TRS-80 - Tandy Color Computer


The TRS-80/Tandy Color Computer consoles are some of the longest living vintage personal computers with an active user base spread around the world since 1980. The time has come to consider ditching the desk full of ancient heavy drives that were once required to let a CoCo load software. A Drive Pak is a virtual disk drive system that can take the place of your real floppy and hard drives.

2 GB MicroSD Drive Pak™
available soon

This type of Drive Pak™ is a complete plug-and-go system that uses a MicroSD memory card.

It comes with a MicroSD card loaded with OS-9 and thousands of DOS games and apps all ready to run on power-up. It also comes with the archive DVD.

USB Drive Pak™
currently unavailable

This type of Drive Pak™ has a 5-foot male USB cable attached to the pak. Connect the cable to your PC's USB port. Run the CoCoNet™ server on your PC. This pak comes with the archive DVD.

Cable Drive Pak™
currently unavailable

This type of Drive Pak™ contains just the CoCoNet™ ROM. Run the included 5-foot serial cable from your CoCo's 4-pin printer/bitbanger port to your PC's DB-9 serial jack. Run the CoCoNet™ server on your PC. This pak comes with the archive DVD.

Wireless Drive Pak™
currently unavailable

This type of Drive Pak™ uses an internal bluetooth radio. Install a bluetooth dongle on your PC. Run the CoCoNet™ server on your PC. This pak comes with the archive DVD.


A Drive Pak™ acts like an Endless Floppy Drive System

  • MicroSD Drive Pak™ - Run OS-9 and thousands of DOS games and apps from a 2gb, 4gb, and 8gb or larger MicroSD card. Your CoCo thinks it has real floppy disks mounted!
  • USB Drive Pak™ - Use your PC's USB port to run OS-9 and DOS programs.
  • Wireless Drive Pak™ - Use your PC's bluetooth adapter to run OS-9 and DOS programs.
  • Cable Drive Pak™ - Use your CoCo's bitbanger port to access remote virtual disks.

  • Replace old bulky floppy and hard drives with one mini sized cartridge.
  • A Drive Pak™ merges with your real floppy drive system if you have one.
  • Run OS-9 over the air, through a cable, or from a MicroSD card.
  • Every Drive Pak™ is sturdy, FAST, and will last a lifetime.

 

CoCoNet™

  • A unified and user-friendly resource system that automatically integrates with any CoCo with Extended BASIC.
  • 3 protocols (Telnet, CoCoNet™, and uDrive)
  • The CoCoNet™ ROM file and server software for your PC are free.
  • Can access real floppy disks, remote virtual disks, virtual web disks, and MicroSD virtual disks.
  • Can download web pages and files to your CoCo over the air or a cable using a nearby PC gateway.
  • Copy files and disks between drives systems using standard DOS commands.
  • Can access multiple drive systems at the same time!
    The ego trio can't figure out how to do this.

 

CoCoNet™ ROM chip

  • All Drive Paks come with this ROM installed, so you don't need it unless you want to install it in one of your existing cartridges.
  • The distributed CoCoNet™ ROM is a 28-pin 16K/27128 EPROM that's compatible with the Disto brand floppy controllers and other socketed controllers and ROM/EPROM paks as well as all Drive Pak™ cartridges.
  • Are you a 'Deluxe Wireless Pak' user? Replace your socketed ROM with the latest CoCoNet ROM and it automatically becomes a Wireless Drive Pak™.

 

Interesting Facts

  • The CoCoNet™ ROM in all Drive Paks will detect other compatible devices and servers and give you a mix of drive systems and features based on your hardware.
  • Any Drive Pak™ can add Telnet capabilities to your CoCo by using the CoCoNet™ server.
  • Any Drive Pak™ also performs as a Cable Drive Pak™ using a CoCo-to-PC serial cable.
  • How can I make a Cable Drive Pak™ ?
    If your floppy controller has a 28-pin EPROM socket, all you need is a CoCoNet™ ROM and a CoCo-to-PC serial cable. Done.
  • How can I make a Wireless Drive Pak™ ?
    If you own a CoCo3.com Deluxe Wireless RS-232 Pak, you can trade out the ROM with the CoCoNet™ ROM and it becomes a Wireless Drive Pak™. Done.
  • How can I make an RS-232 Drive Pak™ ?
    This is not something we sell but it happens if you own a Tandy RS-232 Pak and boot up with CoCoNet™.

 

News about CoCoNet™ and the Drive Pak™ Products

10/6/11: Working on adding a CoCo 3 RAM drive to CoCoNet™ 2.0 before its release, adding yet another virtual drive type to the mix. All DOS commands will work between the different drive types. Although a RAM drive can be faked by using the Drive Pak's memory, a direct RAM drive is the fastest type of virtual drive possible and can be useful in demanding backup chores and such.

8/27/11: Testing out a new firmware update that will increase the MicroSD Drive Pak™ capacity to any size MicroSD card you can get your hands on (theoretically, 2 terabytes max). Realistically, the ideal size card would be 8 GB since any MicroSD Drive Pak™ can handle that.

8/26/11: Testing out a new firmware update that will drastically increase the speed of the MicroSD Drive Pak™.

8/25/11: All past orders of the 2 GB MicroSD Drive Pak™, CoCo-to-PC Cable, CoCoNet™ ROM, and CoCo Roundup DVD are still being processed in turn.
Manuals and Tutorials

 

Drive Pak™

  • 2 GB Master Image
    This is the zipped copy of the included MicroSD card or .img file if using a cable-based remote Drive Pak.
  • Catalog of the 2 GB Master Image
  • CoCoPak 1.0.52
    Drive Pak™ card image and partition manager for Windows, with docs. Submitted by Tim Franklin.
  • Win32DiskImager
    Free tool for reading/writing the Drive Pak image on a MicroSD card. Depending on what version of Windows you use, this might need to be run As Admin.

 

CoCoNet™

  • CoCoNet 1.26 server
    Required to use the Cable Drive Pak™ or USB Drive Pak™ or the remote drive channels of CoCoNet™.
  • CoCoNet 1.26 Disk ROM
    Replace your current floppy disk controller ROM with this 16K ROM and you've got CoCoNet.
  • CoCoNet 1.26 MPROM
     Special copy of the ROM for the Disto MPROM burner software.
  • CoCoNet Server 2.0.6.0 Alpha
    Posted 4/8/12 - check daily for new updates as the CoCoNet™ 2.0 server is further developed. uDrive emulation, command line launch, log file, readout supression, and more. The CoCoNet™ 1.27 and higher ROM requires this server.
  • CoCo-to-PC serial cable schematics
    Compatible with any Drive Pak and the CoCoNet ROM.

Upgrade your MicroSD Drive Pak™ to x2 speed
Only if your uSD Pak has the CoCoNet 1.26 or earlier ROM.

 

Remote 6551 CoCoNet™ Disks
 Drive Paks have a 6551 remote drive channel and bitbanger cable drive channel that uses the CoCoNet™ protcol for web and PC disks outside of the Drive Pak™ master image. Requires mounting the disk(s) in the CoCoNet™ server provided on this page.



 

 

 


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