[Coco] Re: Color Computer 3 prototype

[farna at att.net]

Allen, you working for MicroWare again??? That's a great find, the proto CoCo3!! I'm glad they let you have it (okay, I'm assuming). Hopefully the GIME can be decoded from it. That's the biggest thing preventing any kind of update, as you well know! 

When you get a chance to take some hi-res photos, do so. If you took enough to make a composite "big picture" of the board that would be great. It should be possible to lay a grid over the board, maybe using string (yarn?) or pinstripe tape. Grid it on top and bottom, label or color code the grid, then take hi-res pics of both sides that can be coordinated with each other. Maybe six photos for each side. A close-up lens would be nice, don't know of a digital camera version though (well, maybe the real expensive pro models). Anyway, with such photos the sections can be divided up and a schematic drawn. Then someone could take the section schematic sketches and arrive at a total. There will be some wires that go off the board, but they can be labled "yellow wire to section x" or something similar. Would speed up the process and spread the work out. I'm not really capable, or would volunteer some time even though I haven't touched a CoCo in years (8 or more)! There would still be some testing of the board once the full schematic is done (or even with the sketches) and some corrections from discoveries, but the idea sounds feasible, yes??? 

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