[Coco] CoCoNet status

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 10:40 PM, Roger Taylor <operator at coco3.com> wrote:
> At 07:03 PM 11/11/2009, you wrote:
>>
>> Hmm.... well, now that you have the CoNect wireless pack you need to work
>> on a Linux (or some other OS) live CD that will boot on a monitor and
>> keyboardless PC with Bluetooth enabled (of course a Bluetooth device would
>> be needed). Then one could fire up the CoCo beside it and use the PC as a
>> simple slave storage system. Instead of a live CD a bootable USB drive might
>> be better --just run from it. Get a small ITX board with Bluetooth and
>> drives and that's all you'd need for a drive sub-system for the CoCo. Some
>> of the Mini ITX boards, especially older ones, are rather cheap, like these:
>> http://www.surplusgizmos.com/Single-Board-Computers-SBC_c_41.html
>> Six for $130 = $21.67 each (your cost... sell them with a CoCoNet
>> pack....)
>> Not 100% sure, but I think they are these:
>> http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?item=34631
>> Of course you'd have to contact SurplusGizmos and find out for sure what
>> the little boards have. Should be a USB Bluetooth transmitter available...
>
>
> I don't know... a MicroDrive module gives up to 2gb to the CoCo using the
> current firmware they have on it.
>
> A MicroSD card is pretty damn small.  In fact, it's small enough to lose if
> you're not careful.  I'm impressed by the size vs. capacity of those things.
>  We could very well see massive CoCo apps or games distributed on MicroSD
> for Drive Pak owners.  Not only that, but CoCo "video", music, raw pictures
> that load quickly, and all sorts of "limitless" ideas.
>
> Remember the Dragon's Lair game that was pretty much based on prearranged
> cartoon sequences?  Something like that would be easier to write than you'd
> think.  Think of it as a book where you choose which chapter to go to next
> to make your own story ending.  Anyway, I'm just throwing a random idea out
> there.
>
> With the CoCoNet ROM in the pak, AUTOBOOT.BAS is run automatically on
> power-up, from virtual floppy #0.  From there you can launch or do anything,
> including ML.  Any BASIC programmer can have a field day.  ML programmers
> would just need to call the DSKCON hook in Disk BASIC to access the disks
> and raw sectors.
>
> Tonight I simply made by AUTOBOOT.BAS program switch to disk #254 and boot
> OS-9 over the pak:
> 10 DRIVE 0,#254
> 20 DOS
>
> Done.  NitrOS-9 L2 prompt in 15 seconds, no moving parts, pure silence, and
> Boisy's DriveWire 3 drivers are even in the boot file.  In fact, I want to
> thank Boisy for having the original NitrOS-9 boot floppies with all the
> drivers and scripts to simplify making new boot disks with other drivers.  I
> took it from there and ended up with my own Drive Pak bootable disk but left
> the DW3 stuff in there.  Users can choose between the CoCoNet server or DW3
> server, although they use totally different schemes.  From BASIC you can
> mount floppies by pathname/web URL from the CoCo and there is no GUI.  It's
> a console window.  I do have a GUI version but there's no time to finish it
> this year.  It has vertically arranged 5.25" style floppy drives that open
> and close with the lever and have the red/green LEDs, and a scrolling log
> window.  The console version shows the log as well.  Both are in VB.NET and
> could be expanded on or ported by users over time if we like.
>
> The CoCoNet server behaves like a modem.  You can send AT commands to it to
> do everything, including Telnet, but that requires a terminal program, as
> CoCoNet doesn't deal with Telnet.
>

Does CoCoNet create a virtual serial port on windows, or PTY in
linux/mac os x?  If so, I'd be happy to make every attempt to support
it in my serial -> tcpip project for drivewire.  Also I'm considering
a full screen terminal application tailored to CoCo/OS9 use, I'd love
to be able to support CoCoNet in addition to DriveWire.   Maybe most
importantly, is CoCoNet free (as in freedom) software?


> If the pak boot file is not there, a search will be made on the server disk
> #0, then the real drives.
>
> Does anybody have an OS-9 VHD they'd like to distribute on the pak?  Zip it
> and e-mail it to me and I'll get it on there.  I don't have time to get any
> of the game floppies to boot and run from the pak on a per disk basis, but a
> fully loaded VHD with all the cool stuff on it would be easy to integrate.
>
>
>
>
> --
> ~ Roger Taylor
>
>
>
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