ZX-WESPI - add a cheap wifi-enabled fileserver to your Zeddy!

[Paul]

They are called CLIFF FCR1291
Just Google and you will find them

[1024MAK]

They are called CLIFF FCR1291
Just Google and you will find them

Such as from CPC (part of Farnell)

Mark

[msknight]

How do you determine how much space is left on the Wespi for files? The latest web software for the simple version from 2020 (that's the date on the github I'm looking at) doesn't list it (the screen shot for the one with video looks like it does) and it doesn't appear on the help screens either by the looks of it.

[msknight]

Don't worry - I think I've got it. There was an updated file. I had actually flashed the initial one and hadn't updated it.

[msknight]

OK - here are my observations so far and my thoughts, on loading from "tape" while the ZX-Wespi is hooked up.

With the Wespi active, plugging in a jack causes the zeddy to crash. I believe this is probably down to the act of shorting the contacts when the jack goes in.

Trying to "resolve" this by plugging in the jack and hooking everything in before turning the zeddy on, results in nothing happening during the "load" process. It's as if having the "tape" plugged in, is somehow leaching the signal from the wespi.

My completely novice thinking is starting to think to putting a diode in the jack plug, so that no signal can go, "up," out of the wespi, towards the "tape deck."

Am I making any sense?

[Lardo Boffin]

The wespi is designed not to load when the jack is plugged in but should then load from tape. I have never got this to work except after fitting a switch to isolate the wespi.

I have fitted loads of these and never had anything crash when the jack was plugged in so thats new!

[1024MAK]

Diodes don't help to isolate AC signals...

Mark

[msknight]

OK - roll up roll up for the latest headache that might potentially have a solution.

The Wespi is under the keyboard.

The case isn't totally complete yet, as I have to cut an accurate keyboard surround to cover the crappy ABS hole I made for the keyboard. But I can report this...

Putting in a switched mono jack with the wespi negative connected to the "off" side along with the tape output, seems to successfully put the wespi to sleep when a jack is inserted. Power off is advised when putting the jack in or out, in case the wespi still has residual voltage and hasn't "died" yet. Load from tape is then successful. Noted with flight simulator which loads from tape but won't load from the wespi fast loader.

The one problem I have is with running the RGBtoHDMI as having the wespi on or off affects the signal its getting. So far, the most reliable way I have of doing things, is to connect the wespi the RGBtoHDMI side of the 220 ohm resistor (with no change in the Wespi's 1K resistor). So... I think this is the only combination I've found that doesn't require fitting an extra switch.

I wouldn't advise using the case I used, as I ended up having to use copious amounts of JBWeld to account for the fact that things just didn't fit. Obviously in the case of using this technique in a zeddy, it will mean cutting the underside of the tracks on the ear jack and probably replacing the old jack with a new one if the metal has bent and no longer makes contact with the "off" side. But hey ho.

The underside of the ear jack on my 1980 copyright board only has three holes for the jack, which won't make enacting this technique easy on that kind of socket.

[Lardo Boffin]

That looks like a very nice zeddy!

[msknight]

That looks like a very nice zeddy!

It's a real bodge job. I bought a case which I thought would work, but it doesn't. I had to cut the front screw mountings to get the keyboard in, so I had to bodge a way to keep the front down while still enabling it to be removed.

The silver aluminium end pieces... one of them didn't come out far enough, so I had to JBWeld it into position.

It took an age to find a working combination of right angle and then hdmi to socket, to get the HDMI out from the Pi to the side of the case, and the ABS plastic was total hell to cut accurately for the keyboard, as the stuff melted under the dremmel and a straight line was just impossible.

I am wanting to make one in wood so I can have a slightly sloping keyboard with curves, but I don't want to make it out of chip board. That one is going to be a few months down the line... at least now I know what problems I've hit and what to watch out for the next time around.