Been away from the blog for a long time. I got some classic computing equipment around xmas, but family, work, etc has kept me busy elsewhere. I promised a writeup on Drive Wire so here it is! I also made a video to go with this post which you can watch below. Simply put, the drivewire 4 software uses your PC or Mac as a file server for the CoCo. There is software required on the CoCo as well by means of a ROM image file.
Before we discuss software however, we need to discuss hardware, or at least connections. There are two connections needed:
1) a DIN-5 round connector for the CASSETTE port on the CoCo, to an audio pin type connector for the PC or Mac Microphone port.
2) a DIN-4 round connector for the SERIAL port on the CoCo, to a RS-232 DB-9 serial port at the other end. If your computer has a RS-232 port then that’s all you need. If you only have usb ports, then you will need an RS-232 db-9 to usb converter as well.
I made both my cords at home, and I plan to post a followup blog and video about the cords. They can be commercially bought as well.
Once you have both cords connected, ensuring the cassette port headphone wire is plugged into the PC or Mac microphone port, you are ready to install the drivewire sofware. The free drivewire ROM image can be downloaded at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Software/DriveWire3.html. All the available free downloads are at the bottom of the page. Get the download for “DriveWire HDB-DOS and DW3DOS ROM Images, cassette files and track files”.
You also need the free drivewire 4 software located here: https://sites.google.com/site/drivewire4/.
The next step is to unzip the DriveWire 4 software to a folder of your choice. I put mine on the desktop. There is no install per se, just a simple unzip. Once unzipped, you want to look for DW4UI, listed as an application, about 32KB in size, that starts DW4. Be sure to leave the DW4UI file in the folder as in needs to be with the other files in the folder to run properly. If you want you can create a shortcut and send it to the desktop.
Once DW4 is running you will be given the option of using a wizard to setup the software. I recommend you use it, as you can change any settings later and it does a good job. Once the wizard is over, you want to click on the ‘DriveWire4’ tab at the middle left of the page. Then right click on ‘local’ in the lower pane and select ‘Link local item’. You can then name a location in DW4 and link it to a folder location on your harddisk. The name and folder name do not need to be the same. This location is where you can put all you CoCo disk files to be used. Once this is complete the newly created area should appear under ‘local’ in the lower pane.
If the harddisk folder location has a CoCo disk image it in, select the named location you created in DW4 and click on the disk image. Information about the image will appear in the pane to the right. At the top of the right hand pane there is a button called ‘Insert Disk’, click it. You will be asked to select a drive to insert the disk in, and after making your selection the disk name will appear in the top pane next to the selected drive.
You are almost ready to use DW4. The last bit of work is to open the floppy drive interface. This is done by double clicking on the small rectangular shape in the left hand column next to the drive number. This will open the interface. The interface allows you to manipulate your disk files and gives visual feedback of disk access. Click ‘Reload Image’ to be sure a fresh copy of your disk image is loaded. DW4 is now ready to serve that disk file to the CoCo!
The next work to be done is on the CoCo. Turn on the CoCo and type ‘CLOADM:EXEC’ on the CoCo and press enter. You should see an ‘S’ in the upper left hand corner of the screen. The CoCo is ready to ‘listen’ for the audio file.
Unzip the ‘DriveWire HDB-DOS and DW3DOS ROM Images, cassette files and track files’ you got at http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Software/DriveWire3.html and double click the ‘hdbcc3.WAV’ file to start it playing in your default media player. Be sure the audio output is set for headphone on your PC.
If all goes well you should see the ‘S’ change to a blinking ‘F’ and ‘HDBDOSC3’ displayed in the upper left corner of the CoCo screen. After about 50 secs, the CoCo should boot into the HDBDOS ROM, and the screen will show ‘Color Disk Basic 1.1’ and a little farther down, ‘HDBDOS and DW3’. If you see these indicator then all went well.
At this point, you can issue commands to the CoCo as you would if an actual disk drive were connected. Try ‘DIR’, you should get a directory of the the disk you installed in DW4 on the PC. If not be sure to select the drive with ‘DRIVE X’ on the CoCo, ‘X’ being the drive you loaded the disk into on DW4. Try ‘DIR’ again and ensure you get the directory listing you expected.
Her is the link to the Youtube video I mentioned above: http://youtu.be/oFnttB5YOMg
There are many more videos on the web, especially youtube, on using drivewire so I won’t be making any more unless I see something that is important and I can’t find a video for that topic.
That’s it! You should now be able to issue RS-DOS disk commands as if a real floppy drive was connected to the CoCo.
Any questions, comments, or suggestions please leave below!
Jay's World of Classic Computing and Electronics 