1. The BCR port is receive only. However, there is a mod to connect pin
3 to the cassette tx line to make a compete serial port. Internally, I
would just be tapping SDI and SDO which are those pins.
2. I had thought about that recently. Bluetooth serial and retro wifi
modem combined. I may end up doing that. Maybe an AT command to
establish a BT serial connection?
4. Indeed. I discussed this here previously and never got around to
completing it. I actually have some competing ideas right now and I
wish I had time to just implement them all. I think all of them have
some space in the community for various needs.
One of them is to use the CYD (Cheap Yellow Device
https://blog.decryption.net.au/posts/cyd-for-beginners.html) as a drive
emulator and possibly a cassette emulator as well) That idea actually
originated from wanting to make a serial disk drive for my Husky Hunter
16. This provides a nice touchscreen interface for selecting modes, disk
images, etc... In fact, a retro wifi modem should also be possible.
Modifying the flashfloppy firmware for the gotek floppy emulator
hardware to convert it into a serial disk drive. TPDD emulation would
also be possible.
CH376 USB drive. Either serial mode or parallel mode tied to the
expansion bus.
Technically I really wouldn't need the TPDD for the robot control. I
could just use the dail-a-rom, Rex#, or even a custom ROM select module
to store the one or two programs and extra files needed. The purpose was
more that I have dedicated this particular M100 as the testbed for mods
I had been thinking about. It has a small chunk of the LCD reflective
coating missing and keys are a little iffy. I am not as concerned with
breaking it as I am my other nicer units.
Scott
On 10/2/2025 1:45 PM, Andrew Ayers wrote:
In regards to the battery thing, probably the safest thing might be to
use some AA lithium rechargeable cells; get the highest Ah you can
find...you would then need to build some kind of balance charging/BMS
setup...but there are boards for that.
Or, maybe go with a decent 3.7v prismatic or folded lithium device
(like tablets and phones use) with a decent Ah, then use a boost
converter to 5 volts?
As far as the hardware goes:
1. Does the BCR route provide for 2-way (TX/RX) serial? I only ask
because IIRC, wasn't the pen one-way only?
2. If you plan on using an ESP8266 - why not instead an ESP32-CS mini
board? You could get bluetooth that way without needing a secondary
module...
3. If there isn't any real need for bluetooth, you could stick with
using wifi...?
4. That Sparkfun OpenLog hardware looks interesting; a very tiny
Arduino with microSD seems perfect for what you want to do.
Now - all of that aside, is there any reason you couldn't consolidate
all of this onto a single small embedded board (like the ESP32-C3),
hooked up to the serial port?
I'm sure it would take some extra programming effort, but I'm
wondering if maybe you could extend the way the TPDDuino firmware
works to add in the extra communication needs (if I'm understanding
you right, the wireless comms you want are to communicate with/control
your robots?)...
Andrew L. Ayers
Glendale, Arizona
phoenixgarage.org
github.com/andrew-ayers
