[Coco] CoCoNet evolving

[Bob Devries]

Gene did opine:

> mainly because the scsi interface was a 1 drive only interface

HUH? I have a 4-in-1 with two drives attached and working wonderfully using 
the SCSISYS driver.

Regards, Bob Devries
Dalby, QLD, Australia

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "gene heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2011 8:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCoNet evolving


> On Friday, April 29, 2011 06:03:27 PM Roger Taylor did opine:
>
>> Does anyone here use the 3-in-1 or similar type board for their Super
>> Controller pak, and if so do you use the serial or parallel port
>> often?  From what I read, the 3-in-1 has a 6551-based serial circuit
>> with some of the handshaking lines tied active.  In this case, a
>> simple 3-wire connection can be made to a PC to allow a CoCoNet link.
>> I'd have to add detection in the CoCoNet ROM, but I wanted to do a
>> quick survey first to see just how many people (on this list) use an
>> SC+3-in-1 setup.
>
> I have a 4n1, but took it out yonks ago, mainly because the scsi interface
> was a 1 drive only interface, the serial was an xon/xoff only, and the
> parport had no handshaking so the data error rate with modern well (FCC
> specs) filtered input ports rendered that useless about 15 years ago.
>
> I bought a TC^3 and have a pair of 1Gb drives on it now, and the extra
> serial was long since piggy-backed into a deluxe rs-232 pack and has my
> mouse hooked to it.  Printers are now serviced either by some scripts I
> wrote that feed the text back trough cups and thence to a B&W laser
> printer, or by drivewire now that I have it sort of working.
>
> IMO the 4n1 is not a very good piece of hardware, too many shortcuts were
> taken, so it works only in a very narrow, lowest common denominator only
> set of scenarios.
>
>> Also being added to CoCoNet is one RAM drive, giving yet another
>> drive type to the growing mix-and-match scheme.  A smaller RAM drive
>> will be available on a 64k CoCo 1 or 2 which will access the upper
>> 32k that's hidden under the ROM area.  A CoCo 3 shall have a 35-track
>> drive and will require 512k.  The CoCoNet ROM knows what kind of CoCo
>> its running on, so this RAM drive will just work without configuration.
>>
>> Some might have noticed that my mini-paks have been sort of renamed
>> to all contain "Drive Pak" in the name.  Because CoCoNet adds
>> multiple subdrives to Disk BASIC and my paks can be used to link to a
>> PC running the CoCoNet server, it makes sense to define the type of
>> drive connection that will be added for each pak used.
>>
>> Some of these paks are not available for sale at this time, but are
>> being tested by a few customers and myself.
>>
>> The USB Drive Pak forms a USB link to your PC and maps to the same
>> address as an RS-232 Pak or my wireless pak.
>> The Wireless Drive Pak forms a bluetooth link to your PC and maps to
>> the same address as an RS-232 Pak, etc.
>> CoCoNet also can use a Tandy RS-232 Pak.  This and any other
>> $FF68-mapped 6551 pak are all compatible with CoCoNet, but only one
>> $FF68 pak can be used at a time.
>> Any pak can be used to add bitbanger cable drives.  Only one pak
>> needs a CoCoNet ROM, but if you use an MPI all paks can have a ROM.
>>
>> The CoCoNet remote drive protocol will probably be changed to that of
>> 4D Systems uDrive module so that all "Drive Paks" whether it be a
>> MicroSD, Wireless, USB, RS-232 Pak, bitbanger cable, can all use the
>> same partitioning system as the MicroSD Drive Pak which is very
>> nice.  This means that the MicroSD pak's card image can be used on a
>> PC and used remotely via cable.
>>
>> Most of these changes should be added in CoCoNet 2.0 within a few
>> months.
>
>
> -- 
> Cheers, Gene
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> <http://tinyurl.com/ddg5bz>
> <http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html>
> No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
> -- Aesop
>
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