Icky made me do it - TRS-80 CoCo

[stephen_usher]

Reflow with fresh solder and lots of flux and then take the excess off with braid is what I'd do with those.

[PhilC]

Yeah now that would be cool. I dance some power armour myself.

[rubber_jonnie]

Reflow with fresh solder and lots of flux and then take the excess off with braid is what I'd do with those.

Yeah, I am probably going to do that later, just wanted to test it first, and it does work.

[rubber_jonnie]

Yeah now that would be cool. I dance some power armour myself.

Mmmm, power armour

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I have also got to the bottom of why the Coco1 doesn't work with the CocoSDC. It needs extended basic, which the Dragon has but my Coco doesn't.

So I need to track down how I can upgrade to Extended basic, I think I just need to install an additional ROM in the empty socket, then it should allow it to work with the CocoSDC.

[rubber_jonnie]

So in order to get the Coco working with the CoCoSDC, I needed to add Extended BASIC to my CoCo. That meant filling this socket:

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It's right next to the standard BASIC ROM.

I used this guide:

IMG20240325192527.jpg (146.6 KiB) Viewed 5364 times

And built the 2364 to 27128 adapter, though I ended up using a 27256 as I had nothing else, and just dropped 4 copies of the extended BASIC ROM into it:

IMG20240325192412.jpg (482.32 KiB) Viewed 5364 times

It fitted perfectly and I got this first boot so pretty pleased:

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I then had to add a small switch to the side of CocoSDC to allow me to switch Dragon mode on and off. This is an internal jumper and it's usually permanently set for whichever machine you want, in my case it was the Dragon, but I need it to work for both now:

IMG20240325224322.jpg (277.04 KiB) Viewed 5364 times

This is in addition to the visible dip switches on top of the case, one of which also sets D32 mode.

Booting with the cart installed, I now get this:

IMG20240325192729.jpg (178.06 KiB) Viewed 5364 times

Which means the cart is being recognised. Next I need to try using it all on the Coco, and also with the D32 to make sure I didn't break anything whilst modding

[rubber_jonnie]

One final item completed before reassembling the CoCo:

A coat of solder mask over the exposed parts:

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IMG20240326121324.jpg (251.62 KiB) Viewed 5350 times

All good to go now and the CoCo is reassembled.

[stephen_usher]