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Tandy's Little Wonder, the Color Computer

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Tandy's Little Wonder, the Color Computer Tandy's Little Wonder The Color Computer 1979-1991 A complete history and reference guide to the CoCo and all related hardware, software, and support sources. by F.G. Swygert SECOND EDITION - UPDATED FEB 2006 Tandy's Little Wonder page 1 INSIDE FRONT COVER If printing to bind, print only page 1 (front cover) on card stock or heavy colored paper. page 2 Tandy's Little Wonder Tandy's Little Wonder the Color Computer: 1980-1991 (and still going strong into the next century!) Second Edition written & edited by F.G. Swygert The Original Tandy Color Computer First Edition Copyright 1993, Second Edition Copyright 2006 by F.G. Swygert. All rights reserved. Published by FARNA Systems 147 Tom Moore Road, Leesville, SC 29070 e-mail: [email protected] Tandy's Little Wonder page 3 Tandy's Little Wonder the Color Computer SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The following individuals have made contributions directly or indirectly to the content of this book : Frances Calcraft Lee Duell Thomas Fann Art Flexser Marty Goodman Frank Hogg Alan Huffman Don Hutchison Carmen Izzi Jr. M. David Johnson Bob Kemper Mark Marlette (Cloud-9) Nicholas Marentes Dave Myers Bob Montowski Alfredo Santos Kelly Thompson Jordan Tsvetkoff Rick Ulland Brian Wright Glenside Color Computer Club Mid-Iowa & Country CoCo Club Banner for the 15th "Last" CoCoFest annually hosted by Glenside Color Computer Club -- true stalwarts of the CoCo Community! This edition is dedicated to all those who continue to collect, use, and enjoy the Tandy Color Computer. All brand/trade names copyright their respective owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced or quoted without written permission from the publisher. All design and editing performed by F.G. Swygert. First Edition Printed in U.S. by CopyMasters, Warner Robins, GA., 20 April 1993. Second Edition Published via PDF by FARNA Systems, Leesville, SC, 29 April 2006. Copyright 1993 & 2006 by F.G. Swygert. page 4 Tandy's Little Wonder Table of Contents... Writting Conventions 6 Tid-Bits Introduction 7 The "Colour" Computer Down Under 92 History 8 The "68xxx" Story 93 CoCo Hardware Prices: 1980-1991 34 Two Boys and the CoCo 94 CoCo Clones 36 Frank Hogg and Frank Hogg Labs 95 Dragon Systems/Tano Dragon 36 About FARNA Systems 97 FHL TC-9 38 Operating Enviroments &Programming Languages APPENDIX: Color Basic 39 Color Computer Users Guide 100 ADOS 43 Serial Interface 101 Compiled BASIC 45 Cassette Interface 101 Converting Between BASICs 45 Joystick Interface 101 Other DECB Programming Languages RGB Interface 102 CoCo-C 46 Cartridge Connector 102 CF-83 FORTH 46 ASCII Character Codes 102 Machine/Assembly Language 48 BASIC/Extended/Disk Error Codes 103 Binary & Hexadecimal Conversions 49 Bank Switched ROM Paks (Activision) 103 Microwares' OS-9 50 NitrOS-9 53 SCHEMATICS: Support Typical B&W TV Circuit 61 Glenside Color Computer Club 54 CoCo 1 (D&E board) 104 Cloud-9 54 CoCo 2 (American made) 107 Internet Resources 55 CoCo 2 (Korean A, B is similar) 109 The CoCo Library 56 CoCo 3 111 Past Magazines 57 Multi-Pak Interface (large) 113 A Tribute to "The Rainbow" Magazine 58 Multi-Pak Interface (small) 114 Technical Reference FD-501 Disk Controller 115 Peripherals FD-501 Disk Drive 116 Video Display Devices 59 Chip Placement Guides 117 Mass Storage 63 Block Diagrams: GIME and MC6809E 119 Printers 68 Expansion Devices 70 PHOTOS: Miscellaneous Devices 74 CoCo 1 3 Hardware Upgrades & Modifications 15th Annual "Last" CoCoFest 4 ROM Upgrades 75 CoCo 1 Magazine Ad 33 RAM Upgrades 76 CoCo 2 Tandy Catalog Page 33 Upgrading the Keyboard 78 TANO Dragon 37 The Hitachi 6309 CPU 79 FHL TC-9 (on cover of Rainbow) 38 Putting It All In One Case 81 CoCo 2 w/accessories 42 Repairs Cloud-9 Super IDE HD controller 52 General Procedures/Tools 82 Cloud-9 512K SIMM Memory Upgrade 52 General Trouble Shooting 83 TRS-80 Color BASIC book cover 56 MC6809E CPU 85 Typical CoCo 3 setup 57 MC6821/6822 PIA 85 Rainbow first/mid/last issue covers 58 MC6883 and 74LS783/785 SAM 86 CoCo 3 connectors 75 MC6847 and MC6847T1 VDG 86 Exploded view of CoCo 3 121 The GIME 87 Disk Controller and Drive Repairs 87 Photo Gallery RS-232 Pak Repairs 88 Multi-Pak Intrface (MPI) Repairs 89 14 pages of bonus photos added just before publishing in Power Supply Repairs 89 April 2006! 122 - Back Cover Tandy's Little Wonder page 5 writing conventions used in this book.... In the course of writing, some standards were set so as not to Order phone 415-592-8097, call for catalog. $20 minimum order confuse the reader. plus 5% shipping and handling. Catalog usually has some IC pin-out information and RAM/EPROM cross reference... good * Hardware modifications, upgrades, and repairs are referred reference source. to throughout this book. At times, the references given may not seem clear. They are written in such a way that a person * The following abbreviations are used: with some understanding of electronics and the CoCo can A/L - Assembly Language easily figure out what to do. If you do not understand the ANSI - American National Standards Institute directions, you probably should not attempt the operation ASCII - American Standard for Computer Information Inter- alone... get help! THE AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, NOR change PRINTER ARE RESPONSIBLE IN ANY FASHION FOR BASIC - Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code THE RESULTS OF ANY PROJECTS OR REPAIRS MEN- BPS - Bits Per Second TIONED IN THIS BOOK, TO INCLUDE BODILY HARM, CCx - Color Computer, x = 1, 2, or 3 LOSS OF EQUIPMENT, OR LOSS OF DATA! CMOS - Complimentary Metal Oxide Silicon (chip construc- tion) * All references to hexadecimal addresses are written as CoCo - Color Computer “&Hxxxx”. The “&H” is used to precede the actual hexadeci- CPU - Central Processing Unit (actual processor chip) mal value when poking into memory to let the computer know DECB -Disk Extended Color BASIC the value will be in hexadecimal. Some other texts use a dollar DOS - Disk Operating System sign ($) in front of a value to mark it as being hexadecimal, DRAM -Dynamic RAM others use an asterics (*) or don’t mark it at all, as eight bit EDTASM or EDT/ASM -Editor/Assembler, usually the Tandy hexadecimal values usually contain numbers and letters. product EMAIL or E-Mail -Electronic Mail * When Radio Shack lists an item mentioned in their catalog EPROM - Electronicly Programmable Read Only Memory (especially parts), the part number will be listed in parentheses. GIME - Graphics, Interrupt, Memory Enhancement (chip, in This is not to encourage patronage of Radio Shack, but there CC3) is a Radio Shack in or near almost every town across the U.S. GUI -Graphic User Interface One would be better served to find an electronics parts store IC - Integrated Circuit (a “chip”) with a better small parts stock then RS, or mail order parts from I/O - Input/Output one of the following: M/L - Machine Language MPI - Multi-Pak Interface All Electronics Corp. MS - Milli-Seconds (millionths of a second) P.O. Box 567 MS-DOS - MicroSoft Disk Operating System Van Nuys, CA 91408 NMOS - Negative Metal Oxide Silicon (chip construction) Order phone 1-800-826-5432, call for catalog. Minimum order OS - Operating System is $10 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. OS-9 - Operating System (for the 680)9 PIA - Peripheral Interface Adapter Mouser Electronics PCB - Perforated Circuit Board 2401 Hwy 287 North P/S or PS - Power Supply Mansfield, TX 76063 RAM - Random Access Memory, usually meaning DRAM Phone 817-483-4422, call or write for catalog. ROM - Read Only Memory RS - Rat Shack... er... Radio Shack (division of Tandy Corp.) Digi-Key Corp. SAM - Synchronous Address Multiplexer P.O. Box 677 SECB -Super Extended Color BASIC Thief River Falls, MN 56701-0677 SIG - Special Interest Group Order phone 1-800-344-4539. No minimum order, minimum SP - Slot Pak (also used for Slot Pak II) shipping charge of $5 (no shipping if order over $25). No VDG - Video Display Generator Motorola chips listed, but will supply non-listed items if VOM - Volt and Ohm Meter (multimeter) available. Volume discounts for orders over $100. WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get (and probably others not listed!) Jameco Electronics 1355 Shoreway Road Belmont, CA 94002 page 6 Tandy's Little Wonder Introduction... Alfredo Santos, December 1990 While skimming through the pages of a popular Color Computer magazine recently, my thoughts traveled back through the 12 years of Color Computer history. Back to a time when there was NOTHING. I recalled the events leading up to my introduction to this wonderful machine. It seems like only yesterday... Christmas morning 1980: Pam, my wife, must have known that I was very interested in getting a computer because, there, under the tree was the new Mattell Intellevision!? Pam bought that machine due, in part, to the computer capabilities the unit would have with a keyboard console, scheduled for release in the spring. After several days of gunning down waves of aliens, we both suffered from blurred eye sight, blistered fingers, lack of sleep, and video game burn out. Spring seemed so far away. A couple weeks after Christmas, I came across an ad in the New York Daily News for a new Radio Shack computer which, like the Intellevision, had game cartridge capabilities, an important feature because, if I didn’t like computing, I could always go back to cleaning up the galaxy. For the refund price of the Intellevision (sorry Pam) plus another $150, I had enough money to purchase the new TRS-80 Color Computer. I celebrated the arrival of an early "spring".
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