ArduinoMania

Over on hackaday.io, [Arduino Enigma] posted the code for his clock that runs on a KIM Uno (the KIM-1 clone we mentioned late last year). Although the KIM Uno has a few demos preloaded (including Microchess and a scientific calculator), all of them take some interaction. The clock makes the KIM Uno a more dynamic desk display since it does something useful without any user interaction (once you set the clock, of course).

The project shows the code stored in ROM, but you can’t directly enter the program into ROM (which is really EEPROM on the host Arduino). The trick is to enter the address (that is press AD and then 0, 4, 0, 0) and then mash down the reset button for about a second. Then you can press DA and enter the hex codes provided (pressing + after each byte). Since the code is in nonvolatile storage, you can start it at any time by setting the time in RAM and executing the code at address 400.

The program is short and sweet, making it is easy to enter and a great opportunity to brush up on understanding your 6502. However, the simplicity means it doesn’t range check your initial time settings, so don’t tell it that it is 32:99 or something like that. The code isn’t commented, but it is pretty simple, once you realize one thing: the first instruction, SED, sets the 6502’s decimal mode so no conversion between hex and decimal is needed.

Each part of the time (hours, minutes, and seconds) is stored in RAM at locations 0024, 0025, and 0026. The NEXTD routine uses the X register to scan through each part of the time, adding 1 or 0 as appropriate (stored in RAM location 0029). If the time part matches the corresponding table entry at CARRYT (that is, 60, 60, or 24 also indexed by the X register), then the code does not take the branch to CONTIN and reloads the increment (location 0029) with zero, so the next digits will not advance. If it does match, the increment stays as 1 and the current part returns to a zero value.

You may notice the time is stored back to locations starting at 0024 and 00F9. That’s because 00F9 is where the KIM-1 ROM looks for data to write to the display when calling the ROM-resident subroutine at 1F1F. The X register ranges from 0 to 2, corresponding to the seconds, minutes, and hours. Once all the time is updated, the loop at L1 displays the time and delays for about one second.

A neat piece of coding and a great example of the power of the 6502’s decimal mode. This would look even better with [Scott’s] enhanced version of the KIM-1 UNO.