[Coco] OS-9 Floppy / Printer configuration?

[Chad H]

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
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. 

 

Thanks for any help.