[Coco] The SuperBoard

Sat Feb 5 09:51:25 EST 2005

Roger,

Thanks for raising the issue, we have been very busy. We don't have a lot 
of free time between orders and everything else that life has to offer in a 
day. I can say I spend at least four hours a day on the 
coco/orders/development. We have made incredible progress. Last years fest 
was an indication of that, if you didn't attend then you should. One of the 
few remaining events that we have for this great machine.

Divorce, yep cost me over $225k in cash, no I didn't repeat a key either. 
It can cause you to make sure that you have a place to lay your head at 
night and plug your CoCo's in at. I did have to put it on the back burner 
for sometime. My children are ok, I'm ok, full steam ahead.

As far as a play by play update on the web site. Ain't going to happen 
Captain. Gets back to free time and prioritizing the workload. I have 54 
confirmed down payments. Most of the people are still around. All of them? 
I don't know at this point. Not going to worry about it till I'm ready for 
that. Some have informed me of their address/Email changes and believe me I 
can tell you who everyone is. We have CVS running over the Internet on our 
systems and I am redundant on four different systems on this end. Emails of 
CVS updates come directly to me/Boisy, we both know what each other is 
working on. We have an incredible library of collected work and software 
repository. Lose a bit, not likely.

The SB is recommended to be installed by myself all I ask is that the 
customer pays for the shipping of the CC3. Yes this board is complex and 
not for the normal CoCoist to install. As with all Cloud-9 products, I 
offer the installation/test as part of the purchased package. If the buyer 
opt's out of free install/test then the board is just like any other 
electronic board you buy. It is tested here and if it doesn't work for you 
when you install it or you damage the CoCo or SB on the installation it 
will be an hourly parts/material repair. On-line support for hardware 
installations will be VERY minimal. Too hard to convey years of experience 
through Email. For example common ESD precautions that I do numerous times 
a day  maybe an unknown to someone else. You can caution to the hilt but if 
is touched with out proper grounding, the card will be suspect at that 
point. Special tools or ones that won't wreck the board is what I have 
purchased in the hundreds of dollars to do this work. I solder the board 
under a 40X microscope.

Lets say I do four SB installs a week, which is aggressive with all the 
other orders that are going on and will continue. Do the math. If you 
didn't preorder one, it will be quite sometime before you would get your SB 
after the release. That is why the offer came out to the fest people first 
to bring their machines in to save on shipping. No cutting in line will be 
allowed. Sorry, rules are rules. If you didn't make a down payment then you 
will be paying more for the final product. No more pre-orders are being 
accepted and no more refunds are being allowed on the down payments. We are 
too far along in the development for either to happen. Boisy and I both 
have a ton of time and material invested in this project.

Hate to say it Roger but it doesn't look good  for the on lookers at this 
point. There will be extra boards made. Based upon the cost, which will be 
high, will determine how many extras I will make on the first run. Second 
run? Depends on sales. The proof is in the numbers, thus the pre-order 
option that was offered.

I can say that this board will be the cat's meow of the CoCo, hands down, 
without a doubt. Nothing will be able to touch it. The SuperIDE is living 
proof of our SB progress and is just the tip of the iceberg.

Regards,

Mark
Cloud-9

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>Dear Mark and Boisy,
>
>Your web site looks great and I drool over all the new products every time 
>I visit.  This is very nice work, indeed.
>
>Still, I'm curious about the status of the SuperBoard.  Back in 2001 I 
>wrote asking about the progress and the reply mentioned divorce issues and 
>a pause in work on the board.
>
>I know this might be putting somebody on the spot, but I can't find 
>anything on the Cloud-9 site that mentions anything other than the planned 
>features.  Is there a page mentioning an estimated release date or the 
>progress over time, etc.?
>
>Also, can you be sure that those who placed a deposit in 2000 or 2001 are 
>still active in the CoCo community and have current addresses?
>
>I'm interested in the completed board (with programming specs) where I 
>want to purchase one or more and design software that uses the advanced 
>features.
>
>Thanks,
>
>--
>Roger Taylor
>
>
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