A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
pser1
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Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hi,
if you mean the last CoCo-SDC firmware version 1.16 from Darren Atkinson,
I tested it before it has been distributed by Ed Snider just to be sure
that it really worked with VDK files with a header 256 bytes long, as are all our
VDKs for DriveWire.
It works perfect, so we don't need to convert the VDKs into DSKs to use them
with our CoCo-SDC
The same file will work via Drivewire and from the SDC

If you have received or downloaded v1.16 (in a VDK file) you may install it
without problems. The new one is more flexible for Dragon users.


cheers
pere
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dragonmarce
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Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by dragonmarce »

Yes. Thank you very much Pere!
It worked perfectly.

Cheers,
Marcelo
pser1
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Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hi Marcelo,
pleased to know.
If you have a CoCo and have used it with the CoCo-SDC you will have to download the document with the command names
for the Dragon. I changed them by addidng a leading 'S' for (DIR and DRIVE that became SDIR and SDRIVE)
But besides the name, there are some syntax differences and added options that can be of use too
I attach here the quick command overview for if it could be of help

cheers
pere
Attachments
_DP50Ext commands for DP50 and CoCo-SDC v0.24.E6.zip
(6.53 KiB) Downloaded 353 times
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dragonmarce
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Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by dragonmarce »

Hi Pere.
Thank you!. It's a great job and is very well explained.

Cheers,
Marcelo
pser1
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Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hello,
it seems that I am the only one Dragon user that has an environment containing the Tandy MultiPack
with both floppies and the CoCo-SDC.
I have been using it a lot of time, but always starting in MAP1 to be able to access the card and the floppies
without problems.
But lately I have been working right from the CoCo-SDC, from the ROM, working in MAP0
I have found two bugs that hanged the computer under that environment when issuing:
- SDIR or SDIR-
- SCOPY MEM @n
I have corrected them and created a new version v0.25.02
In the attached zip you will find these files:
DP50Ext v0.25.02 Updater.VDK - - - - to update the CoCo-SDC to the last version, just copy it in the card, 'mount' it and run UPDBANK.BAS
DP50Ext v0.25.02 x BCK.VDK - - - - - - to install in XRoar with Becker port
DP50Ext v0.25.02 x DW4.VDK - - - - - - to install in a real Dragon with Drivewire connexion
DP50BINS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - dweeb to be used in XRoar with Becker port
DP50XINS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - dweeb to be used in a real Dragon with Drivewire connexion
DP50PSR-BCK.rom - - - - - - - - - - - - - rom to be loaded in XRoar with Becker port (instead of installing from VDK or loading the dweeb)
DP50PSR-DW4.rom - - - - - - - - - - - - - rom to be burned for a real Dragon (requires 16k space and addressing)
_changes v0.25.02.txt - - - - - - - - - - a text doc explaining the various changes

cheers
pere

EDIT!!!
Carefull, the VDK containing the updater is OLD, you have to download the right version that is in next post, sorry!
Last edited by pser1 on Sun Jan 31, 2016 11:14 am, edited 2 times in total.
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hello,
sorry I uploaded an old version of the updater ... WHICH will burn the new version on the bank before the one you had chosen. DANGER !!!
Here is the NEW version

Thanks a lot to Steve Batson for having tested it and discovered the bank number difference!

cheers
pere
Attachments
DP50Ext v0.25.02 Updater OK.zip
(13.68 KiB) Downloaded 352 times
tjewell
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Location: Cambridge, England

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by tjewell »

Hi Pere, still enjoying your wonderful DOSPlus here on my Coco-SDC!

Just wondering, is there any way to make a program auto run when the Dragon is powered up? Tormod's modified Basic with DWLOAD supports AUTOLOAD.DWL - on switching on a Drivewire attached Dragon, it will look for and run that file from the DW server. Alternatively, is there a way to make an auto-running program on a disk? (analogous to the old autoexec.bat on MSDOS?).

Many thanks in advance - apologies if I've missed something obvious!

Tony
pser1
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Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hi Tony,
I may be wrong, but I think that the only way will be having a disc with the 'starting' program
in the boot sector.
Anyway, having the CoCo-SDC connected and drive1 containing such a bootable disk, I am afraid
that you will have to write BOOT anyway ... to start that program
I have never tested that, so it should better be tried once.
The SDC accepts a config file (STARTUP.CFG) in which you 'mount' the disk you'd prefer to each drive (1-2)
for instance:

Code: Select all

0=FullPathFileName
1=FullPathFilename
If you have problems to create a bootable disc, you can try the basic CAS I am attaching here
It will use 256 disk bytes (one sector) to call the program you should need to start, but will require that
you enter the BOOT command.

cheers
pere
Attachments
MAKEBOOT-BAS.ZIP
(1.09 KiB) Downloaded 323 times
pser1
Posts: 1655
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Barcelona (SPAIN)

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by pser1 »

Hi Tony,
I have created a bootable disk with a simple basic program
and changed the file "STARTUP.CFG" to contain this line:
0=AUTOBOOT.VDK"
Being this the name I have given to the bootable disk.
When I start the Dragon with the SDC I get the intro message and the OK
so I must write BOOT and then the selected disk starts the chosen program.

The SDC documentation doesn't talk about starting a program, so this
should be done by the DOS ... something to be analyzed ;-)

cheers
pere
Attachments
AUTOBOOT.ZIP
(542 Bytes) Downloaded 338 times
tjewell
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Location: Cambridge, England

Re: A DOSPlus Extender for Drivewire & CoCo-SDC

Post by tjewell »

Thanks Pere, that worked perfectly! I hadn't spotted the mention of startup.cfg in the SDC manual.

So I wonder if it's possible to make the Dragon run something on power-up (beyond writing something into one of the rom slots in the SDC of course!). Tormod's DWLOAD code in his adapted basic rom does this over drivewire. Is this something your DWLOAD code in the DOSPlus rom could do? (Sorry, not trying to give you more work here, just thinking aloud!).

Alternatively, could DOS do it? I note that Eurohard's Dos4.0 offers 'autoboot at power up', according to this - http://dragon32.info/info/drgndos.html - but I've not found any docs.

Cheers, Tony
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