[Coco] leading to that CNC Coco machine (George Ramsower)

[George Ramsower]

Gene Heskett said:

> I think George is doing some pretty amazing things too.  And his shop is
> probably 20F warmer about now. :)

 Probably more than that. I was outside today getting propane and wearing 
shorts and a T-Shirt. A little vitamin D was in the mix also.
 The high was about 68 at my place. A little over 70 in San Antonio.

 EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT, SNOWBIRDS!!!

Andrew L. Ayers said:

>
>>I am glad to see the progress you are making - and I love the CoCo 3
>>re-pack! I am not sure how you got everything in there (that would be a
>>great thing to see in itself), but it is amazing you did!
>>
> yeah, we need some pix of that repack, with the covers off. :)


 Okay... I'll try and find time tomorrow to take it down and open it up to 
create some images.
 That repack is not that big of a deal. It took a helluva lot less time than 
I have in the mill. Even the wirewrapping of the I/O board and all the stuff 
that went into that modem cabinet.

  I garonteeya!

 Both the top and the bottom are not actually covers only. Stuff is mounted 
to both. It's the only way I could get it all in there. I think there's 
still room for some more things in there, such as sugar ants and roaches.

 The cabinet is actually upside down. I dinged out mounting everything and 
then discovered that the feet are supposed to go on TOP.. or where they 
would go.

 DOH!

 So this is why in the photo, you see the RGB connector just off the shelf. 
NO FEET! So I need to fix that. Meanwhile, it works.

 The switching supply wasn't loaded enough to keep it's voltages correct, so 
I added a small incandescent light bulb inside the cabintet on the 12 volt 
line to keep it in check.

 I had that modem in storage for several years before this happened. I liked 
that cabinet so I held on to it. The actual CKT board that was in it, I 
still have and plan to use the chip someday to attempt to communicate with 
the old TRS80 Coco, Whole House Controller. The chip is a programmable FSK 
modem thingy.
 It's a "World Chip" AM7910DC mfg 1984. Can do FSK from ... if I remember 
correctly... 110 baud to 1200 baud.
 I did finally get a new X-10 controller that uses a standard RS232 
interface, but I haven't taken the time to make it work on a coco. This mill 
is more important to me, right now. I use the controller on this PC for now. 
Once I get the mill going, I may find time to work on the X10 project and 
then I can get another controller and then things will start happening... 
like speed control for the dremmel on the mill?
 Right now, I'm thinking that eventually the dremmel will only be a motor. 
With gear reduction, I can get more torque to the mill and the tool speeds 
will be more inline for this project, even when I convert to a PC based 
control for the machine.

 So much to do.... so little time.

George