TRS-80 Semi-Virtual Disk Drive

Neat device. I could beta-test on a TRS-80 Model I. Now if someone could build such a device for the Apple Lisa 2/10 and the lousy widget hard drives. -Chandra -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-admin@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Eric J. Rothfus Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 11:02 AM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: TRS-80 Semi-Virtual Disk Drive Many months ago, due to my frustration trying to find real floppies to run on my TRS-80's, I began to build a virtual floppy drive for it. The idea is that I can download software from the Internet (like Ira's great site) and run it on my TRS-80 without having to make a floppy. This little box (the SVD) has an RS232 port on one side, and a TRS-80 floppy edge-card connector on the other. You download a DMK image to the SVD and the TRS-80 will boot off of it. You can use the standard TRS-80 DOS tools then to make a copy of the disk...or whatever. The box is in pretty good shape now, but still not fully functional. You can boot most OS's and even many copy-protected disks. You can't, though, write to the SVD from the TRS-80. I'm looking to make this box available for all TRS-80 nuts. I don't want to make any money off of it, but would like to use any profits (beyond cost of parts) to fund sites like Ira's or other vintage computer concerns. And the more people who will buy it, the cheaper the cost of parts. I'm guessing that I can get the cost of the box down to $50 for parts, so I'm thinking that a $75 price tag would work. Soooo, I'm looking for one or two beta testers to help me make sure that I've covered all of my bases, as well as to help move the SVD forward. I need help in testing, but also writing useful software for Linux and Windows to manage the download to the SVD. Also, I'm going to need help figuring out the copy-protection of some disks. Any volunteers out there? For more information, check out the beginnings of the SVD web-site: http://www.rothfus.com/SVD . Or just e-mail me eric(a)rothfus.com. Thanks! Eric Rothfus