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Thanks!

Thanks!

One day it will have some sort of graphics card.

You're welcome! I'm glad you were able to get it to work! One thing is for sure, you are no longer a noob!

Thank you!

Thank you! For now it's not going anywhere but github. I'll release it as soon as I clean up some things.

It's fun that's for sure. Actually it's a CoCo 2, I still haven't fixed that.

The CoCo 1 and 2 can do 9 colors (including black) in semigraphics modes, but with very wide pixels.

Hello, sorry you are going through this. You've assembled the three boards? In order to program the atmega 328 on the J20 board you'll need an external programmer. In the video I use an arduino as the programmer. The arduino can be flashed with firmware to turn it into a programmer. All you have to do is open the arduino dev environment and got to Files-->Example-->ArduinoISP. This will load the sketch. Once loaded you need to upload the sketch to the arduino. At this point the arduino is a programmer so you have to be careful not to upload the imac sketch to the arduino when you load it as it will overwrite the arduino ISP sketch. Wire the arduino to the J20 board as described in the wiki. In order to program the J20 board you must have the arduino plugged in but dont use the regular upload button. Go to Sketch-->Upload using programmer. This should load the imac sketch onto the J20 board. Grab my email address from my youtube home and email me. I can help you a lot easier.

Yes, glass is 1/2 full!

lol! Words to live by!

Sounds like the SDC just needs more reset time, or to be plugged into a proper MPI device with its own power…

@@julianbrown1331 I think the MPI does suffer from that. However, the CoCo ATX behaves that way even without the SDC. I'm going to try and change with the capacitor in the reset circuit with one that has a higher capacitance to increase it's time to charge.

@ or switch to a proper timer circuit….

@@julianbrown1331 that too.

Thanks! It is still producing frustrations though.

Thank you!

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.

Thank you!

Oh, yes, I have experienced this before. When I made the CART card I forgot to route E and Q so I had to bodge those down the board edge. What happened there was that when I introduced the card one of the lines came loose and it wouldn't start properly.

@@rockyhill3 I don't pretend to know why but that's interesting insight. I'll have to go back and check into that again. I bought an up-upgraded MPI and used it with different machines and this anomaly happened. I don't recall if I ever retested it after I upgraded the MPI for CoCo3 compatibility. Maybe I'll check into that one day.

For the sake of getting this project started, I picked the side of the board that made the routing a little easier the boards. I haven't made a breadboard card yet but it's definitely on the list of cards to make.

Oh nice!, I'll reach out if I do, thanks!

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?

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:)

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.

Thank you!

Thank you! A CoCo server is exactly what wed need!

@@rockyhill3 A coco that can work over a KVM would be an amazing space saver to be sure. Also just noticed the "SAM/VDG card" has the video feed plugged in there. Clearly it's the "video card" which would be replaced by the GIME-# card for CoCo3 mode. That's where I would enlist someone to participate (not me, I'm not even close to being qualified) to establish the "video card(s)" to be equipped with sound/vga and/or HDMI with sound and/or composite video with sound, etc. That's very exciting. But whatever is done it shouldn't need to be a hack process like "connect to an RGB2HDMI from here" card.

I was swamped and there are many variables so I opted to implement only the safe stuff with only a few features, USB keyboard & header to power and reset the CoCo from the front of the case.That said, there is a video card/circuit in the works.

@@rockyhill3 Actually, talk to L.Curtis to see if he has any plans to implement anything like DriveWire services under NitrOS9. Then there could actually be a CoCo server! Because right now "CoCo Servers" aren't CoCos. How amazing would it be to actually create OS9 level 3 or to simply use your enhanced architecture to build a proper 680x0 based CoCo by switching out some cards.

@@anjinmiura6708 Sounds great! I still have to work out a tons of issues though...

Thanks! I'm thinking something like a boot loader on the ROM card sometime in the future......

Thank you!

Thanks!

I know, I know...😞

Thank you! A reverse sleeper build, I like that! One of the drivers behind this is to have a real CoCo that sits in a modern PC case and uses a modern PC PSU. Another driver is to make it sort of modular so it can also be a CoCo 2 and a CoCo 3 by simply by swapping out one card. The big driver however is to make it more hackable so that CoCo hardware can be developed with it and then ported to an authentic CoCo. I don't really see it as defined yet so maybe it will evolve into something else.

@@rockyhill3 Yeah if you can make it "switch" that would be an incredibly cool thing. For people who want to save space (two or more CoCos in one!) or for those who want to develop for multiple CoCos.... Whatever you do, don't visit the MC-10 channel and ask if you should make an MC-10 card... or a Dragon card.... I feel like some enterprising FPGA guy will create a computer on a card to work on your backplane. It'll be pretty flippin' awesome. I want one NOW!

Thank you! Still much to do!

Yes, good luck! github.com/qbancoffee/imac_g3_ivad_board_init/wiki/Convert-and-iMac-G3-slot-loader-into-a-standard-VGA-monitor

Hi! most 16Mhz cystals should work, here is a digikey part number for a substitute. 2151-AS-16.000-20-EXT-ND. good luck!

Just the github repo. github.com/qbancoffee/imac_g3_ivad_board_init

Thank you! I haven't tried it with a pi 5 but I don't see any reason that it shouldn't.

@@rockyhill3 just had a crack and there's an issue with the python apt install.... now you have to do it in a environment to protect the system python..not sure if this would still work? Also the initial programming page has changed.... I'm still working through it but its way over my head!..Feel like a challenge? :) I've also purchase the PCBS. The crystal in the J20 board seems to be obsolete, what were they must haves for it? 16MHz and 30ohms? did the other stuff matter? I can find like for like Apologies for all the questions! im a nube at this but the nostalgia to keep the CRT on a G3 is too strong to let it go! hahaha

I might have a set left somewhere but I am planning on ordering a batch of new boards around mid October. Grab my email address from the contact section and send me a message.

@@zt7903 hello, sorry to hear about your issues. I am having issues receiving messages from square and you are the second person to tell me this. I can issue a refund if you'd like or I can ship the pepper board to you. You can email me at qbancoffee@yahoo.com. if the email doesn't show up in the comments, you can grab it from the contact page here. I'm very sorry for the trouble you are going through. Please contact me and if we can come to an agreement .

So in reality is that it's a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. The trick is to send the initialization code to the IVAD board using I2C in order to get it into a state where it will display an image. You can do that with both an arduino and a raspberry pi(or basically any microcontroller). My project mainly focuses on using an arduino to handle the initialization and configuration of the display. That said, I do have a small section in the rep[o that demonstrates how to wire the pi and use it to send the included init code written in python. I have modified fork of a project that you can install on your raspberry pi and make it initialize the IVAD board and allow you to control the screen geometry from it. github.com/qbancoffee/imac_g3_osd_cli

That's great to hear!

@@rockyhill3 the only thing I'm struggling with is screen geometry. I can get oshimais gui running on the raspberry pi. I have an Arduino nano connected to IVAD board, and to the Pi with a usb cable. When I try to connect to the Arduino through the GUI, it appears to degause the screen and will not connect at any baudrate. I've gone through the Arduino sketch numerous times and I can't find anything wrong. The Arduino can obviously communicate with the IVAD board because it will power it on, but I can't get the screen geometry GUI to work.

@@stumeston8778 Hmm, it almost sounds like the nano is restarting and res-ending the init sequence making the iMac degauss. If you are using the nano as the serial port, you have to make sure you disable the reset feature, which can be inconvenient. The arduino resetting after connecting to it via serial is actually expected behavior. If you write a simple program and connect to see it's output via the serial monitor , you'll notice that it rests every time. This reset make it easy to program the arduino via the serial port. If you disable this then you won't be able to program it via the serial port until you re-enable it. I've never done it on a nano but in theory you can connect the reset pin and +5V with a jumper and disable that rest. double check befoer you do it because I'm assuming that there is a capacitor from the usb to serial chip's DTR line to the atmega's reset pin.

@@rockyhill3 I didn't even think of that! I'm fairly new to Arduino, only used them in a few projects. I'll give that a try and get back to you!

@@rockyhill3 ok. I solved the auto reset issue by putting a 10uF capacitor between RST and ground. I still can't get my Arduino nano or mega to work with the GUI. I've tried several different sets of pins on each Arduino (changing pins in sketch beforehand), and I get the same "no response recieved" error every time I try to connect. The Arduino is obviously able to communicate with the IVAD board as it powers on every time I boot up the Arduino. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Yes, it's composite, the regular composite that comes from the CoCo 3. It does look good but somehow it looks better on the recording, lol. As far as having it for other CoCo's I think AC from AC's 8 bit Zone has already done that for some of his CoCo 2's. I'll have to check it out.

Thank you! More views? really? Just luck I guess but your build(s) look real nice! Thank you for the board!

I also did my own dye sub keycaps, had someone on Etsy print the legends for me, then I used a hair straightener (I think that's what it's called?) to "iron" the legend on to blank keycaps.

Also that 2 has got to be a keeper! If it was me, I constantly forget that the double-quote is up there above the 2, so I say it's worth keeping

I still sometimes hit shift-2 when looking for quotes! ​@@8antipode9 I need a CoCo keyboard to USB adapter!

@@8antipode9 Yeah, it's nice to have options! You made your own using a steel plate? I'm sure it looks great, you should definitely show it off!