[Coco] Generic Hardware Pak

[RETRO Innovations]

On 3/14/2018 7:50 AM, Allen Huffman wrote:
> I'm not saying I am working on this, but...
>
> If someone were to bring out a generic hardware cartridge that had software-selectable addressing, and had some simple coprocessor like an Arduino AVR or PIC chip, and a connector that ran out TTL level UART signals, I2C, and SPI...
>
> ...a to of dirt cheap off-the-shelf modules could be hooked to it. There are real time clocks, RS232 interfaces, cameras, sound modules, etc. There are also a bunch of chips that could be put on custom circuit board modules that could be plugged in, with these modules costing a fraction of the cost of building a whole cartridge.
>
> But the main thing is it would let someone like me, who has no skills to design a CoCo cartridge, be able to easily wire up add-on modules.
>
> http://subethasoftware.com/2018/03/06/proposing-preciouspak-the-one-pak-to-rule-them-all/
>
> Maybe some day...
>
I have implemented such an interface called CocoDuino, which was shown 
at the 2017 CocoFEST.  It offers direct SPI and IO capabilities and can 
also be used with an Arduino to provide all AVR functionality.  Initial 
test users have requested some enhanced interrupt capability, which I am 
working to implement at this time.

Jim



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