Category Archives: KenTon SCSI Interface

FOR SALE: Ken-Ton SCSI Interfaces and RS-232 Dual Comm Paks

I have three Ken-Ton auctions going now:

  1. Ken-Ton SCSI Interface with ROM socket, EEPROM of RGB-DOS and cable: https://www.ebay.com/itm/333204969219
  2. Ken-Ton SCSI Interface (only):https://www.ebay.com/itm/333204988258
  3. Ken-Ton RS-232 Dual Comm Pak (two RS-232 device):https://www.ebay.com/itm/333204996813

I may also be selling my SuperIDE interface, though I am currently using it just as a realtime clock. I need to find another clock solution before I let that one go.

Building KenTon/LR-Tech SCSI drivers for NitrOS-9

While the NitrOS-9 project does contain drivers for the KenTon and LR-Tech hard drive interfaces, they are not built or included by default. I wanted to document the steps I took to build and use the KenTon interface under the current NitrOS-9.

Basically, you will be modifying a few makefiles to enable the building of the low level booter, device drivers and device descriptors. If I recall, the changes are the same for each of these makefiles, but you only need to make them for the one you are using. If you are only using the KenTon drivers under NitrOS-9 Level 2 on a CoCo 3, just do that makefile.

  • nitros9/level1/coco1/modules/makefile
  • nitros9/level2/coco3/modules/makefile
  • nitros9/level3/coco3/modules/makefile

Step 1 – Add “KTLRFLAGS”.

These generate the define used inside the generic SCSI source code so it knows which code to build.

TC3FLAGS = $(AFLAGS) -DTC3=1 $(FLAGS)
KTLRFLAGS = $(AFLAGS) -DKTLR=1 $(FLAGS)
IDEFLAGS = $(AFLAGS) -DIDE=1 $(FLAGS)

Step 2 – Add “boot_ktlr” to the BOOTER list.

This makes it a dependency so make will look for it and try to build it. I added it in the middle of the list so when you get updates, it will be easier for the “diff” tool to see what has changed.

BOOTERS = boot_1773_6ms boot_1773_30ms \
 boot_burke boot_rampak boot_wd1002 boot_dw \
 boot_tc3 boot_ide boot_rom boot_dw_becker \
 boot_ktlr \
 boot_dw_arduino boot_dw_38400 boot_sdc

Step 3 – Add the modules to the RBF list.

RBF = rbf.mn \
 rbdw.dr dwio.sb dwio_38400.sb dwio_becker.sb dwio_arduino.sb \
 rb1773.dr rb1773_scii_ff74.dr rb1773_scii_ff58.dr \
 ddd0_35s.dd d0_35s.dd d1_35s.dd d2_35s.dd d3_35s.dd \
 ddd0_40d.dd d0_40d.dd d1_40d.dd d2_40d.dd \
 ddd0_80d.dd d0_80d.dd d1_80d.dd d2_80d.dd \
 ddx0.dd x0.dd x1.dd x2.dd x3.dd \
 rbsuper.dr lltc3.dr llide.dr llcocosdc.dr \
 llktlr.dr \
 dds0_ktlr.dd s0_ktlr.dd s1_ktlr.dd s2_ktlr.dd s3_ktlr.dd s4_ktlr.dd \
     s5_ktlr.dd s6_ktlr.dd sh_ktlr.dd \
 ddi0_ide.dd i0_ide.dd i1_ide.dd ih_ide.dd \
 dds0_tc3.dd s0_tc3.dd s1_tc3.dd s2_tc3.dd s3_tc3.dd s4_tc3.dd \
     s5_tc3.dd s6_tc3.dd sh_tc3.dd \
 ddsd0_cocosdc.dd sd0_cocosdc.dd sd1_cocosdc.dd

Step 4 – Add the dependency to build the driver:

# TC^3 SCSI Booter
boot_tc3: boot_scsi.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(TC3FLAGS)

# KenTon/LR-Tech SCSI Booter
boot_ktlr: boot_scsi.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS)
 
# SuperIDE/Glenside IDE Booter
boot_ide: boot_ide.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(IDEFLAGS)

Step 5 – Add the dependencies for building each descriptor. I put mine after the existing TC3 SCSI driver stuff:

sh_tc3.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(TC3FLAGS) $(HDBDOS)

# KenTon/LR-Tech SCSI Descriptors
dds0_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID0) -DDD=1

s0_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID0) $(SCSI_HD)

s1_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID1) $(SCSI_HD)

s2_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID2) $(SCSI_HD)

s3_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID3) $(SCSI_HD)

s4_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID4) $(SCSI_HD)

s5_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID5) $(SCSI_HD)

s6_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(ID6) $(SCSI_HD)

sh_ktlr.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(KTLRFLAGS) $(HDBDOS)

# IDE Descriptors
ddi0_ide.dd: superdesc.asm
 $(AS) $(ASOUT)$@ $< $(IDEFLAGS) $(MASTER) -DDD=1

Now those modules should be built and made available for including in your bootfile. You could do this by editing the bootlist you are using:

  • nitros9/level1/coco1/bootlists/standard.bl
  • nitros9/level2/coco3/bootlists/standard.bl
  • nitros9/level3/coco3/bootlists/standardL3.bl

Or you could use a bootfile editor like ezgen to add them to your current bootfile. Or, if you were just doing something temporary (like I was, to pull data from hard drives), you could just merge the needed modules together and dynamically load them when you need to use the SCSI drive.

Hopefully this will be helpful to someone else.