Uzebox Forums

I did end up making a master server that is more or less working but I shot myself in the foot by trying to make it do everything and the complexity got out of hand and made me lazy.

Yeah, I know that feeling. That's why aim aiming for simpler thing first and evolve from there.

What's the language and platform you are using for those? We have to think about the hosting side of things and the cheapest VPS are Linux based...

I'm using C with Winsock. Winsock is just an implementation of standard Unix sockets with a couple differences here and there. The cheapest VPS being Linux is a good point too for actually doing the unix build though. I have that New York VPS running a very lightweight WinXP and it's all paid up for a year so I figured Unix support could be a last detail once the program is in final working form.

The programs all use asynchronous/non-blocking socket design so they are very scalable past our needs. Did that chat room work out for you? The source code is attached if you want an idea of the style of the programs and comments are welcome. Sockets stuff is just very procedural/functional and C like in nature that I didn't want an overly lengthy and complicated OOP sledgehammer to drive in 5 small tacks.

Here is a screenshot of the VPS running the server just for a little reality show for people not having an 8266 setup yet.

If you have it paid for a year, for sure that's what we'll use.

Now doing some tests, you should see something in your server logs. There's no Uzebox keyboard yet, so it's tricky to send stuff dynamically.

Btw, is there a way to have a user on that VPS to see the logs?

Uzenet is up, we're connected!

Awesome!!

Edit-BTW I will get posted what I have for keyboard support, but it isn't good. I also don't think it's practical to do without a separate MCU. I'm using a screen tile height of around 18 there or it misses keystrokes on fast typing... I'll fix up whatever experiments I was doing and attach the code/hex and wiring diagram tomorrow hopefully.

I had some work done a long time ago based on Atmel's application note for a PS/2 interface: http://www.atmel.com/Images/doc1235.pdf. It's simple enough and the code's is tested. We can use an ATTiny (14 pins) for that and use it's SPI bus to interface with the Uzebox P2 port.

I'll wait to see what you have..

uze6666 wrote:

8266test.jpg

Uzenet is up, we're connected!

I knew I worked on some harware before...
http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=12539#p12539

Though I don't seem to have a schematic done in Eagle, must had lost the napkin version! I'll redraw it tonight.

That's the one I remember and I think it is the best route. I do think the final product could be simplified, smaller, and cheaper by not requiring an ISP plug, just program it in a breadboard one time when the firmware it finalized.

paul wrote:Uzenet takes over

I for one, welcome our machine overlords. Apparently Skynet is running at "60 GigaFLOPS", so I would say Uzebox sales will have to do really well this year if we want post-human emergent AI by 2016

Edit-BTW Alec mine seems to be working just fine using 5v directly for everything. I managed to connected to the chat server with nothing but jumper wires so I plan on running 5v only on a long term stress test. I've used it at 5v for 2 days cumulatively and it would be very ideal how easy someone can wire it up that way. If you are willing to try it also I will buy you a beer if your chip burns I think it is a viable solution though.

That's the one I remember and I think it is the best route. I do think the final product could be simplified, smaller, and cheaper by not requiring an ISP plug, just program it in a breadboard one time when the firmware it finalized.

Definitively, this is just my prototyping board. The final pcb would be very small if I can make it work with a 8pin ATTiny. I'll leave a footprint for an ISP header in case a firmware upgrade is required.

Edit-BTW Alec mine seems to be working just fine using 5v directly for everything. I managed to connected to the chat server with nothing but jumper wires so I plan on running 5v only on a long term stress test. I've used it at 5v for 2 days cumulatively and it would be very ideal how easy someone can wire it up that way. If you are willing to try it also I will buy you a beer if your chip burns I think it is a viable solution though.

I just have one ESP-01 right now, but there's more in the mail. So I'll wait a bit before risking it! But that's good news if it works and its stable at 5V.