TRS-80 Semi-Virtual Disk Drive - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

22 Dec 2002

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