RC2014 Console over TCP/IP

[Michelle Lawson]

For a reason long forgotten, I have four RS232 to Ethernet converter devices. I got to thinking, could it be possible to connect one to the console port of an RC2014 and to a network. Open the appropriate port on the firewall, and let the world delve into the world of RC2014 and CP/M..... It would be a fun exercise and if nothing else, be able to have my RC2014 available from any computer in my house.....

[Ed Silky]

There have been a few conversations about using WiFi modems. Your RS232-Ethernet devices really shouldn't be much different. Do a search through the group messages and I'm sure you'll find something you can try.

-Ed

On Wed, Dec 3, 2025 at 3:50 PM Michelle Lawson <michelle...@gmail.com> wrote:

For a reason long forgotten, I have four RS232 to Ethernet converter devices. I got to thinking, could it be possible to connect one to the console port of an RC2014 and to a network. Open the appropriate port on the firewall, and let the world delve into the world of RC2014 and CP/M..... It would be a fun exercise and if nothing else, be able to have my RC2014 available from any computer in my house.....

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[Dylan Hall]

A few years back I built a module that uses a Pico W to provide a telnet interface to serial over wifi. For bonus points if you send a break over telnet it will reboot the system.

If there's interest I can dig up the code for the Pico, schematics, gerbers, etc.

Dylan

 

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[Ed Silky]

Dylan, that's very nice. I do a lot with the Pico/Pico-W/Pico2 (RP2040, RP2350). A lot of them are in my robotics projects, but I'm also using an RP2040 on my ZMB to provide a SD-Card interface, USB Keyboard input, and an RTC (either DS3231 or PCF8523 using Adafruit I2C modules).

-Ed 

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[Spencer Owen]

I'm sure you've seen it on z80kits already, but the ESP8266 Wifi Module does exactly that, except over Wifi and at TTL serial levels https://z80kits.com/shop/esp8266-wifi-module/

Spencer

On 03/12/2025 23:50, Michelle Lawson wrote:

For a reason long forgotten, I have four RS232 to Ethernet converter devices. I got to thinking, could it be possible to connect one to the console port of an RC2014 and to a network. Open the appropriate port on the firewall, and let the world delve into the world of RC2014 and CP/M..... It would be a fun exercise and if nothing else, be able to have my RC2014 available from any computer in my house..... --

[sunnyboy010101]

I bought and built Spencer's ESP8266 WIFI module. I can confirm that is works and is excellent. At the moment, it is the only connection to my RC2014 (blue box) system. I also have a serial connection (via USB interface) but for 'reason' turned off the ancient mac mini that was connected to the other end. With the WIFI module  I can connect to the RC2014 on any computer in the house as I set it up (the WIFI module) to connect to my home WIFI router and get an IP address via DHCP.

It's been running 24/7 since I built my RC2014 blue box last summer without any issues.

-R

[Robb Bates]

For what it's worth, I've reflashed Spencer's WiFi module with Bo Zimmerman's Zimodem so you can telnet out to BBSs and such.  I've been able to access Wikipedia and ChatGPT from my ZedPro.  Since you have more than one device Michelle, you might be able to do both telnet in to access the console and telnet out to reach the interwebs (at least the stuff you can reach via telnet).

It was a bit of a struggle to get it to work, but luck had it that I actually ran into Bo at VCF SW and he gave me some pointers.  I casually mentioned I wanted to try it to some vendor and this random guy sitting right next us said "oh yeah, that's mine".  Small world, eh?

Robb