[Coco] NitrOS-9 newbie needs some help

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/10/04 3:22:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
NickM at qm.qld.gov.au writes:

> I am beginning to feel that a hard drive is a must have to do anything
>  serious with OS-9.

I'd really recommend one, though I did a lot of heavy development work for a 
few years with three floppy drives.  One was a double-sided 80-track, to keep 
the /CMDS directory on.  Two other drivers were handy, so you could assemble 
or compile source code from one drive to object code on a different drive, thus 
reducing head-banging.  Also, if you have 1M or 2M RAM, set up a software 
RAMDisk to use for temporary results.

Since you would probably skip the B&B ST-225 route that I went, and go 
straight to IDE or SCSI, you'd get a tremendous performance boost.  But I gotta tell 
ya, the first day I had my hard drive running, even that "weep-weep" slow 
ST-225, felt like the day I got my first floppy drive and kissed the cassette 
tape goodbye.

>  Is there some sort of bus buffer that would allow me to keep the Multi-crap
>  interface out of site or better still, mount the innards in a box along 
with
>  floppy drives and placed under the monitor (ala TRS-80 model 1 expansion
>  box)?

Several guys have repackaged their systems into a PC box or the like.
 
>  1) I have the Tandy monitor platform and with the multi-crap, I can't slide
>  the CoCo under it to save deskspace.

Really?  I have my monitor sitting on a platform, and the Coco sits under it, 
with the MPI sticking out the right side.  My platform has open sides; maybe 
yours doesn't.  It helps that I remoted my keyboard, using a Puppo PC adapter.

>  2) Because my dual floppy drives are on the right of my monitor and up on
>  the platform, with the floppy cart in I can't access the drives without
>  bumping the controller.

Say, just how close are your floppy drives to that monitor?  And the drive 
ribbon cable?  The magnetic fields from the monitor's deflection coils will hose 
the crap out of your floppy operations if they get too close.

>  3) It makes the CoCo3 look very much like a prototype and incomplete
>  computer (still under development). Everyone who sees it laughs.

Find some photos of a fully expanded TI-9900 or PC-Jr and tape them to your 
wall, if you want laughs.  Not that the Coco/MPI combo is any neater, but...

>  4) It gets in the way while I'm typing, I keep bumping the carts with my
>  right hand.

You typing in Italian (lots of hand waving), or flies and mosquitoes in your 
room?  Seriously, remoting the keyboard will help.
  
>  5) It blew my 6809 a few years back so now I don't trust it.

If you jiggled it with the power on either unit, this could happen, but so 
could messing with any Pak with the juice on.  Again, a remote keyboard will 
take a lot of the vibration away from the Coco and reduce problems with the 
contacts.
--Mike K.