Amstrad CPC WiFi

[Duke]

@Edoz(MSX)

That looks great. Hope to see this running on CPC sometime

@tvandor

Thanks for the feedback.

About upgrading via webinterface. It's not ideal because it needs two files and you can only upload 1 file at a time (it needs a change or removal!).
Best is if you want to try out the beta firmware's, to unpack the zip file to root of microSD and reboot M4.
And if you just want to use latest non beta, use |upgrade from basic.

About webinterface uploading to slot 0. This is a problem with Chrome browser, please use Firefox or Internet Explorer, then it will be fine.
"ROM" is default name used by |ROMUP as I did not add a name parameter to it.

I did not experince the problem when rebooting using this lowerrom. Perhaps you did not upgrade with both files with the firmware you are using?
(ESPFIRM.BIN and M4FIRM). And make sure "Enable lowerrom" is ticked and the right slot selected.
You will not see any difference, only more games will work now.


As for powersupply you can just connect a USB powersupply directly to M4 board even when inserted the MX4, just move the Jumper to EXT.
The PSU must be 5V DC (0.5A, 1A, 2A all good).

@anyf33
You sure about the slot 0 problem not being that you used chrome? - I had no problems uploading roms in latest beta's.

Send me a photo of your broken connector/pin. It's quite a bit of work to desolder the entire connector, maybe the pin could be fixed.

[tvandor]

@CraigsBar
Thanks, for your response. Currently I have the m4 wifi board only, I plan to add a x-mem RAM/ROM card for extra RAM.
If there is a M4 board with mouse support that Symbos can recognize, I would buy one of that as well. :-)
(Using the joystick for Symbos feels I am using GEOS on the C64 :-))


Ok, so I will try to use the Motherx4 with the wifi board with no extra power.
Actually I have already tried this but it was not working: the display was grey with a black border.
But I will test this again. (Maybe I made some mistake.)

>Oh and symbos has no m4 storage driver yet, but @Prodatron is working on it.
This is really great news! Can't wait! :-)

@Duke
Thank you for your tips.
I had tried the firmware upgrade only via the web interface.
I will do the upgrade the proper way and try to use that lowerrom file
again. (And see what happens! :-) )

[CraigsBar]

@CraigsBar
Thanks, for your response. Currently I have the m4 wifi board only, I plan to add a x-mem RAM/ROM card for extra RAM.
If there is a M4 board with mouse support that Symbos can recognize, I would buy one of that as well. :-)
(Using the joystick for Symbos feels I am using GEOS on the C64 :-))

<snip>

In theory the albireo board will bring full USB, serial and microsd card support to the CPC. I really want support for the USB HID (mouse) on this card to be brought to SymbOS. This way with an m4, xmem and albireo you would have all the functionality of the fabled symbiface 2 in nice neat mother4x format, and a slot free.

[Joseman]

Hi

I can only give a lot of likes to @Duke for this incredible M4 (hardware & software), @Prodatron for make drivers to it and symbos, and @Edoz(MSX) for the multiplayer games!!.

this months i can't test anything of this because of work.

But I can tell you guys that this is incredible, and if you don't realize, you're making the best things for our Amstrad that i saw in a lot of time. thankyou!

P.S. About mouse, can any do the symbiface2 mouse part in a standalone board for MX4? symbos will work instantly, and trust me, it work flawless!

[CraigsBar]

Hi

<snip>

P.S. About mouse, can any do the symbiface2 mouse part in a standalone board for MX4? symbos will work instantly, and trust me, it work flawless!

I have asked this before, but no seemed to be the answer. Hopefully the Albireo mouse will be the answer eh @Prodatron

[MiguelSky]

@Joseman , perhaps USB Mouse adaptor by Bryce is the thing you need USB Mouse Batch.

[CraigsBar]

@Joseman , perhaps USB Mouse adaptor by Bryce is the thing you need USB Mouse Batch.

I have 2.... But joymouse is not the way to go after having an analog proportional one.

[Prodatron]

Regarding the mouse I absolutely agree, we need a solution as well. Using the joystick is how Tvandor described it!

Right now I finished the "realtime" signal strength display. It's just a little gimmick but it's really funny to see this on a CPC Thanks so much to Duke for adding this value so that I was able to put it into the status window of the network driver:

signal2.jpg
(155.3 kB, 1599x899 - viewed 196 times)

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

So great to have this new hardware for the CPC!

[robcfg]

Heh, funny indeed!


Looking forward to chat with you on my CPC 

[TFM]

... About mouse, can any do the symbiface2 mouse part in a standalone board for MX4? symbos will work instantly, and trust me, it work flawless!

There are more easy ways to have a proportional mouse (means not to waste a slot of the MX4), for example this one:
Atari-ST mouse adapter - CPCWiki
Marconi - CPCWiki


Or a bit harder to get:
Kempston Mouse - CPCWiki
CPC-Mousepack 2.0 - CPCWiki

[CraigsBar]

There are more easy ways to have a proportional mouse (means not to waste a slot of the MX4), for example this one:
Atari-ST mouse adapter - CPCWiki
Marconi - CPCWiki


Or a bit harder to get:
Kempston Mouse - CPCWiki
CPC-Mousepack 2.0 - CPCWiki

How can it be proportional... It still uses the joystick port.

[TotO]

The MultiPlay can handle two proportional Amiga mouse. (PS/2, USB and ST with adapter)

[CraigsBar]

The MultiPlay can handle two proportional Amiga mouse. (PS/2, USB and ST with adapter)

And like the albireo is waiting for a symbos driver. I don't mind, as I have both devices, but as the Amiga dies not support scrollwheels it might be better to use the albireo and it's USB socket.

[dxs]

@Duke , maybe if you find some time could you make and upload other language (FR I'm mainly interested in but I'm sure ES will get some attention too) versions of your modded lower ROM for game compatibility?


It would also be awesome if one could check the SD card contents and upload / download files or directories from a PC. Much like the "Files" page of the M4 server, but more like a FTP client Or at least being able to upload a whole directory with subdirectories would be nice! Being able to browse the sd card content from Chrome or whatever would work just as great.
Btw for people who may not have noticed it (I just did...) you can download a file to your PC using the xfer tool obviously, but also by typing for example "http://yourcpcIP/sd/M4/config.txt&quot
http://yourcpcIP/sd/M4/config.txt";; in your browser.

Maybe (as many people will prefer to connect the microsd to their pc), an easier solution would be enabling access to the sd card files via the M4 board usb port? Don't know if that's possible...

I can't believe how great this board is!!

[Duke]

Sure can add it to other language versions, but I'd like to hear if it works out for people. I forgot which games had that issue, so I just tested one (Gryzor Two Mag crack) and it worked fine with the mod.

About uploading/downloading multiple files, it would be really nice, hopefully someone will help with that, I think some kind of javascript code in the webpage would make it all alot easier. Ie. something like github has a really nice drag files to upload. The crude server has http post implemented.
If anyone good with javascript or whatever and want to help out with it, let me know. You can already test the web code, by putting in a directory on the microsd card and just refer to it with /sd prefix, like you did to download files. I would add whatever server side (cgi) functions needed

@Duke , maybe if you find some time could you make and upload other language (FR I'm mainly interested in but I'm sure ES will get some attention too) versions of your modded lower ROM for game compatibility?


It would also be awesome if one could check the SD card contents and upload / download files or directories from a PC. Much like the "Files" page of the M4 server, but more like a FTP client Or at least being able to upload a whole directory with subdirectories would be nice! Being able to browse the sd card content from Chrome or whatever would work just as great.
Btw for people who may not have noticed it (I just did...) you can download a file to your PC using the xfer tool obviously, but also by typing for example "http://yourcpcIP/sd/M4/config.txt&quot
http://yourcpcIP/sd/M4/config.txt";;;; in your browser.

Maybe (as many people will prefer to connect the microsd to their pc), an easier solution would be enabling access to the sd card files via the M4 board usb port? Don't know if that's possible...

I can't believe how great this board is!!

[TFM]

How can it be proportional... It still uses the joystick port.

Ok and the joystick port has 7 input lines. So that's seven bits. Usually only four bits get used, so you can provide proportional values from 0 to 15. The articles in the Wiki explain that in detail. 

But back to topic: How does the M4 and the symbos deamon work? Does the M4 connect directly to a wireless router? Or does it need the PC for that?

[CraigsBar]

M4 connects directly to the router, and thus the internet.

[TFM]

M4 connects directly to the router, and thus the internet.

That's extremely wonderful! So the PC is NOT NEEDED any longer! 

[Duke]

That's extremely wonderful! So the PC is NOT NEEDED any longer! 

It never was, as it always connected directly to the router/AP. PC is only needed to access the webinterface for settings
 - Most is available through RSX commands.

[robcfg]

And you can do it from your smartphone, so no, no need for a PC.

[Joseman]

@Joseman , perhaps USB Mouse adaptor by Bryce is the thing you need USB Mouse Batch.

Hi Miguel

I know this adaptor, but i'm not into mouse-joystick-port solutions...

I "love" the symbiface 2 ps-2 mouse function and the mx4 board of the ps2 part has to be tiny and cool!

[tvandor]

Hi @Duke,

Just wanted to let you know that everything works now: Wifi Board with Motherx4 and the lowerrom setup as well.
Probably had some contact issues, I re-attached eveything more firmly than before and now everything works. :-)
Thanks for you and @TotO to make this happen!


I have only one problem to report: when I try to rease a file, I receive an
"AMSDOS not initialized" I simply used: |ERA,"<flename>" format.
I am not sure why is this.


Tamas

[Duke]

Good!
I don't know where that message comes from "AMSDOS not initialized".  I seem to remember that I had that message in an early m4rom version.
Can you please check with |version that you are actually on 1.0.8 or 1.0.9 ?
Also what other roms do you installed (and what lowerrom?)?
|era  doesn't complain here.

Hi @Duke,

Just wanted to let you know that everything works now: Wifi Board with Motherx4 and the lowerrom setup as well.
Probably had some contact issues, I re-attached eveything more firmly than before and now everything works. :-)
Thanks for you and @TotO to make this happen!


I have only one problem to report: when I try to rease a file, I receive an
"AMSDOS not initialized" I simply used: |ERA,"<flename>" format.
I am not sure why is this.


Tamas

[dxs]

And what about the USB port? Can it only be used for input power, or a further update could allow SD card browsing via USB (like a common micro SD to USB converter)?

[tvandor]

@Duke

Well, I got the solution and this is interesting.
(Well, for me at least, the rookie. :-) )

So I probably  got that message because I uploaded the rom "Utopia" to the M4 board
on slot 1.

I like this rom because it has a |help command that lists installed rom and
|help, x where I can list the rxs commands for a specific rom.

But this rom also has an |era command too and it seems that since it was
in a lower slot than the M4 rom it superseeded the |era command.

I removed Utopia from slot 1 and uploaded it to slot 9
and,|era started working. :-)

Is it safe using the m4 and utopia rom this way?


Thanks,

Tamas
>Good! >I don't know where that message comes from "AMSDOS not initialized".  I seem to remember that I had that message in an early m4rom version.>Can you please check with |version that you are actually on 1.0.8 or 1.0.9 ?>Also what other roms do you installed (and what lowerrom?)?>|era  doesn't complain here.