[Coco] Multi Pack Replacement

[Camillus Blockx]

Hi Bill,


This project of mine is personal. I only want to build something that is to my needs. Being that said, my ideas can be used by any one who feels the need of having there coco stuff nicely together. What my project entails is actually an  19" 2U box that will be the base on which the coco will stand. The coco will be locked on to this box, so that unwanted moving is out of the question. The connection to the from the coco  will be made by a Bridge PCB that plugs in the original coco expansion port and goes down to a mainboard of the expansion box. What I'm planning to do is to put all     controllers for FloppyDrivews = 1 controller for 1 x 5.25 drive, and 1 x 3.5. I found a 8 port MPI schematic that I want to use, (new PCB laouts ) so I can have 4 internal controllers. The floppy is already one of those, so there is the RS232, the IDE/Scsi HDD controller, and the SCDC.

On the front left you have the two floppy drives, and the SCDC will be vertically installed next to these drives.

The left over space should be used for 4 cartridges.


I,m planning of making a drawing of the case but my drafting skills are not so davinci...lol

Anyway to fill the case up a power supply will also be in the box.

Now the price. Because the box, the PCB's for this box, and the bridge Connector, are the minimum parts you need.
It is the meaning that everyone can use his/her existing controllers.  The only pitfall I see in this approach is the multitude of controllers that exist. So I need to see if I can make it at much possible so all controllers can fit.

This being said, it opens the possibility, that one can build it over a period of time, an add pieces to the box, as he/she sees fit.  The cost of the pcb's is something I can not tell now, I want to make mine myself, but if anyone wants to order a multiple batch of them, be my guest. As nice they may be it is to me to much money.

I found a box for my prototype at $29 and is black plastic. very nice, if I may say. Now when that box is here then I can start to put some measurements and designs in auto-cad. The rest of the parts on these PCB consist of mostly connectors, 8 x  cartridge connector, some connectors for bridge PCB, and internal power etc.

I want to make an optimistic grand total from $150 to $200  ( case and all parts ). But I can only give you the correct figures after I build my prototype. 

It will take some time but this is what I want ...
 

Hope you can wait for that. 

greets cb