PCW wifi M4 board

[asertus]

Hi,


Just found out that a collega has a PCW9512. I was telling him about my CPC with M4 wifi and he asked me if this may work in his PCW of if there were any other wifi solutions for that PCW. Maybe @Duke or @Habi know anything about this? ?


Thanks

[JonB]

I wonder how you use it. If it's a serial port you communicate with to set up the wifi connection I could see it being very useful.. and I could probably design one.

[asertus]

I think the idea is using M4 same way as in CPC. Plugging it to PCW expansion bus, using it as a mass storage, using wifi connection to upload files, telnet.... etc...

[JonB]

It won't work, the PCW expansion bus is different to the CPC bus.

So, you need you need a PCW specific bus. There is one called "Z80 bus" which I designed for the uIDE and now uRTC boards. However, this is not a motherboard, it is just a 40 way ribbon with IDC connectors at regular intervals that you can make yourself; the pinout is the same as the Z80 pinout (hence, "Z80 bus"). The problem with this is it does not give access to the PCW specific control signals, but as you would use a PCW expansion port adapter to connect to it, the control signals are on the card and could be extended out onto any cards that need them.

This stuff is all documented here: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/UIDE_Universal_IDE_adapter_cards_for_Z-80_computers along with a proposed design for an actual back plane board. However, as there was no interest from the community in the project, I dropped it.

[asertus]

Thanks for the info. I will tell my friend that, for now, he should go gotek or maybe some centronix/serial interface.


But, actually, it is a little weird there is no more interest in wifi or similar for PCW, as there were more millions sold than CPC...

[JonB]

Yes, there were many PCWs sold, but they were not the sort of computer that ended up in the hands of avid teenager bedroom programmer types. At the time you'd be playing with a computer that had colour and sound, and swapping games with your mates. If you had a PCW to play with, you'd have been left out in the cold. Fast forward 35 years and you have an enthusiastic group of retro computer types looking to relive the times of their youth. What do they buy? Not a boring old PCW - they get an all singing, all dancing colour micro like they played with BITD. No one has nostalgia for PCWs... that's why I implemented uIDE for it - to show the poor old thing some love. And where are they now? Languishing in lofts, or landfill, or the backs of garages and cupboards. There are precious few active users, as can be seen from this forum which is quiet at the best of times.