Commander X16

My VERA ESPIcial is a replacement VERA with an ESP32-S3 onboard. AndyMt has been making some progress with it lately adding WebDAV and SD FAT32 filesystem support to it. It's not quite ready yet, but air dropping files onto the SD card is nearly there.

It has an I2C connector so that the system can negotiate hand off cleanly without leaving dangling open files and the like, and a high speed SPI connection between VERA and the ESP32 to enable opening of raw sockets for telnet or http sessions and the like. Since the ESP32 is handling the TCP/IP stack, https and ssh are also within reach.

Those ESP32's are pretty neat, I used one to add a wireless keyboard adapter to an old 1975 IBM system.

I'd still like to see a data-exchange solution that uses the UserPort pins and 6522. Really don't mind if it's slow. Just need a few days of no distraction to recall the 6522 datasheet stuff, but it's turning out to be a pretty busy year. Using the 6522, it feels like a casual data exchange using smoke signals - while an ESP32 solution feels like a squadron of C-5's (overkill, including more current draw, but certainly would get the job done).


Other news: I did finally get W-02, W-03, and W-04 versions of the FlashAir. The unmarked FlashAir (left) is the W-02 version. I'm still learning about these, but you can't just "upgrade" W-02 into W-03, etc. Each version has its own features. So far the instructions on the W-03 version for bi-directional send/receive has NOT worked but ran out of time to double check my steps.

voidstar wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 10:18 am ...I'd still like to see a data-exchange solution that uses the UserPort pins and 6522. Really don't mind if it's slow. Just need a few days of no distraction to recall the 6522 datasheet stuff, but it's turning out to be a pretty busy year. Using the 6522, it feels like a casual data exchange using smoke signals - while an ESP32 solution feels like a squadron of C-5's (overkill, including more current draw, but certainly would get the job done). ..

Using the spare VIA#1 pins to talk to a MAX3100 as a UART would be somewhere in between the two, but closer to the smoke signals.

Where it appeals to me is that only the Dev Board is going to have VIA#2, while all the an SPI UART needs is for the header for the spare VIA#1 pins to be retained.

the flashair card is wonderful.
I also have one in the n-go.
can use it to move programs from the notebook to the n-go and back.

wonderful.


this is main connection n-go - notebook :

flashair updir pebinex : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?UPDIR=/pebinex/

flashair updir fth : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?UPDIR=/fth/

flashair updir inc : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?UPDIR=/tools/vforth/inc/

flashair updir lib : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?UPDIR=/tools/vforth/lib/

flashair updir data : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?UPDIR=/data/

flashair upload : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi

flashair del : 192.168.0.1/upload.cgi?DEL=/

voidstar wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2024 10:18 am using smoke signals - while an ESP32 solution feels like a squadron of C-5's (overkill, including more current draw, but certainly would get the job done).

This part jumped out at me. Last time I was overseas for the Navy (2000) I flew home in a C-5. Awesome Aircraft...

ahenry3068 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:43 am C-5. Awesome Aircraft...

Absolutely. I got to go through one at a local air show. They had the nose and tail open. It was empty so you really could really see just how huge this thing is. Just wish I could've seen the cockpit.

Well, I had this idea of using the two ESP32 200MHz cores for the actual NIC element, and the 12MHz RISC-V core for stuff like babysitting VERA's blanking cycles or keeping the FX registers fed and sending the output back to VERA for rendering/display, freeing up the 65c02 for stuff like sending more sprite, tile, and video data to VERA's VRAM, or software envelopes for the geometry synthesis channels.

Of course, to keep all this in the background, and not force developers to learn a new assembly language, there would need to be some sort of driver/API in ROM...

ahenry3068 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:43 am This part jumped out at me. Last time I was overseas for the Navy (2000) I flew home in a C-5. Awesome Aircraft...

Hopefully you got to sit in the upper aft cabin, not the cargo hold! (I understand that the cargo hold can be fitted out for pax when doing large-scale personnel transport, but it isn't exactly 'comfortable...')

kelli217 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:17 pm

ahenry3068 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:43 am This part jumped out at me. Last time I was overseas for the Navy (2000) I flew home in a C-5. Awesome Aircraft...

Hopefully you got to sit in the upper aft cabin, not the cargo hold! (I understand that the cargo hold can be fitted out for pax when doing large-scale personnel transport, but it isn't exactly 'comfortable...')

I did indeed fly in the upper aft cabin...

I've seen on the 6502.org forum a post related to the 65SIB bus : could It be implemented in an expansion card?
The link:

http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?p=10957