[Coco] CocoPi3 Update

John Guin johnguin at hotmail.com
Wed May 3 09:58:57 EDT 2017


Basically.  It also includes some custom hardware to manage power (to charge the battery in the case) and some custom video connectors to the included screen.

The screen runs at 1024x768.  I have a pi-top at home and can check later to see if that can be changed if you bypass that custom video hardware.

While it would be fun to get this working on a pi-top, I don't think it would be useful (well, as useful as a 30+ year old emulated computer laptop would be :)  ).  The keyboard is tiny - think close to the MC10 keyboard - and not useful for typing at all.  If there is an open sourced laptop case for the pi that holds a decent keyboard that would be better suited to the task than the pi-top.

And let me add a +1 to thanking Ron for taking on all this work!

 John Guin


-----Original Message-----
From: Coco [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Rob Rosenbrock
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 6:32 AM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update

If I understand your question, the pi-top is just an enclosure that turns the raspberry pi into a laptop 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 3, 2017, at 9:20 AM, tim franklinlabs.com <tim at franklinlabs.com> wrote:
> 
>   OK, I'm a little confused here (normal for me). I know Allen had Roger
>   Taylor's DE0 FPGA at his table. I never saw any Raspberry Pi. Not to
>   say it wasn't there but the only Raspberry CoCo I saw was at Chris
>   Hawks table. Am I mistaken??? Is a "CoCoPi 3" a CoCo running on a
>   Raspberry Pi or is it something else???
> 
>     On May 3, 2017 at 8:01 AM Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Ron,
> 
>     Allen Huffman brought one of those to CocoFEST. It's a really neat
>     little device!
> 
>     We both talked about it and actually tried to get CocoPi3 up and
>     running
>     on it. The built-in display did not support a resolution of 640 x
>     480
>     (at least not that we could see). If it weren't for that, I bet it
>     would have been fine.
> 
>     The CocoPi3 distribution forces a 640 x 480 resolution in order to
>     maintain a decent level of emulation performance. For the Coco, 640
>     x
>     480 is actually more than adequate.
> 
>     I may try to test 1920 x 1080 again at some point as I do have other
>     tweaks to help performance.
> 
>     Thanks
> 
>     On 05/03/2017 07:46 AM, Rob Rosenbrock wrote:
> 
>     It would be tempting to do this with pi-top...
> 
>     Sent from my iPhone
> 
>     On May 3, 2017, at 7:52 AM, Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Dave,
> 
>     If it's a Raspberry Pi 3, yes. You would power it off, pull out the
>     RetroPie SD card, replace it with this distribution (on another SD
>     card) and then power it back up.
> 
>     It would be up to you to determine if you could merge the two into
>     one. I've added programs and libraries from alternate repo's, so my
>     guess is it would not work. RetroPie does have an older version of
>     XRoar available and they do offer MAME, but no idea on what version
>     and if it would have all the tweaks I've added.
> 
>     I encourage anyone to experiment -- lot's of talented people here
>     with great ideas.
> 
>     Thanks
> 
>     -Ron
> 
>     On 05/03/2017 01:05 AM, Dave Regan wrote:
>     Thanks Ron. Would it be able to be run from the same Raspberry Pi
>     that has retropie and all my other emulators installed?
> 
>     Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
> 
>     ________________________________
>     From: Coco <coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com> on behalf of Ron
>     <ron at kdomain.org>
>     Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 4:16:21 PM
>     To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>     Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
> 
>     Hi Dave,
> 
>     This is a complete ready-to-run distribution based on Raspbian as a
>     base
>     OS. Not RetroPie.
> 
>     Other than just adding the Coco ROMs, this is ready to go. You would
>     copy the SD card image on to a micro SD card (8GB or higher). Class
>     10
>     recommended (for speed). It should boot right up.
> 
>     On 05/02/2017 06:05 PM, Dave Regan wrote:
>     I'm getting a RP 3 to take with me when I travel so I can play a
>     little in
>     the hotel. Sorry for the newbie type question though, but is this
>     something
>     that works similar to RetroPie that you simply load onto the Pi and
>     then
>     load the dsk images into a particular subfolder and you're ready to
>     go?
> 
>     On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 3:41 PM, Rietveld Rietveld
>     <rietveldh at hotmail.com>
>     wrote:
> 
>     Thanks. Right now I am running VCC using a little ATOM powered PC on
>     a
>     stick. It's pretty nice as its only a little bigger than a card
>     reader but
>     it is no where as cool as using the Pi.
> 
>     ,
>     Original Message
>     From: Ron
>     Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:35 PM
>     To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>     Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>     Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
> 
>     I still need to check with Rick Adams, but would like to continue to
>     have him host a copy of the SD card image as well as Simon Jonassen.
> 
>     The current links (for the old image and documentation) are:
> 
>     [1]http://rickadams.org/ronklein/
>     [2]http://www.roust-it.dk/coco/ronklein/
> 
>     I will also need to update the documentation to reflect all the
>     changes.
> 
>     Thanks
> 
>     On 05/02/2017 05:27 PM, Rietveld Rietveld wrote:
>     This looks incredible. How can I get a copy for my rasp pi?
> 
>     ,
>     Original Message
>     From: Michael Brant
>     Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:19 PM
>     To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>     Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
>     Subject: Re: [Coco] CocoPi3 Update
> 
>     Cool making me really want a rasp pi 3.
> 
>     On May 2, 2017 4:34 PM, "Glen Hewlett" <glen.hewlett at sympatico.ca>
>     wrote:
> 
>     Hi Ron,
> 
>     That's a lot of cool updates. I do appreciate all the effort you are
>     putting into this SDimage. I think it will be very useful for anyone
>     who
>     wants to learn about the CoCo or someone who remembers playing with
>     the
>     CoCo many years ago and wants to give it a try again. The RPi3 is
>     cheap
>     and connects to any recent monitor/TV all you need is keyboard and
>     your
>     good to go in CoCo world. :)
> 
>     Personally using emulators is what got me back into the CoCo,
>     luckily I
>     still had some of my old CoCo hardware and I'm having a blast with
>     it
>     again.
>     Cheers,
>     Glen
> 
>     On May 2, 2017, at 3:37 PM, Ron <ron at kdomain.org> wrote:
> 
>     CocoPi3 - ChangeLog - May 2017
> 
>     CocoFEST 2017 was a trial run for the CocoPi3 distribution. I took
>     some
>     time to observe how others looked at it, used it, etc., and made
>     some
>     enhancements. Some are minor others are more significant. I've been
>     learning quite a bit with this little project, but the best part has
>     been
>     some of the folks I've met and worked with along the way.
>     * Quick refresh of some Raspbian packages (i.e. sudo apt-get update;
>       sudo apt-get upgrade)
>     * Updated GCC 6 (as part of Debian's bleeding edge "stretch" repo).
>       GCC
>       6 is required to compile MAME.
>     * Pierre Sarrazin resolved an issue with the cmoc compiler for
>       Raspbian. Fix already included with this update.
>     * Updated MAME to the latest version (0.185)
>     * Updated the Main Menu and included many new entries as well as
>       updated
>       existing ones (over double the options)!
>     * Typing 'menu' from any prompt will return to main menu screen
>     * Some menu options include additional informational screens/prompts
>     * Option for booting Coco 3 with VCCEmuDisk hard drive image.
>       Includes
>       NitrOS9 & 255 virtual DECB disks with programs
>     * Option for booting Coco 3 (2MB RAM) directly into NitrOS9 using
>       latest
>       image from [3]http://nitros9.sourceforge.net/snapshot/
>     * Option for booting Coco 3 (2MB RAM) directly into Fuzix (via
>       YA-DOS).
>       Internet access provided via 'lwwire' daemon
>     * Options still available for Coco 2 (MAME & XRoar) both with
>       Drivewire
>       support as well as booting into MC-10
>     * Updated the scripts to start and stop the DriveWire, lwwire and
>       emceed
>       daemons from main menu
>     * Edit Wifi configuration from main menu
>     * Adjust RPi3 system volume from main menu (for HDMI and analog
>       ports)
>     * Run 'raspi-config' from main menu (resize file system, other
>       administrative options)
>     * Backup existing RPi3 installation to alternate SD card (i.e. clone
>       entire SD card) from main menu
>     * Reboot or shutdown RPi3 (safely) from main menu
>     * IP address(es) on main menu screen. Includes for both WiFi and CAT6
>     * System uptime information on main menu screen
>     * Daemon status (DriveWire, lwwire and emceed) on main menu screen
>     * Emceed server for hosting files to a real MC-10. Requires MCX-128
>       expansion cartridge & serial to USB adapter
>     * DriveWire can still be configured to host files for real Coco's as
>       well. Same serial to USB adapter would be required
>     * Added additional documentation in Samba share 'doc' folder
>       (/media/share1/docs). This includes help with Bluetooth controllers
>       Unfortunately, there's too many changes to just provide updated
>       files
>       for. As such, it will require downloading a new image. Going
>       forward,
>       I
>       am working on a way to package updates (perhaps via a CocoPi3 repo
>       for
>       use
>       with apt-get) to save time.
>       I plan on recording a video demo of this new version soon and will
>       send
>       it off to Steve Strowbridge to add to his YouTube channel. I also
>       need
>       to
>       work with Rick Adams and Simon Jonassen to see about replacing the
>       older SD
>       card image with this new one.
>       Thanks!
> 
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> References
> 
>   1. http://rickadams.org/ronklein/
>   2. http://www.roust-it.dk/coco/ronklein/
>   3. http://nitros9.sourceforge.net/snapshot/
>   4. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>   5. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>   6. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>   7. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>   8. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>   9. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>  10. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>  11. https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
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