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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Maxiterm, now with 100% more ANSI Color
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| frnno967 Senior Member  Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
With all the new built-in Wifi features of the Gen 2, I wanted to mention that Maxiterm now supports ANSI Color, thanks to the wonderful contributions of Andrew Pamment. It can be downloaded at my github or from the zip file below. maxiterm-main.zip As always, comments and contributions are welcome. We especially need more help getting Xmodem transfers working reliably, and adding more transfer protocols like Ymodem, etc,. Thanks! Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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CircuitGizmos Guru  Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1421 |
Excellent!! Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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NPHighview Senior Member Joined: 02/09/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 192 |
frnno967, I happen to know the guy who wrote the Xmodem and Zmodem protocols back in the BBS days; he's still around, living near Chicago. If you'd like, I can put you in touch with him. - Steve Live in the Future. It's Just Starting Now! |
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| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 430 |
Hi, I am wondering if your custom firmware would also support the standard AT+ command set so I can continue to work with other things. If not can it be made to, so I will not have to disassemble my CMM2 GEN 2 every time I want to use the ESP01 for something else? Maybe this was covered but I can not seem to find it. I currently have Non-os standard firmware installed. Thanks EDIT: I think I have this mixed up in my head. I think that custom firmware is for NC file manager. Sorry. If it works with standard AT+ commands what am I doing wrong. I just keep getting errors. How do I set up an auto-dial that will work with one of the internet BBSs? Thanks. Edited 2021-08-13 03:10 by mclout999 |
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| frnno967 Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
Maxiterm is currently written to support standard Hayes-style AT modem commands and does not send any of the setup and other espressif-specific AT+ commands. For example, the autodialer feature just takes the hostname you enter and sends that as 'ATDT hostname' out the COM port. I have thought about re-architecting the program around the necessary AT+ commands but there are many that need to be configured to setup and teardown each connection. If support for AT+ happens it'll come after version 2.0. For now you can use AT+ but you'll have to enter the commands manually. Since you say you're receiving errors, you might want to check the setting of CR LF (Hit ALT-L in Maxiterm to enable LF output support) but I recall that the AT+ commands are very picky about order in which they are entered and if you miss a step or configure something wrong then it will just give errors. Below is an example of commands that must be sent to establish and end a connection. SSID, PASS, and the IP address and Port number must be changed to suit your network and intended connection. ESP-01 AT commands: AT[CR][LF] ; format of all commands must be followed by [CR][LF] AT+CWMODE_DEF=1 AT+CWMODE_CUR=1 AT+CWLAP AT+CWJAP_DEF="SSID","PASS" AT+CWJAP_DEF? AT+CIFSR AT+CIPMODE=1 AT+CIPSTATUS AT+CIPSTART="TCP","192.168.0.1",6400 AT+CIPSEND (UART TRANSPARENT MODE BEGINS) To end the connection: +++ ; must be sent as single packet (e.g. clipboard) AT+CIPMODE=0 AT+CIPCLOSE I hope this helps! Now you can see why I love the Zimodem firmware for BBS use, as it doesn't get much easier than 'AT+CONFIG' then ATDT hostname:port Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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| toml_12953 Guru Joined: 13/02/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 326 |
Great program! This will become the standard terminal program for CMM2, I'm sure. I do have trouble keeping the font color, though. Even though Alt-P shows amber is selected, when echo is on, the characters echoed are white. |
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| frnno967 Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
Strange! Are you running the latest version available from github? It can be downloaded here at my github I'm aware of a bug right now where the flashing cursor is white color no matter what monochrome font color is selected, but that's only because I haven't yet created other GUI CURSOR sprite colors to match. And it gets funky with the ANSI color routines because there's some rough spots to fix with that code still. But please try the latest github version and see if that fixes the color issue. If not, I'll open a bug and get to work trying to identify the problem. Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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| toml_12953 Guru Joined: 13/02/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 326 |
I downloaded again and it works the same. Here's what I do: Start MT the first time. Answer the questions COM port 1 speed 9600 type TTL color 2 TERMINAL ONLINE is amber. Press Alt-P COM PORT settings box is amber. Press J - Echo on Press 2 (Yes) COM PORT settings box turns white. Press s to save Press enter to return to terminal. All echoed characters are white. Press Alt-P COM PORT settings box is amber again. Press enter to return to terminal All echoed characters are still white. |
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| frnno967 Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
Thank you for letting me know. I'll get to work on fixing this immediately. Should have a new version ready in a few days. Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 430 |
frnno967. OK, if it uses these commands is there a firmware out there that we can flash to the ESP01 that would let your terminal software work without the rather lengthy command sequences until and if you bake in support for the ESP01 default AT+ commands. Is Maxiterm designed to connect to a modem, I am not understanding what you are doing here but then again I am new to this. I must have missed something in the threads about Maxiterm. What is the use case for connecting the internet with the AT Modem commands and what were you connecting to on the CMM2 side? I used to have an intimate knowledge of the AT commands back in the day but NOT NOW at all. Sorry for my truly limited understanding of this. I am going to go search for everything on Maxiterm and hope I will figure it out. Thanks |
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| frnno967 Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
In my opinion there are really just two firmwares that are used extensively. The Zimodem firmware from Bo Zimmerman is a great, easy to use firmware that acts exactly like an old Hayes-style modem and supports all of the "standard" Hayes commands. To get connected to your Wifi network, you just type AT+CONFIG when it starts up (assuming you have baud rate set correctly), then it presents you with a helpful menu to configure everything. For example, you can easily call a BBS (Synchronet's Vertrauen BBS in this example) by entering "ATDT cvs.synchro.net:23" and hit enter then you'll be magically connected without any fuss. Then to disconnect you just enter "+++" then ATH0 to hangup. This resembles how modems worked in the 1980's and 90's. This Zimodem firmware can easily be uploaded to the ESP using Arduino IDE. However, the limitations of this firmware are that it really only is designed to support unencrypted RAW or Telnet connections. Zimodem does not support encrypted connections like SSH and it has been shown to struggle with high speed data, like is seen when transferring files. In my opinion it's the easiest to use and behaves most like traditional modems, but has many limitations. This firmware is very popular in the Commodore and retro-computing community and is often the basis of many of the "Wifi Modems" you see for sale out there. Zimodem is the firmware shown in my (older version) Maxiterm demonstration video you can see here. The other main firmware is the Espressif official "AT" firmware. It's the one that has the long list of commands. It's a powerful firmware and can be used to establish raw TCP and UDP connections and transfer any arbitrary data over a socket. It also seems to work good with high speed data transfers. But as you have seen, connection setup involves many commands and it's difficult to use "by hand." Also, uploading the Espressif firmware can be difficult with many different versions and requiring special tools to upload the firmware. It's a good firmware, but not easy for those who just want to type "ATDT xxxxxx" and start using a BBS. I'm very interested to see if Jiri's firmware he developed for use with Napoleon Commander could work for this purpose but haven't tried it yet. The main question I have for the CMM2 GEN 2 community is if the ESP-01 is included in the box when you buy a GEN 2 machine, and if yes, which firmware is installed if any? Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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| toml_12953 Guru Joined: 13/02/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 326 |
No, the ESP-01 isn't included. You have to buy your own and add a socket for it to the main board. I didn't install a socket at first and had to unsolder the ESP-01 so I could get at the PS/2 mouse connections which are hidden by it. |
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| toml_12953 Guru Joined: 13/02/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 326 |
Is there any way I can speed up Maxiterm? I'm no touch typist but I can easily outrun its ability to send characters no matter what baud rate I choose. |
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| frnno967 Senior Member Joined: 02/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 104 |
I believe I've fixed the font color bug you reported. Please pull down a new copy from github and see if it's working as expected now. Regarding the typing rate, I haven't been able to reproduce the issue on my end. Could it be because you're running at 9600 baud and the type you're seeing is being echoed either by your ESP or by the remote system you're talking to? I tested it using both Local Echo (ALT-E) and by passing through my Wifi Modem and both were nice and speedy. You can see a demonstration video here Jay Crutti: Ham Radio Operator, K5JCJ. Computer Enthusiast. Musician. Engineer. |
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| toml_12953 Guru Joined: 13/02/2015 Location: United StatesPosts: 326 |
Thanks for the color fix. It does indeed work fine now. As for missing characters, I only see that occurring when I have the blinking cursor on. |
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