[Coco] So, how do I make Drivewire go?

Chad H chadbh74 at hotmail.com
Mon Sep 23 20:43:59 EDT 2013


Oh  well, no biggy.  I'm happy having Turbo speed on my DriveWire 4 server
anyways, that alone made it worth the switch from DriveWire 3 server.
As for getting printouts, all I have to do is extract ASCII versions of the
files from the .DSK image on my PC and I'm good to go.  I also have a HP
Deskjet 540 that prints text very well from the CoCo serial port...of course
no DriveWire while that's happening :( 

I'm finding the "best" setup, atleast for me, involves a blend of original
CoCo HARDWARE  (i.e. the FD502 disk drive, Serial/Parallel converter
interface) blended with some things a bit more modern like DriveWire 4.  I
intended DriveWIre to be a backup to the FD502 Drive, or vice versa...I can
never settle on which is preferred anymore, I enjoy both worlds.  I even
"backup" files to my CCR81 tape deck still for the hell of it (and some
programs just seem to load better without any ROM pack inserted so this
works well).  But even that backup has a backup...CSAVEM/CLOADM to my
portable digitial MiniDisc recorder :)  Excessive?  Ehh..I'm learning
'excessive' hard to define in the CoCo realm.  CoCo's have always seemed to
center around ideas of "what else can I do?" so we go on pushing the limits.
For me, as a .NET programmer, there's nothing more gratifying that seeing if
I can get my CoCo to perform tasks I've taken for granted in the PC Windows
world..and witnessing it succeed beautifully.

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Aaron Wolfe
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 7:25 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] So, how do I make Drivewire go?

On Sep 23, 2013 8:16 PM, "Chad H" <chadbh74 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Correct.  I put that document together a few years ago based on the 
> DriveWire 3 spec.
>
> *** MUST Tie pins 1 & 2 together to use DriveWire 4 ROM!! PARAMOUNT! 
> **
>
> Unfortunately, Chris said he installed his DriveWire server on Linux 
> and outside of the "Android" flavor, I don't how enough experience 
> with Linux
to
> even consider it to be experience at all.  (iow...whole lot of 
> nothing)
>
> However, assuming the DriveWire 4 server sets up in Linux just like it
does
> in Windows, one of the following configurations SHOULD work based on 
> my experience in the last few days.
>
> A. DriveWire 3 mode
>         I. Use DriveWire 3 ROM on the CoCo (Wav, Bin, ROM, etc)
>         II. Pins 1 & 2 shorted or not, doesn't matter
>         III. If CoCo 2 (which I believe Chris has), select 56700bps
>
>         This should do it for a standard DW3 mode setup using the DW 4 
> server.
>
> B. DriveWire 4 mode (Turbo!)
>         I.  Use DriveWIre 4 ROM on the CoCo (Wav, Bin, ROM, etc)
>         II.  Make sure you go and "Check For Updates" to get the 
> latest revision (It was 'p' when I did this)
>         II.  Pins 1 & 2 MUST BE SHORTED!!  (I did this inside the DIN
> connector)
>         III. If CoCo 2 selct 56700bps  (yes, standard rate!)
>       IV.  Go into "Configuration" and then select "Show Advanced" at 
> the top-right.
>        V.  Look for "DetectDATurbo" and make it "True"
>
> After these steps are completed, regardless of which setup you used...
EXIT
> AND RESTART DRIVEWIRE 4 SERVER!
> AFTER DriveWire 4 is up running again with fresh settings, THEN boot 
> the DriveWire ROM.
>
>
> Drive access for me has been flawless thus far.  I tried checking out 
> the printer emulation though and it just hangs the CoCo when I do a 
> LLIST or what not.  Printer Emulation is enabled in the DriveWire 4 
> server with DriveWire 4 ROM running.  Emulation is set to default:  FX80,
Text mode.
 Is
> this feature not supported by the ROM?  Perhaps it was intended for a 
> OS9 setup.  Can anyone shed light on this please?
>

Printing, midi, networking and virtual serial are currently OS9 only.
Someday i would love to make them available to basic, but its beyond my
skill so far.

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com 
> [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com]
On
> Behalf Of Tormod Volden
> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 2:43 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] So, how do I make Drivewire go?
>
> On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 7:27 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
> > Since everyone else is talking about it, I thought I'd write in 
> > about my experience with Drivewire last week.  I thought I'd set up 
> > Drivewire and get the CoCo actually doing something.  Pulled the 
> > HDBDOS WAV file for the CoCo 1 from the cloud-9 web page.  Also 
> > installed the Drivewire 4 server on my Linux box and the MacOS X 
> > Drivewire 3 server on a different machine, just in case.  The cable, 
> > as far as I can tell, is correct.  I made it after this diagram:
> > http://www.mediafire.com/view/c91gj67kw7q6yzu/CoCo_DriveWire_3_Seria
> > l_
> > Cable.pdf
>
> It sounds like you did everything that is needed. Note that above 
> cable is not prepared for DATurbo mode, so you must not use a DW4 WAV 
> file. What
kind
> of CoCo are we talking about?
>
> > Anyway, I load up either Drivewire server, tell it to serve some 
> > floppy
> images, load HDBDOS off cassette, and everything looks ok but the only
thing
> I can get HDBDOS to tell me about any disk device is "I/O Error."  It 
> flashes lights on the serial interface when it tries to access the 
> disk,
but
> the server doesn't seem to do anything useful in response.  I'm afraid
it's
> been a couple of days, but I remember seeing a lot of OP_NOP in the log.
 Am
> I missing something obvious here?  How does one debug this stuff?
>
> How to debug depends a bit on your equipment and skills. I would have 
> run some terminal emulation program on both ends to verify that you 
> have the physical setup correct. I don't know what's available on 
> CoCo, but on the other computer you can use Hyperterminal on Windows 
> or "screen
/dev/ttyUSB0
> 57600" on Linux.
>
> The flashing light and NOP in the logs indicate that communication is 
> at least working in one direction.
>
> Tormod
>
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>
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