[Coco] CoCoNet ROM and drivers

[Roger Taylor]

Hello dudes and dudettes,

I'm about to start posting all the CoCoNet files I've fiddled with 
over the past year or so, in hopes the community can take it 
further.  Just keep an eye on the Downloads page at www.coco3.com.

At this time, CoCoNet is primarily a multi-disk drive system.  The 
CoCo has to have the CoCoNet EPROM in a pak somewhere so the CoCo can 
boot up to the patched copy of Disk BASIC 1.1.  The ROM currently 
works on all CoCos that have Extended BASIC, and all CoCo 3s.

One of the emulated disk drives in CoCoNet runs over a 6551-based 
RS-232 link, using a Tandy Deluxe RS-232 Pak or my Deluxe Wireless 
RS-232 Pak.  CoCoNet detects such a pak and assumes DRIVE 0 to use 
the link automatically.  If it's a wireles pak using the EB301 
bluetooth module, CoCoNet attempts to connect to the first b.t. 
connection it sees and establishes the link to the CoCoNet server on 
the PC automatically.  Bam - wireless drives on power-up, with *.BAS 
being run if it's on the premounted DRIVE 0 disk.

If a Drive Pak is detected, CoCoNet reads the MicroSD card LSN 0 for 
a few settings and mounts the partition and disk # in that partition 
that you have set earlier.  Again, *.BAS is searched for and run 
automatically... you can use this feature to bring up game menus, an 
OS-9 launcher, or whatever.

If a real floppy drive system is detected (you don't really need 
one!), DRIVE 0 is set to Physical mode (DRIVE "ON"), and *.BAS is run 
automatically.

If no RS-232, Drive Pak, or FDC systems are detected, CoCoNet sets 
DRIVE 0 to the Bitbanger drives (115200 bps) and looks for *.BAS.

While DRIVE 0 is set to the first available drive system, DRIVES 1-3 
are assigned "the other" systems, meaning there are 4 drive types 
premounted on power-up, with DRIVE 0 being the *.BAS boot drive.

The CoCoNet server app is written in Visual BASIC .NET 2008.   Any 
porting shall be done by someone else if they want to.

The CoCoNet ROM (16K) requires my CCASM 6809/6309 cross assembler for 
Windows.  I'll post the latest CCASM build as well.  This is by far 
the most valuable CoCo-biased assembler available today.  There is no 
other assembler that can build CoCo objects so easily, like raw ROM 
images, multi-record LOADMs, MMU LOADM files (amazing CoCo 3 
feature), encrypted content, binary and source inclusion/merging, and 
full 6309 support, S-record output and more.


-- 
~ Roger Taylor