[Coco] Coco interfacing, running a coco from 12 volts and more.

[John W. Linville]

On Mon, Feb 06, 2012 at 07:42:51PM -0500, haywire666 at aol.com wrote:
> I'm new to this mailing list. I used cocos for ages back in the day, ages past everyone else moving on too.
> 
> 
> Lately, I've been working on a mobile robot project of sorts. I was going to use a micro controller for controlling it but I 
> remembered how great the analog inputs (joystick ports) were for sensors and things like that and I decided to try and use a coco.
> 
> 
> I got some old cocos I saved out of some bins in my basement, but so far things have progressed very slowly.
> 
> 
> I need info on using pia chips to get digital i/o lines in and out of the coco. After goggling for ages, I found very little on the subject of
> interfacing with a coco, which is a shame, I'm sure I remember tons of projects like that in rainbow and other coco magazines.

You might check the July 1983 issue of Rainbow for "Build This Board
For Easy Interfacing".  It is available online through cococoding.com

Also, you could try to find references to CoCoPort, a 6821 board.
I have one on a PCB, but I think one of the magazines had an article
on how to build one yourself.

> I also need info on running a coco3 from 12 volts. Right now I'm using a voltage inverter and its terribly inefficient. I'm sure running direct from the 
> 12 volt gell cell would add tons of run time.  Right now the battery gets drained pretty quick!
> 
> 
> If anyone has any old magazine articles that they could scan, or can give me ANY info on these things I would sincerely appreciate it.
> 
> 
> If I don't find the info I need I will have to use a microcontroller I guess, but I would REALLY love using a coco for this.

You might also try http://www.tuxdriver.com/download/rainbow-index.pdf
for an index of Rainbow articles.  There look to be a number that
might interest you from the various years of Rainbow.

Good luck!

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.