Amstrad CPC WiFi

[CraigsBar]

I'll take one at that price if a production run happens.

[archcosmo]

count me down for one unit too please! 

[trocoloco]

This is wonderful, I'd love to have one too

[anyf33]

Yes that cable will do, atleast as far as I can tell. The pinout order of M4 board matches the PlayCity board picture I just looked at in the wiki, that is designed for MotherX4.
I might do a version, with a Card Edge connector directly on the PCB, so it's direct plugin without cables.

Yes but with the edge connector directly on the PCB it will work on 6128 and maybe on 464. What about 6128 plus i also have? Maybe it came as it is and i will buy 2 cables from cent pour cent, one for 6128/464 and one with centronics for 6128 plus.

[Cpcmaniaco]

I am interested in one more too.

[Joseman]

 I want 1 too Of course 

[Gryzor]

...and how could I not say I want one as well?

[MiguelSky]

Another one interested!!

[dcdrac]

me too

[CraigsBar]

I think we need a production run of these.

[CPC_Fan]

I would be interested in one. Would there be any software with it though and an idiots guide on how to use it? I only ask, as unfortunately I never got round to learning how to program/write software on my 46 or 6128        Also would it be possible to make it MX-4 board compatible at all?

[Duke]

I think we need a production run of these.

Yes, I'll order components soon to build up enough boards for those interested. It'll take some weeks (china!) for all parts to arrive before I can start assembling boards.
Should give me enough time to fix some remaining issues and features, I hope.

[fgbrain]

This looks very promising! Well done..

Is it possible to use wifi card for other uses -like use a wifi printer or connect to my dsl router??

[Duke]

I would be interested in one. Would there be any software with it though and an idiots guide on how to use it? I only ask, as unfortunately I never got round to learning how to program/write software on my 46 or 6128    Also would it be possible to make it MX-4 board compatible at all?

I'll document the commands, when they are final for release version. No need to be a programmer to use it. Just check the video, normal basic commands and some RSX commands.
Needed software embedded in to the flash memory of the board. You shouldn't need anything else.
It should work with MX-4 Board. If it'll work with other expansions plugged, I don't know, it might not.

[Duke]

This looks very promising! Well done..

Is it possible to use wifi card for other uses -like use a wifi printer or connect to my dsl router??

Thanks.

Technically it could be done, some API would need to be provided to the user via the rom to achieve this. If there's interest for certain functions I'll consider adding them.

[CPC_Fan]

I'll document the commands, when they are final for release version. No need to be a programmer to use it. Just check the video, normal basic commands and some RSX commands.
Needed software embedded in to the flash memory of the board. You shouldn't need anything else.
It should work with MX-4 Board. If it'll work with other expansions plugged, I don't know, it might not.

Thanks for the reply Duke. Sounds easy enough for me to use then... lol. What software would I need to flash the memory of the board and how would I flash it there? I have a X-Mem board if that's any help?

[Duke]

Thanks for the reply Duke. Sounds easy enough for me to use then... lol. What software would I need to flash the memory of the board and how would I flash it there? I have a X-Mem board if that's any help?

Nothing extra is needed, you just setup the board to connect to your local wifi (router or app) via a basic RSX command or you can copy a config file to your microSD card and insert it to the slot on the board (microSD card is required).
After that you can either upload games/files/roms via the web interface. The M4 board will host a small web server, you just type the netbios name or ip number into your browser.
Of course you can also just put the microSD card into your PC and drag .DSK files etc to it and pop it back into the M4, reboot it... Cat, Run etc..

Edit: to upgrade the board itself, when newer firmwares are released, there's also an upload function for that, or you simply copy it manually to the sd card, reboot and it'll upgrade.
Here's the current config file, it's stored as m4/config.txt:
ssid=dd-wrt
pw=hackaway
name=CPC6128
dhcp=1
ip=0.0.0.0
nm=0.0.0.0
gw=0.0.0.0
dns1=8.8.8.8
dns2=8.8.4.4

Set dhcp = 0 to use manual IP config. The same settings are changed/made when you use the rsx command from basic |netset,"ssid=xxxx, pw=yyyy  etc..".
More stuff wil go into this config file, like m4board rom number.
Roms have seperate files, which aren't easily editable (but possible) from PC, they are meant to be uploaded via the web interface, possibly I'll add an RSX command for it aswell.
They will be flashed into the flashram of the Cortex M4 MCU. It has 1 MB flash, so plenty of space. It could easily have 32 roms, may expand it later if desired.

[Morri]

+1 please.

[Singaja]

+1 for me too 

[CPC_Fan]

Nothing extra is needed, you just setup the board to connect to your local wifi (router or app) via a basic RSX command or you can copy a config file to your microSD card and insert it to the slot on the board (microSD card is required).
After that you can either upload games/files/roms via the web interface. The M4 board will host a small web server, you just type the netbios name or ip number into your browser.
Of course you can also just put the microSD card into your PC and drag .DSK files etc to it and pop it back into the M4, reboot it... Cat, Run etc..

Edit: to upgrade the board itself, when newer firmwares are released, there's also an upload function for that, or you simply copy it manually to the sd card, reboot and it'll upgrade.
Here's the current config file, it's stored as m4/config.txt:
ssid=dd-wrt
pw=hackaway
name=CPC6128
dhcp=1
ip=0.0.0.0
nm=0.0.0.0
gw=0.0.0.0
dns1=8.8.8.8
dns2=8.8.4.4

Set dhcp = 0 to use manual IP config. The same settings are changed/made when you use the rsx command from basic |netset,"ssid=xxxx, pw=yyyy  etc..".
More stuff wil go into this config file, like m4board rom number.
Roms have seperate files, which aren't easily editable (but possible) from PC, they are meant to be uploaded via the web interface, possibly I'll add an RSX command for it aswell.
They will be flashed into the flashram of the Cortex M4 MCU. It has 1 MB flash, so plenty of space. It could easily have 32 roms, may expand it later if desired.

Thanks for your comprehensive reply Duke. I am definitely interested now if you decide to go ahead with a production run of the boards.

[CloudStrife]

Well... I had a project to connect an STM32 an CPC expansion bus for some usage (but not WiFi), this board can probably do the trick on the hardware side (Less work for me ! Nice !)

I will take more time to analyze the thing but for the moment just some few thing:

First thing first, i don't really like your routing but, well "artistic" divergence

But I am really concerned about the crystal, I think they are far from the MCU (I already had some problem with crystal on other MCU of the STM32F familly).
And I really don't see a lot of decoupling cap around the MCU and the ESP8266, and you said you have component on one side only ?
(And the whole card really missing a "big" cap of ~100µF)

And last thing. The F405VG is cheaper than the 407 (~2$ less) and compatible and a pure drop-in replacement. The two thing missing are just the Ethernet MAC and the Camera interface, both unused for this application.

[Duke]

Well... I had a project to connect an STM32 an CPC expansion bus for some usage (but not WiFi), this board can probably do the trick on the hardware side (Less work for me ! Nice !)

I will take more time to analyze the thing but for the moment just some few thing:

First thing first, i don't really like your routing but, well "artistic" divergence

But I am really concerned about the crystal, I think they are far from the MCU (I already had some problem with crystal on other MCU of the STM32F familly).
And I really don't see a lot of decoupling cap around the MCU and the ESP8266, and you said you have component on one side only ?
(And the whole card really missing a "big" cap of ~100µF)

And last thing. The F405VG is cheaper than the 407 (~2$ less) and compatible and a pure drop-in replacement. The two thing missing are just the Ethernet MAC and the Camera interface, both unused for this application.

Thanks for your feedback.
Actually, revision 2 has most decoupling on the 2nd side, rev.1 was one side only (see pic below).
About the F405VG, the 407VGT where I search is actually cheaper, maybe because it is more used and big quantities are sliced by chinese brokers. But yeah directly from digikey etc its probably cheaper.
Main clock is about as close as it can get to the mcu. Not decided yet if I'll fit the 32k RTC clock for final version, since it could just use ntp.

[villain]

I'm also interested.

[dodogildo]

Awesome gadget. Also interested in one.

[Executioner]

Not decided yet if I'll fit the 32k RTC clock for final version, since it could just use ntp.

What is the 32k RTC? Does it have 32K of static memory attached?