[Coco] Re: CoCo mounted in a Model III-IV Case?

[farna at att.net]

Derek, I had a CoCo3 mounted in an old Kaypro II portable case and one mounted in a Tandy 2000 case. The Kaypro is most similar to the Model 3. Using the CRT isn't to big a deal since the M-3 used a composite monochrome monitor. You have to build a composite output circuit for the CoCo though, which isn't to difficult once you have the schematic (I don't have one anymore). The keyboard is a different story. IIRC the M-3 used a switch type keyboard. Unless the keys were wired the same as the CoCo matrix (doubtful), someone had to resire the board. On those old boards that wasn't terribly difficult, but required cutting a few traces and wires, and soldering jumper wires in all across the board. Tedious, but not to difficult. You can get such keyboards from http://www.cadigital.com/ for $15-$39. 

You'll have to gut the computer then figure out what you need to do to mount the motherboard. In the Kaypro I had to use a shorty controller, but made room for a Disto Super Controller with HD adapter on it in the Tandy 2000. It was a tight fit! 

CA Digital also has a nice drive case for anyone interested. It holds two half height 5.25" drives side by side, perfect for sticking under a monitor. Built in power supply, $29 (made by Xerox). They have 5.25" floppy drives too -- sincgle sided for only $9, double sided for $39. Those single sided drives are bargains! 

--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Independent 
Magazine" (AIM)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
(free download available!)

 -------------- Original message ----------------------

> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 09:16:36 -0800 (PST)
> From: Derek <dml_68 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Coco] CoCo mounted in a Model III-IV Case?
> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> Message-ID: <20051109171636.43385.qmail at web30205.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> A very long time ago in the early 1980's I rememer
> visiting a local TRS-80 users group and one of the
> members had taken the internals of a CoCo and Disk
> Drive and mounted them inside a TRS-80 Model III case.
> He managed to use the CRT and Keyboard from the model
> III with the Coco. 
> 
> Anyone have any information on how this was done
> posted on the web? Diagram or instructions? I always
> thought it was a cool project.
> 
> Thank You
> Derek