[Coco] Restuffing a CoCo chassis

[Joe Grubbs]

I've been searching for a better keyboard to replace the "chicklet" style in my 4K CoCo1. I finally found a non-functioning CoCo2 with the "melted" keyboard, so I grabbed it for a few bucks. This was my first time seeing a "melted" keyboard in person and I love the way it feels. I just need to adapt it to my 4K CoCo1's mobo since the ribbon cables and connectors are different.

The CoCo itself is a basket case, so I don't feel bad about parting it out; There are a myriad of things wrong--center tap off the secondary of the transformer is broken, there's a weird jumper wire running from the cart connector over to the P/S area, etc. It was a 16K non-ECB model anyway.

Anyway (sorry for the boring preface), I now have an empty CoCo2 chassis, and that has given me an idea. I was thinking of stuffing it with either a mini-ITX mobo or maybe some kind of system-on-a-chip computer (like a Raspberry Pi). I could fit a small form factor laptop style keyboard, install a card reader in place of the cartridge slot, etc. The more I think about it, the more I want to do it. Has anyone else attempted this before? Is it sacrilege? :P  

-Joe