== 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 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.

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One of the first things you will need is a cable. In order to connect your CoCo to a PC being used as a DriveWire server, you will need a bit-banger to DB-9 serial cable. Again, [http://www.cloud9tech.com Cloud9] sells these cables. Conversely, you may build your own based upon the following diagram:

[[File:Coco_to_pc_cable.gif]]

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== Drive Wire 3 ==

DriveWire 3 act solely as a virtual disk server for a CoCo. Written by Boisy Pitre and sold thru [http://www.cloud9tech.com Cloud9], DriveWire3 is a great tool for those needing just a virtual disk server. The DriveWire 3 PC server software can be downloaded [http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Software/DriveWire3.html Here].

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 [http://www.frontiernet.net/~mmarlette/Cloud-9/Software/DriveWire3.html Cloud9] DriveWire3 page.

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== 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 and many more.

To use DriveWire 4, you still need the cable shown above. Next, 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.

You get get the most recent version or DriveWire 4 by visiting [https://sites.google.com/site/drivewire4/ Aaron's website] and following the links. As you'll soon see, DriveWire 4 supports several computing platforms including all versions of the CoCo.

== MORE TO COME ==

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