[Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 11:04 PM, Chad H <chadbh74 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, I've only slightly tinkered with OS-9 slightly over the years.  I
> usually only load it because an application or game requires it.  I'm trying
> to learn a bit more about it so I can make better use of it.
>
> Here's the issue I'm working on right now: trying to configure it to take
> advantage of the printer and floppy drive setup I have attached.  I have a
> FD-502 with dual 5.25 double-sided 360k drives with a modified RS-DOS EPROM
> that allows the top unit to be drives 0/1 and the bottom 2/3.  How do I
> configure OS-9 to take advantage of the other sides of the drives, either as
> /d2, /d3, etc. or by making /d0 and /d1 double-sided devices.   Also, a
> person on this list was gracious enough to sell me a serial-to-parallel
> converter that allows me to print to a old HP DeskJet 540 printer rather
> well.  I've coded some RS-DOS BASIC programs to work properly with it (i.e.
> setting 1200baud and CRLF) but is there a way to set such parameters in
> OS/9?  If memory serves, the printer is /P device, right?  I've seen a

In OS9, you can use the "xmode" command to set these parameters.
"xmode /p" will show you the current settings.  Sometimes you need to
use a lookup value rather than the literal value, for instance with
baud rates here is the table:

B110           EQU       %00000000
B300           EQU       %00000001
B600           EQU       %00000010
B1200          EQU       %00000011
B2400          EQU       %00000100
B4800          EQU       %00000101
B9600          EQU       %00000110
B19200         EQU       %00000111
B38400         EQU       %00001000
B57600         EQU       %00001001
B115200        EQU       %00001010

So to set the baud rate to 1200bps, use "xmode /p bau=3".  The
definitions for these types of things can be found in the scfdefs file
here:  http://nitros9.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/nitros9/nitros9/defs/


> couple of OS-9 applications allow the setting of the baud rate inside the
> application setup, but not much other settings.   Only way I could get these
> to printt down a page instead of all text on the first line was to run a
> RS-DOS BASIC initialization program to initialize the printer and then go
> into the OS-9 apps and print.
>
>
>
>  I know there are more advanced things out there now for the CoCo.  I find
> the idea of using SD card for storage fascinating.  However, I got into the
> world of computers and programming on this very CoCo 2 when I was 14 and I'm
> trying to remain true to its original character.  Some of what I once had
> learned years ago I've forgotten and I'm slowly trying to relearn all I can
> and then some.
>
>
>
> P.S. I have the original OS-9 level 1 rev. 1.0.0.  Wish I could find a later
> revision.  I know the DeskMate diskette I have says level 1 rev. 2.0.0 but I
> think it's missing a lot of the OS-9 files.
>

Consider using NitrOS9.  It has many improvements and is free:
http://www.nitros9.org/latest/


>
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
>
>
>
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