[Coco] Raspberry Pi and RS-232 ports

[Lee Patterson]

If you are still looking for a place, my 8BitCoder.com would love to have it. 

Lee



On 4/10/17, 4:38 PM, "Coco on behalf of Ron Klein" <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com on behalf of ron at kdomain.org> wrote:

    Hello all.
    
    How many folks here have Raspberry Pi 3's? I plan to bring a handful of
    16GB SD cards to CocoFEST next week with a preliminary Coco emulation
    distribution it (see below). For those who can't attend, I'm looking for a
    place to host an image file. I still need to type up some documentation,
    but plan to demo it at the show.
    
    Thanks
    
    -Ron
    
    
    
    
    On Sat, Apr 1, 2017 at 11:30 AM, Ron Klein <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
    
    
    > I've been working on getting an initial Raspberry Pi 3 Coco emulator
    > distribution set up for those who might be interested to try for
    > themselves.  It's being set up the why I like it, but could certainly be
    > taken in any direction from the community as I plan to share an SD image
    > soon.
    >
    > This is what I have so far:
    >
    > Raspberry Pi 3
    >
    > Latest Raspbian distribution
    >
    > Some RPi3 performance tweaks to allocate memory for programs and video.
    >
    > Restrict video mode to 640 x 480 (rather than the 1920 x 1080).
    >
    > A very slight CPU over clock and force all cores to be active all the
    > time.
    >
    > Latest MAME (0.184) compiled with SDL2 (and video hardware acceleration).
    > It runs from the console, no X involved.  I'm working on just compiling a
    > version to support only the Coco / Dragon targets, but not a priority just
    > yet.  For those interested, ChoccyHobNob provides precompiled, current
    > versions of MAME for the RPi3:
    >
    > http://choccyhobnob.com/mame-0-184-for-raspberry-pi-macos/
    >
    > ... great site and information.
    >
    > Latest XRoar for those who prefer that emulator for Coco 2 / Dragon
    > emulation.  It can be run from console or X, though the X version is very
    > nice with the added benefit of menus, etc..
    >
    > Drivewire 4 configured to host/serve DSK images to the local instance of
    > MAME (or XRoar) running on the RPi3.  If you use a USB to serial adapter or
    > one of the serial interfaces to connect to the GPIO header, you can host
    > files for a real Coco as well.
    >
    > Some scripts to start a Coco 2, Coco 3, MC-10 from MAME.  For the Coco 3,
    > I have it configured with 2MB of RAM.  Great for NitrOS9 and Fuzix.  Any of
    > these could be added to the /etc/rc.local file to boot directly into.
    >
    > I've also added am EMCEE server to host files for a real MC-10.
    >
    > Samba server and client packages.  You can transfer and DSK images, roms,
    > etc., to the RPi3 from another workstation on your network or you can
    > connect to other file server on your network from the RPi3.  Either way
    > works and is available.
    >
    > Added a bunch of Coco development tools the distribution including
    > everything needed to compile MAME and XRoar, lwtools, Toolshed, etc..
    >
    > Added William Astle's excellent lwwire application (with modifications
    > from Brett) to allow Fuzix (running on a Coco 3) access to the Internet.
    > This can include an emulator running on the RPi3 or a real Coco 3 connected
    > to the RPi3 through the USB or GPIO serial port.
    >
    > I connect my RPi3 to a LCD monitor that happens to have both a HDMI and
    > VGA connections.  I have not tested the RPi3's composite video output on
    > the GPIO header, but will get to that at some point.
    >
    > I use a basic USB mouse and keyboard.  I came across a great deal on a
    > Nintendo Wii U Pro Controller which works perfectly with the RPi3 as it
    > already has built-in Bluetooth support.  Raspbian recognized the device
    > with no issues.  I was playing Pop Star Pilot just yesterday using it.
    > Very nice.  Nice thing is that controller has analog and digital control
    > support.  Perfect the Coco!
    >
    > I know there's been much talk about booting into a Coco instantly at
    > power-up.  I have not attempted to do that, but the boot process is very
    > quick now (under 15 seconds).  I'm OK with that, but I'm sure there may be
    > other things to do to improve it more.  Unless you create an emulator that
    > doesn't require the Linux OS and talks directly to the hardware, not sure
    > if there will ever be a way to achieve instant-on access to a Coco.
    >
    > The last part of my RPi3 testing is connecting a real Coco 3 keyboard to
    > the RPi3.  I'm using information provided by Chris Hawks who really
    > pioneered the early Coco emulation for the RPi.  I have the extra keyboard
    > and Coco 3 case, so I may be able to build my own CocoPi, just like Chris
    > did a while back.  With things like the USB to Coco joystick adapters, it
    > might even be possible to use real Coco joysticks with the RPi while it's
    > in a Coco case (using the factory holes on the case).  The RPi3 composite
    > video and analog audio port could be run to the factory location on the
    > case, too.  These types of things would require some sort of basic
    > backplane to mount the 6 pin joystick DIN connectors and the composite
    > video and audio connectors.
    >
    > Anyway, getting a bit closer each day.  I would like to share something
    > soon, but need to find a way to limit the size the SD card image and find a
    > place to host it.
    >
    > Thanks!
    >
    > -Ron
    >
    >
    
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