help detect problems with a large number of older ICs. And dump the contents of ROMs Especially the 65XX tests and ROM dumping have served me very well, e.g. the KIM-5 ROMs 6540 were read out with this device.

A wide range of ICs can be tested, the 40 pin ZIF allows many retro IC’s, like Z80, 6502, 6800 family and support ICs, many RAM and ROM and logic circuits.
Support is great and fast, if an IC can be tested, it will be added. It is limited to 5V (or use special adapters. CMOS support is limited. But this is not a limited device!

It can also check the 6530 RRIOT. My collection of 6530s has the KIM -002 and -003 and those tested fine. Initially the other 6530s tested with problems at Port 2 (the PB0-7 I/O pins).
The support of the Chiptester Pro is excellent so after some discussions, with version CTPro-5.0.5 all 6530’s test fine. Alas the ceramic 6530-002 4576 has a defective ROM.

The Chip Tester uses a Teensy 4.1 to inspect the IC under test. So it is not limited to CPU’s, any IC with a good datasheet can be tested. What tests are performed is a bit of a black box, you can see what test fail.

Version 2.5 may be available later in 2026, which has better CMOS support. Recommended!

It looks like an ASCII keyboard with more function keys (F1-F8) than usual.
Production date is probably not before 1984 since the ICs have date codes from 1983.
No documentation or description is known.

On the PCB you see:

1. The MC6802, an 6800 with 128bytes RAM and an internal clock oscillator
2. The 74LS138 glue logic IC
3. A 74LS14 with a potmeter and capacitor
4. A MC145028 dual flip flop with some resistors and capacitors, perhaps a clock oscillator
5. 2x MC6821 PIAs to sense the keyboard matrix and presumably serial I/O via bit-banging.
6. A K1/K2 connector, where three wires are connected. One wire goes to a pin of the 6821 PIA, the other two are power supply 5V and ground.
7. A keyboard matrix with many extra keys (F1-F8, cursor keys, CHAR Insert/Delete, numerical keyboard.

It looks like an ASCII keyboard with more function keys (F1-F8) than usual.
Production date is probably not before 1984 since the ICs have date codes from 1983.
No documentation or description is known.

On the PCB you see:

1. The MC6802, an 6800 with 128bytes RAM and an internal clock oscillator
2. The 74LS138 glue logic IC
3. A 74LS14 with a potmeter and capacitor
4. A MC145028 dual flip flop with some resistors and capacitors, perhaps a clock oscillator
5. 2x MC6821 PIAs to sense the keyboard matrix and presumably serial I/O via bit-banging.
6. A K1/K2 connector, where three wires are connected. One wire goes to a pin of the 6821 PIA, the other two are power supply 5V and ground.
   When a key is pressed, the 6821 pin goes to 0V, so it looks like a (poor mens) rs232 signal.
7. A keyboard matrix with many extra keys (F1-F8, cursor keys, CHAR Insert/Delete, numerical keyboard.