[Coco] Starting to unpack COCOs from storage

[John E. Malmberg]

On 4/26/2020 7:49 PM, John E. Malmberg wrote:
> 
> Next is to see which Color Computers I/II are working, and then on to 
> the multi-pack interfaces.  As I recall, I have one that is not working.

All turned out to be 26-3024 Multi-Paks.

The grey 7 slot (4 software selectable) multi-pak passes the Multi-Pak 
PAL upgrade test.  "?peek(&HFF90)" prints 126.

Note that with no Multi-pak installed, "?peek(&HFF90)" prints 126.

That is my oldest multi-pack.  I added the 3 slots a while back.  At one 
time I had them all full.

I think I had the orchestra-90, x-pad, disk controller, rs-232 pack, 
Speech/Sound Pack normally installed.

A white multi-pak is failing the PAL upgrade test.  But I have a PAL 
chip ready to install.

The third multi-pak, which I bought on e-bay and arrived packed in 
Styrofoam peanuts was marked as bad back then, and on the COCO-3 it 
alternates between a blue screen of garbage and a blank screen.

I will have to put it aside for now until I can take the time to trouble 
shoot it.  I was hoping I could just put a PAL chip in it, but now I am 
not sure.  But the circuit looks simple enough that I should be able to 
trouble shoot it once I get a digital workbench / prototyping setup again.

I have an unknown number of orchestra-90 and Modem paks.  When they were 
being closed out, the local Radio shack store was selling them so cheap, 
I picked them all up.  I have not had time to count them.  Also a number 
of other cartridges that I would not use.

Still have not gone through the COCO-I/IIs.

> COCO SDC has been ordered, but need to know what else is working before 
> I order more stuff.

The COCO SDC has arrived, and seems to work.

One missing bit of information is how large of an SDCard can I put in it?

With one multi-pak functional on a COCO-3 this gives me a functional 
system with a the COCO SDC, the Super IDE, and floppy disks at the same 
time.

Unfortunately it looks like I missed out on the simple COCO-3 to VGA 
adapters and 2 MB updates, at least until the GIME-X becomes a real item.

Regards,
-John