Okay, so, small steps first. To begin with, I’ll use a battery power source.
This is the breadboard set up for everything else to go in. The 5V regulator seems to work fine. You’ll also notice that the supply of chocolate biscuits is also still in good order (v. important).
So, the plan today had been to set a Z80 up for a free run. Alas, it was not to be.
I had a dream last night in which I was tasked with building a computer in an electronics lab. I was with a fellow who insisted that it was perfectly possible to build a computer without logic gates. What an idiot. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I realised that the NAND and NOT gates hadn’t arrived from Maplin yet, so I won’t be setting up a ‘free run’ on the Z80 for a couple of days now. :-(