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SIO Wifi modem with esp8266


mozzwald

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Hi,

 

I am interested in building an Sdrive-Max, but have seen Arduino boards that include the esp8266, and 8mb of flash, if you Google "Converter CH340G CH340 ATmega328P ATmega328 Mega328 Mega328P For Arduino Nodemcu Module ONE" there are several on AliExpress. I'm curious if an Sdrive Max can access the 8mb as drive storage, and also the onboard esp8266 for an SIO WiFi modem. Does anyone who has Arduino/esp8266 know how practical this would be?

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Espressif who designed the ESP-01 states the default is actually set to 115200, but depending on the 'source' of the particular ESP-01 you have, could be set at nearly any baud.

 

I used an Arduino Mega 2560 to program the baud rate down. I also used the development board to setup the ESP-01 to connect to my wireless network through the Arduino software serial monitor program. Now I'm sure you can go with a smaller arduino development board a UNO or something like it.

 

I'm beginning to think the ESP-01 module I received has corrupted firmware. It should be working normally on a PC and it isn't. I've got a replacement ESP-01 coming from a second source along with a firmware USB programmer module coming too. Should be here by the end of the week.

Thanks for the info, also been reading up on changing the baud rate and it seems that if you use the wrong AT command to set the baud rate, it can brick the ESP-01, but only needs to be reflashed with the current AT Firmware to use AT+DEFBAUD=9600,8,1,0,0.....

 

:Lots of info on this bugger on the web.

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I built something similar based on this here http://subethasoftware.com/2018/02/01/wifi-coco-for-15-or-for-any-retro-computer-with-an-rs-232-port/. Of course it's initially intended for a Coco, but given the design it should work on most anything. Of course the problem is that the A8 series has only one SIO port. I'm loading software via an SIO2PC USB cable, so that occupies the SIO port I'd be connecting with. Perhaps I could set up some sort of SIO pass through like a lot of Atari's accessories had, though I don't know how those work.

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From what I've read, the ESP-01 is initially set to 57,600 baud and you need an Arduino or Sparkfun board to configure / re-program it.

At the moment I have BobTerm set to 19.2k and it doesn't return "OK" when AT<return> is sent. Even tried slower baud rates too.

When powered up, the Red LED comes on and the Blue LED flashes when it sends the initial "ready" message...

 

You can use my SIO terminal to send command with various baud-rates over SIO.

Set baudreat with control-#

Just type AT (return), if you get OK the baud-rate is set ok.

After changing the baud-rate of your device, you need to match it again...

 

http://www.mr-atari.com/Mr.Atari/SIO2BT/

I made it some years ago to support SIO2BT users.

Let me know if it works on the ESP.

 

I do have a unreleased 115k version too, but you need to remove all caps on the SIO-port.

What I really not recommend.....

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

post-6668-0-05056600-1536040845.png

Edited by mr-atari
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You can use my SIO terminal to send command with various baud-rates over SIO.

Set baudreat with control-#

Just type AT (return), if you get OK the baud-rate is set ok.

After changing the baud-rate of your device, you need to match it again...

 

http://www.mr-atari.com/Mr.Atari/SIO2BT/

I made it some years ago to support SIO2BT users.

Let me know if it works on the ESP.

 

I do have a unreleased 115k version too, but you need to remove all caps on the SIO-port.

What I really not recommend.....

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

Unfortunately, sio-term crashes on my NTSC 800XL and in Altirra (in NTSC mode).

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I built something similar based on this here http://subethasoftware.com/2018/02/01/wifi-coco-for-15-or-for-any-retro-computer-with-an-rs-232-port/. Of course it's initially intended for a Coco, but given the design it should work on most anything. Of course the problem is that the A8 series has only one SIO port. I'm loading software via an SIO2PC USB cable, so that occupies the SIO port I'd be connecting with. Perhaps I could set up some sort of SIO pass through like a lot of Atari's accessories had, though I don't know how those work.

 

Ok you got my attention with that subetha post. Now that I have my 850->RiPi(tcpser) working I've ordered those parts in that article and will try and get something going without the need for a RPi and tcpser.

 

I'll still need the 850, but I also may grab a 1030 and see if that works as it has for others as they are cheap and plentiful on ebay.

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Unfortunately, sio-term crashes on my NTSC 800XL and in Altirra (in NTSC mode).

 

Hmmm, after all these time, you are the first who noticed and reported this.

Since I am a PAL user, I rarely check on NTSC.

So, back to the source-code, figure out what the problem is and I upload here.

 

Any requests for a "second" release?

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Well, NTSC does not have 312 scanlines.....

(Waiting for a VBLANK)

This is a very stupid bug.

 

:-P

 

Here is a new version of SIO-terminal.

 

I also included a LiteDOS disk with my R-device for ESP8266 (and other direct SIO devices).

The disk is a beta, no final release.

See for more info here.

http://www.mr-atari.com/Mr.Atari/LiteDOS/

 

 

LiteDOS:

type 1 (enter) for DIR, navigate to file you want, replace first character of size in L (enter) to load.

Simple as that.

 

So:

Boot without BASIC, load the R-driver, select baudrate, then plato or bobterm.

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

post-6668-0-01481900-1536127324.png

Edited by mr-atari
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Well, NTSC does not have 312 scanlines.....

(Waiting for a VBLANK)

This is a very stupid bug.

 

:-P

 

Here is a new version of SIO-terminal.

 

I also included a LiteDOS disk with my R-device for ESP8266 (and other direct SIO devices).

The disk is a beta, no final release.

See for more info here.

http://www.mr-atari.com/Mr.Atari/LiteDOS/

 

 

LiteDOS:

type 1 (enter) for DIR, navigate to file you want, replace first character of size in L (enter) to load.

Simple as that.

 

So:

Boot without BASIC, load the R-driver, select baudrate, then plaro or bobterm.

 

Grtz,

Sijmen.

 

Sweet! Well done old friend. :D

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Rverter R: driver uses the Motor signal to enable the serial device (similar to concurrent mode). If disk drive access is needed it assert the motor signal, so the Sio bus is free to be used by the disk drive communication.

The only recommendation I have is to use external power for esp-01 and rverter like interface , since I tried with +5v/ready from the Sio bus and I had problems.

 

Looking at the pictures you posted of the ESPThingy in your 1030, I didn't see a level shifter. Is that because the ESP8266 adapter board handles that?

 

Also I see a electrolytic cap. Is that necessary? I thought the C1 in Both's schematic is for a bypass cap for the ls00 chip only.

 

I'm just trying to figure out why mine isn't working still.

 

I've found a USB connector breakout board I bought some time ago and I'll be attempting to provide external power to the adapter if I can find a +5V USB power/charger cable that matches. :( Too many rotted USB power cables with incompatible connectors on the end......

 

Also one last question...... Did you change the CWMODE of the ESP01?

Edited by Dropcheck
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I just want to report that the I have managed to turn the Atari 1030 "connect" LED on, when the esp-01 establish a connection (and turn it off when disconnected). I think it is very simple but cool!

I will post the circuit. But it just a pn2222a transistor I got from the junk box, and a couple of resistors: one 3k3 as pull up (otherwise the esp-01 does not boot), and another one I don't remember now, to interface the GPIO with the base to put the transistor in "saturation mode"

. Still the Atari 1030 is working and the original circuitry of the modem can turn on the LED, so this mod is a not destructive mod.

 

I wouldn't mind a quick schematic on how it's done. ;-)

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@ Mr. Atari,

 

is the rverter locked at initial configured baud rate or will it be affected by changing baud in terminal programs such as bobterm etc.... I am asking before messing with it, that could prevent me from making assumptions or mistakes, or have the terminal programs been modified also?

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Looking at the pictures you posted of the ESPThingy in your 1030, I didn't see a level shifter. Is that because the ESP8266 adapter board handles that?

 

Also I see a electrolytic cap. Is that necessary? I thought the C1 in Both's schematic is for a bypass cap for the ls00 chip only.

 

I'm just trying to figure out why mine isn't working still.

 

I've found a USB connector breakout board I bought some time ago and I'll be attempting to provide external power to the adapter if I can find a +5V USB power/charger cable that matches. :( Too many rotted USB power cables with incompatible connectors on the end......

 

Also one last question...... Did you change the CWMODE of the ESP01?

 

The misspelled "Adatper" do the level shift stuff. That way you don;t worry about that, just 5v gnd tx and rxm everything at 5V levels.I used the Cap because I mimic the rverter original interface (minus the max232 since it is not needed). It is just the typical Cap to make the voltage "better", less ripple, more stable, I don't think is critical.I got rid of the original firmware, right away, so I didn't deal with that CW mode stuff. I am using Zimodem firmware, because is it simpler to use, just atdt number or address, it has translation, and an address book included, among other features. I can send the compiled version so people here won;t need to install and compile the code using Arduino IDE. I used a python tool to upload the firmware to the esp01 (esptool.py).Later today I can provide a list of commands to connect to a telnet server using the original AT firmware, which was my original plan, so you can try that and stick with that firmware.

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The misspelled "Adatper" do the level shift stuff. That way you don;t worry about that, just 5v gnd tx and rxm everything at 5V levels. I used the Cap because I mimic the rverter original interface (minus the max232 since it is not needed). It is just the typical Cap to make the voltage "better", less ripple, more stable, I don't think is critical. I got rid of the original firmware, right away, so I didn't deal with that CW mode stuff. I am using Zimodem firmware, because is it simpler to use, just atdt number or address, it has translation, and an address book included, among other features. I can send the compiled version so people here won;t need to install and compile the code using Arduino IDE. I used a python tool to upload the firmware to the esp01 (esptool.py). Later today I can provide a list of commands to connect to a telnet server using the original AT firmware, which was my original plan, so you can try that and stick with that firmware.

 

 

Thank you. ;-) I would appreciate it.

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I'm just trying to figure out why mine isn't working still.

 

I've found a USB connector breakout board I bought some time ago and I'll be attempting to provide external power to the adapter if I can find a +5V USB power/charger cable that matches. :( Too many rotted USB power cables with incompatible connectors on the end......

Did you try replacing the 74xx00 chip yet?

This thing has a very minimal current draw from the SIO port...

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Thank you. ;-) I would appreciate it.

Ok.. This is what - I guess - needs to be done to connect using the original at firmware:

AT
AT+GMR
AT+CWMODE=1
AT+CIFSR
AT+CWJAP_DEF="replace with wifi name","replace with password"
AT+CWAUTOCONN=1
AT+UART_DEF?
AT+UART_DEF=9600,8,1,0,0 set comm params
AT+CIPMODE=1 transparent mode or everything get ipd prefix
AT+CIPMUX=0 no multiplexing
AT+CIPSTART="TCP","vintagebbsing.com",2325 this is one example
AT+CIPSEND to start sending your stuff to the server
Edited by manterola
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Now regarding the Zimodem firmware. The way I did it was just send a pre-compiled version to the esp-01. It turned out that the version has problems saving changes (like wifi pasword or address book).


This is a known bug of some esp-01s:




So I ended up installing arduino and compiling Zimodem by myself. I also took advantage of having the code and set the default baud rate to 2400 and changed the Pet-ascii translation tables to Atascii-Ascii. All the menus and options still refers to pet-ascii translation (like atdp), I did not change that.


It was pretty straight forward to write the firmware to esp-01 if you don't need to compile. In Linux I used esptool.py. Not sure how it will work on windows or macosx, probably it will work. Find all about esptool.py in the website:





You need to do something like this to write the firmware (first you need to put the esp-01 in programming mode)


sudo esptool.py --baud 115200 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --before no_reset --after no_reset write_flash --flash_mode qio 0x00000 zimodem.ino.generic.bin



I hope this help you guys in your endevoir

ps: not sure if this forum accept .bin, hopefully it will work.









zimodem.ino.generic.bin

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Mr. Atari,

can't get litedos to copy to mio ramdisk, or even to a MyIDE hard drive/cf card... it might read from them but it sure won't write to them. I did get it to init but not copy....

 

Interestingly bobterm1.23? will control rts and dtr on the MIO in that when accessing a disk drive directory it will drop rts or when hanging up it will drop dtr... this is a desirable behavior at higher speeds, not sure if it triggers at buffer high water mark for terminal but it might.... I was only able to play with it in the litedos environment. I will look for some old dos 2 or 2.5 disks and see if I can get them moved off the litedos disk in some way. Sparta X said no way, as did 3.2... so off we go.

 

of course 130XE ntsc, mio or myide+flash... not tried it on black box yet, but I won't be formatting a hard drive partition to a litedos only format... :)

Edited by _The Doctor__
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@ Mr. Atari,

 

is the rverter locked at initial configured baud rate or will it be affected by changing baud in terminal programs such as bobterm etc.... I am asking before messing with it, that could prevent me from making assumptions or mistakes, or have the terminal programs been modified also?

 

The baudrate is set and locked in the driver.

So every time you open device R: this baud-rate is used to communicate over the SIO port.

Nothing you tell CIO to configure R: will do anything, the driver response is "OK"....

 

The R driver I wrote is meant for the ESP-8266 with adapter-board, connected directly to the SIO.

Like SIO2BT is connected, using RX/TX/5v/gnd.

The adapter-board will handle the correct voltages.

Since I have more devices connected to SIO, I will add a signal-diode too.

The driver also uses motor_control, so Rverter and others should.

 

See drawing how I want connect my setup, I am going to mount it inside my Atari.

 

Going to use SIO-term to configure the ESP.

 

No postman yet, so still waiting.... since 19 august.... will it ever come... cheap buy from china.

 

(All software tested and working on Altirra)

Edited by mr-atari
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