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2024-03-02: The wiki ran out of disk space, so things were not working. This has been resolved by adding another 5GB of quota ;-) Thanks to Tim Lindner for reporting the issues.
2020-05-17: If a page gives you an error about some revision not being found, just EDIT the page and the old page should appear in the editor. If it does, just SAVE that and the page should be restored. OS-9 Al (talk) 12:22, 17 May 2020 (CDT)
Getting Started with DriveWire
Forward
DriveWire is a server side application used in Windows, MacOS (or Linux for DriveWire 4) to provide a disk emulation server for the Tandy/TRS-80 Color Computer series of home computers manufactured during the '80s & '90s.
DriveWire allows the mounting of virtual disk images on a PC style computer, to provide floppy disk emulation. Real floppy disk hardware is becoming difficult to find these days, so applications like DriveWire provide CoCo users a much needed storage method for enjoying their Color Computers again. This Wiki page will attempt to provide the basic information needed to configure a DriveWire system for your CoCo.
Out of respect for software authors, this Wiki page will not host or directly link to any files - links will only take you to the webpages where these files already exist, and can be downloaded from.
Also, DriveWire 4 is a 100% drop in replacement for DriveWire 3. DriveWire 4 simply (or not so simply) adds far more capability to an already excellent application.
One more thing to keep in mind - DriveWire 3 and 4 can be used as a floppy disk emulator. However, there are some software packages that simply will not run when using floppy emulation. This is due to the author creating their own disk access routines, instead of using the RS-DOS DSKCON routines. Until a successful hardware emulator is created that can accurately emulate the WD1773, then we are stuck with this situation.
DriveWire 3
DriveWire 3 acted solely as a virtual disk server for a CoCo. Written by Boisy Pitre and sold thru Cloud9, DriveWire3 is a great tool for those needing just a virtual disk server. The DriveWire 3 PC server software can be downloaded Here.
Contents of the DRIVEWIRE.ZIP file.
DriveWire 4
DriveWire 4 is a Java version of DriveWire, written by Aaron Wolfe, and has similar functionality to DriveWire 3. However, Aaron has added many other features including: mounting of Internet based disk images, TCP, web server, MIDI control, print to a PC printer (emulates Epson MX-80 from CoCo side, compatible with most Epson and generic printer drivers for the CoCo) and many more.
To use DriveWire 4, you'll need a recent version of Java - as DriveWire 4 is written in Java, it is OS agnostic; meaning it should run on anything that runs a Java VM, including a Raspberry Pi running Linux. You can get a JavaVM (here) for most any type of popular operating system.
You get get the most recent version or DriveWire 4 by visiting Aaron's website and following the links. As you'll soon see, DriveWire 4 supports several computing platforms including all versions of the CoCo. The documentation Wiki for DW4 can be found here: DW4 Wiki.
The DriveWire Cable
Before you can use DriveWire 3 or 4, you will need to connect your CoCo to a computer being used as a DriveWire server. You will need a Coco Serial (bit-banger) to DB-9 serial cable. Again, Cloud9 sells these cables. Conversely, you may build your own based upon the following diagram:
Also, if you have a more modern PC, it's most likely not to have the needed DB-9 serial port. As an alternative, you can puchase USB to Serial (DB-9) converters. These range in price from about $10 - $20 and can be purchased from most any electronics supply house. If they don't have it on the shelf, ask someone and they can most likely order it for you. You will still need the cable above as this is just an adapter to be able to connect it to PC's with no DB-9 serial port.
Alternatively, you can also still purchase an add-on PCI or PCIx serial card. TigerDirect and NewEgg still stock a large selection of these cards. The internal serial cards tend to offer better data transfer rates than the USB to Serial adapters in testing.
Once you have downloaded the DriveWire software and connected the CoCo to your PC with the correct cable, you'll need to boot the CoCo with an HDB-DOS ROM image. This can be done with a ROM Pak with an HDB-DOS EPROM from Cloud9 (or someone else); loading thru the cassette port (from either a real cassette player or as a .wav file from a PC), an EPROM placed in a floppy controller or even an HDB-DOS ROM loaded from a .BIN file. Again, all of the files can be downloaded from the Cloud9 DriveWire3 page.