[Coco] [Color Computer] Re: Coco flash cartridge

[Mark McDougall]

James Diffendaffer wrote:

> I'd like to use it as part of a coco repack eventually...

I sent out for parts to make up a few boards today.

We'll be panelizing the boards tomorrow, but it looks like we'll get 12x 
Amgia-PS/2 adapters, 4x Coco-Flash and 8x Coco-flash2 PCBs on the panel. 
With any luck they'll be well and truly out-the-door by the end of the 
working week.

I'll keep 2x Coco-flash boards for myself (1 w/ROM & 1 w/Flash) and 2 
Coco-flash2 boards probably (as well as a few Amiga-PS/2) so I guess the 
rest will be up for grabs once we know they work. Obviously I'll keep one 
for you James if you want one.

One problem - despite using "Industry-standard 5V flash" on the flash2 
board, it seems to be difficult to buy. My source of 4MB parts says "Out of 
Stock" (as opposed to "No Longer Stocked") so I'm not sure what the deal is 
there. In the mean-time I ordered a couple of 1MByte parts - better than 
nothing.

Oh and the coco boards are quite small - the flash2 board barely clears the 
coco case/flap door. Not sure how easy or otherwise they'll be to mount in a 
cart. I added a few randomly-placed mounting holes - mainly to allow a few 
stand-offs to prop up the board whilst plugged-in. If it ever gets to a new 
rev I guess I'll have to look at fitting it to a standard cartridge case?!? 
The caveat is that there's no "zap protection" atm either...

Phew, what was supposed to be an afternoon whipping up a quick PCB or 2 for 
my own amusement has turned into a week or more... ;)

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"