copico-project
CoPiCo Project
What is the CoPiCo?
The CoPiCo is a cartridge for the Tandy Color Computer that adds WiFi to and serves as a boot ROM for the system.
It is built around the official dev board for the RP2040 microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico W, which includes onboard WiFi.
Site still under construction!
This site is a work in progress. It will soon contain documentation and project updates.
WiFi Connectivity
The firmware (see ‘copico-firmware’ repo) will behave more like a SPI WiFi module or the WizNet chip (or perhaps both, depending on mode). It will, of course, also allow listing and connecting to the desired WiFi network.
ROM Emulation
CoPiCo will also support boot ROM emulation (initially just for a 1 KB ROM due to limitations of first revision of the CoPiCo PCB). Henry Strickland (@strickyak) plans to use this feature to load a version of his “axiom” network boot ROM (see https://github.com/strickyak/frobio/tree/main/frob3/booting).
Other Future Capabilities
Future capabilities for the CoPiCo may include:
- VGA or HDMI output based on the captured contents of video RAM
- Logic capture / bus trace
- Remote debug, with breakpoints and watchpoints
Signage from Unveiling at the Vintage Computer Festival SoCal
Until we get a chance to create a better site, here’s a look at the board and our booth signage from the grand unveiling of the project at VCF SoCal!
Board Rendering and Schematic
GitHub Respositories
You can find the KiCad source for the board and the source code for the microcontroller firmware in the following repos:
Stay Tuned to This Channel
Please watch this space for updates as development continues!
Thank you for being a part of the Retrocomputing community!
Thomas Shanks (copico@tshanks.org)