[Coco] CoCo Ethernet for $25-$30...

[Allen Huffman]

On Apr 8, 2013, at 11:09 AM, Bill <cwgordon at carolina.rr.com> wrote:

> Thank you, Allen. Even though I'm neither a designer, nor a builder, nor
> even a programmer, I am certainly interested in this and the end product. I
> this will be a device that can put our beloved Coco online (if an when I get
> one).

I really like the idea of the CoCo still doing work beyond the interfacing. We already hooked up sound chips, or RS232 bit pushing chips, to augment the stuff the 6809 could do, so something like this seems like a similar concept.

The other extreme is just having a full blown computer hooked up, and letting it do everything. But that's not really doing anything with the CoCo. Because a PC can download a bunch of stuff over the cable modem, then tar it up and upload it to the CoCo via Ultimatum/Supercom, that doesn't mean the CoCo has internet access.

Which brings me to the Raspberry Pi... It's $35, and about the same price as some of these dedicated hardware solutions. It's cheaper today to hook up a micro Linux machine like the Pi to the CoCo and do stuff (audio, graphics, internet) in software than it would be to buy an RS232 pak.

With the Pi, it would be possible to hook one of those up to the CoCo and do just about anything -- the CoCo could send a string to configure it, then one byte command could tell the Pi to go download mail and send it back as a .tar file via xmodem or whatever, already formatted. Graphics could be downsized, etc.. But that's not really having the CoCo "do" anything. 

Yet, it's so tiny, and runs "headless" and doesn't need a PC or anything... That might really be the best thing to hook to a CoCo.

RIght now I am just having more fun with these dedicate interfaces, though. I think it's easier for someone to go to RadioShack, but an Arduino and be using it, than to get a Pi mail ordered and figure out how to get it all set up and going.

Is anyone attempting any Pi/CoCo stuff?

		-- Allen