DVI, IDE, and general CoCo madness

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_northernway.net>
Date: Sun Jan 4 16:02:58 1998

;-) jpero_at_cgo.wave.ca head-scratched, yawned, then typed:

>Good info you have there.

Thanks -- I've lurked thru a lot of piracy flame wars on other newsgroups
and listservers and learned a lot -- once I dug thru the egos and low blows
many of these folks resort to to get their point across.

>> [[Oh, John: I found a monitor for my DVI -- an Apple III mono monitor I
>> saved from a thrift store that a child was coloring on (yes, with crayons
>> -- I still haven't gotten all the wax out of the anti-glare screen) but I
>> still don't have a Tandy 200 boot disk for it yet... Sigh]]
>
>Hee hee, would startle me to see scribbles on face of the monitors
>because wasn't used to seeing like that. :) Why not take the tube
>out (Gently!) to free that anti-glare mesh and clean up everything
>with strong cleaning alcohol? It will dissolve the wax. What's DVI?

First: The DVI stands for a Disk-Video interface for a Tandy non-MS-DOS
laptop (you know - the good ones! :-) which enables you to use up to 2
40track SSDD floppies storing 184K and the use of a monochrome 80x25
monitor w/VT-100 compatibility. (Don't remember for sure on the VT-100 --
if not, I do know that it's VT-52 compatible because the built-in LCD's are
mostly VT-52 compatible already.)

Second: having been a candlemaker for the last 7 years experience tells me
that most alcohols (including ethanol, methanol, and isopropyl) don't
dissolve wax very well. The only thing I've found to dissolve wax easily is
called Naptha -- one of the main components of dry-cleaning fluid & lighter
fluid (you know, for the Zippos) and can be had at your local hardware
store -- I paid $2.99 for a quart I believe. Also, I've found Amway's LOC
(stands for Liquid Organic Cleaner) cleans up crayons better than most
cleaners, tho it's still not a complete solution for crayons & candles.

The only reason the Apple /// monitor isn't back in tip-top shape yet, is
that I don't have a bootable disk or cable for my DVI to hook to my Tandy
200 -- so at present it's not usable (Tho I still use my 200 all the
time!). When I complete my docking station setup for my laptop, I'll put
some time into the monitor and get 'er working good again.

Oh, and what have I been doing today? I've just refurbished a keyboard on
an old CoCo 1 that I bought at an auction several years ago and haven't had
a chance to get to -- looked like cheese sauce was blurped onto the
keyboard (blech). Also upgraded it from 4K (original) to 64K (yes, both
memory pages work -- the original CoCo1's could only handle 32K without a
few extra wires added.) Reseated all the chips, burned an Extended ROM and
am getting ready to set it up in my bedroom and hook up my Plug-n-Power
controller to it so I can control a lot of stuff around the house (better &
cheaper than IBM's solution!).

Oh, I took pictures during the disassembly and will be scanning them in and
writing an article on CoCo keyboard remanufacture which hopefully will be
posted in 3 areas: my web page, a CoCo/MM1 magazine called _the world of
68' micros_ that Frank Swygert at Farna Systems publishes, and also in the
GCCC (that's Glenside Color Computer Club -- they're still active!)
newsletter.

Oh, and if anyone's interested in an IDE interface for their CoCo, I'd get
a hold of Carl Boll (<root_at_CHICOCO.CHI.IL.US>) real quick -- they have the
prototype working well now and are ready to finalize the OS-9 drivers &
whatnot - then they're ordering the boards made. There will only be one run
of boards, so once they're gone, they're gone. Looks like 125 or so will be
made, but if you contact him soon (and there'll be a $15 deposit per board)
he'll add you in before time runs out.

Well, there's been too many "Oh,"'s already, so I'll end this message
before it becomes a novel. Hope this helps,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger       | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should *not*
zmerch_at_northernway.net  | be your first career choice.
Received on Sun Jan 04 1998 - 16:02:58 GMT

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