Amstrad CPC WiFi

[Kris]

I just updated my card and everything is OK up to now; thank you for this update

[Duke]

Good to hear.
dirtybb discovered a couple of bugs in v1.0.5 regarding the |romup command, appearently it only works with roms that have AMSDOS header (it was meant to work with headerless too).
And also |romup with roms from inside a .dsk image failed.
I'll have to fix these bugs for next release, but for now be aware of them

I just updated my card and everything is OK up to now; thank you for this update

[CraigsBar]

now I am back from the amiga-ie meetup this weekend, I was planning on playing with ROMs tonight. I'll remember these limitations then, and not report them as bugs.

[ronaldo]

@Duke, I've received today both M4 boards and have tested one with my CPC464. It worked connected through a powered MX4 board, commands reply and it connects to WiFi. Web server is accessible and works and time and netstat commands work well.

However, I had a problem: any attempt to copy a ROM or the firmware through the webserver makes It hang. Also, trying to change M4rom from the slot 6 does not work as the M4 reset command seems to make it forget everything.

Could it be a bad firmware upgrade when I tried to do it through web? Any other possibility? How should I proceed? FW is now 1.0.3

[Duke]

Try this, before you make any changes under Roms from the webserver, go to Control first and press CPC Pause. Then go to Roms and upload etc. When changing M4 rom from slot 6, remember to use the SET button.
Let me know if that works or not. Also do please use firefox browser.
When done, go back to Control and press M4 reset.

Roms you upload via the browser, should not have AMSDOS header. (cut away the first 128 bytes with a hexeditor if present... filesize should be 16384 bytes).

Oh and one more thing, which is very important. When upgrading from 1.0.0, 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 to higher version. Go under m4 directory and delete files romconfig.bin and romslots.bin
The files changed after v1.0.3 to 32 slots.
So if you put the microSD card in a PC and unpack the newer firmware to root directory, then go under M4 directory and delete romconfig.bin and romslots.bin at the same time.

Available firmwares:

http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v101.zip
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v102.zip
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v103.zip
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v104.zip
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v105.zip

I think after v1.0.2 (or maybe 1.0.3), the webinterface got a little quirky, so for now if you cannot live with the use of CPC Pause, before uploading roms, until I have fixed it.
It may be better to downgrade to 1.0.2 (/1.0.3).

Firmware upgrading/downgrading should be perfectly safe. I have put a write protected bootloader on each M4 board, which will read the upgrades from microSD, and check their CRC32 before flashing. In theory something could go wrong during flashing, but then you could just run the upgrade process again.

@Duke, I've received today both M4 boards and have tested one with my CPC464. It worked connected through a powered MX4 board, commands reply and it connects to WiFi. Web server is accessible and works and time and netstat commands work well.

However, I had a problem: any attempt to copy a ROM or the firmware through the webserver makes It hang. Also, trying to change M4rom from the slot 6 does not work as the M4 reset command seems to make it forget everything.

Could it be a bad firmware upgrade when I tried to do it through web? Any other possibility? How should I proceed? FW is now 1.0.3

[Duke]

Ok, new version 1.0.6 (both M4 and ESP) uploaded.

Get it from here (or use |upgrade command):
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/M4FIRM_v106.zip

Fixes:

   
• Web interface stable again (No CPC Pause needed).
• Can upload ROMS from webui with or without AMSDOS header.
• Can upload ROMS from basic via |ROMUP with or without AMSDOS header.
• Some bug that prevented |ROMUPD to always take immediate effect.

If upgrading from version less than v1.0.3, delete romconfig.bin and romslots.bin under m4 directory.

[ronaldo]

Thanks for all the details, @Duke. I was doing all as you said, except pausing CPC previous to sending ROMs or new firmware. I tried it again pausing CPC before sending anything, with same results.

A question about all this, Is it necessary to have a microSD to send content through web interface? I am using your card without inserting an SD card. Does it require a card to save sent files before proceeding?

[Duke]

Yes microSD is needed to upload roms or even save the wifi config.

Thanks for all the details, @Duke. I was doing all as you said, except pausing CPC previous to sending ROMs or new firmware. I tried it again pausing CPC before sending anything, with same results.

A question about all this, Is it necessary to have a microSD to send content through web interface? I am using your card without inserting an SD card. Does it require a card to save sent files before proceeding?

[CraigsBar]

OK... Interesting uses of the m4 board. Episode 1.....

Today I had to type in "bigprint" from aa57, and my Amstrad kit is at a funny angle compared to the desk... So i found a great solution.

1: install protext on my Amiga 1200 that has a pcmcia WiFi card.
2: type the program into protext on the Amiga and save it as 'bigprint.bas' in program mode.
3: send the file to the CPC via the m4 board and the Amiga web browser.
4: load it into protext ROM on the CPC (ROM loaded into the m4)
5: check for, and correct any typos, save the file
6: run it!

So there you go, the m4 is a retro version of apple's airdrop technology, and I love it!

[CraigsBar]

M4 board wishlist...
Sorry about this, but can I add some features to a wishlist?

1. Option in the web GUI to download a file from the m4 to the web client. I guess thus would need a file browser of the m4 SD card being published on the web GUI.

2. An option in the GUI to execute a single line command in basic on boot, so a specific file could be loaded from the SD card, or the screen mode changed, or the  colours changed etc...

[Duke]

Sure.
1) was planned, but I didn't get around to it. Sometime it will display the files of the sd card in the webinterface.
For now a little trick if you need a file you know the filename of, you can type the following in a browser:  http://cpcip/sd/filename.. ie. http://192.168.1.10/sd/games/gryzor.dsk

2) will require some lowerrom patch, not sure how to do that, it would indeed be cool with some kind of autoexec.bas

M4 board wishlist...
Sorry about this, but can I add some features to a wishlist?

1. Option in the web GUI to download a file from the m4 to the web client. I guess thus would need a file browser of the m4 SD card being published on the web GUI.

2. An option in the GUI to execute a single line command in basic on boot, so a specific file could be loaded from the SD card, or the screen mode changed, or the  colours changed etc...

[CraigsBar]

Sure.
1) was planned, but I didn't get around to it. Sometime it will display the files of the sd card in the webinterface.
For now a little trick if you need a file you know the filename of, you can type the following in a browser:  http://cpcip/sd/filename.. ie. http://192.168.1.10/sd/games/gryzor.dsk

2) will require some lowerrom patch, not sure how to do that, it would indeed be cool with some kind of autoexec.bas

Ahh. Excellent, must upgrade to 1.0.6 tonight.

[Bryce]

OK... Interesting uses of the m4 board. Episode 1.....

Today I had to type in "bigprint" from aa57, and my Amstrad kit is at a funny angle compared to the desk... So i found a great solution.

1: install protext on my Amiga 1200 that has a pcmcia WiFi card.
2: type the program into protext on the Amiga and save it as 'bigprint.bas' in program mode.
3: send the file to the CPC via the m4 board and the Amiga web browser.
4: load it into protext ROM on the CPC (ROM loaded into the m4)
5: check for, and correct any typos, save the file
6: run it!

So there you go, the m4 is a retro version of apple's airdrop technology, and I love it!

Or you could just pack that A1200 away and make space to place you CPC properly centred on the desk. 

Bryce.

[ronaldo]

@Duke , I added a 16GB microSD card and everything runs know. I managed to install some roms and to upgrade to FW 1.0.6 using |upgrade command. I have also copied some DSKs, created folders and copied/moved from here to there. It works as expected.

The next issue I'm having is with lower rom replacement. I'm using a 464 and tried to replace lower rom with OS6128ES and FW3.16 and both of them crash. Also tried to put BASIC 1.1 in ROM slot 0 and it fails in a quite odd fashion (after ROM messages appearing, everything scrolls up infinitelly  ). Any idea on this?

After reading your Dev API description, I missed some way of directly addressing the network. I think that sending and receiving data through and from network ports will be required for advanced features. How could we help you develop the firmware?

EDIT: Firmware 3.15 with BASIC 1.1 works

[CraigsBar]

Or you could just pack that A1200 away and make space to place you CPC properly centred on the desk. 

Bryce.

Well yes, that is an option. But until the m4 has an irc client I still use the a1200 for that... Oh and it has a much nicer keyboard to type lengthy DATA statements on.

[Duke]

Glad it's all working.
Yes, netapi is not available yet. It's one of the higher priorities. Once I am done with the remaining boards, I'll have better time to work on those things. Not much you can do to help atm., but thanks anyway

@Duke ,
After reading your Dev API description, I missed some way of directly addressing the network. I think that sending and receiving data through and from network ports will be required for advanced features. How could we help you develop the firmware?

EDIT: Firmware 3.15 with BASIC 1.1 works

[CraigsBar]

EDIT: Firmware 3.15 with BASIC 1.1 works

So does fw 3.16 on mine
Perhaps the amsdos header was messing with it.

[dirtybb]

Hi,

RomBooster seems to reboot in loop the cpc (put in pos 15).
Does anybody else tried ?

On the other hand, I can confirm that FW316 used as lower ROM initializes 16 to 31.

[CraigsBar]

Hi,

RomBooster seems to reboot in loop the cpc (put in pos 15).
Does anybody else tried ?

On the other hand, I can confirm that FW316 used as lower ROM initializes 15 to 31.

I have not used the booster ROM since FW 3.1x included 0 to 31 initialisation anyway

[dirtybb]

I have not used the booster ROM since FW 3.1x included 0 to 31 initialisation anyway

You could try to install Rom booster to see if you reproduce the same problem ?

[CraigsBar]

Sure can. I need to upgrade the board to 1.0.6 first tho

[CraigsBar]

Sure can. I need to upgrade the board to 1.0.6 first tho

It works for me.

[dirtybb]

It works for me.

Can u try disabling low Rom replacement ?


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

[CraigsBar]

That was with low ROM replacement disabled. I did not want fw 3.16 messing with the booster.

[dirtybb]

That was with low ROM replacement disabled. I did not want fw 3.16 messing with the booster.

Thank you very much.
Following your feedback, i've made a total reset of the rom conf, now Rom booster works well.


Will try to find out what rom installed was in conflit with.