[Coco] Fwd: IP packets on my coco

[Tormod Volden]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 9:13 AM, RETRO Innovations wrote:
> On 6/10/2016 2:08 AM, Dave Philipsen wrote:
>>
>> I agree.  It's a slight disadvantage (the double abstraction).  I just
>> wanted to make sure you saw all of the features to make a meaningful
>> comparison.
>>
>> I personally still like the idea of the ESP8266.  The only ethernet jack I
>> have in my house is downstairs at the server box. We do everything wifi.
>> And I'm guessing that's the way most households are nowadays. And, frankly,
>> at least for right now I don't see myself doing anything much more
>> complicated than checking email, up/downloading via ftp, etc. with my CoCo.
>> The biggest need I see is an untethered method of loading / saving /
>> organizing files.  And I bought several of these little ESP8266 cards for
>> about 2 bucks apiece.  You really can't beat that.  And, perhaps it's
>> something that can be modified for the future if/when the CoCo gets into
>> networking heavily.
>
> I'm rooting for your position.
>
> I would prefer to find someone who could help me move the esp interface from
> RS232 to SPI, just because that would mean I can spin a board with just a
> CPLD and the ESP, rather than a CPLD, UART, and ESP.  Plus, it would allow
> the system to be more determinant (the Coco would always drive the comms).

If someone is interested in working on this, I have an SPI interface
for Dragon/CoCo - some of you might have seen it at the CoCo-Fest
where Brett was demoing it on his CoCo2 - the Spinx-512 board.
Initially made to provide fast mass-storage (and memory) for FUZIX, it
has an SD card slot hooked up as one SPI slave but there are 3 more
slave connects on the headers. It has a programmable clock divider
(2-16) and it has a 50MHz oscillator on board (can also use the
computer clock). The idea was to explore network interfaces, input
devices and other fun on FUZIX, although there is nothing FUZIX
specific and the interface is really easy to program against:
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5459

Of course, the software and protocol work remains the difficult part,
and it would probably make sense to work out e.g. an ESP8266 firmware
using something else for first testing before hooking up the CoCo.

I have some experience with the stock ESP8266 as I was hooking it up
via my uDW DriveWire microserver, but I didn't get much further than
"hello internet" before the DriveWire virtual channels I was using
became "delicate" and I haven't gotten back to this. From a quick
investigation on my ESP8266 modules I don't think the pins available
(these are the modules with 8 pins) can be used for SPI. For a
production design one can use the bare chips though, instead of
modules.

Regards,
Tormod