[Coco] Cartridge extension ribbon.

[Mark J. Blair]

> On Aug 20, 2015, at 14:23 , Michael Brant <brant.michael.l at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have a ribbon for extended the cartridge slot.  My MPI plugged
> in on my desk makes it very crowded and was looking for other options.
> Ideas for making one?  Length limits ?

On the topic of bus extension ribbons, I've always been curious about the narrow slot on the bottom rear edge of standard Program Pak plastic cases. It appears to be sized just right for a ribbon cable to pass through.

Have any of y'all ever seen that slot used in any products?

For a reliable bus extension ribbon, I think that it would be desirable to pass through the grounding clips on both sides of the CoCo's cartridge slot with low-inductance (i.e., wide!) conductors to the remote connection. The edge connector itself is light on ground pins, and that'll be an even worse problem with a longer bus length. I seem to recall that home-made "Y" cables commonly did without the extra grounding connections back in the day, but I don't know how reliable they were.

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/