Getting ready for closure

Howdy folks. I think I started this blog about four years ago. Cris (CaptCPU) had asked me to start posting on the CoCoHut blog, and I created this blog to catalog my progress with my repack project.

Fast forward four years, and I have way too many projects to keep track of. I've got my hardware testing, website, repack blog, and many others too numerous to list. Pre-accident Brian could have handled all of this, but, it's all a little hard to handle now. Too easy to get frustrated, disappointed and aggravated; something has to give. Unfortunately, it's gonna have to be the blogging. Since the blogs have been the areas that have suffered, they are gonna go. Both of 'em.

The CoCoHut is Cris' blog; he started it and he can make the decision to close it when he sees fit. He's been AWOL for quite some time - I haven't heard from him in over a year. This blog, however, was and is all mine.

I will not be leaving the CoCo Scene. My latest project has been the creation of an actual forum, which can be found here. Slowly, I'll get the contents of the repack blog transferred over to the 'Mod My CoCo' section of the forum. When that's done, I'll close the repack blog.

This was a tough decision, but, I've got to lighten the load some. It's been a fun ride, and I hope everyone will join us over at the forum.


Later,

Brian

New CoCo related forum

Hello everyone. Just dropping in to let you guys know I'm still here, still kicking, and still working on the repack. S - L - O - W - L - Y. But, I am still working on it. Several other projects have side-tracked it. I was working with one of Roger Taylor's Serial Paks and getting it to run with an XBee wireless modem. There is a complete write up for that coming out in the next CoCoNutz issue. I've also gotten quite a few web sites to work on, which has taken a chunk of my time.

For the last two weeks, though, the thing that took the majority of my time was the creation of a CoCo related forum. I had quite a few requests for this, and I finally caved in. It's sort of a work in progress, but, it's functional, and hopefully will start seeing some increased traffic. If you want to take a look and maybe join up and post, go here.

CoCo 'Rules of Aquisition'

No, I haven't become an honorary Ferengi, but, I am going to have start avoiding eBay like the plague. So far this year, I have picked up the following:

1 - CoCo3 w/512k
1 - dual floppy unit with full height drives that need AT LEAST an alignment, with an FD-501 cart
3 - MPI's
1 - Complete FD-501 Disk System w/2 DS/DD drives
1 - CoCo mouse
1 - RS-232 pak
1 - Speech Systems 'The Voice'
1 - WICO j/s adapter
1 - FD-500 cart
1 - FD-501 cart

Now, add that to the following...

3 - 512k CoCo3' (2 have 6309's)
1 - My repack CoCo3 which is 128k (soon to upgrade to 512k), upgraded to a 6309, 2-3.5" floppies, 1-5.25" floppy, Roy's VGA adapter connected to a 15" HP LCD, MPI, and a Radio Shack multimedia sound system is being installed. All jammed into a Model III case.
2 - CoCo2's (one is a 3127B lowercase capable)
1 - grey CoCo1
1 - White CoCo1
1 - MPI I am trying to repair
2 - FD-501 (1 with 2 DS/DD 5.25's, and 1 with 1 5.25 and 1 3.5)
1 - FD-502 with a single DS/DD drive

And...

Atari 800XL
Atari 1040STf
External floppy for ST
ST Monitor
ST Modem

2 - TI-99/4A's, with a bunch of carts and a speech module

TRS-80 Model IV

I need to stop this and get back to the repack... My wife is gonna divorce me if she ever finds out how much classic computer stuff I really have...

MPI Hell -> CoCo Hell

I have no clue what it is about my MPI's, but, the things never seem to want to work right. Just got one this week and it was not working well. At all. Noticed noise coming from the transformer so I switched it. Didin't help at first . Got out another CoCo3 and it works perfect with this one. Now my frustration level goes up a little higher. I get out the MPI I've been fighting with for a few years. The one I know did not work on several CoCo3's. The one I replaced almost ALL of the IC's on and it still did not work right.

So, now I try the MPI on this other CoCo3. Floppy access is flawless (it even loaded Gold Runner 2000, the other one will not - no PAL upgrade). Plugged in the Speech & Sound Cart - normal boot, normal operation - cool. Next, I plug in the Orchestra 90 - looks like a bunch of Egyptian hieroglyphics on the screen. Okay, so the MPI does NOT like the O-90 - this particular MPI never has. Weird stuff....

Quick post

Well, I got some REAL disks made today so I could properly exercise my CoCo. Tried TW128, WorddPower 3.3, and VIP Writer (couldn't get it to print). Kinda cool watching that old Okidata 320 Turbo's print head flying back & forth. Noisy as hell, but it still works. Son next, I made a few disks of games. Goldrunner 2000 absolutely ROCKS!!! I spent most of the day playing that. I also played some Z-89. Cool graphics, but, a little sluggish.

Emulation

Well, I finally got an emulator back up an running. I like VCC since it runs on XP/7 and I can still create REAL floppies with it. Since I finally have real CoCo hardware set up, it was time. An important note about VCC and the fdrawcmd utility - the documentation for VCC states it will not work with any version of fdrawcmd than 1.0.1.9, and that is a fact. 1.0.1.10 will not work with VCC, as I found out this week.

Hopefully, this week I'll get the sound system installed in the repack unit, and the I can work on the MPI. The repack has already been 6309'd, and I need to order a 512k kit from C9. After all of that is done, I need to wire up all of the CoCo's ports to be accessible from outside the case, AND, make the Atari j/s interface. Once all of this is done, tested and working, I get to clean up all the rough spots and then paint the case. Sounds easy, huh...


Later,

Brian

Some more CoCo love...

Well, I spent a little quality time with my newly repaired and upgraded CoCo3 yesterday. After reassembling everything, I played Donkey Kong for a while.

Which reminds me, last week when I was playing DK, my daughter and her boyfriend were over. He heard the sound FX coming from my office and came in to watch. I got the expected 'what the hell is that?' remark. I said 'Donkey Kong', what, you've never seen it?' His reply was, 'I've played Donkey Kong on in the SNES, but, it didn't look anything like that.' So I offered him a shot to play it. He never made it to the fourth girder on the first level. He hung his head and exclaimed 'Old skool kicked my ass...'

I told him this wasn't a sappy ass run-and-shoot game you can buy for a PS3 and solve it a few hours. The goal is to see how high of a score you can get, and how many levels up. I then consoled him some before telling him he got his ass handed to him by an 8-bit computer!!!

At any rate, I got out my old Botek serial->parallel converter yesterday, downloaded the manual to my Okidata Microline 320 Turbo dot matrix printer (could not remember how to set the damn thing up to save my life) and played around with TW80 and WordPower3.3. While doing some printing, my 10 year old daughter ran in a asked 'Daddy, what's wrong with the printer?' I said 'What do you mean?' She replied with 'I see it works but something has to be wrong with it to be so LOUD!!!' Kids, they crack me up...


Later,

Brian