The first scenario to describe is the full
system option in this scenario a box arrives that has:
Full CoCo 5 Case including keyboard.
An external power supply (AC to 12V/5 Volt DC Power Supply
Adapter w/ 4-Pin Molex)
A bound CoCo5 user manual and a sheet of paper with the quick start
guide and the URL of the online support site.
Base System
The second scenario to describe is the base
system option in this case the box contains only the motherboard bolted
into the bottom half of a CoCo5 case.
The user must provide or order separately:
The top half of the case for witch a Color Computer 3 top half will
work fine.
A keyboard.
A.CoCo MECH CoCo5 Keyboard.
B.Bluetooth Keyboard
C.A Color Computer 3 keyboard and a three button or
scroll mouse.
D.Wired PS/2 keyboard updated to support CoCo5 Keyboard
emulation or with a three button or scroll mouse.
A protective cover for the empty keyboard space if using keyboard
options B or D.
A few sheets of paper with the URL of the
online support site and a few troubleshooting hints are also
included.
Motherboard System
The third scenario to describe is the
motherboard only system option in this case the box contains only
the motherboard and a few sheets of paper with the URL of the online
support site and a few troubleshooting hints. Ordering this system makes
sense if you are planning to put the CoCo 5 in a classic PC case that
includes a power supply with molex connectors in such a case you may use a
PS/2 Keyboard Interface, a Bluetooth Keyboard or a CoCo MECH.
Tri-Coco
The Tri-Coco mode is the origional "factory" mode for a new CoCo5.
So after unboxing your coco5 pluging in the monitor or TV and pluging in the
power supply to the molex port at the back of the CoCo5 and your AC you are
ready.
When you press the ON switch at the back of the CoCo5 the computer boots up
for the first time The Udisk-0 runs the RS-DOS DOS command and a menu
apears.
This menu lets you:
Read the user manual updates. (NEW.TXT:0)
Read your crib notes file (CRIB.TXT:0)
Run The Demo Games.(DEMO.B4S,MLDEMO.BIN)*
Run The Dumb Terminal(requires a serial cable for the bit
banger.)
Run The Disk Backup Program( Requires a drivewire server
connected to the Bit Banger works similar to the program WIRED.)
Run The Drive Wire Terminal( Requires a drivewire cable
connection to a PC and a special BBS program runing on the PC.)
Exit to Basic in Tape Mode
Exit to Basic in Drive Wire Mode
All these programs are saved on Udisk-0 formated as a 35 Track single sided
drive on the NVRAM.
Reading about all the new features you are eager to try them out but taking
the advice in the manual you want to make a backup of the Udisk-0 first.
Here are some options.
Follow These Steps:
Connect a drivewire server to your CoCo 5.
Eject any virtual drive from drive 0 in the server menu.
Create a New virtual drive in RSDOS format.
If you have not already exited from the beginners guide ^X to
exit.
Choose option 6 from the menu
The program will make the backup, confirm the backup and then
remind you to save it on the server side.
Save the Backup Image from drivewire on your server.
If you have Toolshed on the server use it's decb dir
command to confirm the contents
For example if you named your backup file CoCo5-U0-122623.dsk decb dir CoCo5-U0-122623.dsk
If you do not have a drivewire cable you can use the FOCUS key or
right button on an attached USB mouse to acess the Master Supervisory
Program runing on CPU#0 and then at the Supervisor Prompt type the
commands SETIME; PAIR; BACKUP NVRAM.
The first command lets you manually set the date and time if it is
already set by having initialized RTC hardware attached to any cartridge
slot this command can be skiped.
The second command opens a pairing interface to do Bluetooth pairing
with your phone or other device.
The third command sends the a backup via bluetooth to a file named
CC5NVRmmddyyyy.c5i where mmddyyyy is the
month year and date of the backup for example 01022024 if it was January
2nd 2024 that the backup was done and I have chosen c5i as extension as
short for CoCo5 Image.
Alternatively you could backup U0 to a floppy or Hard drive but you
would first have to reconfigure the coco5 to Dual-CoCo mode so that will
be covered in the next section.
Or you can download a generic backup from the internet.
Mode Switch Set to 4
The mode switch is only read on power up so if you change the mode
switch you must power cycle after.
If set the switch to 3 you boot to a screen not much different from a
Color Computer 3's start screen.
If set the switch to 4 you boot to a menu that has the following
items:***
SW 4
POWER UP
START MENU
Assembler/Debugger.
BASIC.
Change Master Settings.
Drivewire Server Boot.
Enter Hardware Configuration Mode.
Function Key Configuration.
Choose A B C D E or F.
Note how the option BASIC is underlined pressing Enter , Spacebar or
typing B (case insensitive) drops you to the Basic 4 prompt.
To make another selection type A, C, D, E or F or use the arrow keys
to change the underlined entry and then press Spacebar or the Enter
key.
Assembler/Debugger.
If you choose A and only have a One
Monitor attached you will get the message:
This Assembler
requires both
VGA and a Composite Monitors attached. Press any key to return to the START menu.
If you can start the
assembler it will ask If you are developing for a High res. ( Over 800x480
) or Low res. ( Under 800x480 ).
If you choose High res the
assembler will open on the Composite Monitor in a 64 Column Grey Scale
mode that should be quite readable even on a poor TV after editing the
assembler program you press ^R to run it and it runs on the VGA
monitor in resolutions up to 1280x960.
On the other hand if you
select the Low res. the assembler will run in 132 column mode on a
1280x720 screen on the VGA monitor and when you press ^R the program will
run on the TV.
Before the assembler proper
is started the following form questions need to be answered.
If you choose D and are in Tri-Coco mode then CoCo Blue will boot
from a running Drivewire server's Drive 0 if it is attached to the
Bit-Banger.
If in Dual-CoCo mode then CoCo Red will Boot
from a running Drivewire server's Drive 0 if it is attached to the
the designated PRIMARY SERIAL PORT of the CoCo Red.
Ideally this BOOT should apply not only to
OS-9 virtual disks but to any disk that has been setup so that typing DOS
in Basic causes a program to boot.