In this episode, I'm finally getting started with the full-bus version of the CoCo FujiNet device! This initial foray goes into one of the most potent aspects of the RP2040—the programmable input/output blocks.
Let's get that keyboard adapter working! By the end of this video, we should have a fully functioning USB keyboard interface for the CoCo. Feature completion should just be some software away!
In this installment of the Forth ROM Project, we'll be fixing a long-standing bug, adding signed arithmetic and display, and adding some quality of life issues as well. There are even hints of double-cell numbers!
There's been work in the CoCo community to make semigraphics modes almost as easy to use as regular graphics modes in Extended Color Basic. I wanted to play with that, as well as play with ways to easily get graphics data created on a modern PC and transferable to the CoCo relatively easily. And the best part: all the tools I use are free!
It's time to fab up a prototype for the USB to CoCo keyboard adapter. This will involve reverse-engineering the schematic from the breadboard, laying out a printed circuit board, making a lot of mistakes, and hopefully getting something that works!
I've wanted to be able to use a commodity keyboard with my CoCo for a while now. Well, it looks like I may finally be able to!
Happy SepTandy everyone! For the 2024 celebrations, the Forth ROM is going into real hardware!
In this episode, we implement the immediate mode string handling and string handling support words. We're getting closer to having all the immediate mode words in the dictionary!
The Forth ROM is coming along quite nicely! This time we build out the functionality for variables, constants, and arbitrary data memory allocation.
Follow along as I reverse engineer (ish) the old Mark Data Products Universal Video Driver. As usual, mistakes are made!
Finally! Error messages that function, and a mechanism that can allow for proper error trapping when we get to that point! And as a bonus, it looks like all things scrolling are COMPLETELY FIXED!!!
Join me in another hardware project! I've put together a Rev000 FujiNet, including flashing the ESP32 and burning the EPROM. This time IT WORKS!
Join me in a hardware project! I've put together a FujiNet, including flashing the ESP32. It should work—but I must've done something wrong somewhere.
Join me as I fumble my way through manual calculations, discover issues with stack corruption, and even get startled by my phone (again)! By the end of it, though, we've got a working (but very minimal) implementation!
Gads, this took longer than I thought it would… But you'd think I'd've learned my lesson by now! The first few words of our Forth implementation are in place, numbers are accepted in (hopefully) every base from 2 to 36, and the OS can tell the difference and work with them!
Oh my goodness, but this one took forever! In the third part of building a custom OS ROM for the TRS-80 Color Computer, we figure out how to make things that happen on the keyboard show up properly on the screen!
In the second part of building a custom OS ROM for the TRS-80 Color Computer, we work out how to poll the keyboard in order to be able to talk to the computer. It might even work!
Let's embark on this wonderful journey of bringing up the TRS-80 Color Computer from nothing! It's a simple machine—how hard could it be?
Let's check some voltages and get this D-Pad finished!
Joystick? Sure! But a d-pad is much more useful for so many Color Computer games. Let's build one!
It should be simple! DriveWire is a PC application that provides server-level support for floppy emulation over the bitbanger port of a TRS-80 Color Computer 1, 2, or 3. All you need is a bitbanger to RS-232 cable… But PCs don't have RS-232 ports these days… Maybe an adapter? Should be easy, right?
Probably the most accessible way for a neophyte to get data into and out of a CoCo is by using the cassette interface. In this video we build a cable that interfaces using a TRRS plug on the other end!