[Coco] CoCo3 questions / Cloud 9 Super IDE interface

[Joel Ewy]

Cool!

Mark Marlette wrote:
>
> Boisy is on vacation so I'll attempt this.
>
> The new Drivewire will allow you to boot from the PC.
>
> The EPROM is a patch version of RSDOS 1.1.
>
> CoCo Proto is sitting ready to go to the board house. I also have
> cartridge cases. Over three hundred.
>
> Mark
> http://www/cloud9tech.com
>
> At 12/6/2006 09:02 PM, you wrote:
>
>> Steve.Lancaster at Moorestephens.com wrote:
>> > Hello all
>> >
>> Hey there,
>> > I am a UK based Dragon 32 owner. I have found out more and more
>> about the
>> > CoCos (partially Dragon compatible) and am looking to get a CoCo 3
>> (a 512k
>> > model from Cloud 9 appears to be a good starting point).
>> > ...
>> > As regards the CoCo itself:
>> >
>> > 1) Is a floppy drive necessary for a CoCo? - I ask because 5.25
>> inch disks
>> > are hard to source and although I have a 5.25 floppy drive (that I
>> use on
>> > a BBC Master computer) I'm not sure if it is CoCo compatible.
>> >
>> Most people categorize 3.5" drives as floppies, even though the housing
>> for the floppy disk inside is rigid.  I use 1.44M drives with 720K disks
>> on CoCos.  I suppose one could also use 1.44M floppy disks as well, but
>> the result will be even more wasted space.  OS-9 can format floppy disks
>> to 720K using unmodified CoCo disk controllers.  Stock RS-DOS (Disk
>> Extended Color BASIC) can format a floppy to ~176K at 35 tracks on a
>> single side.  Patches are available on the Internet to allow BASIC to
>> use the second side of a floppy as drive 2 or 4, resulting in a single
>> disk having two separate ~176K file systems.  Some patches and alternate
>> DOSes allow the user to format more than 35 tracks as well.  So you
>> really aren't limited to the 5.25" disks or drives.
>> > ...
>> > Going back to the Super IDE does anybody know if it is possible to
>> > transfer .dsk images to the CF card by drag and drop (on a PC with
>> a card
>> > reader) or does the transfer have to be done using a CoCo emulator
>> or a
>> > utility like Omniflop.
>> >
>> >
>> I don't think the former would work.  The CoCo would have to be able to
>> read an MS-DOS FAT filesystem as a first prerequisite.  There is an
>> MS-DOS file manager available for NitrOS-9, and I believe there are
>> utilities for reading/writing DOS floppy disks under RS-DOS, but I doubt
>> these latter would work with a hard drive / CF card, as the drive
>> geometry and capacity is likely hard coded for 360K floppies.  Assuming
>> you could read the FAT filesystem, you would next need to be able to
>> mount the disk image, or at least copy the contents to a local file
>> system or disk.  I guess there are some utilities for reading disk
>> images on the CoCo, but I doubt they would be as seamless as one
>> would want.
>>
>> If you have a PC running MS-Windows, you could use Cloud-9's DriveWire.
>> This isn't quite the same of course, but it does get data from the PC to
>> the CoCo quickly, and allows you to access the contents of disk images
>> directly over the wire.  Then you could just copy the files to your CF
>> card for quicker local storage.
>>
>> In fact, it looks as if you could get away without using a floppy
>> entirely using DriveWire, with one caveat.  You need a floppy to load
>> the DriveWire software onto the CoCo, at least initially.  However,
>> DriveWire does include ROM images that could allow you to keep the CoCo
>> DriveWire software in an EPROM so that you don't need to load it from
>> floppy.  Since Cloud-9 has an EPROM burning service, I'm sure they would
>> be able to send it to you in that form, so you wouldn't need to have a
>> CoCo floppy drive or controller at all.
>>
>> I don't (yet) have DriveWire, but the documentation on Cloud-9's web
>> site says you can put the EPROM in the CoCo's BASIC ROM socket, or in a
>> disk controller's ROM socket.  It's not entirely clear to me whether the
>> DriveWire ROM replaces or augments (Disk) BASIC -- ie, is it a patched
>> version of BASIC, or does it need to coexist somehow with your existing
>> BASIC ROMs?  If you have an old game cartridge you don't play (or which
>> you can convert to a disk file) you might be able to remove the ROM and
>> use that as a housing for your DriveWire EPROM.  You'd either need to
>> find a 24-pin EPROM, which isn't so common anymore, or hack together a
>> socket converter (which you can probably find instructions for on the
>> Web or in mail list archives) to use a 28-pin EPROM in the cartridge PC
>> board, which is intended for a 24-pin chip.  Or you might be able to
>> find a project board from (the UK equivalent of) Radio Shack that could
>> be cut down to make your own cartridge board.  A little scrap ribbon
>> cable, a 28-pin socket, and a .1uf capacitor should do the trick.  Heck,
>> maybe Cloud-9 even has cartridge boards to sell?
>>
>> JCE
>> > Obviously I don't want to buy something and then find I don't have the
>> > knowledge or skills to use it.
>> >
>> >
>> > Any general advice or comments will be greatly appreciated.
>> >
>> > Best wishes
>> >
>> > Steve
>> >
>> > MOORE STEPHENS
>> > Accountants and Business Advisors
>> > 6 Ridge House, Ridgehouse Drive, Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1
>> 5TL
>> > Tel: 01782 201120, Fax: 01782 201599
>> > Web: http://www.moorestephens.co.uk
>> > A member firm of Moore Stephens International Limited - members in
>> principal cities throughout the world.
>> > Registered to carry on audit work and regulated for a range of
>> investment business activities by
>> > the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
>> >
>> ____________________________________________________________________________
>>
>> > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
>> intended
>> > solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
>> addressed.
>> > They may contain legally privileged information, and may not be
>> disclosed
>> > to anyone else. If you have received this email in error please notify
>> > postmaster at moorestephens.com and delete all copies from your system.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> ________________________________________________________________________
>> > This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs SkyScan
>> > service.
>> >
>> ________________________________________________________________________
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>> Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.9/573 - Release Date:
>> 12/5/2006 4:07 PM
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.9/573 - Release Date: 12/5/2006 4:07 PM
>   
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>