The Agon Light is a SBC (Single Board Computer), much like a Raspberry Pi or similar, except that it is based around a Z80 (or more precisely eZ80) CPU. Add to that, it runs BBC BASIC.
The BBC Micro of the 1980s was based around the MOS 6502, so of course this new computer is not going to be compatible at the machine code level. But a lot of BASIC programs should run pretty much straight out of the box.
There are two versions available, the “original” and a “cost reduces” one that is made by Olimex. At the time when I bought it, the Olimex one was not available in the UK, so I found a kit version of the original. Some soldering required, but that just adds to the fun.
And naturally within a week of buying it, they announced that the Olimex version would be available through The Pi Hut (there are other places that stock it now too, such as Digikey and Mouser Electronics). Being a SBC, it’s relatively cheap My “original” cost around £80, but the Olimex one is £58.50 inc VAT.
For me, the big interest is in the GPIO port. This is a 34 pin header that carries user programmable serial and parallel data. Just like a Pi, or an Arduino. There are addressable digital pins that can be inputs or outputs, and can be treated as whole 8-bit bytes and programmed with simple BASIC PUT and GET commands. There’s also an SPI bus and I2C, plus other signals that aren’t easily accessed from BASIC at the moment. But hopefully that will change.
Just as with the Pi and Arduino we have Circuit Python, maybe one dat we will also have Circuit BASIC. Let’s hope so…
Get an Agon Light from The Pi Hut (not sponsored): https://thepihut.com/products/agonlight2-z80-bbc-basic-retro-single-board-computer
https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/agon.html
https://github.com/TheByteAttic/AgonLight
https://github.com/breakintoprogram/agon-docs/wiki/Updating-Firmware
Thanks to www.pcbway.com for sponsoring this video. They produce high quality PCBs, 3D Printing and more starting from just $5. Check them out. They even stock the Agon Light: https://www.pcbway.com/project/gifts_detail/Agon_light_3f7ffaa8.html
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