LisaNet - remote management of ESFloppy and ESProfile images

[wottle]

Working on adding a way for me to manage my ESFloppy and ESProfile images without having to pop open the side of my Lisa Mini case for my LisaFPGA. I have an on demand on screen menu that allows me to change settings. I thought the on board ESP32s for the ESFloppy and ESProfile might have wifi, so originally I thought I could do it with just the existing hardware. It turns out that you cannot use Wifi on them. However, you can get a tiny ESP32 @3 device that does have wifi (with an external antenna) that you can use, along with some unused GPIO header pins on the LisaFPGA, to make this work.

Basically, the ESFloppy and ESProfile modules will have two modes. One is in SDCard access mode, and the other will be the drive emulation mode (their current mode). And the ESP32 S3 will have a mode to serve up a web interface when on of the two are in SD card access mode. This means, when the Lisa is off, I can pull up the menu, change to one of the two WiFi Modes, and I can see the contents of the cards. I can add another floppy or hard drive image. I can move, delete files. I can select which floppy will be mounted next. I can set which hard drive is the profile.image (the boot image). I can download an image. Similar to what you get with the RaSCSI...

My goal here is to have my Lisa Mini be mostly self contained, and I can add more software and customize it without having to be shuffling SD cards in and out. Here's what I have so far:

The tiny thing with the rainbow Dupont wires going into it at the top (not much larger than the USB connector) is the ESP32 S3. That runs the LisaNet interface, wifi management, etc.

And here is the web interface for the ESFloppy and ESProfile cards:



I do need to figure out how to do first time setup. My plan is if it is turned on and not connected, it will create its own wifi network where you can connect and it will show a config page with the existing wifi networks allowing you to connect to yours.

 

[wottle]

OK, got it installed and everything buttoned up.

The first time setup isn't ideal, but it's pretty common for devices without a screen / input that need to connect to wifi. If unable to connect to wifi, (or for a first time setup), it will create its own WiFi network you can connect to (with a fixed password. Then you can set up the device with an admin password (if not already set) and connect to your WiFi. Once you connect, the temp network goes away and it will server up a local web interface on lisanet.local. It works surprisingly well. I appreciate being able to swap HD images without having to go through selector every time. 99% of the time I want to boot into LOS. But it's nice to switch without having to pop out the SD card and move files around.

Will post a video of everything now that it's all in its final state. May wait until my replacement LCD is in so you can see what's going on on the ESFloppy.

 

[JDW]

@wottle , you're amazing!

LISA-FPGA owners like me wish to THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your hard work on making the experience INSANELY GREAT!

 

[wottle]

Added the ability to control the settings from the ESP32 web UI. (Ignore the error on the screen, I had powered off the lisaFPGA when k took the screenshot. Unfortunately, it can only see the files for the ESFloppy or the ESProfile one at a time, so you have to switch modes for one or the other. You can also control the screen location, CPU speed, etc from the settings. I’ll see what other settings I can allow to be controlled from here (scanlines, I/O ROM, CPU ROM, video inversion, etc). My goal is to be able to make it as configurable as if I had access to all the switches on the board, without having to open the case or complicate the back of the case with a bunch of switches.

It also shows the temperature of the FPGA chip, which seems a bit high. I might be adding a small fan to my case to help try to cool it a bit. Or at least some slots above it to try to help with fresh air being pulled across it. I’ll also be doing some testing of the cores temperature with and without my USB implementation to make sure that isn’t causing any meaningful difference in the temperature.

I also added the ability to update the firmware over the web interface so I don’t need to plug it into my computer every time I make a change. My goal is to have it buttoned up in my case and hardly ever need to open the case.

it’s definitely a selfish driven set of features! But I will say, now that I’ve had the usb hub / wireless keyboard and mouse for a bit, I cannot imagine going back to using the terrible usb kb / mouse I had been using. I think that’s the main improvement, and it doesn’t require any changes other than a re-flash of the software on the LisaFPGA. This WiFi functionality is a nice quality of life improvement for people who want the remote management of the SD cards and should require only a ~$15 ESP32 board, a WiFi antenna, and some DuPont wires. So trying to provide solder free solutions.

Will thoroughly document the process for flashing the LisaFPGA and the esp32 board in a GitHub repo.