[Coco] Nitros9 and Smartwatch

[piperfox74]

Robert,

The Disto Mini Controller has two 28-pin sockets. There are three jumpers on the board, but I don’t know what they do since I do not have a manual for this controller. FWIW, the existing DECB ROM in slot 1 is 28-pin, and my custom ADOS 3 ROM is 28-pin, and both work fine.

<rant on>
Regarding software and documentation, I find it a bit odd to argue that any piece of software, no matter how simple, “does not need documentation”. I’d say a pervasive attitude like that in the community could turn away newcomers. I’ve been away from the CoCo seen for a very long time, and I was quite young back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when I was heavily into these computers. I’m eager to get back in, learn as much as I can, and help out others if possible, but the overall lack of consistent documentation for all of the new toys (especially DriveWire and Nitros-9) make this endeavor more of a struggle than it perhaps needs to be.

Regarding the Smartwatch integration in Nitros-9. All I could find was the repository disk image smartwatch.dsk with three executables: getclk, swread and swset. No documentation at all. How is a newcomer supposed to know how these work, and know there’s “no good reason to use getclk”?

I’m not meaning this to sound like I’m jumping on you. I appreciate your help, as I appreciate this entire community of bright, eager people looking to keep the CoCo alive as long as possible. I’m just hoping to express that focusing a bit on documentation and covering those topics that the “old timers” consider common knowledge or too simple to document might encourage more participation and help bring in new people to the community.
<rant off>, and thank you!

Christopher





> On Dec 6, 2016, at 15:36, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net> wrote:
> 
> Arthur Flexser wrote:
>> If, as your description seems to imply, you are not using either of the
>> ROMs in the Disto controller, but instead are using SDC-DOS in Multipak
>> Slot 1, you could try the SmartWatch in ROM slot 1, removing, at least
>> temporarily, the ROM that currently occupies that slot to see if the
>> problem has to do with having the SmartWatch in Slot 2 rather than Slot 1.
>> Though if ADOS-3 works fine in Slot 2 (with the switch set to that
>> position), the SmartWatch should be recognized there as well.  Are you sure
>> that you have the notch facing the same direction as the notch in the ROM?
>> That no pin is bent under or broken off?
>> 
>> There does remain the somewhat remote possibility that the SmartWatch is
>> bad.
>> 
>> Art
>> 
> 
> There is also the issue of the number of pins on the Disto board. The Smartwatch has 28 pins while most Tandy ROMs have 24.
> The Disto board probably has a jumper to select between 24 and 28 pin EPROMS as well as a switch to select between the two sockets.
> 
> Regards documentation, swset does not need documentation, I can send a version of swread with the built-in help turned on, and there is no good reason to use getclk.
> 
> Robert
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco