[Coco] Advice

[Frank Swygert]

Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2015 20:27:29 -0600
From: "Camillus Blockx"<camillus.b.58 at gmail.com>

Hi all coco geeks,


When browsing the coco archieve, I stumbled on two schematics and instructables to build a MPI for the coco computer. One is a 4port MPI and the other is a 8 Port. By the looks of the documents it is from the same author.

I'm planning to make the 8 port version based on the schematics I found, but my design will not be the classic case. What I want to do is kind of make it as a stand on. This means that I would like to integrate Floppy( or emulators ) and Harddisk ( or emulator ) and there respective controllers into this stand on case. The height of it would be maximun the height of a 5.1/4 floppy drive,   All the cables would be inside as the drives, 4 slots for cartridges would be on 1 side. A buildin power supply, that also will take over the original power. I was thinking also on a slide out keyboard, but I do not want to need a ladder to reach the coco...LOL Want to keep it as low as I can, Possible that I make a new case also so that I can make it modular.

Now Is any one familiar with the schematics and know if there is copyright on them, or if they are free to use?
Also did someone all ready build a MPI using those schematics?

And if any one who wants to make a similar project, then maybe we can share some thoughts and make it a joint venture?

reply to me on my email to keep the coco media free of back and forth mail.
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Posted as well as sent to your e-mail, as there are some things I think the community would be interested in...

IIRC those are free to use, the author was on here for a while but in bad health and dropped off... I think he passed away.

So it sounds like you're repackaging a CoCo in a custom case, or are you just making an expansion module that holds four slots and the disc drives... similar to the TI99/4A expansion. That sounds interesting, especially if you put the floppy and HD controller on the board and still have four open slots. Would be nice to have one real floppy drive for copying floppies, and use an SD card instead of a real HD. That would bring the size down some as well. Having a power supply is a plus! You can only use a short cable between an MPI and the CoCo due to the CoCo's unbuffered expansion buss. You may need to build a buffer card that plugs into the CoCo, between CoCo and expansion box. People get away with just enough ribbon cable to turn the MPI 90 degrees (vertical -- about 2-3" of cable), but that's about it. That is done to get the CoCo motherboard and MPI in a full size AT case.