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TIPi v Atari 8-bits FujiNet


Airshack

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Looks like an interesting low cost device.  I suppose we could have gone that path at one time, but now with either TIPI (WiFi) design or even a Nano/HDX (cable) configuration there are choices already.  Also with the SDD 99 (WiFi) on the horizon, there will be yet another alternative.  

 

The Atari has a nice little connector on the back of the computer which makes this a sweet little enhancement for it's architecture.  Sadly the TI is a whole different ballgame.  If one wanted to make something like this, they would need to come off the side port with a daisy-chain design, so I'm imagining the costs getting away from 'marketable' with all the options we currently have/will have.

 

Now for me personally, if I had an Atari I'd probably do this, but I'm in love with my TIPI and it's ever growing capabilities.

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34 minutes ago, Airshack said:

This looks interesting over at the Atari 8-bit pages:  

 

Uses WiFi to boot off of disk images on a LAN or the internet. Explained in podcast: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-63-sillyventure-and-fujinet

 

Will the TI TIPi gurus please compare and contrast these projects?

 

 

 

It actually does a lot more than that, the disk emulation is merely what's being fleshed out now. I've demonstrated TCP and UDP communication, as well as WiFi Modem emulation. @jeffpiep has also demonstrated printing emulation, and more is planned.

 

-Thom

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Thom does it have large onboard storage or you connect to that over TCP? also does it allow for modern peripherals to be accessed on the atari?   how about printing emulation?
 
Greg
The latest design has a MicroSD slot so it can use that as storage. Also, they have internal flash storage (typically 4MB) that is used for storing the code/binary and whatever else fits in the remainder. We are already able to boot from disk images in the 'cloud' using TNFS protocol. Printer emulation is progressing well. We can print to pdf files that are downloaded from the device.

Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk

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1 minute ago, mozzwald said:

The latest design has a MicroSD slot so it can use that as storage. Also, they have internal flash storage (typically 4MB) that is used for storing the code/binary and whatever else fits in the remainder. We are already able to boot from disk images in the 'cloud' using TNFS protocol. Printer emulation is progressing well. We can print to pdf files that are downloaded from the device.

Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk
 

 

nice, when can I get one ;)

 

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cool.. so in a nutshell they are pretty equivalent.. 

 

the big difference is TIPI leverages a Raspberry PI by doing all the hard work interfacing the TI's sidecar port or PEB with the GPIO and then the PI does all the rest.. everything is code after that point..  the DSR had to be designed and programmed to give standard device interfaces for any device access on the TI while messaging is handled through a memory location off the cru address.  Theoretically anything plugged into the PI could be accessed from the TI with some software on the PI side doing the hooks. 

 

The FUJI is what seems to be open source hardware modules on a PCB that plugs into the serial interface of the ATARI which already has a standard protocol for communication over it, their disk, serial, printer, whatever already are serial protocol over that port making it just a matter of responding to the ATARI just like the old devices with new tricks.  They are still in development so what it "can do" is semi-fluid but they can pretty much do similar things to the TIPI.   Likely you could do the same thing with a C64 which also uses a serial port to communicate with most of it's peripherals. 

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@arcadeshopper short answer, yes, all of the above. :)

 

The printing emulation is being bootstrapped as a "render to PDF", with the intent that we connect the result to IPP Everywhere, and cloud based printing, so that it can be used out of the box to print to a wide variety of printers. We have started with Atari 1027 printing emulation (the 1027 being the letter quality printer with the magical decaying print head), and will be expanding to other Atari printers (1025, 820, 825, etc.), with Epson FX being the penultimate emulation. 

 

As for modern peripherals, the door is definitely open there, the ESP32 has bluetooth, so bluetooth devices could be paired (@themontezuma demonstrated a bluetooth bridge connecting SIO2BT running on an Android phone, to FujiNet).

 

Where things get really interesting, is that there is enough muscle on the ESP8266 and ESP32 to handle TLS and DTLS communication. This to me, is earth shattering, as it means that we'll be able to do SSH directly, and be able to do HTTPS to modern web APIs.

 

As for what I'm working on right now, I'm trying to get the disk emulation debugged, and trying to figure out a solution to the ESP32's slightly slower UART to handle timing discrepancies (SIO timings are very tight, average 100-400 microseconds, and if you blow them, the protocol falls apart), so I will be trying to see if moving the code to IDF directly will help.

 

-Thom

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Cheaper hardware could have been used to build the core features I and Corey wanted for TIPI originally, but in retrospect Corey's suggestion to use the PI was a game changer.

 

It is easy for me to extend to new services with the majority of it written in python on top of a full Linux OS. 

 

On the 4A, we don't have something like the SIO port, or C64 serial disk drive port. So the barrier to entry to was higher to get to TI interface standards. For this reason I had to build the TIPI pcb, and the ROM extension, as the 4A internal ROM has no knowledge of disk drives.

 

I have been watching the FujiNet, I have a highly expanded 130XE. Watching is what motivated me to get off my ass and hook up the full color Epson printer emulation to PDF. About 4 hours of coding to integrate, not counting time just playing with it. The full Linux OS is the gift that keeps on giving. 

 

Disk image conversion also comes from integration. I wrote code to convert track images to sector dumps, then delegate the filesystem extraction to xdt99. 

 

We had the connected to another computer solution before in Fred Kaal's HDX mod, but I wanted to be able to treat the TIPI solution like a TI hard drive, that is also a NAS. FujiNet can work that way too. Thom was smart to grab the TNFS stuff from ZX Spectrum fame. I am in the process of setting up a PI dedicated to TNFS, for my Spectrum. 

 

Thom's work is awesome. 

 

-M@

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