Amstrad CPC WiFi

[Edoz(MSX)]

Haven't followed this thread (at all), so sorry if someone already asked this:

Has anyone started developing an online multiplayer game for the CPC now? 

"CPC World" 

i did 2 multiplayer games, battleship and snake.

[youtube]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L3arrALdYcU[/youtube]

[mr_lou]

i did 2 multiplayer games, battleship and snake.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L3arrALdYcU

That is awesome!!!
I actually think I've seen this video before, and then forgot about it...  I'm getting old.
I can see there are lots of things to play with, once I find the time to actually it out....

[villain]

@Duke

Would it be possible to implement a search function to the web UI? It's a quite hard and boring job to browse through hundreds of directories and another thousand of subdirectories to find a specific file. :-)

[Duke]

Would it be possible to implement a search function to the web UI? It's a quite hard and boring job to browse through hundreds of directories and another thousand of subdirectories to find a specific file. :-)

It will be possible, with a bit of work    - maybe sometime, first I should get back to fixing the bugs of 2.0.3 beta 2 and make it a release version.

[Duke]

Is there anyway AmsDOS or ParaDOS (and possibly the lower rom) can be patched so that Ams/ParaDOS can be in slot 8 with m4 rom in 7 and they still get initialised in the right order? I find I am swapping the m4 rom between 6 and 7 for compatibility and floppy / copying  use.

I just tested it on my CPC6128+.

M4 as ROM7 and uploaded AMSDOS to rom 8. Works fine here with v2.0.3b2.
|disc and it switches to disk.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

[Duke]

Firmware v2.0.3 release version ready. Get it here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/M4_Board

For users who have not upgraded to v2.0.3 beta, you can simply use |upgrade command.
If you use v2.0.3 beta 1 or 2, you must manually download the firmware and unpack the files to root of your microSD.

Following small fixes was added since beta 2:

Fix autoexec.bas launching when soft-resetting inside a .DSK (@00WReX).
Fix |cd into .dsks with write protection attribute set (@SOS).
Fix web interface remote run for filenames using html encoded characters (@Maniac).
Fix |M4help, using all screen modes, doh (@HAL 6128).

[Maniac]

Firmware v2.0.3 release version ready. Get it here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/M4_Board

For users who have not upgraded to v2.0.3 beta, you can simply use |upgrade command.
If you use v2.0.3 beta 1 or 2, you must manually download the firmware and unpack the files to root of your microSD.

Following small fixes was added since beta 2:

Fix autoexec.bas launching when soft-resetting inside a .DSK (@00WReX).
Fix |cd into .dsks with write protection attribute set (@SOS).
Fix web interface remote run for filenames using html encoded characters (@Maniac).
Fix |M4help, using all screen modes, doh (@HAL 6128).

Great stuff, fantastic continued support of this!

[villain]

It will be possible, with a bit of work    - maybe sometime, first I should get back to fixing the bugs of 2.0.3 beta 2 and make it a release version.

If it happens "sometime" I will still be a very satisfied costumer! 

[Joseman]

@Duke

Thankyou for your work and this piece of hardware called M4

I installed one of the M4 i bought on a cpc of a friend of mine and he is using now the cpc ALL DAYS (since 1994 he didn't touch a CPC)

I'm thinking on installing another 2 M4, one for another friend of mine, and other for a CPC464 first version (keys are a little different than more new revisions, even i think that it has the older GA) that i bought on a second-hand market (the original owner filled the CPC with game stickers  ), a very cute CPC, but for this CPC i will wait for your M5 (with RAM expansion) 

I tell you this because you must now that your work is being used for new (old) users, and the M4 is doing a great work with my friends!!

[Duke]

@Joseman
Thanks for kind words, it is the feedback and knowing the device is actually being used that drives the motivation, to continue to build it (and yes I am sick of that part ) and add updates.

As for the next gen "M4", I finally today finished the routing of the PCB, much time had been spent getting it all correct in first go, it probably wont, but it doesn't stop me from trying!
Over the weekend I will polish and double check everything again, then order the PCB's after that there is probably many months to finish the software.
So it is not something to come very soon and it may be quite different to what you expect (I will say no more!).

[rafa32gr]

@Joseman
Thanks for kind words, it is the feedback and knowing the device is actually being used that drives the motivation, to continue to build it (and yes I am sick of that part ) and add updates.

As for the next gen "M4", I finally today finished the routing of the PCB, much time had been spent getting it all correct in first go, it probably wont, but it doesn't stop me from trying!
Over the weekend I will polish and double check everything again, then order the PCB's after that there is probably many months to finish the software.
So it is not something to come very soon and it may be quite different to what you expect (I will say no more!).

I will buy you any kind of cpc expansion you make.
Thank you very much for your work.

[XeNoMoRPH]

@Joseman
Thanks for kind words, it is the feedback and knowing the device is actually being used that drives the motivation, to continue to build it (and yes I am sick of that part ) and add updates.

As for the next gen "M4", I finally today finished the routing of the PCB, much time had been spent getting it all correct in first go, it probably wont, but it doesn't stop me from trying!
Over the weekend I will polish and double check everything again, then order the PCB's after that there is probably many months to finish the software.
So it is not something to come very soon and it may be quite different to what you expect (I will say no more!).

But .. then  , Are you saying that you are going to build a new M4 Board ... with new hardware improvements with respect to ...  we have now ?

[MiguelSky]

I tell you this because you must now that your work is being used for new (old) users, and the M4 is doing a great work with my friends!!

Yes, and that is why I always reccommend buying M4 to new users at amstrad.es forum

[Duke]

But .. then  , Are you saying that you are going to build a new M4 Board ... with new hardware improvements with respect to ...  we have now ?

Maybe, I make no promises. It will be compatible with M4 and also act as ram expansion and add a few other interesting things. That is if it works out and I don't get tired of/abandon the project, for now I have only designed the prototype board and programmed it in my head

Teaser....

[mr_lou]

Maybe, I make no promises. It will be compatible with M4 and also act as ram expansion and add a few other interesting things. That is if it works out and I don't get tired of/abandon the project, for now I have only designed the prototype board and programmed it in my head

Where's the sign-up for the waiting list? 

[Duke]

Oh well, since I was silly enough to talk about it, I may as well spit out some details, in general it is not so interesting if you have a M4 + XMEM already.
The prototype board in shape is designed to fit inside a GX4000 console, unplug the Z80 cpu and plug it into the "GalaXy" board (what does GX4000 mean anyway?). The board then plugs into the Z80 socket on the mainboard.
It's equipped with a USB port, with the intention to fit in a wireless mouse/keyboard transceiver, bringing the GX4000 to a fully usable CPC+ without soldering 100 wires in
Mainly because I wanted to have a compact cpc, that can be on my desk along the PC.
Some other things should become possible with this system (databus exchange) which was not possible via the expansion port.
It will also be possible to fit internally to a regular CPC, but less interesting of course. Some revisions will need a mirrored pcb layout (CPC+).
Anyway it may all fail, I may loose interest etc.

[ASiC]

I think I've just had a tiny orgasm...


This is AWESOME!
Please keep working on it!


Have you got plans of emulating the disk drive as well?

[radu14m]

im having a very very slow wifi connection.
a few minutes...always. what i do wrong ? 

[SOS]

An RJ45-Cable-LAN-Option would be cool.

[Duke]

Have you got plans of emulating the disk drive as well?

This is one of those things that may become possible, but I don't have any plans for it initially.

im having a very very slow wifi connection.
a few minutes...always. what i do wrong ? 

What does the signal strength say when you do a |netstat command?  And which firmware version?

An RJ45-Cable-LAN-Option would be cool.

I agree, but not worth the extra work imo.

[radu14m]

signal strength after |netstat command : 0xC2
firmware version is 2.0.3

[dragon]

Oh well, since I was silly enough to talk about it, I may as well spit out some details, in general it is not so interesting if you have a M4 + XMEM already.
The prototype board in shape is designed to fit inside a GX4000 console, unplug the Z80 cpu and plug it into the "GalaXy" board (what does GX4000 mean anyway?). The board then plugs into the Z80 socket on the mainboard.
It's equipped with a USB port, with the intention to fit in a wireless mouse/keyboard transceiver, bringing the GX4000 to a fully usable CPC+ without soldering 100 wires in
Mainly because I wanted to have a compact cpc, that can be on my desk along the PC.
Some other things should become possible with this system (databus exchange) which was not possible via the expansion port.
It will also be possible to fit internally to a regular CPC, but less interesting of course. Some revisions will need a mirrored pcb layout (CPC+).
Anyway it may all fail, I may loose interest etc.

Only one sugestion, as you can use wirelless game pad with the board, implement some type of hardware reset  posibility command thought the usb. The idea is you can reset It to change cartridge in the c4cpc without switchi It off manually every time.


These is ever a bad design in a modern consoles with wirelless function. You can play a Game from sofa  But you need all times go to the console to reset in multicartridges.


Maybe reset the z80 can do the job?.

[Duke]

signal strength after |netstat command : 0xC2
firmware version is 2.0.3

Signal seems fine. Not sure what the problem is. Is the slowdown when you access the web interface or when you download something?
Maybe you have a network IP conflict. You could try to use DHCP option to see if it disappears?
Some other user reported if I remember correctly that norton firewall was blocking access to the web interface, so maybe if you have some kind of fw/antivirus running on the PC, you may need to add an exception.

Only one sugestion, as you can use wirelless game pad with the board, implement some type of hardware reset  posibility command thought the usb. The idea is you can reset It to change cartridge in the c4cpc without switchi It off manually every time.


These is ever a bad design in a modern consoles with wirelless function. You can play a Game from sofa  But you need all times go to the console to reset in multicartridges.


Maybe reset the z80 can do the job?.

Maybe a Z80 reset can do the trick, I dunno, maybe a bus reset is needed, which cannot be done without soldering a wire I think. The gamepad option has crossed my mind, however I will only add one USB port and I will aim at using logitech unified receiver, so you can have both mouse and keyboard with one wireless dongle, so adding a gamepad then it would be without keyboard/mouse.
I can probably setup one of the extra keys on the usb keyboard to trigger a Z80 reset.

[dragon]

Maybe you don't need another USB, simply support a bluethoot USB . Then you can support two devices?.


I know a project in atari that uses a bluethoot keyboard chip to comunicate with pc.


http://www.retrogamenetwork.com/2014/05/26/new-hardware-hack-brings-wireless-bluetooth-capabilities-to-stock-atari-2600-joystick-controller/


The interesting part, is the board they use in the pad, support  coonect two to one USB devices. And  you can wire the Keys you need to gamepads.

[Phantomz]

The prototype board in shape is designed to fit inside a GX4000 console, unplug the Z80 cpu and plug it into the "GalaXy" board (what does GX4000 mean anyway?). The board then plugs into the Z80 socket on the mainboard.
It's equipped with a USB port, with the intention to fit in a wireless mouse/keyboard transceiver, bringing the GX4000 to a fully usable CPC+ without soldering 100 wires in
Mainly because I wanted to have a compact cpc, that can be on my desk along the PC.
Some other things should become possible with this system (databus exchange) which was not possible via the expansion port.
It will also be possible to fit internally to a regular CPC, but less interesting of course. Some revisions will need a mirrored pcb layout (CPC+).
Anyway it may all fail, I may loose interest etc.

Good luck with this. 

I hope that it doesn't fail and that you don't loose interest, keep up the good work.