Doing this backwards...CoCo I restoration

[MrDave]

I could send you this kit for $10 cdn then you can program regular size eproms .. i suppose the reverse of this board could be converted to program them with extra voltage..

[clh333]

An update:  The CPU and memory are replaced; the machine boots to Basic 1.1 prompt.  I changed the three jumpers noted above to indicate 32k memory, and the "PRINT MEM" command indicated 14k; an improvement, but less than the 24k I was expecting.  I found I had neglected two jumpers edged between the ICs, but when I changed them the machine would not boot. With both changed I got a blank (green) screen; with one changed I got a double BASIC identifier, with the other changed I got a screenful of "@"s.

 

I changed them back and got to the BASIC prompt again, still with 14k memory.  There is something I don't understand about the jumper configuration; more research will be necessary.  Still working on the BASIC ROMs.

 

-CH-

[MrDave]

There are many variants of the coco1 board.. im not too familiar with all of them ..there are a few experts on the coco discord .. feel free to join there and i will get my buddy to help..

[clh333]

I have successfully completed the RAM upgrade from the 16k that the machine came with to 64k of RAM using 4164s.  It was necessary to move some jumpers, jumper some un-jumpered pins and cut some capacitor leads in order to effect this transformation.  I used the procedure described in Rainbow Magazine here: https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Magazines/Rainbow, The (OCR)/The Rainbow Vol. 03 No. 10 - May 1984.pdf (p. 50 etc.)

 

There is a further modification required to address all 64k but as I do not have OS-9 or any means of loading it I will wait for the updated ROMs to pursue that modification.  My thanks to Mr. L. Curtis Boyle of the CoCo list at maltedmedia.com for the suggestion.

 

-CH-

Edited December 14, 2021 by clh333

[MrDave]

Here isca basic program to activate the 64k.. another test is to run a 64k coco game like sailor man

[MrDave]

If this works you can poke and peek high up in memory and it will work..

Like 

POKE 57344,7

PRINT PEEK(57344),7

7

if there was no ram there it would not stick

 

[clh333]

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-

 

 

[MrDave]

The keyboard is a disaster of mylar springs and crud.. you wont enjoy this ... but take it apart and wash with soap and water.. then alchool..

[MarkO]

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

[clh333]

Took the keyboard apart and managed to clean all the little bits without losing any.  I think I damaged one, though: the spacebar no longer works.  Everything else works much better, though...

 

-CH-

[clh333]

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-

[clh333]

Added the Color Computer Disk Drive (Cat. 26-3022) to the controller cartridge and, after some configuration issues, formatted a disk.

 

-CH-

[MarkO]

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

 

[Divarin]

On 11/2/2021 at 6:32 PM, clh333 said:

MrDave, Thank you for your offer.  If worst comes to worst I'll follow that lead.  I do have an EPROM burner however and have used it to burn ROMs for my IBM 5170, for example.  I also found the ROM file for Extended Color BASIC on the Tandy Archive, so I think I am 2/3 of the way to creating the missing ROM on a 24-pin EEPROM.  The remaining question is WHICH one agrees with the TRS design.  Can anyone suggest a suitable candidate?

 

Thank you for your suggestions,

-CH-

Can you provide a direct link to the Extended Color Basic rom on the color computer archive?  I don't know if I'm just blind or an idiot or what but I can't find it for the life of me.

I've tried googling (with site:colorcomputerarchive.com) and looking through the contents of the "roms" section.  I see the "Color Basic" section, is one of them that? I don't see anything actually called Extended Color Basic or ECB

 

The closest I've seen is "extbas10.rom" and "extbas11.rom" but those are under a subdirectory for the xRoar emulator and there's no readme or description of exactly what those roms are so all you have to go off of is the filename.

 

[jhd]

On 12/23/2021 at 8:00 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. 

 

If you can locate the manual, there is a great deal of technical detail there about accessing the hardware. There may even be some code examples. 

 

I only had the Deluxe RS-232 Program Pak for a short time, and writing driver software is definitely beyond my skill set, but I recall the manual being really helpful. The terminal software uses some of the same escape sequences as the VT100/ANSI standard (of course with a much smaller screen).  

[Keneg]

On 12/26/2021 at 7:47 AM, Divarin said:

Can you provide a direct link to the Extended Color Basic rom on the color computer archive?  I don't know if I'm just blind or an idiot or what but I can't find it for the life of me.

I've tried googling (with site:colorcomputerarchive.com) and looking through the contents of the "roms" section.  I see the "Color Basic" section, is one of them that? I don't see anything actually called Extended Color Basic or ECB

 

The closest I've seen is "extbas10.rom" and "extbas11.rom" but those are under a subdirectory for the xRoar emulator and there's no readme or description of exactly what those roms are so all you have to go off of is the filename.

 

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

[MarkO]

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

[jhd]

 

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

[MarkO]

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