MSX terminal

Master (204)

22-08-2021, 22:59

I have created something great. You plug-in a data-only USB cable into your MSX and your Computer. The MSX boots up. A serial port appears in your OS (Windows, MacOS, Linux). You can then start your favourite terminal program and start remotely typing on your MSX and the characters are echoed back as well.

For characters from Computer to MSX I stuff them into the keyboard buffer. Works great.
For characters from MSX to Computer I had a problem. I couldn't find a VT52 compatible terminal program. The MSX uses it's own subset of that standard. I created my own terminal program with Typescript and this now works as well.

Now the big question. I noticed that the BS and DEL key are not emitted via H.CHPU. Only a cursor right command (0x1c). Do I need to hook another routine to get the BS and DEL keystrokes? And what about CTRL+STOP?

P.S. I will soon post a video of the MSX terminal in action

By 2ARC

Supporter (11)

23-08-2021, 17:23

Interesting. Did you use a FTDI or a CH340 chip like in cheap Arduino clones?

By S0urceror

Master (204)

23-08-2021, 20:36

The MSXUSB or RookieDrive that is based on a CH376

By 2ARC

Supporter (11)

24-08-2021, 01:10

I work with kicad. Your design is very good. I will stay tunned. With Raspberry Pi zero there is an USB Ethernet/RNDIS Gadget which transforms a PI USB port into an Ethernet port (yeah, probally you already know that, indulge me, if you can). Does your project talk to outter world in a manner like that?

By S0urceror

Master (204)

24-08-2021, 06:57

2ARC wrote:

Does your project talk to outter world in a manner like that?

Yes but in this case it transforms the MSX into a serial port that you can connect to.

My MSXUSB project was first focused on the hardware and the software to let it be a host for plugged in flash drives, Ethernet, hubs, etc. Now I try to let it be a device itself. This way another laptop/desktop computer is the host.

I could have stopped by making just a serial device. But I thought to make something out of it. First I created an Assembly Monitor in the style of old Apple II computers. Next I started making a MSX terminal connection. Now you can type a Basic program, run DOS from a window on your modern PC which is running on the MSX itself. Like making a SSH connection to another Linux box but then on the MSX.

I will soon release the software as GPL on my GitHub when it is ready.

By S0urceror

Master (204)

29-08-2021, 19:22

Amazing way to connect your MSX to your PC. Just open a terminal window to the MSX and control BASIC, DOS and any other character based program.

Seeing is believing. Video of this goes live tomorrow. Check out on YouTube.

By Pencioner

Scribe (1524)

29-08-2021, 20:19

I will try not to miss it live Being very interested in such (or very similar) thing for a while, looking forward to see in action (and test when it comes out and use with my RD)

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3239)

29-08-2021, 20:53

Very cool stuff indeed!!

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3239)

30-08-2021, 18:03

A little short of 2 hours left to wait…

By st1mpy

Paladin (851)

30-08-2021, 21:34

Will you be working on a feature to transfer files between MSX and PC?

By S0urceror

Master (204)

31-08-2021, 07:42

You can already now paste the text of an Intel Hex file in the Monitor. This places the file in memory. Then you can save it to disk.

For a more simpler way of doing things I intend to implement also the ability to (b)load/(b)save from the USB device in BASIC. Like: LOAD “USB:TEST.BAS” or BLOAD “USB:TEST.BIN”,R

Or implement the XModem in the Monitor to upload and save directly to a file.