MiST Amiga (Minimig) online using WIFI ( WEMOS D1 mini Pro - ESP8266 )

Recently I've gone back to using my MiST 1.3 hardware to run Amiga OS 3.2.  I have several MiSTers setup using networking and I wondered since I stopped using my MiST if that had changed and luckily for me it had.

I really like my original MiST. It was where I started with FPGAs and where I learnt with some limited success FPGA programming.  So I was really excited to get it back out and in use.  There is something really nice about the rugged metal housing.  I never got that same Aesthetic from the MiSTer, but I did get SMD soldering skills as I jumped onto the MiSTer band wagon from literally day one.

Initially I thought that a USB dongle would do it, unfortunately this is only an option for the Atari ST core.  Searching the net I found these two great resources for setting this up. 

• https://blog.nootch.net/post/amiga-bbs-online-2019
• https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=34743  

This blog post is merely standing on the shoulders of giants, I won't include their content here.  Please refer to the links above.  My post covers the WEMOS D1 Mini Pro and my approach to mounting it in the case. 

 

Initially I bought a standard ESP8266, but it needed a serial dongle to connect to and program it and reading further I noted  that you couldn't shut the case as it became a Faraday cage and blocked the signal.  I noted a comment about using an external aerial and then found such a device on Ebay . .  the WEMOS D1 mini Pro - ESP8266.

I was also lucky that I had an old MiST 1.3 board which made wiring it in very easy.

The D1 mini Pro is self contained, it has onboard USB which you can program it and perform all of the settings on.  There was a mention of a possibility using Windows to program it using WSL.  You can't do it as it has no low level access.  The easiest route ended up being good old Linux.

WEMOS D1 mini Pro

The header on my MiST 1.3 has the 4 pins exposed for the serial header still.  Looking at the various clearances I decided on mounting the D1 under the MiST motherboard.  You will notice that I am using right angle pin headers to keep the profile low!

There is a Ground, 3.3V, TX and RX that need to be connected. They will map to the D1 like so.

 Mist RX <=> D1 TX (Blue)

Mist TX <=> D1 RX (Green)

Mist 3.3v <=> D1 3.3v (Red)

Mist GND <=> D1 GND (Grey)

You will notice the large amount of Kapton tape that I used to Electrically isolate everything.

I ended up deciding to mount the aerial a the rear of the unit under the MIDI expansion.  A hole was drilled 5mm from the base between the mounting posts using a 6.5mm Drill bit on a slow speed.  Then I painted the hole with some Zinc Gal paint.  Mounting the aerial mount was simple, just ensure you tighten the retaining nut really well.

Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out and better still I can put the lid back on and have it work. When all is done the aerial will fold neatly behind the unit or just unscrew it.

 

 

 

 

 

Setting up TK5 - My own Mainframe - part 1

Introduction

Over the last few years I've been more and more interested in the workings of the IBM Mainframe.  I've set up TK4- numerous times using Hercules but never really got further than that.

  

Just recently I decided it was time to have a crack as the sysgen process, inspired by Mainframes & More with Matthew and now more recently setting up TK5 with my own local virtual1403 printer inspired by moshix and again Matthew.

 

So without further ado let's begin the journey . . .

 

Configure the base Linux Server

I have a small proxmox server running on an Intel i3 processor, so this is where I am going to run my Virtual Linux Server.  Looking back on this an i3 is not a good choice, but it's what I had lying about. It caused me some issues later on.

 

For this build I am using the following

• Debian Linux 13.0

 

I'm not going to talk about how to set this up. For the most part you'll want to run a standard setup.  For ease of use I installed the desktop environment as well.

 

Now the important part:

Configure server up with a fixed IP address and make sure you put it into your /etc/hosts file along with the server name. 

If you don't do this you are going to get into a world of hurt when setting up the virtual1403.

 

 

 

Install packages

There are a number of additional packages that you may need. These are all the packages that you will need for a complete build of all of the software if you need to.  Let's install them all just in case. 

 

As root : apt install <packageName> 

 

General Packages 

sudo  Also add your users to the sudo group in /etc/group as well

git                 

curl  

zip              

unzip  

unix2dos

x3270

c3270 

 

If you need to build Hyperion ( Hercules )             

cmake               

gcc                    

regina-rexx

libbz2-dev

zlib1g-dev

 

Required to run virtual1403 

golang 

postfix    Select "all" . . . NOT local only

bsd-mailx 

Installing TK5 Update 4

TK5+ is available from Rob Prins website. 

 

During the Linux install I created a user called bigblue, so I'll use that user to run all the following commands

 

Lets setup a source directory to hold all the files  

 

mkdir -p ~/src

Lets get TK5 and the User manual

 

I recommend printing out the User manual. 

cd ~/src/

curl -O https://www.prince-webdesign.nl/images/downloads/mvs-tk5.zip

curl -O https://www.prince-webdesign.nl/images/downloads/TK5-Introduction-and-User-Manual.pdf

Lets grab the optional source (although we won't use it here).

curl -O https://www.prince-webdesign.nl/images/downloads/srccbt_catlg.txt

curl -O https://www.prince-webdesign.nl/images/downloads/srccbt.zip

Let set it up ready for use

cd ~

unzip ~/src/mvs-tk5.zip

cd ~/mvs-tk5

chmod -R +x *

cd ~/mvs-tk5/unattended

./set_console_mode

 

Now we are ready to go so let's start it. 

 

cd ~/mvs-tk5

./mvs

 

At this point the system should start normally and eventually you'll get this.  

 

If for some reason it doesn't start and complains about missing instructions then you will need to build your own Hyperion binaries from scratch.  This is why my i3 NUC was not the best choice.

 

If you haven't printed out the User manual please do so, it has instructions on how to stop you mainframe nicely.

Connecting with a TN3270 terminal

Although we have the system console we started with ./mvs it's not for user use.  So you can start a TN3270 emulator to connect in.

You should have installed x3270 in the previous steps which you can access from the linux desktop.

 

Or if like me you prefer something remote I bought a copy of Vista TN3270 from Tom Brennan Software or you can use one of the many available 3270 emulators out there on the Internet.

 

One little point to remember, on your keyboard Enter may not always be the correct Enter key.  Try hitting the one on your number pad if the normal one does not work. 

 

x3270

 

Vista TN3270 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front panel for Intel NUCs for a 10 inch rack

 

 

Quite a while ago I bought a number of second hand Intel NUCs to create a Proxmox cluster.  It sat as a stack on my desk and it was annoying to turn on and off and was a complete mess of spaghetti wires.

To remedy I bought a 10 inch rack from GeeekPi and so began my journey to make it more usable and neater that the mess on my desk.

One of the things I really wanted was to have a front panel so I could stack the NUCs neatly in the rack and not have to move them about to turn them off and on.

Luckily the NUCs have a 2mm front panel header inside the case.

 

I  thought initially about cutting the case, but that was just a bit too destructive so I ordered some flat ribbon cable with 2mm IDC connectors to build a simple prototype.

I didn't know how I would mount the buttons and LEDs.  I wasn't keen on drilling or 3d printing so I picked up a  XLR HDMI rack panel from GeeekPi as it seemed an elegant way to mount what I needed.

Next I needed some measurements for the PCBs. Luckily there are plenty of them about for the XLR connectors, so I went about making a PCB for the panel.

And here we are:

The PCBS 

Installing the Ribbon cable to the front panel header

 

 

 

Front panel XLR PCB Installation  

Bill of Materials

• XLR PCB from PCBWay 

• Ribbon cable with 2mm IDC connectors (20 cm)
• Shrouded 2mm IDC header for PCB 
• Buttons for PCB 
• Red LED's for PCB 
• Green LED's for PCB 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to : Replace your Intel NUC battery with one from EBAY . . . which you may think isn't working.

There are plenty of how to instructions on the Internet for replacing the battery in your NUC. 

None of them talk about issues with batteries on the Internet.

If you have a battery that doesn't work, chances are it is just wired up back to front.

For example this battery is from EBAY.

However take a close look at the plug vs your old batteries plug.

 

Luckily this is very easily fixed.  The metal pins that are crimped on the ends of the wires are held in place in the plug with the two plastic tabs that you can see in the image above.

Simply lift the tag gently (do not bend or break the tag) and then while it is being held up pull on the wire to release the pin.

 Now the pins are out, carefully insert them back into the plug in the correct order.  

They should click back into place.

 

 

 

MiSTer FPGA : HDMI Stopped working

Just after Christmas 2022 my original MiSTer stopped outputting HDMI.  Initially I thought it was dead, however the VGA output was still working fine.  I was a little bit sad as I had bought this DE10-nano on 21-Jul-2017, just a little time after the MiSTer project had started.

I pulled off the I/O board and had a look through my magnifying lamp.  It was dirty but nothing major so I cleaned the HDMI connection and the board leading back to the HDMI chip using Isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip. But this didn't fix anything the HDMI output was still dead.  So I decided to pick up some replacement HDMI chips as I thought I had fried it with my new HDMI switcher.

At this time my workbench was is complete disarray and I was planning to setup a proper bench as my old one was a rather warped plastic table. So I wasn't ready to do any fixing.

Fast forward 2 months and my new workbench is now all setup, ready for fixing.

. . . and so herein lies the lesson . . .

Once I got my microscope up and running I could see the corrosion and gunk still there right between all of the legs of the 65BRG IC right next to the HDMI port.

Proper cleaning on the DE10-nano can not be done with a Q-tip.  You will either want to use a dental brush or an ultra sonic cleaner if you have one.

The problem I had was with one of the tiny IC's right next to the HDMI port. it seemed to have a build up of dust, flux and corrosion on it.  After cleaning it you can clearly see the dis-coloured pins.  The dental brush was the ideal tool ( with a liberal amount of Isopropyl alcohol ) to clean in between the legs.

Once the matter was cleaned away the HDMI port worked straight away.

After I clean you can see the legs on the IC on the right are no longer shiny.

The Dental Brush is ideal to get right into the gaps

 

Comparing the Q-tip and Dental Brush

   As you can see there was no way the Q-tip would have been effective at cleaning this.

 

Finally, my new work bench up and running