[Color Computer] [coco] Learning MW C -> CoCo CNC

[Joel Ewy]

George's Coco Address wrote:
> My system starts with a 512K CC3, one 3.5" floppy and a board I built
> to connect it to anything I can imagine. It's all mounted inside and
> old modem cabinet with a switching power supply.
>
> The I/O board has four, 8 bit output latches and four, 8 bit input
> chips. I use these I/O ports to connect this coco to several things,
> such as my darkroom enlarger and my tiny CNC machine...
>
It sounds to me like modifying an SCF driver to run this interface would
be quite straight-forward.
> ...
> Another problem I've been having is static discharges(I think) from
> the dremel when cutting metal. Somehow, it gets into the coco and
> occasionally crashes it. I expect I'm going to have to do some special
> grounding tricks and carefully make sure I don't get ground loops. I
> suppose some small caps on the AC might be in order also. I don't know
> yet as lately, I haven't had a chance to connect it all up again and
> watch this stuff with an O-Scope.
>
> George
>
>
I would recommend  isolating the CNC machine from the CoCo interface
with optoisolators (photocouplers).  You can buy ICs or build them
yourself with LED/Photodetector pairs.  You can scrounge these things
from old floppy drives for instance.  That would keep your CoCo
completely electrically isolated from the motors.

JCE