Ooh, I love it, a whole new backplane with all the PCI expansions. Jaw hit the floor when you showed the Gimme card. This would be a great way to build your own Coco 3 (once you get the card sorted). I got the old heart set on a Coco 3 :)
Thanks! I gotta get crackin on that GIME card! Once it's working and cleaned up, I'll publish the files and you can make yourslef a CoCo 3! well you'll need a GIME-Y or the like.
a multipak in the drive bays are GENIUS. It's the perfect place for it. But given that there will be need for drive controller(s) and such things, I would look to ensure floppy drives and a gotek could exist in the case as well. Basically, I think an MPI redesign to support both internal and external would provide both. Perhaps simply extending slots using ribbon cable would be enough to provide one or two slots with external access then all you would need is some sort of slot selector thing which I'm sure you could handle easily. (A rotating dial would be my preference over a sliding switch... just saying) The ultimate repack is an incredible idea and would allow for all sorts of testing and development for GIME-Y+ and all the rest of the ideas out there. It would be interesting to know how your bus works but it's clear since RAM is on a card, it pretty much handles everything. The idea that you can convert from CoCo2 to CoCo3 by swapping cards is REALLY exciting. Let's talk more about "CoCo Deluxe" as well!!! Dang this is awesome.
Thank you! There is a lot to do still and ideas are many. I'm not sure how I would handle an MPI yet but the main problem to solve before anything can be made is how to extend the cart connector out far from the board without it being so noisy that it won't work. The bus just about has every signal under the sun so that I could separate all of the subsections the way I did. Once I have settled on a somewhat stable version, I'll release the designs so that people can go over it and improve it. Still lots to do!
@@rockyhill3 How to extend? I don't know what sort of latency is allowable, but if you're trying to extend signals, why not capture them as packets and transfer them to the other end using some sort of serial or parallel protocol?
@@rockyhill3 just as a thought (I'm liking your use of the slots), are these re-usable? My original aspiration of putting all the regular stuff on the main board and using the slots for general expansions feels a bit aspirational. This is just so much more sensible. Putting the MPI capability into a front facing bay on the 5.25" slots feels much more sensible too. I promised myself not to get distracted from the end-goal for the ATX board I started months ago... this however is worthy of attention! Especially if I can implement my SamX4 FPGA as a plug-in instead of integral to the whole thing
If by reusable you mean you can place them in any slot then yes, they are. One of the main motivations behind this project was to abstract the subsections a bit so as to make it easier to hack and design hardware for the CoCo so it very well might help you with your SamX4 FPGA. I rushed through this to get it out for SepTandy(a little late) so it's a bit messy but Once I clean things up a little I'll be releasing the designs.
Ooh, I love it, a whole new backplane with all the PCI expansions. Jaw hit the floor when you showed the Gimme card. This would be a great way to build your own Coco 3 (once you get the card sorted). I got the old heart set on a Coco 3 :)
Thanks! I gotta get crackin on that GIME card! Once it's working and cleaned up, I'll publish the files and you can make yourslef a CoCo 3! well you'll need a GIME-Y or the like.
That is so cool!
Thank you!
Nice!
Thanks!
That's quite a build!
Thanks! It is still producing frustrations though.
a multipak in the drive bays are GENIUS. It's the perfect place for it. But given that there will be need for drive controller(s) and such things, I would look to ensure floppy drives and a gotek could exist in the case as well. Basically, I think an MPI redesign to support both internal and external would provide both. Perhaps simply extending slots using ribbon cable would be enough to provide one or two slots with external access then all you would need is some sort of slot selector thing which I'm sure you could handle easily. (A rotating dial would be my preference over a sliding switch... just saying)
The ultimate repack is an incredible idea and would allow for all sorts of testing and development for GIME-Y+ and all the rest of the ideas out there. It would be interesting to know how your bus works but it's clear since RAM is on a card, it pretty much handles everything.
The idea that you can convert from CoCo2 to CoCo3 by swapping cards is REALLY exciting. Let's talk more about "CoCo Deluxe" as well!!! Dang this is awesome.
Thank you! There is a lot to do still and ideas are many. I'm not sure how I would handle an MPI yet but the main problem to solve before anything can be made is how to extend the cart connector out far from the board without it being so noisy that it won't work. The bus just about has every signal under the sun so that I could separate all of the subsections the way I did. Once I have settled on a somewhat stable version, I'll release the designs so that people can go over it and improve it. Still lots to do!
@@rockyhill3 How to extend? I don't know what sort of latency is allowable, but if you're trying to extend signals, why not capture them as packets and transfer them to the other end using some sort of serial or parallel protocol?
Wow!!! I hope you are planning to sell these. If so, please sign me up for one. Truly, Great job. 👍
Thank you! Eventually, when I think it's good enough, I'll have a version that will be for sale. The design files will always be available though.
OHHHH Cool!!
Thank you!
nice work!
Thanks!
Thanks!
@@rockyhill3 just as a thought (I'm liking your use of the slots), are these re-usable? My original aspiration of putting all the regular stuff on the main board and using the slots for general expansions feels a bit aspirational. This is just so much more sensible. Putting the MPI capability into a front facing bay on the 5.25" slots feels much more sensible too.
I promised myself not to get distracted from the end-goal for the ATX board I started months ago... this however is worthy of attention! Especially if I can implement my SamX4 FPGA as a plug-in instead of integral to the whole thing
If by reusable you mean you can place them in any slot then yes, they are. One of the main motivations behind this project was to abstract the subsections a bit so as to make it easier to hack and design hardware for the CoCo so it very well might help you with your SamX4 FPGA. I rushed through this to get it out for SepTandy(a little late) so it's a bit messy but Once I clean things up a little I'll be releasing the designs.
@ in which case I am even more interested:)
Neat. Let me know if you need a custom back plane made. Since I have a 3d Printer.... I can send you one.
Oh nice!, I'll reach out if I do, thanks!