[Coco] STATUS - Re: Resurrecting a CoCo (26-3001) with a 26-3029 FDC.

[Ryan Pritchard]

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who had responded the to my original post.  Here is  
a status update, and from the status I am hoping for some further  
assistance.

Thanks go out to Darren A for setting me up with a Extended Color  
Basic 1.1 ROM.

My 26-3029 FDC is the 7 chip WD1773 based version thus I will not be  
able to mod it to work at HD.  Oh Well!

I have been trying to format disks in either 3.5" or 5.25" (I can't  
believe I had two boxes of KAO 5.25" DSDD never opened kicking  
around).  Anyway I get IO errors at the end of the formatting routine  
regardless of 3.5" or 5.25" drive / media.
Here is a list of my 5.25" FDDs:
Panasonic JU-475-4 A55
Panasonic JU-455-5 AAG
Teac FD-55GFR-570-U
Teac FD-55GFR 149-U5
Mitsumi F509V3

3.5" FDDs
Fujitsu M2537D15D
Fujitsu M2537B11D
Teac FD-235HF 3240-U5

For all the drives I have tried to ensure that the DC/RY jumpers are  
set to Drive Ready and not Drive Change.  I have jumper settings for  
some of them, but it seems to not help. The cable I am using has been  
returned to straight through mode.

I am still looking for confirmed 64K ram upgrade instructions for the  
26-3001 REV E board.  Currently it has 16K installed, the jumpers all  
mention the 32K setting.  The closest instructions I have found are  
from an archive of Paul Demarni's Coco pages (http://www.geocities.com/theother_bob/coco_page.html 
).  It instructs about the 32K upgrade and makes reference to him  
having instructions for the 64K upgrade.

The other resource I have read about is from the October 1983 issue of  
Color Computer Magazine, I really hope someone has that issue, that I  
can acquire a scan of the article or arrange to acquire the issue.

Regards,

Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies



On 24-Aug-08, at 9:53 PM, Ryan Pritchard wrote:

> Hello out there,
>
> Newby to CoCoList and to running a CoCo, but not OS-9 which I am  
> looking forward to running the NitrOS-9 flavour.
>
> Fourth attempt to post but this time it should work thanks to Dennis  
> telling me some information about the mailing list server.
>
>
> I have recently got the bug to play with a CoCo I had acquired years  
> ago.  The good news for me, is the 26-3001 model I have is the  
> Revision E mother board which has all the jumpers on it to go all  
> the way up to 32K (and likely 64K since I know the 64K x 1 chips I  
> have are all good as they are coming from an Apple 80 Column card.
>
> Currently the CoCo has 16K in it, and boots up to Color Basic 1.1.   
> It has an empty ROM socket where if I have understood correctly I  
> could install and Extended Basic ROM if I had one.
>
> I am having a problem getting the Disk Basic on the 26-3029 FDC to  
> boot, and thus cannot format or other wise do anything disk  
> related.  Is there any common issues with the FDC that I should look  
> at to determine why the CoCo is not detecting the cartridge and  
> booting from the FDC ROM?  The PCB for the FDC has the markings LEIA  
> MV-1 38 84, and has the WD-1773-PH controller chip.  The markings on  
> the ROM are TMS4764-30NL, B8428L, ZA64342, 804-5364A.
>
> It does not appear visually to have any burnt caps, resistors, or  
> chips, though I have not tested any of them.  Also I have tried the  
> time tested eraser on the contacts to see if that would resolve the  
> problem, though I have not fully inspected the slot on the CoCo.
>
> Like many people before me, playing with a CoCo for the first time  
> in their lives, help would sure be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ryan Pritchard
> Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies