[Coco] CoCoUSB

[Neil Cherry]

On 04/21/2018 12:47 AM, RETRO Innovations wrote:
> On 4/20/2018 9:58 AM, Allen Huffman wrote:
>> Is there any interest in a CoCoUSB interface?
> I've had interest for a long time, but have resisted it because there are lots of people 
> who will assume that a USB port will accept any USB device and will publicly lament the 
> inability to do so if the device seems "close enough" to a device the unit was designed to 
> support.
>>
>> It would be easy to add support to iItrOS-9, but RS-DOS would require patching (and as 
>> we know, any time you patch BASIC, you break things, since many programs go out and read 
>> hardware directly rather than using ROM calls). Think of it like the hard drive BASICs — 
>> you can make simple basic disk I/O work, but much assembly stuff wouldn’t work with it.
> I think a better solution is to make the USB device act like their native counterparts.
> 
>   * USB KB, emulate the native KB capability
>   * USB Mouse: emulate the native joystick capability
>   * USB Printer: Expose as native serial port connection
>   * USB serial device: RS232
>   * etc.
> 
>>
>> However, dedicated “USB joystick to CoC joystick port” and “USB keyboard to CoCo 
>> keyboard connector” boards could be done to embed inside the CoCo, which would be 100% 
>> compatible.
> The problem is that your Coco starts to look like a mess with all of the little boards 
> connected everywhere, and it may require socketing some ICs in order to use certain adapters.
> 
> However, I *think* there is a way to support the USB solutions without needing to 
> physically connect to the devices in question (mouse, KB, etc.).  I have the beginnings of 
> a design, but need more time to prove it out.

Folks, with the exception of the mouse and keyboard, this is what a Raspberry
Pi Zero W is for. I use it on my Atari 800's. Yes it's overkill but for about
$20 I've got a device that attaches to the serial bus of the Atari and provides
drive emulation, network access, RS232, modem and printer.

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry at linuxha.com
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
Author of:    	Linux Smart Homes For Dummies