Most of us use our PCs/MACs/Linux machines with a terminal emulator program to connect to our SS-50 systems, usually with a USB serial port. That works great, but adds an extra signal conversion that doesn’t need to happen. With our new USB based serial board, your SS-50 machine can directly plug into the USB port of your main computer.

Uses a 68B50 ACIA: Fully software compatible with SWTBUG, SBUG and any other vintage software. The B version runs at 2 MHz (6809 use).
Uses a well established FTDI serial chip, not a lesser brand part. Drivers for all major operating systems are either already in the OS or easily installed from the FTDI site.
USB A port to plug into your computer.
Includes a USB A to B cable.
Board rate generator on-board for 1200, 2400, 4800 and 9600 baud. Those signals on the bus can be used for other things (like extended address lines for the 6809 based systems).
USB power from the USB bus, so when you shut down your SS-50 system the main computer doesn’t lose the com port.
The bare board option has the surface mount parts and USB connector pre-soldered onto the board, and includes the 2.4576 MHz oscillator. Remaining parts are common and easy to find.
Just set the baud rate, swap this board for your existing serial board, plug it into your computer and you’ll be up and running. For most machines it takes a minute or two for the OS to properly identify the port, but then it is always available. The board shows up as a normal serial (COM) port, just select the new port and you’re good to go.

	SS-30 Serial Board Manual rev 3
	SS-30 Serial Board Manual rev 4

Rev 3 schematics

Rev 3

Rev 4 schematics