mozzwald Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 I recently started working on getting my Atari 400 connected to a bbs over telnet/wifi with an esp8266 and wanted to share. I didn't find much about using an esp8266 as a modem with the Atari 8-bits. I don't have much atari hardware and no SIO cable so, I first made a SIO23v3 breakout. More info on the board at the OSHPark Project page. The idea came from the atari8warez Poor Man's SIO cable and is an edge connector that fits between the two SIO port pin rows. The Data In, Data Out and Command pins are level shifted with mosfets (based off the SparkFun Bi-Directional Level Shifter). This board could also be used for connecting to a Raspberry Pi or other lower voltage device. I'm planning to build another for use with my Zipit Z2 Handheld and sio2bsd. I have an ESP-01 board that I'm using with this modem emulator. The code is built and uploaded to the esp8266 with the Arduino IDE. The esp8266 is powered by the Atari 5V through a regulator. The command pin is not used at the moment. The ESP-01 is very minimal with few pins but other esp8266 versions have more pins available (can add sd card socket). The modem software uses AT commands for connecting to access points, speed dial, baud rate, saving settings, etc. I tested both bobterm and icet with the RS232.COM handler and was able to connect to a bbs. The modem also allows incoming connections over telnet which worked from my linux pc. This is the extent of my testing so far and only at 9600 baud. A couple of other ideas I had (unsure of the feasibility): add SIO2Arduino to load the term software and handler add SIO2Arduino and sd card; use wifi/webserver on esp8266 to load floppies (plus modem emu?) 850 emulation? Anyhow, as a plain old telnet modem it seems to work well 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 Interesting. Look here: http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=227879#p227879- other SIO2WiFi project (in early stage). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 If you had CD and a few handshake lines in there, it would work great for a BBS. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamejay Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Great project. I have created a modem for a Commodore 64 using the same code as you are using. I had the idea of creating a modem for the Atari but I never got around to it. Glad your proof of concept works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Nice.....! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikerbob Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Well I cant read the polish page... and the tech wiz guy I am cant figure out how to good translate this early in the morning.. so when someone gets this project to the pre-order stage.. let me know!!! James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzwald Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 If you had CD and a few handshake lines in there, it would work great for a BBS. I'm guessing the handshaking would hafta be done through a joystick port? Great project. I have created a modem for a Commodore 64 using the same code as you are using. I had the idea of creating a modem for the Atari but I never got around to it. Glad your proof of concept works The code was chosen because it has many features I was looking for in a modem. I searched for commodore modems since I couldn't find any Atari ones and this popped up. I tested ok on a PC so I figured it would work with with the RS232.COM handler (is it called bobverter or Rverter?) Interesting. Look here: http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=227879#p227879-other SIO2WiFi project (in early stage). Well I cant read the polish page... and the tech wiz guy I am cant figure out how to good translate this early in the morning.. so when someone gets this project to the pre-order stage.. let me know!!! James Google Translation Here but it's still a difficult read I did a little more testing with bobterm and occationally the system would "freeze" and keyboard input would stop working (pokey overloaded?) but after resetting the esp modem it would start working again. I will do some more testing at a slower baud rate when time permits. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 I'm guessing the handshaking would hafta be done through a joystick port? . That's how I would do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricortes Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 It would be possible to modify to ESP8266 for, well everything. There are several variations but all of them have unused I/O bits. There is no good reason why you couldn't use the I/O pins to do hand shaking for anything from CTS/RTS or for that matter, the Atari SIO COMMAND line. I mean you could really make it an Atari serial device just like a disk drive or modem. The built in MCU isn't enough to get me switched from the other micros, in particular the ARM series, but if there was no ARM the ESP would probably be my favorite. The ESP is open source and has most of the features you could want like ability to interface with a SD memory card. The downsides are it is mainly a linux development system<I have't gotten around to setting up a SDK on a linux box yet> and not a great knowledge base available to draw from unless you speak Chinese. Still, most of the tools are sort'a available so you can work in Windows. I've bought a number of versions of the ESP and my current favorite incarnation is NodeMCU because it provides more pinouts, 5V to 3.3V regulator, and USB interface for <$10. The low cost ones are <$3 and have the same processor/WiFi but without the bells and whistles i.e. you need to bring your own USB to serial converter. I am currently using the Arduino SDK with the ESP libraries installed to test out features. There is a Lua version of the chip available but gawd help me, I just can't learn yet another programming language. So much could be done with this little chip but the effort to do it right would kill an ordinary human being. I mean stuff like making it a combination hard drive, WiFi, et al interface on the Atari sio chain. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechCowboy Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 I find this fascinating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w1k Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 im interested.. wow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffpiep Posted May 3, 2017 Share Posted May 3, 2017 (edited) Very nice! Does this look like R: to the Atari? I see you are using Rverter. I've been using NodeMCU dev1.0 boards (ESP-12-E core) with the Arduino platform for embedded projects. I just switched my IDE to platformio still using Arduino. Edited May 3, 2017 by jeffpiep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkerfoot Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 I don't have much atari hardware and no SIO cable so, I first made a SIO23v3 breakout. More info on the board at the OSHPark Project page. Thanks for this! I was just designing something similar for connecting a Raspberry Pi Zero W (including the Poor Man's SIO approach) when I stumbled onto this. Very nice that we can get 3 of the boards for under $6 shipped! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gargoyle Posted May 6, 2017 Share Posted May 6, 2017 Nice work, looks interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenious Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 We got it working over at atari-forum with an ST, successfully surfing with an ESP8266 over the 19200bps serial port. http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=31586 Also, C64 adapted ones are now selling on ebay, ie working as a modem, connecting them to telnet BBS's. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Ordered 2 each of these last night to play with: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 112216067429 eBay Auction -- Item Number: 112386042966 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Just make sure to get the 5 volt versions... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Yep, the adapter should take care of it, but I just added 2 of the max3232 adapters as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzwald Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 Thanks for this! I was just designing something similar for connecting a Raspberry Pi Zero W (including the Poor Man's SIO approach) when I stumbled onto this. Very nice that we can get 3 of the boards for under $6 shipped! Awesome, I'm glad it's useful for someone else too! --- I haven't had much time to experiment with the ESP and A400 until recently. Today, I was able to get SIO2Arduino running on the ESP-01 and load an ATR image file from the ESP internal flash using SPIFFS. Writing to disk doesn't work, it's read only, but I tried several different disk images which loaded ok. The timing may be off a bit as it seems to pause a couple times during the disk load, but eventually does finish. My plan for this is to use SIO2Arduino in conjunction with the modem firmware so I can plug this in and autorun bobterm or ice-t or whatever and telnet over wifi. Could probably be used to load disk images over wifi and/or save them to an sd card. Some sort of SDrive over wifi to download ATR's from a server would be cool. I need to get an esp12 that has more pins for sd card. Attached is the modified SIO2Arduino code that can be flashed with the Arduino IDE and esp8266 core. Warning, I'm not a programmer, this is a hack job and unfinished, but it worked for me. My esp01 flash size is 512K with 128K SPIFFS which is just enough room for a disk image. This instructable shows how to upload files into SPIFFS from the Arduino IDE. GPIO2 on the esp01 is used for the COMMAND pin. I'll update if/when I get any further SIO2ESP_Testing_20170708.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Both Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Yep, the adapter should take care of it, but I just added 2 of the max3232 adapters as well... Dear Geezer, what is the MAX2322 IC good for, in conjunction with the ESP chip? I thought, I'd need a levelshifter 5 to 3.3 Volt. But the MAX chip is a 0/5 to 12/-12 Volt, isnt it ? ( :confused : ) Stefan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Dear Geezer, what is the MAX2322 IC good for, in conjunction with the ESP chip? But the MAX chip is a 0/5 to 12/-12 Volt, isnt it ? ( :confused : ) Stefan The MAX2322 chip runs on 3.3 volts protecting the other boards from a 5volt overload on TTL levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Both Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 So it's used as a level shifter ? (even more confused) Stefan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Check out this page: https://www.chzsoft.de/site/hardware/connecting-the-atari-st-to-the-internet/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 Slight confusion on the part number, this is the one you would be interested in: MAX3232 Datasheet (same as used in that "Connecting the Atari ST to the Internet" project). A MAX2322 is an entirely different animal. - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Both Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 I see... The page you mentioned handles Atari 16 bit, with a real RS232Serial port. The question mark in my head was the relation between Atari 8bit and +- 12 V level. I probably missed something. Because of the 5 V level of the atari in the first picture, I expected a level shifter 3.3 <-> 5 V instead. I ordered 5 ESPs yesterday. Its my hope to bring my C64, the Amiga AND OF COURSE my 800xl online. While I know how to build it for the opposite, I was searching for a "how to" regarding the A8bits. That is, why I was pointed to this thread. Thank you for the clarification! Stefan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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