fujinet #FujiNet - a WIP SIO Network Adapter for the Atari 8-bit

[tschak909]

right now, the firmware must be paired with its test program, as I am explicitly writing trimmed down versions to test specific commands.

 

Timing seems to be marginal, and in order to diagnose, we'll need to bring the debugging messages out in a printable form to see what's actually going on.

 

If there is anything I would ask of everybody in this thread. Yup, I know everybody's excited, I don't want to kill that. I do ask that everybody is patient, as we are still working out how to debug issues.

 

In order to avoid the blorpy boot message mess that barks out the serial port when the ESP is powered on, we swap serial pins at setup(). This does mean that the debug messages go out a pair of pins that are normally unused and unconnected, and you have to have something connected to them. 

 

@Mr Robot's latest board design has a header to expose the two debug serial pins, and that will be available on the next spin.

 

Hopefully @mozzwald can provide some info on how to connect to existing boards.

 

If it sounds like I am keeping hands off the hardware, it's because I am.. I am deliberately concentrating on the software, and leaving the hardware work to far more competent people

 

-Thom

[tschak909]

9 minutes ago, a8isa1 said:

Loading CONFIG.BAS externally wasn't successful.  Timeout error communicating with #fujinet.  Do I need an earlier firmware for this test?

 

C version of SCANWIFI did work!  However, wifi sensitivity must be low.  Only found the two routers in the house.

 

@tschak909, scanning gets stuck in a loop.  It repeats the last access point in the list about every 2 minutes.   Can't  re-scan from that condition.

 

I don't know how to troubleshoot what's going wrong with the disk boot function.  Any suggestions?

 

-SteveS

Can you record a vid so I can "hear" your SIO?

-Thom

[a8isa1]

40 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

Can you record a vid so I can "hear" your SIO?

-Thom

Here you go.  Sorry about the poor quality.  Inexpensive phone and the monitor does poorly with the scan converter.  I guess doesn't matter.  When you see the video you'll know why.

 

I wasn't able to reproduce the shorter failed boot sequence. It happens from time to time.

 

-SteveS

 

 

[tschak909]

Wow, um. ok.

 

So, when you do scanwifi:

 

(1) are you uploading the firmware for scanwifi.ino to your device?

AND

(2) are you using the ESP8266 Sketch Data Uploader to upload the data/autorun.atr into the SPIFFS flash?

 

-Thom

[a8isa1]

5 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

Wow, um. ok.

 

So, when you do scanwifi:

 

(1) are you uploading the firmware for scanwifi.ino to your device?

AND

(2) are you using the ESP8266 Sketch Data Uploader to upload the data/autorun.atr into the SPIFFS flash?

 

-Thom

- I left spiffs empty

- loaded scan Wi-Fi externally (sdrive-max)

- disconnected sdrive-Max

- connected #FujiNet which is was powered

- press the key to rescan

 

-SteveS

 

[tschak909]

ok, for tests like wifiscan, they have a boot image that runs on the SPIFFS, which can be uploaded using the Sketch Data Upload tool.

 

tests like tnfsWrite do not the spiffs flash and run entirely off the tnfs server.

 

I am deliberately compartmentalizing the tests for my own sanity, as I am trying to work out the problems with all the various things that need to work WELL on their own before I meld them together into a complete firmware.

 

TODAY'S smaller task involves adding a README.md for each test.

 

-Thom

[a8isa1]

6 minutes ago, tschak909 said:

ok, for tests like wifiscan, they have a boot image that runs on the SPIFFS, which can be uploaded using the Sketch Data Upload tool.

 

tests like tnfsWrite do not the spiffs flash and run entirely off the tnfs server.

 

I am deliberately compartmentalizing the tests for my own sanity, as I am trying to work out the problems with all the various things that need to work WELL on their own before I meld them together into a complete firmware.

 

TODAY'S smaller task involves adding a README.md for each test.

 

-Thom

During the video scan Wi-Fi was in spiffs.

 

moving the program externally allowed me to run the test and detect my routers.

 

-SteveS

[tschak909]

hmm ok. I wonder what's going on? Serial debugging info would be needed at this point.

-Thom

[a8isa1]

sorry, I meant SPIFFS was empty during my test. 

 

I have an appointment with the cardiologist so further testing will have to wait.   I find out today whether I have a problem that needs immediate attention or if it's just something that needs watching.

 

I don't have a USB to serial adapter so no direct means to see your debugging output.   Perhaps I can rig something with a Raspbery Pi later.

 

-SteveS

 

 

[tschak909]

@a8isa1

*bro-hug* 

 

Good luck.

-Thom

[Madi]

5 minutes ago, a8isa1 said:

sorry, I meant SPIFFS was empty during my test. 

 

I have an appointment with the cardiologist so further testing will have to wait.   I find out today whether I have a problem that needs immediate attention or if it's just something that needs watching.

 

I don't have a USB to serial adapter so no direct means to see your debugging output.   Perhaps I can rig something with a Raspbery Pi later.

 

-SteveS

 

 

Wish your tests turn OK.

 

[a8isa1]

Thanks, Atari friends!

 

-SteveS

[tschak909]

I heard that in @ndary's voice.

-Thom

[Mr Robot]

19 hours ago, Gavin1968 said:

Is this the most recent/current schematic? 

Minus the SIO through, yes.

 

[Gavin1968]

3 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

Minus the SIO through

It has been added? How about up updated version then please? Trying to help here, so need to be able to build what you guys are using.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Gavin1968

[mozzwald]

42 minutes ago, Gavin1968 said:

It has been added? How about up updated version then please? Trying to help here, so need to be able to build what you guys are using.

 

SIO thru doesn't really matter at this point. It's just a bonus hardware feature (if it works; no one has tested it yet since pcbs are not made). If you can build the posted schematic on breadboard or perfboard or deadbug (if you like ? you will be good to go for testing.

[tschak909]

FujiNet Test #13 - First Breath of the CIO N: Device!

 

This test concentraters on showing that the CIO device is starting to work. Currently, only one command is implemented, the "Hello World" command. But it's a start! and I'm actually surprised that I am able to prototype this device in C! it will allow for development to go much faster.

 

Once the CIO handler firms up, it would be very beneficial for experienced assembler coders to take what I am doing in the prototype, and make a tighter version in Assembler.

 

 

 

More to come.

 

edit: the test code for the CIO Device is here, if you want to see how my crazy ass is implementing a CIO handler in C

https://github.com/tschak909/atariwifi/tree/master/tests/cio

 

-Thom

Edited November 21, 2019 by tschak909
add github link to cio test code.

[tschak909]

For those who want to see a #FujiNET board being assembled and tested, @48kRAM is setting up a Twitch Stream at 6:30p Eastern Time! https://www.twitch.tv/48kram

[48kRAM]

The video from the stream is here:  

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/511966022?t=00h01m33s

Please pardon my goofing around with the camera and my phone (tschak couldn't make it into the stream so we used Twitter instead)

 

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by 48kRAM
Embedded video players suck

[tschak909]

for some goofy reason, I never got my twitch verifymail, and when I asked it to resend again, twitch said, "oops, I fucked up!" grrr

-Thom

[mozzwald]

I've been experimenting with MIDI Maze and FujiNet to get networked game play working. My first test will be to pass the raw MIDI bytes back and forth between two machines. The FujiNet is using PWM to generate 31.250khz on the CLOCKIN pin. At this time I can trick the game into thinking it's the master by sending it a 0 and I can see a few bytes of MIDI notes sent before the game errors/times out. When I get another MIDI Maze cart I will test with 2 FujiNet/Atari systems. If this first test works, the next test would be to create a networked MIDI ring by having a MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT TCP socket on each FujiNet for more than 2 players. Further down the road, I would like to have some kind of server that could tell each FujiNet which IP's to use so you could setup a game from a webpage. Thanks to @Fletch we have some data dumps of MIDI Maze startup and game play. I'm putting them here so they are available if anyone else needs them.

MIDIMaze-data-capture.zip

[48kRAM]

Thom has created a proof-of-concept "boot menu" for the Atari. It allows to choose a TNFS server and then provides a list of available disk images. You can choose one and then (re)boot your Atari into that image. I've posted a video demo of the "diskulator" test. I've tested against my local TNFS server as well as one on an internet-facing VM and it works pretty smoothly.

Things are moving right along!

 

 

[tschak909]

Does anyone want to take a whack at doing a better diskulator front-end? At the end of the day, it's only a few SIO calls, and a jump to coldstart that make it all work.

 

The reason I am asking is that this can happen while I am doing much needed experiments with CIO and making the N: device.

 

-Thom

[hideehoo]

Was inspired by the Twitch stream on Friday, so I perfboarded up the last version of the schematic.  Worked on the first try with the tnfsBoot test.  The little green board is one of those 50 cent CH340E USB-TTL serial board you can get on AliExpress for the debug serial port.

 

[tschak909]

Nicely done!