omega9380/retro-schematics

Recreating retro computer schematics in KiCAD

Retro Schematics

Recreating retro computer schematics in KiCAD

I'm an IT administrator that likes to play around in KiCAD. Needing a new project to keep me busy during downtime at work, I have decided to try my hand at recreating classic computer schematics.

Most retro schematics I have seen are scans from original system manuals. While there are other folks that have recreated those schematics in various schematic CAD softwares like Eagle, Altium, or KiCAD, this is just fun for me. It allows me to get to know KiCAD and all of its quirks and with this project I'll be able to help out the retro community.

My goal is to recreate the computer schematics as closely as the original diagrams that I find. I just think it will be helpful for all the retro folks out there to have an easy to reference schematic with some interactivity in a free-to-use software.

I will come straight to the point and say I suck at board design, but have become pretty good at symbol and schematic creation in KiCAD. The goal of this repo is to provide the commuity a one-stop shop for schmatics for fixing thier old retro PCs. And anyone can clone the repos and use the schematics to make thier own board designs (ATX format Commodore 64, anyone), or use these parts libraries to create addons that help the whole community enjoy thier classic computers and peripherals.

PDF versions of all schematics will be placed under "PDF Schematics" for those who don't want to install KiCAD. The KiCAD projects will be under thier folders, seperated by company and device.

Note please that I am one guy, doing this on my own time. So please don't expect that "one stop shop" to be available tomorrow!

If you like what I'm doing and want to help out, please branch and add to the repo if you have the skill, time, and inclination!

And if you want to help me out more directly, you can buy me a root beer:

Any questions, comments, praises, worship, threats, or random thoughts, please DM me on Discord, I'm OmegaPrime#3078.