[Coco] Bad news, good news...

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,
Electronic experimentation I use to do a lot. Just like many others I
switched to computers and that's why the electronic magazines disappeared
and Radio Shack stopped selling parts. Here in Silicon Valley the surplus
stores have disappeared and the ones that remain no longer stock chips with
legs. Reason: Everything is surface mount and made in China now. It is hard
if not impossible to find most of the things I would need, edge connectors,
switches, caps, pots and resistors to name a few. The best source I have is
Jameco but with everyone going there for parts their supply will dry up
someday. The surplus stores all have web pages now so the benefits of living
here are getting smaller and their stock disappearing. They only buy what
companies bought too much of so there has been a complete change away from
PC boards with holes here.

100 is a big number. I have had that problem for as long as I have lived in
Silicon Valley. I never found a solution. I am glad that someone said
Digi-Key has them. If the exact web page is posted I may place an order with
them as I also need a very special Optical Sensor so I can slow the fan
speed down in my HTPC. (Frequency Doubler)

The 725 is a surface mount device and there is a single sided PC board on
the web that with a few changes would work just fine. I still have the light
that will kill your eyes and some FeCl but my light sensitive chemicals are
all 20 years old and no good. Now I wonder if FeCl and the other chemicals
can even be kept in the home?

So I do not have anything against experimentation, my confusion maybe with
other postings that seem to address different problems just as mine may
have.

As to Firefox, I remember the book(s) and the Clint Eastwood Movie.

The number of people wanting to use a NTSC S-Video TV to display the output
of a CoCo 3 is zero even though the display is really great. My interest in
getting a 725 is for non-CoCo 3 use.

The project could be done by any construction method I suspect for ~ $12
depending on how well stocked your part's supply is. The high end would be
the pre built boards for over $100. With the interest being zero and my own
disappearing when I get a huge and expensive HDTV, I do not see any board or
kit or whatever being done.

Stephen H. Fischer

Roger Merchberger wrote:
> Rumor has it that Stephen H. Fischer may have mentioned these words:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am getting confused as to what the problem is
>
> I'm too stupid, sober & poor. It sucks to be me. ;-)
>
>> or what is trying to be done.
>
> Experimentation at it's finest! What could be wrong with that! ;-)
>
>> The chip that I used to convert the CoCo 3's RGB output to S-Video for my
>> NTSC TV has additional outputs in addition to the luma signal which is
>> part of the S-Video signal set (Chroma & Luma). It may help, It does a
>> great job for me putting the CoCo 3 display on my S-Video TV.
>>
>> http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877,AD723,00.html
>> http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877,AD724,00.html
>> http://www.analog.com/en/prod/0,2877,AD725,00.html
>
> Them thar webbie page thingys you sent over didn't too much care for my
> Firefox browser... It would start loading, then the page would just go
> blank. Odd.
>
> I also noticed that the minimum "standard" order is 100, I don't need 100
> o'them thar critters. I tried to see what just 1 would cost, but they
> wouldn't tell me unless I logged in even tho they said I didn't have to
> log in to use the site. Odd.
>
> Dunno if the site doesn't work well for me because I'm too stupid, sober
> or poor, but it didn't seem to like me one bit. :-/
>
> Are you planning on making this thingamajig a saleable product? If so,
> what'll it cost?
>
> Thanks,
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger