[I just got an Osborne 1 computer and I have lots of questions]

I have an Osborne I that was gifted to me...   I know it boots...

 

 

Mine has an Amber Screen and a Serial Port, ( RS-232 I believe )...

 

The Vintage Computer Federation has a Z80 and CP/M section on it.  

I also have a NorthStar Horizon that is S-100 bus and CP/M and Z80..   I located some CP/M sites for it, and there might be relevant Software for the Osborne I.

 

Somewhere there has to be InfoCom games for it....

 

MarkO

 

 

 

 

[Coco3 problems]

On 6/21/2022 at 4:29 PM, hhos said:

Disclaimer:

I'm afraid I remembered incorrectly about that cap, C65.  It is not a decoupling cap, and it is on the RAS/ signal from the GIME.  C66 is not mentioned in the conversion procedure in my tech manual.

 

<< BIG SNIP >>

This is the Install Manual for the PBJ 512KB Memory Board with 41256-12 DRAMs.  Both C65 and C66 are mentioned and removed when upgrading:
https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Manuals/Hardware/PBJ 512cc Memory Upgrade Board (PBJ).pdf

 

The Triad from Cloud-9 and the Boomerang, eventually from me require the removal of C65 and C66.

 

MarkO

[Coco3 problems]

On 6/21/2022 at 4:39 AM, jham55 said:

I'm fine replacing the RAM thats there but I just need to know which chips to buy.

If your replacing the RAM in the DIP Sockets, they are 4464 at 120ns, because the CoCo 3 does almost 2MHz..

 

For the "classic" Radio-Shack 512KB, your looking at 41256.  Some of the Tandy 512KB boards have 16, P21256-10 RAM on them.

 

For "modern" RAM, the SRAM Boards from Cloud-9 are available, ( http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Hardware/512K.html ).  And "someday", when I get my production issues resolved, I'll have 512KB and 2MB SRAM of the Boyson Tech Boomerang boards.    Cloud-9 has a 2MB SRAM board, but I can't locate the Link...

 

MarkO

[Coco3 problems]

On 6/19/2022 at 3:05 PM, jham55 said:

Looks like C65 was removed. So at this point I need a good replacement RAM for the 16 chips.

C65 and C66 are the Caps that are Removed when the original 4464s are removed and a 256KB, or 512KB, or 1MB, or 2MB RAM is installed...

 

There are a couple sources for modern 512KB and 2MB SRAM boards....

To use the RAM beyond 512KB, the CPU needs to be Removed and a PCB is installed with Extra Address Lines.  You might as well replace that MC6809 with the HD6309, it's CMOS instead of NMOS and has some very cool features that is leveraged with various Software..

 

MarkO

[Coco3 problems]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:55 AM, hhos said:

I usually use a jeweler's flat blade screwdriver to take a chip like that out.  Truthfully, I have no idea what the proper tool looks like.  The main thing is exercising patience and moving each corner of the chip up in small increments.

 

<< BIG SNIP >>

The Black Handled puller in this link:
https://www.amazon.com/PHONSUN-Extractor-Motherboard-Component-Extraction/dp/B071HW5FV5/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

 

MarkO

[COCO interrupt examples]

On 5/30/2022 at 7:23 AM, Rastamafugg said:

Is there a good source for code examples using the various interrupts available for the Coco?  Preferably Basic09/Nitros9 examples, but I'm having trouble finding anything online other than what is documented in the service manual documentation.  I'm particularly interested in inserting code to run when the HSYNC and VSYNC interrupts trigger, but I can't seem to find any examples or tutorials for Coco interrupt handling in general.

The CoCo Discord has one of NitrOS9's Progenitors, L. Curtis Boyle as an Administrator..  And another NitrOS9 Progenitor, Bill Nobel, who frequents the OS9 Channels....

 

And then there is MrDave....... 

 

MarkO  ( CoCoNUT! since 2012  )

[ProDOS and BASIC version combinations?]

12 hours ago, Casey said:

Forgive an ignorant question from a non-Apple II guy (though I have used them of course).  What was different in BASIC between ProDOS versions?  I thought Applesoft ran from ROM, and I know that DOS intercepts the input/output to look for DOS commands with the CHR$(4) notation.  Is it just that part of BASIC that changed?  

The reason for "breaking" ProDOS into Two parts, is that if your making a Machine Language Program, you can Unload the BASIC.SYSTEM from Memory to give you more RAM....

 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

 

3 hours ago, Keneg said:

How do I join the discord?

 

Also:  http://cococoding.com

 

MarkO

 

[New to the Coco]

4 hours ago, MrDave said:

Look for coco lomont guide pdf..

The tandy service manual.

And / or come join me on the coco discord , there are channels for basic programming, assembly language, games , hardware etc etc..

 

3 hours ago, Keneg said:

How do I join the discord?

 

 

http://lomont.org/software/misc/coco/

https://www.lomont.org/software/misc/coco/Lomont_CoCoHardware.pdf
 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

On 12/29/2021 at 5:56 PM, Keneg said:

I have been reading up on the color computer and found out that besides lucking out and buying the 64k version it is also a Korean model with a 6847T1 chip in it.  I just haven’t been able to figure out how to enable lowercase letters.  Also, I seem to be understanding that the characters are built into the chip and cannot be changed.  Is this correct?  There is mention of added graphics modes, but no information on what they are or how to access them.  Can anyone point me to books on how to access the video and sound chips in assembly?

Congratulations!!!  My First CoCo 2 was the T1 versions too...

 

 

Also, Welcome to The CoCo Discord server....

 

 

MarkO

[Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration]

On 12/29/2021 at 3:04 PM, jhd said:

 

What is bas13 and bas14? I was unaware that there is a version of Color BASIC beyond 1.2. 

As I recall....  BASIC 1.3 is needed for the T1 CoCo 2's, those with the Lowercase in the Video Chip..  BASIC 1.4 is what is in the CoCo 3, with Extended BASIC and Super Extended BASIC..

BASIC 1.2 is what CoCo 2's have...

 

MarkO

[Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration]

10 hours ago, Keneg said:

I believe those are the ones you want.  Extbas11.rom.  You may have to convert to another format, bin?

This is Color BASIC and Color Extended BASIC:
https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/ROMs/XRoar/CoCo/BASIC_OS/
 

Look at the Size of the files, in Bytes....  If they are a Power of 2, there is nothing to convert..  An 8KB ROM will be 8192 Bytes, and a 16KB ROM will be 16384 Bytes..

Binary Files on a DECB Disk need 5 Bytes at the Beginning ( Preamble ) and 5 Bytes at the End ( Postamble ) besides the "actual data"...   Meaning that an 8192 Byte Program would 8202 Bytes on the Disk..

 

( See: https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/coco/coco-bin-files/  )

 

 

MarkO

[Coco multiplayer games get your vote in !]

On 12/25/2021 at 5:58 PM, MrDave said:

Wow .. alot there ! i might start with something simple like a tank battle lol .. but there's gonna be as bunch if us working on this so the sky may be the limit

 

There is a Start!!!   Have you seen Brett Gordon's GTW???
https://github.com/beretta42/GTW

 

This will run on a CoCo 1, 2, or 3.  Uses DriveWire for the Transport and the Back End is an IRC Server...  It "still" has a few bugs, but is playable...

 

 

There is some BLOG Content here on Brett's Page:
https://sites.google.com/site/cocoboot2/home/retrochallenge

 

MarkO

[Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration]

On 12/23/2021 at 4:00 AM, clh333 said:

On to the cartridge port:

 

Verified that the Deluxe RS-232 Program Pak (Cat. 26-2226) can be invoked; I/O TBD.  Need to find / create a driver. 

 

Also verified same for Disk Controller (Cat. 26-3022) which boots up with the message "Disk Extended Color Basic 1.0". 

 

I think there are later ROMs used with (some version of) the disk controller; can they be used in this cart?

 

-CH-

I have a few of the 26-3022 Controllers....  These are the "original" Disk Controllers and need 12VDC to operate, unless you replace the WD Controller with a different model..

 

Most Popular of the Tandy Disk Controllers are the FD-501, with its Gold Plated Contacts and the FD-502 with Double-Sided Support for OS9.

 

MarkO

 

[Coco multiplayer games get your vote in !]

So, WOW!!   I have been thinking about Classic Computer Networking for a few years now.. 

 

My First Thought, for a Multiplayer, Multi-Platform game is Dungeons of Dagorath.......    Let's make it Multi-Player, and Port it to the C64 and Apple ][ and Atari..  
 

I got some WizNet812MJ Modules a few years ago, maybe a little before the Apple ]['s Uthernet II, ( WizNet5100 based ) became available, which I bought Three of them, and then a couple years ago got the C64NIC+, ( CS8900A based ), and then found that Go4Retro, ( AKA Jim Brain ), made a Prototype NIC, ( the CoCoNIC ), based on the C64NIC+, for the CoCo, I was very interested, but not a lot of interest was there to continue, then Rick Ulland wanted to make a NIC for the CoCo, so I showed him what I had researched, so he made the CoCoIO, ( a WizNet5100 and 16550 RS-232 device ) , and now your making a ESP-32 Device...

 

Beyond that...  I have a WHOLE LIST....   A list I have been making for, 6-8 years...  I have been planning to go as far as to Make a Game Server, that is Cross-Platform, and Cross-Language..   Think Delphi or CompuServe for the Classic Computing Community...  Multi-Player, Multi-Platform, Multi-Language games....  A Network Loader, like a Customer Terminal Program, like for the PLATO System, would be configured for your Platform and it's capabilities..  When you connect your Login will inform the Server what Classic System your on, and what its Capabilities are, then you can Download the Client for a Game, Single Player, or Better yet, Multi-Player..

 

Just remember that the Faster the Game is, the harder to keep it Synchronized across All the Clients...

 

MarkO

 

[Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration]

On 12/19/2021 at 12:30 PM, clh333 said:

Another step forward (backward?):  Got ECB 1.1 installed.  Thanks to MarkO for suggesting the Needham's EMP-20.

 

Next I would like to go after the keyboard, which has a number of problems.  There are no dead keys per se but some require a lot of force and some double-strike with almost no effort expended.  The keycaps are what they are and the touch is never going to be alluring but I'd like to get to the point of even pressure and one character per press.

 

I don't know much about this keyboard:  Are the keycaps removable?  What is the mechanism for recording a keypress?  Is it capacitive, like the foil-pad keys on a Kaypro?  How far can I pull it apart?  Is there anything to look out for?

 

Thanks for your replies.

 

-CH-

 

 

 

My Bad, in not mentioning that the CoCo ROM Images your likely to Find are Binary, verses Intel Hex or Motorolla-S Record or other... 

One "clue", is that ROM Images are Rounded Out to the next "boundary", ROMs being 256 Bytes, or 512 Bytes or 1024 Bytes, ( AKA 1 KB ), or 2048 Bytes, ( AKA 2KB ), or 4096 Bytes, ( AKA 4KB ), or 8192 Bytes, or 16384 Bytes.

 

Hex and S-Record won't be Precise Powers of 2..

 

Congratulations on a Successful Upgrade..

 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

27 minutes ago, Keneg said:

I have xroar up and running.  I can use disk images, but cannot figure out how to use cartridge files (ccc).

Are you using the MPI or RACE to get more Cart Slots?

 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

16 minutes ago, Keneg said:

I have xroar up and running.  I can use disk images, but cannot figure out how to use cartridge files (ccc).

The Disk System is a Cartridge, just like the Game Carts...   You Insert it.   

( I’m very rusty with XRoar..  I use VCC and MAME a lot more.. )

 

ill check the Manual..

[New to the Coco]

11 hours ago, Keneg said:

Thanks MrDave.  Where can I get EDTASM ++.  Also, why can’t this be run on the native machine with a cocoSDC?  Is it that you can not save you work.  That seems very strange.  What good is an assembler that can’t save it’s work!

 

The "orginal" EDTASM is a Cartridge, and can Only Save to Tape, unless you Patch It..

 

Later EDTASM was released on Disk...  This is the Version that can be Updated with Robert Gault's 6309 Patch..

 

 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

1 hour ago, Keneg said:

I downloaded roar, but it doesn’t seem to work.  Do I need to download ROMs or something else.  I just get a garbled screen and can’t type anything.

 

Yes, XRoar ships with No ROMs..
https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/ROMs/XRoar/

 

Also, the CoCo 3 support was just recently added....  

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/ROMs/

 

Ciaran is a Great Guy and even appears on CoCoTALK!, like last week..

 

MarkO

[New to the Coco]

On 12/14/2021 at 8:59 PM, Keneg said:

Also, I need good resources on programming the machine in a variety of languages.  I will first use extended BASIC, but then would like to try some others,  FORTH, Pascal, assembly, etc.

M. David Johnson, whom I just met at CoCoFEST! a month ago in November, designed a FORTH OS for the CoCo..
 

CF83 System - CF83 is a 1983 Standard Forth for the CoCo 2 or 3.
http://bds-soft.com/php/coco/CF83System.php

CF83 Development

http://bds-soft.com/php/coco/CF83Development.php

 

PASCAL is available under the OS9 Operating Systems, but the CoCo 2 can only run, OS9, Level I..

Assembly is available, natively, with EDTASM, which has Modern Extensions, ( EdTASM6309 ), available from  Robert Gault on the CoCo Mailing List or Facebook.  The CF83 Forth also uses EDTASM.

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/search?q=EDTASM

http://aaronwolfe.com/robert.gault/Coco/Sales/Edtasm6309.htm

 

There are Cross Platform Assemblers, including my favorite, LWASM, from William "lostwizard" Astle.

http://www.lwtools.ca/

 

There are a Couple 'C' Compilers...  Cross Platform.  A GCC "patch"  and CMOC, which is "not quite 'C'", but getting "Very Close" ( CMOC relies on LWASM ), and the 'C' Compiler in OS9.

GCC ( I use Brett Gordon's instructions for FIP )

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/beretta42/fip/master/docs/build_fuzix.txt

 

CMOC

http://sarrazip.com/dev/cmoc.html

 

General Programming Help can be found here:

https://sites.google.com/a/aaronwolfe.com/cococoding/home/tools

 

And, Quite a few of us, Hang Out on a Discord Server for the Color Computer.

http://discord.cocotalk.live/

 

MarkO ( CoCoNUT! and CoCoTALK!er )

[Replacement pots for Apple brand joysticks]

On 11/24/2021 at 7:03 AM, Baldrick said:

You probably won't find any 150K pots.  Those are unicorns.

 

You'll have better luck maybe finding 100K pots or even 10K pots.

They will work if you add compensation capacitors in parallel with the pot.

 

The 150K pot forms an R-C "network" with some 0.022 uF capacitors on the motherboard to make some timed-pulses out of the 556 timer that the pot is connected to.

So if you use some (quite common) 10K pots, you'll get the equivalent performance with a 0.3 uF cap in parallel with the pot.  Or substitute any other value according to the formula example:

 

10kΩ * (x + 0.022μF) = 150kΩ * 0.022μF

x + 0.022μF  = (150kΩ * 0.022μF) / 10kΩ

x  = (150kΩ * 0.022μF) / 10kΩ – 0.022μF

 x = 0.308μF  

Thanks for the Formulas...  I know when adapting JoySticks from One computer System to another, "adjustments" might need to be made..

 

MarkO

[Apple II Discord Server]

On 11/23/2021 at 5:39 AM, GameGeezer said:

FWIW there are no bots n this server.

Then there must be some Misconfiguration Issue...

 

A server that won't let you Validate who you are is not conducive to membership..

 

MarkO

[Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration]

12 hours ago, clh333 said:

 

After further research I find that the 68766 requires higher voltage; the spec is 26 volts, and reportedly programming may fail at lower voltages.  One of my programmers* supposedly delivers 21V, although I have never required this voltage for previous uses.  It does, however, have an input for an external power supply; it may be that this would be required for 21V.

 

I also found some designs for DIY chip-specific programmers, implemented as Arduino "shields".  Is this the sort of converter board to which you refer?  Are its specs published anywhere?

-CH-

 

* GQ-4X; the other is TL866CS.

 

I have a couple older Needham's EMP-20's that provide the Higher Voltage to program the MC68766's.   An Adapter that provides the Higher Programing Voltage sounds feasible...

 

MarkO

[Tormod.me maker of the MOOH...still around?]

8 hours ago, Gunstar said:

No, I don't believe so, thanks for the link. A friend on another forum said he finally heard from Tormod about 32K cards for the Dragon 32, but as of my last e-mail check yesterday, no replies from him. Though I think the last e-mail I sent was 2-3 weeks ago now, so I'll send a fresh one too.

 

Two and a half years ago I got a MOOH at CoCoFEST! in Chicago, IL from Ron Klein..   I contacted Ron on Discord and told him about your request.   It sounds like he will try to contact Tormod too..

 

MarkO