[Coco] Introduction, cartridge slot proto boards, J&M controllers, and EDTASM pak.

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 07:20:24AM -0700, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> 
> On Aug 22, 2013, at 06:36 , Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
> > DriveWire - All I can say is... WOW... Best thing since the disk drive was invented
> > http://sites.google.com/site/drivewire4/
> 
> Is there already a canned solution with DriveWire for transferring an RSDOS disk image file on the PC to a real floppy on the CoCo?
> 
> Also, how could I bootstrap DriveWire onto my CoCo if I don't have any means of writing CoCo floppies other than on the CoCo itself? I bought a device called KryoFlux thinking I'd use it to write CoCo floppies on my Mac, but I didn't read the fine print enough to realize that it's going to take some software development work before I can do that. It'll read the floppies just fine, but there's a big gaping hole in the write side of the equation. Grr!

I have a KryoFlux as well, but I've never made time to mess with it.
I should add that to the list... :-)

> For the Apple IIe that I'm also playing with, I found a package called ADTpro which can be used to transfer Apple disk images to floppies on the Apple over a serial link. It can even bootstrap itself onto an Apple with no pre-existing floppy disks by taking advantage of the way Apples let you receive input from a serial card as if you typed it on the keyboard. It seems to me that it should be quite possible to do a similar thing on the CoCo using either the cassette interface, or a Deluxe RS232 Pak plus multi-pak interface. Has that particular wheel already been invented on the CoCo?

There are CLOADM'able WAV files of HDB-DOS that can be loaded to get
DriveWire access.  It is not as "clean" as ADTpro, and requires both
a cassette interface cable and the serial (aka "DriveWire" cable).
The idea of adding this "bootstrap over the cassette cable" mode
to the DriveWire server has been suggested, but no one has yet been
motivated enough to do that.

I _think_ it is possible to invoke some magic POKEs on the CoCo to
do the equivalent of the "IN #2" on the Apple, but I never manage to
keep track of them.  Anyway, if those POKEs are real (and not just my
imagination), then adding a "bootstrap over the serial cable" mode
to the DriveWire server then becomes a simple matter of programming
as well... ;-)

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.