[Simh] Extended SimH on BeagleBone controls real blinkenlight panels

[Mark Benson]

I have a real yin to build something like this that uses USB or serial for comms and a software module that can be optionslly compiled into SimH to allow it to work on any system (perhaps via an extra device that can be configured in the SimH terminal) rather than spitting the console commands out. The key point is it should work on any machine with a USB port or better a Serial port (can be adaoted to USB) that can build SimH.

Only issue is I have no programming experience outside PHP5, I'm awful at soldering and I'm no genius with making panes and stuff like that either. However my *dad* has offered to build the hardware for me if I can come up with a plan.

I don't really know where to go from just the idea. Loads of people seem to have done it in various ways but they seem to be tailor made solutions. I'd like to make something generic and boxed so I can plug, configure in a suitably compiled SimH and go. Any guidance out there?

-- 
Mark Benson

http://markbenson.org/blog
http://twitter.com/MDBenson