On Sat, Jan 9, 2021 at 10:52 AM Jim Manley <jim.man...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone, > > I'd greatly appreciate hearing anyone's experiences with serial-to-WiFi > converters connecting their M100s to networks, and where they've found the > best prices. Is it simply a matter of using TERM on the M100 set to a > particular bit-rate, number of bits per character, parity, etc., and then > connecting to another computer by specifying the IP address of the > converter via a terminal program on the remote system, such as PuTTY, > HyperTerm, etc.? > Hi Jim! Perhaps other people who know more about modern serial to WiFi will chime in, but since it's been a couple days since you asked, I figured I throw in my inexpert two bits. First, you said "Serial-to-WiFi" but I'm wondering if you mean "wireless". Are you wanting a short-range serial extender in your home? If that's your goal, you may want to consider something cheaper, less complex, and less battery hungry than WiFi, such as infrared or RF in the MHz range. On the other hand, if you do mean "WiFi", then I can share a couple thoughts. First is that, while I haven't used a serial-WiFi converter in years, it used to be quite simple with my old Lucent/Orinoco device. The serial side was exactly as you'd expect. Then, you'd use TERM on your Model T and the device presented a simple text setup menu where you could choose what WiFi network you wanted. If I recall correctly, it provided a telnet interface, so you could directly telnet from the serial port to any host on the Internet. No need to preconfigure the device using PuTTY/HyperTerm. Second, I am working on a side project that isn't helpful to you now, but maybe it will be in the future. I'm embedding an ESP8266 <https://www.adafruit.com/product/2471> processor in place of the built-in modem on my Tandy 200. [Once COVID is over, I'm going to be the coolest kid in the coffee shop, rocking my Wireless Model T, oh yeah... 😉] I believe the wiring won't be too terribly hard (level shifting + figuring out how to cascade the charger for a tiny lithium ion battery). The trickier part may be seeing if I can cram a few utilities into the microcontroller: in particular Secure Shell <https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/libraries/libssh-esp32/> client and w3m <https://www.howtogeek.com/103574/how-to-browse-from-the-linux-terminal-with-w3m/> web browser (with the ncurses library replaced by my custom UNIX Tandy Terminfo <https://github.com/hackerb9/Tandy-Terminfo/>). —b9
