Good going, Steve. This will be so cool in native M100 mode, we've been
waiting decades for a low cost & low footprint solution to give us
80x24. Have you got TEXT working yet?
Philip
On 15/04/2020 2:44 am, Stephen Adolph wrote:
update:
Towards the goal of a next-generation video solution for M100, I have
some progress to share.
Recall this thread where I suggest that the "Geoff VT100 adapter" as
the hardware to focus on.
First, I have a "beta" VT100 driver solution, which is closely based
on Microsoft Disk-Basic (minus the disk stuff).
While still buggy, I can now drive the VT100 board, and attached VGA
monitor from BASIC.
Secondly, in order to really support M100, the software component in
the VT100 emulator board needs to be extended. I'm working on that.
This does imply that the "Geoff VT100" board, as it was originally
designed, won't work perfectly for M100. But, I'll post the updated
software image so anyone with this board already can update their board.
I'll keep posting updates as this progresses.
Steve
On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 8:41 AM Stephen Adolph <twospru...@gmail.com
<mailto:twospru...@gmail.com>> wrote:
As some of you may recall, it is fairly straightforward to access
an 80x24 screen in CP/M through the use of the M100 serial port,
and an external VT100 emulator.
This device:
http://geoffg.net/terminal.html
is a great example of how to connect a modern VGA flat screen
display to the M100. However, this exact design isn't really
convenient, as the serial data has to be connected with a custom
cable. (see the little white 4 pin header).
I've decided to make a variant of this design that has a DB-9
connector on it, for serial data, so that it can be easily
connected to the M100.
I'll be making kits available for this design, and the price will
be 30$ US. Hopefully by making this affordable and easier to
connect, this can become the defacto solution to 80x24 display!
This solution will work with CP/M right away, but the next task
will be - how to use this solution with Model T natively. This
will take some software work. A port of the "DVI software" to
leverage serial communication to the VT100 adapter is one way to
do this.
This solution is also compatible with the "BCR serial port"
modification which allows for serial data transmission at up to
120kbits/sec. A nice solution to exernal video that frees up the
real RS-232 port of the laptop for comms.
I'll be updating the REX wiki with some information on this. Kits
aren't ready just yet. I'm waiting for my boards to arrive.
cheers
Steve
