Get on the notification list for a FabGL Serial Terminal - TTL and RS232

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Looks like this is the best solution and saves both $'s and time to build the terminal.  

I bet if enough people sign up for the notification list here, he'll get some boards to sell.  

https://www.tindie.com/products/fabgl/fabgl-serial-terminal-ttl-and-rs232/  

[Tom Lake]

Too bad he won't ship to the USA. That limits potential sales a bit.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

While poking around I found this;  https://hackaday.io/project/181583-uterm2-s-a-multi-emulation-color-rs232-terminal/details  

And this is posted on PCBWAY.com ... ready for orders.  

IF somebody wants to place an order for a small batch, I'd buy one for starters.  

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[Thomas Runge]

If you're interested, I could relay to the US from Germany.

[Tom Lake]

Thanks for the offer but I did manage to find a US seller on eBay.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

This looks like it might be more bang for the buck solution for a general purpose video terminal for vintage computers.  I ordered ten blank boards to share.  

https://shop.mcjohn.it/en/diy-kit/57-129-uterm2-s.html#/13-kit-assembled  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

I tried loading the PC/DOS selection into the TTGO/FabGL ... but when I select "DOS Programs and Games (HDD 20MB)" it goes to the internet to download the image and comes back after 5-minutes saying it cannot get the files!  

Does anybody know another route to load the "DOS Programs and Games (HDD 20MB)" into the TTGO/FabGL emulator"  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

This might be a warning ... After installing the ESP32 PC Emulator into the TTGO VGA32 board, I cannot get an active COM port on the PC to ReProgram the ESP32 for something else.  It seems stuck in PC Emulation mode!  

.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

I can't get the DOS Programs and Games (HDD 20MB) to fully install.  It keeps coming up with "Unable to get system disks!" after 5-minutes of trying to load the 20MB image file.  

and of course, I can't get the COM port active anymore now.  I tried the two buttons in various combinations, but the board is stuck at the "Load a DOS image" screen.  

Yeah, don't try to ReFlash the firmware in the ESP32 too much ... it seems to get a bit flakey if you do.  

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On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 9:06:25 PM UTC-8 John Galt wrote:

its pain since you can't edit posts... but another thing i noticed was parts of the ESP32 firmware do not seem to clear properly, if your changing the purpose of the ESP32 a lot what can happen is some settings get locked in from one emulation to the next and can cause it to lock up. i had to fight with my ASCI TERMINAL while i was wiring it because the configuration settings refused to reset. 

so i thought i would just flash the memory with something else then flash it back and it kept the corrupted settings. i kept holding down the reset button over and over and tried a memory wipe INO that did not work. finally after trying to blank it over and over i managed to corrupt the corrupt memory and it was enough that i could reset what i needed for the terminal.

i bought 3 ESP32s to mess with so i kind of learned that once you flash them leave them alone if you can and buy another one HA!

On Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 12:01:04 AM UTC-5 John Galt wrote:

working 

https://i.imgur.com/uI5VWyE.jpg

On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 11:58:17 PM UTC-5 John Galt wrote:

did you setup everything according to the readme in the ino file

   - to run this application you need an ESP32 with PSRAM installed and an SD-CARD slot (ie TTGO VGA32 v1.4 or FabGL Development Board with WROVER)
    - open this with Arduino and make sure PSRAM is DISABLED
    - partition scheme must be: Huge App
    - compile and upload the sketch

are you connecting to your wifi properly?

do you have the SD card in the slot? you need it to store the downloads.

mines working normally i just plugged it in to check. i think the files come from http://www.fabglib.org/

[udo....@freenet.de]

For the IMSAI8080esp I have not seen such bug reports so far, and we had quite some firmware releases.

As far as I know everyone always was able to flash a new firmware without such effects. This indicates

that the application does not initialize all memory and then gets stuck with unexpected memory contents.

What one could try is creating a firmware with all 0 bytes, filling up the complete memory and flash with that.

Won't do anything of course, but after that flash your application again and it might see a brand new ESP from

the factory. Maybe try this with one of your stuck devices, at least it won't get worse than it is already I think.

[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

I'm starting to think it might be a capacitor problem ... I left the TTGO disconnected from power overnight and today I could program the ESP32 again.  I would hope this is just a problem with the one unit and not a entire batch problem.  

OTOH, IF the ESP32 has so much RAM, I don't know why pretty much every game isn't installed into a "GameSelector" app so we load up the one app, then choose a game from that app.  The VIC20 games are too low resolution, but the Space Invaders looks good.  I bet a real programmer could assemble a couple dozen reasonable quality popular games (they're all online) into a "GameSelector" app.  

  

I'm hoping to have the newer design "UTERM2-S"  blank boards soon and build one for testing, and IF it works the same or better than the TTGO modules I'll build up a few more for myself.  Then I can just load up "Space Invaders" into the two TTGO boards for play.  I should look into a Sol-20 computer emulator or a Commodore 64 emulator for the ESP32.  

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[Richard Deane]

My chardonnay-soaked brain, without enough coffee,  seems to recollect that the ESP32 can't be programmed if one of RX/TX pins are connected (don't recollect which) . I think one of the pins acts as Programming Enable. Is there a jumper or have you disconnected any serial connections? 

I use several ESP32 devices with FabGL, but not tried the DOS app download.

Richard

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

Well, it took me some time to get all the components, finish and get other projects out of the way and build my µTerm2-S board, but it's done, then it took another day to design and 3D print a nice case for the completed unit to find I do not have M2x50mm bolts so I jury-rigged with nylon spacers and M2x30mm bolts, then just glued the top to the bottom on the outside of the box.  Looks good, works good.  

(email hint)  Next step is to get the newest color graphics terminal software .ino so I can dump it into the board and try some of the programs that have been posted.  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

I forgot to add that the files for 3D printing are posted on:  https://pinshape.com/items/115595-3d-printed-%C2%B5term2-s-case  for FREE downloading.  

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[Walt Perko]

Hi, 

As I was browsing the "Terminal Configuration" menu ... I think it would be neat to have a VDM-1 emulation in there too.  Maybe just the Processor Technology character set added to a new terminal emulation called VDM-1c?  

I don't know how to do that, but I think it sure would be neat.  

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