PlusCart (an inexpensive DIY WiFi multicart)

[vitoco]

3 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said:

Save the date!

I will be presenting the PlusCart on October 12. at the Digital Retro Park in Frankfurt Germany (The talk and discussion will be in German.)

I hope it will be recorded/streamed...

[Snarglefarg]

Will this cartridge work with the Atari 2600+ ?

[+Al_Nafuur]

10 hours ago, Snarglefarg said:

Will this cartridge work with the Atari 2600+ ?

No, the 2600+ is a ROM dumper device that will never really work with "active" cartridges like multicarts.

[IndyJones1023]

I'm just finding this thread/device and am in awe. This is amazing! I may purchase one, but I have questions.

 

What is a ESP8266-01s WiFi module and how can I test if it works on my home network? I have a standard AT&T fiber modem/router device.

 

Also, I'm gleaning that this device loads ROMs from a server on the net. But what if that server goes away? Is there a way to have it search across my home network to a folder of ROMs I have?

[killersquirel]

Is the Plus Store down? All I am getting all day today is the spinning plus sign and it doesn't get to the menu.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

On 8/27/2024 at 2:59 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

Also, I'm gleaning that this device loads ROMs from a server on the net. But what if that server goes away? Is there a way to have it search across my home network to a folder of ROMs I have?

AFAIK you have to setup your own server and connect the PlusCart to it. But @Al_Nafuur will know much better.

[+MarcoJ]

2 hours ago, killersquirel said:

Is the Plus Store down?

seems so. 

[+Al_Nafuur]

13 hours ago, killersquirel said:

Is the Plus Store down? All I am getting all day today is the spinning plus sign and it doesn't get to the menu.

10 hours ago, MarcoJ said:

seems so. 

 

The PlusStore should be working now.

 

Looks like the API was down for 24 hours (last successful request by a PlusCart was at 2024-08-28 07:24:16 CET). Unfortunately my monitoring did not get an error for it's request, so I didn't recognized that the API was down for PlusCarts.

 

 

[+Al_Nafuur]

On 8/27/2024 at 2:59 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

I'm just finding this thread/device and am in awe. This is amazing! I may purchase one, but I have questions.

There is a link list in the PlusCart User Club:

 

On 8/27/2024 at 2:59 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

What is a ESP8266-01s WiFi module and how can I test if it works on my home network? I have a standard AT&T fiber modem/router device.

Using a standard WiFi router with WPA2 you should be alright.

 

On 8/27/2024 at 2:59 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

Also, I'm gleaning that this device loads ROMs from a server on the net. But what if that server goes away? Is there a way to have it search across my home network to a folder of ROMs I have?

3 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

AFAIK you have to setup your own server and connect the PlusCart to it. But @Al_Nafuur will know much better.

Basically only the URL in the firmware has to be changed to your own server. But as far as I know no one has done this so far. The requests of the PlusCart and the directory listings it expects are quite simple but not a standard a webserver will serve (in fact there is no common standard for webserver directory listings).

 

I am currently looking for a simple open source webserver that can be configured or recompiled to response in a way the PlusCart expects, so users can use it locally.

 

 

 

[killersquirel]

5 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said:

The PlusStore should be working now.

 

Looks like the API was down for 24 hours (last successful request by a PlusCart was at 2024-08-28 07:24:16 CET). Unfortunately my monitoring did get an error for it's request, so I didn't recognized that the API was down for PlusCarts.

 

 

It is working now. Thanks.

[IndyJones1023]

You state that an URL change in the firmware could point to a different server.

 

If I have my own domain, could I upload ROM images to a folder (i.e. www.mydomain.com/atari) and upload my games there? If so, how would I change the firmware?

 

If changing the firmware isn't something a user can do, perhaps altering the firmware to search for a user-changeable text file for the server would be a good idea. 

[+Al_Nafuur]

New draft firmware version v2.3.22 in PlusStore.

 

For all draft users

• Custom API host
• New ESP8266 firmware v1.7.5.0
• Use custom X-Content-Length header
• Fix supercharger bios
• Improved SuperCharger driver

The main change is the Custom API host. The host name or IP address can be seen in "Setup/System Info" and changed in "Setup/API Host". For a local setup the Local PlusStore APP (based on "Simple Webserver" for Windows, MacOS or Linux) has to run on a device in the same network than the PlusCart.

 

All users that want to be added to the draft user group and test a local setup please post here or PM me.

 

On 8/29/2024 at 7:48 PM, IndyJones1023 said:

You state that an URL change in the firmware could point to a different server.

 

If I have my own domain, could I upload ROM images to a folder (i.e. www.mydomain.com/atari) and upload my games there? If so, how would I change the firmware?

 

If changing the firmware isn't something a user can do, perhaps altering the firmware to search for a user-changeable text file for the server would be a good idea. 

With the new draft firmware it will be possible to host the ROMs locally (without most features the real PlusStore offers). You might use a public server to host your ROMs. But it would be publicly available for everyone, so i strongly advise against it.

[IndyJones1023]

Sweet! When do you think it will be finalized? I will definitely be buying one.

[Bomberman94]

2 hours ago, Al_Nafuur said:

All users that want to be added to the draft user group and test a local setup please post here or PM me.

Is the draft FW via internet or something I must do „manually“? 

[+Al_Nafuur]

24 minutes ago, Bomberman94 said:

Is the draft FW via internet or something I must do „manually“? 

The draft firmware is via WiFi firmware update (I just have to add your device to the draft group), but if you want to test a local setup you have to download and install the simple webserver app and my PlusStore script from here: https://github.com/Al-Nafuur/Local-PlusStore

 

The draft user group is a small user group to test new firmware versions. Usually these users can flash their PlusCart manually with the "STM32CubeProgrammer" just in case there is an issue with the new firmware. I want to avoid a situation with thousands of "bricked" PlusCarts that have to flashed manually.

 

So if you like I can add your device to the draft group.

[+Al_Nafuur]

1 hour ago, IndyJones1023 said:

Sweet! When do you think it will be finalized? I will definitely be buying one.

As soon as it is "bug free". It should only take a week or two.

 

[Bomberman94]

2 minutes ago, Al_Nafuur said:

So if you like I can add your device to the draft group.

Yes, please add me to the draft group. If something „went terribly wrong“ - how can i/we go back then?

[+Al_Nafuur]

1 hour ago, Bomberman94 said:

Yes, please add me to the draft group.

Done👍

 

1 hour ago, Bomberman94 said:

If something „went terribly wrong“ - how can i/we go back then?

Worst case would be that the WiFi firmware update doesn't work in the new version. Then we (you) would have to flash the old or fixed version manually. But this shouldn't happen with this firmware version.

 

It might be that after the update the PlusCart doesn't connect to the PlusStore, because in your old user settings is no host name. The PlusCart should switch to the default host then, if not you will have to enter the host (pluscart.firmaplus.de) at the menu entry "Setup/API Host".

 

 

[Yosikuma]

Hi there! Fairly new to the Plus Cart; I just got it today, connected it to the store, connected the cart to WiFi, made some chat room posts ...

 

... but none of the ROM downloads seem to function, as I get "ROM Download Failed." Did I skip a step like a moron?

[+Al_Nafuur]

3 hours ago, Yosikuma said:

Hi there! Fairly new to the Plus Cart; I just got it today, connected it to the store, connected the cart to WiFi, made some chat room posts ...

 

... but none of the ROM downloads seem to function, as I get "ROM Download Failed." Did I skip a step like a moron?

No, you did everything right. But something is odd in your network, are you using some sort of proxy server?

 

The PlusCart requests the ROM files in ranges of max. 32K (HTTP range request), but from your network the HTTP range header seems to be stripped and is missing. I have added a workaround to the PlusStore API so it sends the whole file, if the range header is missing. This should work for files up to 32K, larger ROMs might not work in your network.

 

 

[Yosikuma]

Thank you! I am curious just what that would be. I currently am using “it’s cheap and comes with the apartment” wi-fi-only internet which is fine for most things, but has been known to have issues with other systems (particularly my PlayStation 5, which will NOT download a thing!).

 

Because it is likely my internet, there does not seem to be a lot I can do on my end (though I am open to suggestions!).

[+Al_Nafuur]

3 hours ago, Yosikuma said:

Thank you! I am curious just what that would be. I currently am using “it’s cheap and comes with the apartment” wi-fi-only internet which is fine for most things, but has been known to have issues with other systems (particularly my PlayStation 5, which will NOT download a thing!).

I am not familiar with the way the PlayStation is downloading it's files. But a HTTP range request is nothing unusual in the internet when it comes to downloading files or data, so I am not surprised that you are having issues.

 

3 hours ago, Yosikuma said:

Because it is likely my internet, there does not seem to be a lot I can do on my end (though I am open to suggestions!).

Can you test again if my API workaround at least lets you download small ROMs (e.g. most ROMs in the "Public ROMs/Classic ROMs" subfolders)?

You also may test a large ROM (e.g "Public ROMs/Homebrew/Author Spotlight/GFVH/Prince of Indiana 3/Prince 3.bin". It's a 128K file, so loading should take a few seconds). The large file will most likely fail, but I have activated advanced logging in the PlusStore API for the requests of your PlusCart, so maybe we we can see what happens to the headers the PlusCarts sends.

 

[Yosikuma]

Just tested it; the bigger ROMs -- no shock -- gave an error message. I tried smaller games like Bowling and Boxing, and it acts like it downloaded and will blank the screen, yet nothing happens, the screen stays black, and nothing happens.

 

Soooooo that sure is a thing.

[vitoco]

Could you try to share WiFi from your smartphone? If you can play games from there, your apartment's WiFi has some kind of traffic shaping...

[Yosikuma]

So it did work when we made a cell phone a hotspot -- mostly? Bigger games (the aforementioned Prince of Indiana and Turbo Arcade refused to cooperate), but smaller games (the classic ones, certainly, and a few hacks) worked fine.