[Coco] Looking for lots of CoCo HW

[David J Bush]

Hi there.

I dragged my CoCo3 out of storage, and the monitor doesn't
work. (model number 8CM515 0941) This is hardly surprising, since
the fuse is probably removed. I have hopes that if I just replace
the fuse it will work again along with all the other hardware.

But it is very diffcult to get at the fuse holder! It has to be
somewhere on the power board, but I remove the back of the
monitor and I can't even see where it should be. I also haven't
figured out how to detach the power board. So, the first thing
I am looking for is, information about the 8CM515. I have a
schematic, I see the fuse is on the power board, but how do I
get at it? Any clue for this clueless doofus would be greatly
appreciated.

There was once a company called CoNect which advertised lots of
cool hardware mods. The "Xpander" packed a 3.5" diskette drive
and a hard drive into the CoCo case. Is CoNect still around?
I would like to get something like that if anyone still sells
it. But I don't want to give up my multi-pak!

I would also like to get an OS which will run old Disk Basic
and ML programs, and will allow me to access my hard drive.
Something like HYPERI/O, for example, which will work with
whatever hard drive I get. (Yes, this is software, but it
is arguably a necessary element of any hard drive system.)

I also would like to get a thin flat color LCD display. Does
anyone sell one that is adapted for a CoCo3? Ideally I would
like to be able to switch between analog RGB and color composite
input, so I can have the best of both worlds. (RGB display plus
display of programs that use artifacting)

Of course, if I want my applications to access the hard drive as
well, I will need to do some major software surgery. I have some
disassemblers, but much of the stuff I want to modify has been
copy-protected. So, I have an idea for another hardware mod.
Once you have your copy-protected program running, press a button
to take a "snapshot" of all your RAM. (512K) This data can then
be saved to disk and later disassembled. Has this idea occurred
to anyone else?

I will probably want to burn my OS onto an EPROM. I want to
customize this EPROM with certain features. To speed up the
feedback cycle, I would like an EPROM simulator. I recall an
article by Tony DiStefano on this in an old CoCo mag. Is Tony
still around?

An EPROM burner strong enough to make lasting EPROMS would be
nice also. Battery power won't cut it.

I'm also curious about a 6309 + 2 Meg RAM upgrade.

I would also like: a mouse/left joystick switch, front power
and reset buttons, and a padded carrying case would be nice.
Oh, and are there any new deluxe joysticks still around?

Thanks very much for your time and attention.