[Coco] RS232 to WiFi/Ethernet

[Allen Huffman]

> On Jan 30, 2018, at 6:16 PM, Mark D. Overholser <marko555.os2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Something that would help tremendously on the Bit Banger Port would be a
> Hardware Buffer for Incoming, ( and Outgoing ) Data...  Since the CoCo
> needs to Focus ALL of its TIME on the Bitbanger Port, having a Buffer
> would help prevent Data Loss.  The Microchip/Atmel AVR 1284 has 16K of RAM.

These ESP8266s appear to do that. You can connect at 1200 baud to a remote system sending data much faster than that. I don’t know the details of how big the buffer is, though.

> 2) A cartridge option for folks who don’t have MPI and/or RS232 pak.
>> Bitbanger would be okay, but lousy under OS-9, and can’t do the
>> 115200 baud that the RS232 pak can do.
> 
> There is a lot to be said about a dedicated ACIA, even the "damaged” 6551

Yes. It has to be a 6551 workalike otherwise we will have zero software that works for it.

> 
>> And really, if someone just provides TTL pins (3.3v for the ESP
>> module, ot 5V for other modules) on a header, we could just plug in
>> modules.
> 
> There are some CoCo Board designs that these headers could be added to…

Until someone wants to do a hardware project, I’ll offer the plans to “hook up four wires” and be online. That’s at least a start.

> The ESP32 is looking pretty cool...  I have a few of them, and I am looking into a Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth adapter…

I haven’t gotten my development board yet. Does it do master and slave?

> There is about 5 things that could get added to the CoCoSDC….

At some point, we’ll just stick an Arduino or similar thing on there, with header connectors. Then we can add on sound chips, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. to this “smart” cartridge and not have to worry about anything.

		— A