MPI Troubleshooting

These pics are being posted to help Gene help me diagnose my MPI problem...



This is the output of U2 pin 6. Approximately 1.4v pulses.




This pic is the input on U2p14. The rest of the input pins look similar.




U2 pin 4 (DB2) - ~ .2 - 3.5v
U2 pin 8 (DB5) - ~ .2 - 3.5v
U2 pin 9 (DB6) - ~ .2 - 3.5v
U2 pin 5 (DB7) - ~ .2 - 3.5v

U2 pin 2 (DB1), U2 pin 3 (DB0) and U2 pin 7 (DB4) - ~3.5vdc with no waveform to speak of

Sinistaar

Holy crap what a fun game!!! It's a good thing I didn't find this out before I started the repack... I'd never have gotten anything done. Since I've been hawking on it for a few days, the Tandy SS/C is not required for this game's speech. Nor would it be wanted as it is not capable of putting the required inflections into the voice (at least not that I've heard). The 'I hunger!!!' sounds almost arcade quality and is equal to anything I've heard my TI do. Awesome game!!!

I'll be getting back to the repack content when I get my garage put up. I am having a 24' x 41' metal building put up, with 16' x 24' set aside for my workshop. Just waiting for a few things to fall into place... (at least I get some CoCoing done :-) )


Later,

Brian

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Coco chat

There's been a ton of talk about coco_tower's decision to go to a registered users only system for the chat on coco3.com. It is Roger's site and it is his choice. I am of the opinion that this is the reason for the drop off in chat participation. It has been mentioned a few times in posts in the forums, but, too my knowledge the issue has gone largely unanswered. Since that seems to be the case, I am currently testing an IRC channel on Dal.Net for use as a chat area for us CoCoNutz. Ironically, it's room name is #coconutzchat, and it is located on dalnet. If anyone needs help signing into the chatroom, give me a yell.

Later,

Brian

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Speech paks... ugh...

I got all excited yesterday. My Speech & Sound pak arrived, well packed, from the eBay seller. Got it home last night powered up the PC, the re-pack and the 512k CoCo3 and MPI. On the PC I was running Keil's emulator and MESS, making some floppies to test out the SS/C. This combined with the repack and 'The Beast' as I call the 512k machine with all accessories on, looked cool as hell. (Think The Matrix in 8-bit). I probably don't have to mention how disappointed I was in the SS/C. Briza tried to warn me. He even talked me into doing an article on the CoCo3 vs. TI-99/4A computers and their speech capability. In this area I'm sad to say the CoCo3 got it's ass handed too it by the TI. That's all I'll say for now as the article is still being written.

So, if anybody out there in the CoCo 'verse has one of the better speech cartridges (Super Voice, Real Talker or whatever), and would be willing to be a contributer to an article for Mary's CoCoNutz e-zine, please contact me. I'm pretty much wrapped up with the TI vs. SS/C comparison, so I need some info on the other devices. I am not asking to be sent the device (unless you are willing to part with it, of course). Just asking for someone willing to do a review of one of the alternatives vs. the Tandy/RS SS/C that I can add to my article.


Later,

Brian

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A few new goodies

Well, the auction goods came in. The CCR-83 looks pretty good and seems to work. I have not taken the CoCo3 home yet, but, it is a little more marked up that the picture shows. Which is okay as I have plans for this one. Let's just say there is another repack project brewing. :-)

I will say I'm a little torqued off about the packaging. The box was an appropriate size, but, the packing material used was shredded paper. Wouldn't have been so bad if the contents had been wrapped and sealed. I gotta take the CoCo3 apart and clean the paper out before I can even turn the damn thing on. Guess the seller figured he'd cut cost since it cost $12.45 to ship an auction I only paid $8.25. Not my fault he screwed up on the postage. If he'd have told me, I'd have PayPal'd the difference.

I also picked up this auction: Tandy Speech and Sound Pak. Briza (somehow) talked me into doing a review article for Mary, and a comparison of it and my Ti99-4/A and it's speech module. Guess I'm gonna have to bone up on the hardware in both systems again (it's amazing what the brain looses over time). Hopefully Mary will not read this for a while and I have some time to come up to speed.