[Coco] [Color Computer] X10 driver

[Roger Merchberger]

Rumor has it that Merv Curley may have mentioned these words:

>Nope Gene, it is a RS unit and came with software for a Coco2. There is an AC
>power supply and a 9 V. battery.

For those who've never seen the unit, it does not employ a "wall-wart" - it 
has an internal mains power supply.... which is good. As the X10 signals 
require mains access, I doubt you could get anything X10 to work through a 
wall-wart system. ;-)

The 9V is only used during a power outage to keep the internal Static RAM 
powered so the clock won't lose time or the downloaded config.

>  It connected to the cassette port. There are
>switches for turning on and off 4 - x10 modules.

It would run *many* modules, including dimming commands & whatnot -- but 
yes, it had on/off switches to externally run 4 modules - A1-A4, IIRC.

>   Just how similar the hardware is to a cm-11 I don't know.

Nor do I, so I can't comment here.

>  The Coco had to be left running as I recall.

It did not. You downloaded your config to the unit, then you could use the 
computer for other things - you only needed computer on to update/change 
the unit's configuration.

>   The software was not very impressive, to me anyway.

Well, the unit was much more impressive than the software - RS's idea to 
try to GUI the thing, with one of the lowest resolution semigraphics modes 
was an odd one, and failed miserably. The unit could run many X10 modules, 
and had a few "security" features which were very nice - you could set 
different modules to turn on/off during a random minute of an hour (read: 
"between 7:00 and 7:59 randomly") a function which would've eliminated the 
opening burglary scene in "Home Alone" might've made the entire movie moot.

;-)

A more sensible unit "descriptive database" system would've been much 
easier & more useful, IMHO.

>I also have an earlier model [ 26-1182 ] for the Coco 1 which was described
>in some very early Rainbows. The article described how to send X10 signals
>using assembly language [?].

I would think that the sending/receiving of commands between the "CoCo1" 
and "CoCo2" versions would've changed much, if at all. If you had that 
listing, I'd think there are more people than just me who'd be interested 
in seeing it.

If one had the programming information for the unit (commands, etc.) would 
it not be easy to use the built-in cassette ML 'hooks' to send/receive that 
data to the unit? Just a thought...

Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me
zmerch at 30below.com.         |
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers