News: Cloud-9 Updated

Cloud-9 is now accepting orders for in-stock items only. They have been for awhile, but I got a couple of emails asking how I got stuff from Cloud-9. Well, there ya go. :) The front web page explains what's available, which at the time of this writing, is just about everything. Limited availability, of course. Get it while it's hot.

Angel's Luck,
Capt

powered by performancing firefox

Comment: Still Pimpin' the CoCo and other fun stuff

Posting became a pain over the last few weeks as work intensified. So CoCo time was spent actually with the CoCo instead of writing about the CoCo. :) Even then, there was precious little.

I also switched to Performancing blog add-on for Firefox for creating blog entries. This little tools has tracking metric, so that I can see how many people are visiting the blogs, what day they're visiting most and if they're looking at posts and/or posting. Much nicer. It's also open right there in the browser, so I can browse and type at the same time. Unfortunately, it also has a few foibles, like no safety saves and such. (Says it does, but if it does, there's no way to recover the save.)

There hasn't been a whole lot of news to post. At least, not news that's been emailed to me. I haven't made the rounds myself in a couple of weeks. I've also started using Thunderbird, the Mozilla email reader. It has adaptive email filters and spam catchers that I haven't fully trained yet, so if anyone has sent email and not gotten a response, please post here and let me know! I'll add your email address and make sure they'll get through.

On to the CoCo projects...

I really wanna do a holiday CoCo program, but can't come up with something I could do quick enough. Arg! I'll keep working on it, but would love to hear if anyone else is doing, or has done, something. Here's the ones I've considered:

A Christmas present version of "Bejeweled." Fun!
Something to do with putting ornaments on a tree. Not sure on that one.
A Christmas Wargame. No seriously. :)

I got a nice little order from Cloud-9 including a 512K memory upgrade and a Drivewire package. Can't wait to try 'em. But I'm going to be patient. I am. No, really. So, after the holidays I'll hook 'em up and give a full report. Until then I shall resist the urge...

The CoCo mod project has only made marginal progress. Every time I get one thing done, two other things pop up that require a different direction. Heh. That's the fun part of working without instructions, though. And the experience is providing loads of practical experience, from knowing the CoCo's board way more thoroughly to the constraints and considerations of modifying and adding to the case.

For example, inside the top of the CoCo's case are all these molded plastic supports and guides. Half of them don't really serve any purpose. I'll detail these in more detail some other time, but needless to say, whacking 'em out of there is quite entertaining. Had to make some room and, with the help of Mr. Dremel make room I did.

Another consideration... I decided to switch to SIMMs for the memory, using the Cloud-9 upgrade, instead of using the old PBJ upgrade I had. The latter makes the machine run incredibly hot. I figured the lower temp SIMMs with the 6309 would make it run cool enough to live without a fan, right?

Well, great in theory. However, the Cloud-9 512K upgrade is oriented vertically. The PBJ upgrade is oriented horizontally. The Cloud-9 product blocks where the light bar goes. Never occurred to me that such a thing would be an issue until I'd already installed the lights and THEN purchased the memory upgrade. So I would either have to go sans light bar, or sans memory. Since I'd already made the modifications to add the light bar (and it looks freakin' SWEEEET!), it's back to the flat PBJ upgrade and a fan.

In addition, the SIMMs stick up and basically cut the CoCo in half and restrict the airflow through the case, particularly if you wish to add the fan on the left side of the case (where the power transformer was). So at least two fans are required to cool the case properly, one on the left side and one vent fan on top or out the back (30-40mm fans fit great, by the way). Which was the original design, but I'd already started mod'ing sans fans.

Another misstep example: I bought an old 220W AT/XT supply because it a) had the voltage labels on it (the modern 350W one doesn't and let's face it, me guessing at which wire does what is a BAD idea) and b) had more of the types of molex connectors I could use. Also, the instructions I have were written for this type of PS. Well, great, but the fan I ordered has the PC motherboard power connector, not the older molex connector. So... I either needs to clip that off and add a molex connector (which I'll have to order), or use a fan plug conversion kit (which I would also have to order). I have to order some molex connector supplies anyhow. And the fun continues...

So now we've got a really hot CoCo and the older memory module that we're going to cool with a single intake fan and the original vents. On the plus side, the SIMM upgrade can pop into my current working CoCo (which is still at 128K) and I can start enjoying the benefits right away. Waa hoo!)

Now some folks reading this may think this is more of a pain is ass than is worth it. But honestly, this is the fun part. After it's built, painted, pimped up and running well with matching drives, MPI and flat panel... well... I'll probably stare at it a few days, take some pictures, and then sell it on eBay to get money for the next project. heh :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

powered by performancing firefox

Comment: Fun stuff and a test

I ordered up all sorts of stuff for the CoCo that I probably shouldn't have ordered, so hopefully the Pimp My CoCo project will get some progress here shortly. Waa Hoo! This post, though, is really just a test of PerFormancing blog add-on for Firefox. This might make doing CoCo Collector stuff easier as well. :) So far so cool! (Did I mention how much I love the new Firefox. Oh, well, I do.)



Angel's Luck,

Capt

powered by performancing firefox

Comment: Late Night Bits

Nothing too much CoCoish to report, but felt the need to post something. Actually, I'm having so much fun with the Firefox 2.0 that I've been on the web all night playing with it. I've changed themes about 10 times. And my bookmarks file has doubled in size (have to trim that down... I hate big bookmark files). If you haven't yet (and most of you haven't... remember I can see your browser... bwahahaha!), pop over there and give it a try: www.mozilla.org. I didn't get into the browser wars back in the 90s, and I ain't doin' it now. I'm just saying that Firefox is a supremely sublime browsing experience. Two enthusiastic thumbs up! Fine holiday fun!

As mentioned previously, Mary has posted the newest CoCo Nutz! E-Zine over at coco3.com. If you haven't already, hop on over and get it. Loads of fun! There's also some chatter on the CoCoNutz! message board about doing a holiday issue. What's needed is stuff to put in it! I'm thinking the least everyone could do would be submit one of those old style CoCo screen greetings cards. You know, that displays a holiday scene/message or animation in BASIC with a little cheery tune, or something. Make it an informal (gentleman/lady's) contest to see who can come up with the best one. :)

Of course, there's plenty of time to whip up some mini-games, write review, or do a quick tech article on a particular CoCo subject. What a perfect gift to give to your fellow CoCoists! And it's cheap, too! :)

Speaking of perfect gifts... heh... I also updated the stuff in the CoCo Hut Gift Shop. After several requests, I've done a CoCo Man t-shirt design. It's available in the good cheap seat T-shirt, hooded sweat shirt, and several other apparel items. It's basic and the image is as big as CafePress will allow. Also, by request, I used the CoCo 3 red, green, blue "slashes" instead of the dashes from the CoCo 1/2. The other item is the "Official CoCo Hut Logo Wear" design. It's available on the organic T-shirt, the Women's Tank, and a mouse pad. Fun stuff. Additional items are coming. The proceeds (about a dollar or two per item) go to paying the website bill.

One of the items I'd like to do, but have yet to pull off, is a 2007 CoCo calendar. I'm just not much of a photographer. I've got a couple of nice shots, but the rest have been crap. I want it to be big, full bleed images of CoCo's (and CoCo stuff) in seasonal, or relevant, settings. Kind of a CoCo pin-up calendar. :) So, now I'm going to solicit images from folks. If you have, or can take, some cool CoCo pictures, send 'em along. I can't promise to use all of 'em, but I'll try to use the one's that fit best. (And we'll probably find a use for any others, as well.) Images should be as big as possible. The calendar page is 9x11.5 inches, or 1800x2300 pixels, at 200dpi. Upgrading images smaller than that is dicey, but I can always add a border if that's too big. That size, or larger, is ideal though. If you'd like to send something, email 'em this way (captcpu@clubltdstudios.com). Can't pay for 'em, but I'll stick a credit in there for ya and get you a calendar at the shopkeeper's price. :)

Let's see, what else... I added and activated the Atom feeds for readers capable of using that format. Firefox can read these easily by default and can subscribe via several readers. I've never had much luck with RSS or Atom feeds from Blogger. They never update frequently enough. But if you're inclined, there it is. :)

CoCo projects continue to plod along. Finished up a cute mini-game for Halloween and then realized I couldn't get it out of my CoCo and into the PC without retyping the whole damn thing in again. Sheesh! So, first, I popped open the PC, ready to install a 5 1/4" drive in it. Then realized I didn't have the right cable. Then realized I forgot to order the right plugs, so I couldn't make a cable. Dammit. So then I broke down and ordered a DriveWire from Cloud 9. That should fix it up. So, hopefully, I'll be able to port CoCo stuff over to the PC soon. Hooray for our side!

Anyhow, still trying to dream up a good mini-game for the holiday season. I'll sit down this weekend and start pounding away at it. I love, and encourage everyone, to do that. I know it's frowned upon in serious programing circles, but constructing a program (or one liner, or anything else) right out of your head is a blast. And ECB let's you do it, no questions asked, and as dirt simple as possible. No you're probably not going to write brilliant code. And yes, it could probably come out a lot better with thorough planing. But what fun would that be? :D

The CoCo mod project is coming along. Finally ordered up the lights. Also acquiring a different power supply, an older 200W AT/XT style that doesn't have a bunch of crap on it that I don't need. Should make that bit a little easier. I also ordered up a 512K SIM upgrade from Cloud-9. I figured since I was ordering anyway, might as well. Haven't heard back yet if they are in stock, so keep your fingers crossed. (If not, I'll stick with PBJ 512K I already have.) Ran out of paint while doing the keyboard, so I have to get some more, and a color print cartridge for the ol' inkjet for making decals. I can buy a new freakin' printer for the cost of the cartridges, though! Geez! Is that a great scam or what?

On the collector side of things, I've been pretty sedate lately. Several huge items I had to let go due to finances. But... then Tony put up that Microneye and, well, how am I suppose to resist something like that? eh? Well, I can't, that's how. Some people's children, eh? :) (By the way, Tony is still posting some of his super rare stuff in the TRS-80 listings... jump on there and get 'em. eBay id: sharkonwheels.) I'm hoping we'll see some really great stuff posted. Now that I can buy again, I plan to go in swinging! Hope y'all will join the fun!

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

News: New CoCo Nutz! E-Zine Available

Editor and super CoCoist Mary Kramer has released Volume 2, Issue 3 of the CoCo Nutz! E-Zine, now available at:

http://www.coco3.com/ind_coconutz.php


This issue includes interviews with Brian Palmer (none other than Briza!), and David Dubowski of Classic Computing fame. The interview with Brian is a great look at the Aussie CoCo scene and some insight into the miriad of projects he has going on. His archiving of CoCo software alone probably qualifies him as the hardest working man in CoCo-land. :) David's interview takes us back to the 80s and the beginning of the CoCo boom and the heyday of The Rainbow, and what it was like to produce software back then. And I promise I'll get his amazing voice sythesizer program, Speak Up!, up and available for download ASAP. ;)

Also included is a facinating article on floating point numbers and the madlebrot set by CoCo guru Robert Gault, a flashback report on the last CoCoFest by Richard Crislip, a neat tic-tac-toe program in BASIC by Dale Kramer (former editor of CoCo Friends Disk Magazine and Mary's father), another great BASIC09 tutorial by Bob Devries, another swipe at David Kelly's Wipeout technique by Mark McDougall, and topped off with a handy backup utility for the 512K CoCo 3 by Robert Gault and ... whew... it's a heck of an issue! Throw in some one liners, pictures (there's one of Briza kicking back on the porch... hey, save a spot for me amigo!), and screen shots and this E-Zine just keeps getting better and better!

Kudos to Mary and all the contributors for another great issue. And anyone reading this, get working on stuff for the holiday issue.... it's a short deadline, so hop to it! :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Pimp My CoCo: Horray! A little progress...

Finally got an hour or so to work on the CoCo again. Hooray for our side. So, since it's been going slow, figured I'd post an update. Sorry, no blood, gore, or burned body parts this time. I'll try harder... :P

(Click 'em for the bigguns)

Okay, after a bit of clean up, here's what we've got so far. Top half of the case is about done. Just needs some sanding (see below) a good scrubbing and paint. The keyboard was pretty easy and looks downright wicked. Solid black. Real men don't need letters on their keys. Grunt, grunt, grunt. heh... Actually, at some point we'll do decals on them. Probably a dark, hard to see grey. Yeah.

Still studying on the power suppply. No idea how this is going to work. The one sitting there I got on sale at newegg.com and it doesn't have one of those little switches on the back. Not sure how that works. I'm assuming I'll have to locate the lines that hook up to the power button (via the mainboard) on a PC and wire a switch to it. I do have this cool retro metal SPST flip switch that would go nicely. Still, my track record with eletricity, particularly anything that plugs into the wall, is spotty... at best.

The mainboard will be different one than the one I'm working on. I figure I'll have another go at socketing it for upgrade at some point, but for now, I really want to get the machine up and running with all the goodies installed.

The fan is out, for the moment, but it IS going in. A single fan relocated to the left hand side and blowing across the board. Since I've run out of time for the top windows, I'll just leave the grill. I still have another case, so we'll do the big top fan on that one in the Spring. All ready dreaming the paint scheme for that one (two tone, this time) but... let's not get ahead of ourselves... any further ahead, that is.

There's a shot of "casebadge" window, by the way. I still haven't figured out how to put the plexiglass in there without making a mess with glue, but I've got a couple of ideas. Directly beneath that will be a wave light bar in green. Makes it look like some evil green liquid is running through the case (I've used the blue and red versions before on PCs and they're freakin' awesome). Plus a couple of other surprises to make up for dropping a few of the other original plans. ;)

This is the best shot I could get of the keyboard. Heavily edited, but that's pretty close to what it looks like. Though not quite as shiney under normal lighting. Have to note that when I take pictures of the finished machine. No flash. Use big lights.

I really like the way this one is shaping up. True it may be Spring before it's completely finished, though part of that is fundage. Something about buying gifts for the holiday, or something. Sheesh! What greater gift could there be than a hot new CoCo! Kids love 'em! Sorta....

Okay, so tips. One, as the thermometer shows, it's getting pretty darn close to the cutoff point for model work in the outside lab. Paint and glue start getting freaky at about 60F and worthless below 50F. That's the high today, though this week we're s'pose to stay right around there, so I'll be craming in as much as I can.

The Krylon Fusion paint, at this temp (and negligible humidity), took about an hour to set up. That's opposed to 15 minutes normally. Milliput is also acting much slower, though when filling those holes I gouged in the case, I did place it under a lamp to speed it up a bit. I know I go on about temperature and humidity a lot, but... well, I paint a lot. A clean spot and the right weather is pretty much essential for a perfect paint job.

Also, get some of those smaller, but really deep, C-clamps and a nice 12" metal straight edge. The clamp heads shouldn't be more than 3/8ths, with a jam opening at least 2" and about 2"-3" depth. I cut the hole a little bit bigger than the original case badge, at 5"x1/2". Some of the oversized sanding pads for the Dremel tool are handy, too, which makes it easier to get in there (without routing holes in the case by accident like I did). The case is 1/8th of an inch thick. The CoCo 3's front is curved and clamping a straightedge on to sand in a straight line is a bitch. The right clamps will make it much easier.

While I'm at it, thought I'd take a mini-tour of the lab. Well, not so much because it's a mess, but...

Every Spring I clean this thing out and it's spotless and beautifully organized. And by fall there's crap all over the place. Looks like day five of a geek convention (but not as smelly, thank God). So I tried to clean up a bit today, but didn't get too far.

Good power is essential, but household power is just so-so. Actually, where I live, it's been rock solid. No brownouts and only a couple of blackouts during really bad storms. And then only for a couple of minutes. This box is a deluxe industrial breaker that'll stop just about anything. I hate it when things catch on fire, so best to get the best. :D I find all sorts of crap when I'm out and about and it kind of accumulates on the walls. Hmmm... looking at the picture, I forgot to reset that one for the end of daylight savings. Doah. The plaque was given to me by my grandmother, I didn't buy that myself. Sheesh.

Ah, the Evil Lab Men's Room. (Side door to the garage.) Hey, when you gotta go...

The sign I picked up in New Orleans awhile back. Never hurts to warn visitors of the perils they may face.

Recent aquisitions include a giant pirate flag and a Pirates of the Carribean display from the store. Have to hang those soon.


Big pile o' CoCos. There's an Atari 800XL in there as well. Good machine. It's no CoCo, mind you, but some cool games for it. And no, none of the collectible stuff is in this pile. Collectible stuff goes in big rubber bins and is stored indoors. :)

Let's see, there's a busted grey multipak. That 26-3022 disk drive doesn't seem to want to spin up. Ah, and the Tano Dragon is in there. No power supply for it, though, so I've never even fired it up. Have to figure that out at some point.




Part of the model/miniature work shop. What a mess. The B-17 model (The Bit O' Lace) goes in the bottom of a PC case I'm working on. Seriously. A whole B-17 theme going on that one, including a round see-through panel on one side and a big nose art pin-up on the other. Should be fun looking when it's done.

All those paints have to go inside before winter. And I see a nice batch of Games Workshop Space Marines that need finishing off. That vice in the center, by the way, is the ingenius and can't-live-without Panavise. For working on just about anything fairly small. Holds miniatures, models and circuit boards, and you can twist and turn it to any position. Literally. Truely one of the most necessary tools I have.

I'll take a bigger shot of the lab and a better tour in the spring when it's actually presentable. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Comment: Halloween Vacation

Work. Work. Work.

All work and no CoCo makes Capt. a dull boy.

Ahhh. Vacation.


CoCo fun commences tomorrow. :) Until then...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Comment: CoCoing and Sleeping

Well, I said I was going to post the rest of that last post "next week" and still haven't gotten more than 20 minutes, in ten minute intervals, with that case. And all the while the temperature here in Okie-land is dropping daily, and the External Evil Lab (Bay 16-A-441) isn't heated. So may have to cut back the ambitions. The goal at this point is to

1. Mod the CoCo board (the other one) to the PC power supply. Not sure if I can pull this off, but I'm told it's fairly straight foward.

2. Get the light kit installed.

3. Finish the case, or at least what can be done in time.

That means I might have to drop immediate plans to upgrade the processor and install fans. Which is no real problem since that can be done in the Evil Lab Internal Division (Suite 44A). So we're good. The hold up at the moment is fundage to aquire the light kit and fans. Two more weeks... just two more weeks. :) The real challange comes from the timing on the case. If the temperature drops below 60F for the season, it's bye bye to the painting. (Acutally, you can paint down to 50F but it sucks, takes forever, and the colder it is, the dicer the results.) So, the top of the case must be painted, regardless of where the mods are, by that time.

I've got the first cut out just about done. I bit more light sanding and some filler bits and it'll be complete. Kind of a perfectionist on that sort of thing. Seriously, if I could get a whole afternoon on it, it'd be done. Anyone got one? :P

What else... Ah, been searching for one liners for the Mary's newsletter which inspired me to sit and try my hand at some of my own. Very BASIC stuff. Silly really, but it's an interesting mental excercise trying to get it to work right.

Also played with POKE 282, which will inverse the video, like hitting SHIFT-0. Okay, cool... but, um, why? Well, I sorta found a use for it, but what it really led to was an inverse video input routine for accepting program input when you want a black background. The default INPUT command, of course, makes a green background mess all over the place. Still some work and error catching to do on it, and it doesn't backspace yet, but it might come in handy at some point.

Which brings us back to POKE 282 (0 for regular video, 1 for inverse). There might not be any use for it. But screwing around with something long enough often leads to something else, which DOES turn out to be useful. I recommend sitting down and whacking away at something assinine on your CoCo as often as you can. It's good for you. :)

Now I've got to go get some of the sleep stuff. Someone needs to up the supply of that as well.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Pimp My CoCo: Let's Make A Mess!

I really hoped to finish up on this today, but I ended up having to work. Hell month. Sucks. If there are any booksellers out there that need a job, give me a hollar. ;) Anyhow, I'll post this part of it now, and the second part next week when I get a chance to finish up this phase.

First, that paint I mentioned before, Krylon Fusion, rocks. It rocks hard. Serious rockage. Here's a picture (forgot to take more of the finished job, but plenty coming soon enough) of one coat on the bottom of the case as a test. Note that I didn't put in a lot of effort to clean up the bottom of the case. Just peeled the stickers off, and scrubbed it down. Not gonna look at the bottom much anyway. heh... More care will be required for the top.

Anyhow, the paint coats quickly and really does bond with plastic. No primer requried! Very swooth and very sweet. If you enlarge this picture and look close, you can make out the RGB connector label, which is molded into the case, clear as day. After three coats and a little drying time, it really looks like it was molded in black plastic originally. Coolness. :) I'll go over painting techniques in a future post when we do the top, but if you've ever used spray paint, you're good. Really doesn't get any easier than this and it's WAY cheaper than auto body paint, but WAY nicer than standard spray on paints.

Making a mess is one of the fun parts of building something, and cutting and modifying plastic always makes a nice mess! :) The plastic in the CoCo's case isn't terribly thick, but it's too thick to cut with your average hobby knife. Actually, you can but it makes an even bigger mess and it'll take forever. And since we're all about More Power, let's see what happens when we attack it with a Demel Tool! Bwahahha!

We'll be using a standard cut off wheel, and I recommend the lowest speed setting on the tool. It jumps like a mother. As always, use all manufactuer recommended safetry procautions and equipment, particularly protective eyewear. Hot plastic in the eye is one injury even I won't hazard. ;)

Sure enough, makes a HELLUVA mess. That garbage shred on top is actually melted plastic. Apparently taking a cutting wheel spinning at 10,000 rpm to your CoCo case will do that. Go figure. :) Okay, seriously, this is a good thing. That the plastic melts when heated means it can easily be molded, cut and shaped. It would be a Bad Thing if it was more heat resistant.

You'll also notice the dimple I cut below the faceplate area. That's from the Dremel shaft where I tried to angle in to get more material. Stupid of me. So that'll have to be filled in. Drat. For the next cuts I'll be using the Flex shaft attachment, or might even try to clamp it down and use the router attachment and a router bit, which would increase accuracy quite a bit.

Should you try to do this, to save you a bit of experimenting, here's what I learned in about 4 seconds after starting. heh. Frist, you can't cut cross ways in a line. The melting plastic starts to cool and the wheel starts to bind, which causes the tool to skip and jump like Starbuck's junkie on free sample day. Just lay the wheel on the area to cut and let it go straight down (it'll go by itself, don't press!). Lift and repeat. Then, trim off the shredded bits with a hobby knife. To remove the rest of the material (the vertical cuts are too narrow in this case), use the Dremel tool to nibble it away bit by bit. Leave a small amount of material around the cut out area. Don't cut completely to where you want to go. Then use a micro file or sanding wheel to take it down to where you want. You'll get smoother results and will require less of what's next.

Of course, even the Dremel tool isn't going to be highly accurate. You can cut thicker plastics with special knives and tools, but not having any we'll use what we've got. So, next we have to use a filler on the edges of the cut and then sand it down to be nice, neat and straight. I chose Milliput (Standard grain) modeling putty from the U.K. This stuff is easy to mold and shape when wet, but sets up to the hardness of stone. Good strong stuff. More important, it sands easily with a simple flat microfile. It's also designed to use with plastic, so it sticks and you can glue stuff to it with model glues and apoxies.

This is the messy part. Milliput is pretty messy. Get's all over when wet. This picture shows where I've backfilled the cut out area. We want to use more than is necessary, a lot more. We're going to file off most of it, becuase the cut is not terribly smooth and all whacky off kilter. When we sand down the Mulliput, it will form a perfectly smooth and level edge. Promise. :)



Working with Milliput isn't tricky once you know how it's going to act. It dries in phases, and what you do during those phases is important. When you first mix it (it's a two part mix) it's pliable and sticky. This is great for getting it to stay put in places where some putties might fall out or drip. In this phase, you can also wet it with a little water and smooth it with your finger or sculpting tool. This second picture shows the mulliput smoothed a little bit. My sculpting set it just a set of dental tools. The standard dental set has all the miniature sculpting tools you'll need and is relatively inexpensive.

In the second phase, after about 30 minutes (depends on temprature, but you can tell by poking it with your finger) it turns soft and rubbery. Kind of like taffy. It can now be cut with a hobby knife or razor for trimming off excess. You can also use a pick or sculting tool to poke holes or etch grooves in it.

The third phase, after about a day, the stuff turns pretty hard. About like porcelin. This is the time to sand it down if there's any light sanding to do. If you're dealing with a large piece, it can also be scored and broken at this point. You can do low impact/speed micro drilling in this phase as well.

Finally, after about three to seven days (again, depends on humidity and temperture), Mulliput turns rock hard. Once it's set up this hard, you can cut it with a cut off wheel or saw, and do heavy duty sanding on it. After a week or so, it's like working with stone. You can accelerate to all of these phases by heating it with a lamp or other moderate heat source.

This final picture shows some of the tools used. In model making, this is what we call the "Ass Point." The point where the thing just looks like complete ass. This is where a lot of people give up because it's hard to see the finished project through the huge messy crap we've just spent a couple of hours making. No worries. Having been here many times before (some days I live in the ass point), I swere it'll work out. ;) When it's done, it'll look like it came from the factory that way. In the next step we'll attach a straght-edge to the case and position it as a fence to sand a nice straight and smooth edge around the cut out. We'll be using a micro file to sand down the edge by hand. More work, but a much nicer result.

When I cut the "big" windows, I'm going to try to get a finished cut right from the start. Haven't figured out how to do that yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Also need an easier way to make smaller cuts in the case. I'm thinking the plunge router attachment on the Dremel tool and possibly a template is the best way, so we'll try that next. One of the points of this excercise it to experiment with techniques, and it certainly appears some experimentation is going to be required.

I did change the cut out design after I settled on a light kit. The light kit has a groovy green bar that'll fit under the CoCo 3 case badge that I've cut out. Since the power supply will be externalized, all the converters and other bits to power the lights (and anything else we can cram in there) will fit nicely in the power transformer's old spot. I can't promise I can afford it, but I'm going to see about getting the entire face plate copied to an etching for the plexiglass insert that will go in there. Would be very cool, but potentially cost prohibitive. We'll see.

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Pimp My CoCo: Death of a 6809, A New Paint, and Look Design

October is a tough month in the book business (my regular line of work), mainly because there's a lot of holiday prep, no workers, and everyone has to scramble to take vacation at the last minute before the blackout cut off. Fun. So, working on the CoCo is tough, but at least I get a little vacation in November to finish everything off and get it up and running. :)

In the meantime, I did manage to get a little planning done. Digital cameras and photoshop have made building much easier. Sure you can still detail diagram out modifications and designs, and for intricate or complex stuff that's definately the way to go. On the other hand, if you just plan to slap on some paint and cut a few holes, crude overlays in Photoshop work great. This is the initial plan for cutting up the CoCo case.

Two small rectanglular windows on top will bookend an outtake fan in the center. This fan will blow straight up, pulling air out. The second fan will go on the left and be an intake. Cool air in, hot air out This is probably a lot more than is necessary, but I decided not to cut vent holes into the windows (for now), so an outtake fan is a good idea. Plus it'll look cool. :)

The CoCo 3's case is beveled at the top, limiting the window space. We should still get a decent look at the board, but not nearly as much as I'd like. While the flexible plexi I'll be using could be forced into a concave shape, it'd be a bitch to anchor. So for this first time out with the CoCo case, I'll be keeping it to simple flat, square windows. On Random Rodder's suggestion, I'll be gluing the windows into place, thus we won't have any edging eating up viewable room. The thin plastics we'll be working with here make that pretty easy. Haven't decided on the glue/epoxy mix yet.

More than likely, I'll use a single cold cathode light bar instead of an LED array to light the interior. Even with the small windows, it should "glow" nicely. The three slashes are a bit trickier. Cutting them into the CoCo's case may be difficult if I keep them the same size as they were originally on the case badge. Too thick to do accurately with a hobby knife, too small to take a dremel to. Burning them out with a heat knife would work, but would be messy and difficult to control. On the other hand, nothing says I can't make 'em bigger. Those will light up with red, green and blue LEDs on a small PCB and be sperated with dividers glued to the underside of the case. (By the way, blue LEDs are freakin' expensive!)

The decal is obviously just a place holder, but something like that. Easily done on an inkjet with Photoshop and some decal paper.

I've been looking forward to trying this new paint from Krylon called Fusion but haven't had an opportunity. Well, I'd planned to use autobody touch up paint, but for about $5.00 this is worth a try and considerably cheaper. I love experimenting with new materials and stuff. :) They also have a new H2O brand of acrylic spray on paint. My prefered medium by far. Acrylic is smooth and super tough when dry. For the CoCo's case, though, we'll try the Fusion because it is suppose to bond with the plastic, making it tough and smooth. We'll see, but can't wait to have a go. I chose black satin for the case. The key's will be the same, but will require several top coats after the decals are applied. Painting and putting itty-bitty decals on all the keys should be challenging. (Behind there you can see the plexi I'll be using for the windows and off to the left, nestled in the case is the PBJ 512K upgrade. If I switch boards I'll have to figure out how to do this upgrade to the new one. Yipes!)

Here's a picture of the 6809 socket. No chip to go in it yet, but soon we'll be able to wire it up and give it a try it. Should look pretty funky with all the wires coming out of it from where I burned the pads off the board. Assuming I get it to work, of course. If not, we'll swap in another board I have and go with the nice, reliable soldered 6809 instead.

Looking at this picture, I also need to get a mat to put down on the work bench. Nice piece of static free carpet or one of those fancy electronics mats or something. Hmmmm.... should have thought of that already.

And sadly, here's a close up of the mangled 68B09EP. Sigh. Poor guy. Tried to save him, but ended up having to cut it out of there. He's been sitting there quietly doing the job for probably close to 20 years and then some bungling dumbass comes along and rips his brains out. Sheesh. We'll save him for posterity, of course. :)

So, next week I'll try to get the templates done and then start chopping up and preping the case. Also need to locate and decide which fans I'll be using. Something already wired and ready to roll from a PC supply would be nice, but Radio Shack does sell these small fans that would work nicely and be much smaller. It'll be slow going over the next two weeks, but once it's preped up, the rest of the case work should be doable in an afternoon. Of course, with the way I hit SNAFUs, I wouldn't count on it. :)

Angel's Luck,
Cris

PS If anyone gets a chance, take a look at this drive and let me know if there's anything more I need to do to it (it's a 1024x768 picture). Briza mentioned a terminator chip, but I don't see anything here that indicates such a beast. This is the top drive, Drive 1 in a two drive system. Many thanks.