[Coco] usb port on a COCO2 guys seen this guys work

[Francis Swygert]

 On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 05:01:25PM +0000, rietveld rietveld wrote: > https://atariage.com/forums/topic/303537-coco2-usb-port/  Interesting project. 


But the title should be more like "different machine stuffed inside a CoCo case with USB port exposed through the plastic". ;-)  John --  John W. Linville 

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As pointed out, it's NOT an emulator as some first thought, but a keyboard adapter. An RPi3 is a bit overboard to use as a simple interface, but it's still relatively cheap and easy to use. It connects to the keyboard PIA and inputs and receives data from that. No change to the ROM required for keyboard and mouse -- it translates USB keyboard signal to the CoCo keyboard matrix signals and the mouse to up/down arrow input. Rather ingenious! Now to do it with a smaller micro controller or the RPi Zero. 

He states he sometimes uses the card reader... If using the same RPi that would require a machine language program or mod to the ROM... but it's doable, should be even with a RPi Zero...