Difference between revisions of "M4 Board"

Revision as of 19:09, 29 March 2017

The M4 Board is a 2016 expansion card which enables WIFI access to and from CPC, Romboard and using SD-Card as mass storage.

You can read more about it at http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/m4info.txt.

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  M4 Front View

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  M4 Back View

Firmware

Updating (or downgrading) a firmware is done by unpacking the update zip file to the root directory of the microSD card (from a PC). Then insert to the M4 and powercycle the CPC/M4 board, after about 20 seconds it should be updated. Verify with |version command. Latest firmware version can always be obtained via |upgrade command (no need to use PC, as long as CPC is setup to the internet).

Please notice, on M4 boards shipped after 2016-10-01:

Due to a new flashchip on the wifi-board, do not use firmware versions lower than v1.0.9. If done by accident, use v1.0.9 or higher to restore it.

Various files

Modified lower rom for CPC6128 users, who cannot override amsdos (rom 7) with M4 rom, using this patched lower rom, M4 rom must be in rom slot 6. It will be initialized instead of rom 7 and provide better compatiblity with games and higher himem. It's recommended to upload the original AMSDOS (or Parados) rom to rom slot 6, then it will be available when typing |M4ROMOFF.

English version: 6128 lower rom English

Spanish version: 6128 lower rom Spanish

French version by dxs : 6128 lower rom French

Danish version: 6128 lower rom Danish

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  Example config 6128

CPC M4 xfer tool : Command-line tool that allow to send files and receive from an M4 Board. Possibility to add an AMSDOS header too.

M4 Board relay rom  : When moving M4rom out of position 1-7 / 1-16 it will no longer be initialized, therefore this rom should be placed at rom7 or lower. This is if you want to use 32 roms of XMEM and map M4 romboard after it. You should program the XMEM or other romboard with M4 bootrom in pos 1-7, it will look for M4 rom from 1-127 and initialize it + pass commands through to it. NOTE THIS IS OUTDATED, only use for early versions of the M4 firmware (v1.0.1)

Technical information

Structure for romslots.bin & romconfig.bin under m4 directory are:
romslots.bin
Contains 32x raw rom data (no headers). To locate a rom in the file, use:
offset = slot * &4000

romconfig.bin
Header:

int totalRoms; // 32 (early versions of the firmware had only 16)
int m4RomNum; // M4 rom to map rom number 0-255
int m4RomEnable; // M4 rom enabled
int romRangeStart; // start mapping roms from
int lowerEnable; // lower rom replacement enabled
int lowerSlot; // which slot maps lowerrom (0-31)
unsigned int reserved[2]; // set to zero for now

Then for each rom (repeated 32 times):
char updateflag; // 0 = no rom present (or disabled), 1 = rom present (enabled), 2 = New rom will be flashed into M4 internal flash, 3 = remove rom
char name[32]; // name of rom to be displayed in webinterface

Links

Make your own M4 ROM or add additions to the existing, source code can be found here:
https://github.com/M4Duke/m4rom
It's compiled (assembled) with sdasz80 (part of SDCC package).

Various source code examples for M4 board
https://github.com/M4Duke/M4examples

CPC xfer, pc commandline tool to transfer files back and forth to M4 board:
Source code here: https://github.com/M4Duke/cpcxfer
More info here: http://cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPC_M4_xfer_tool
Command documention and other infos:
http://www.spinpoint.org/cpc/m4info.txt


Disk menu by Joe Halstead, modified by Takis Kalatzis for M4:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/amstrad-cpc-wifi/msg134659/#msg134659

YANCC - Norton Commander Clone by SOS, compatible with M4:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/yet-another-norton-commander-clone

File Launcher by SOS, compatible with M4:
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/filelauncher-(acmedosm4dos)

Menu program for M4 (with program & games download direct from the internet) by rafa32gr:
http://amstrad.esy.es/