Interface A missing PCB

Question

I have a Technic Interface A with the cables but lack the printed circuit board (PCB) for PC that I need to use it for automating my models. The card when it was for sale had markings of Lego 9771 and I assume this to be the part number.

Ideally I would like an original card but is there a way of getting a 3rd party card? Or another idea might be if someone does manage to make such an interface please consider building it to run multiple Interface A and/or B modules simultaneously.

I think that I may have parts that run on almost if not all of the powered interfaces that Lego has been kind enough to release. I would be quite grateful indeed if I were able to use them together in my sizeable Lego projects.

Answer 1

Uli posted a link in a comment to https://lgauge.com/technic/LEGOInterfaceA/9750(1093).htm which has a link to http://isodomos.com/Lego-Sets/1093.html , that link is dead but archive.org has a copy http://web.archive.org/web/20081121054400/http://isodomos.com/Lego-Sets/1093.html both sites have the pinout, but the latter site also confirms the logic levels as 5V TTL.

I will repeat the pinout here, in case those sites disappear.

• Pins 1 and 3: 5V

• Other odd numbered pins: Ground

• Even numbered pins 6-16: Outputs 0-5

• Pins 18 and 20: Inputs 6 and 7

Unlike the interface B which is a somewhat-intelligent device that communicates over RS-232 the interface A seems to just use straight digital IO lines. For bi-directional control of motors the outputs can be used in pairs.

The pinout seems to be an exact match for the user port on a BBC micro. I suspect this is not a coincidence.

It would not be difficult to hook this up to something more modern, a 5V Arduino could probably hook up directly. For a Raspberry Pi you would want something to shift the levels, I'd probably use HCT logic running off 5V for the signals from the Pi to the interface A (this may not be strictly needed) and LVC logic running off 3.3V for the signals from the interface A to the Pi.