4 ms·

Pico W firmware creates driverless USB WiFi bridge (Layer-2)

56 points by whiteblossom 3mo ago

dividedcomet 3mo ago
This is so cool!! What a nifty way to make use of a pico
byb 3mo ago
Author here - original HN post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654676
- ustad 2mo ago
  I’m glad it got reposted because I just tried it out. What a smooth experience! I managed to get an old desktop - with no wifi and far from n ethernet port - connected by this gadget! Great job in getting this to work, creating a nice user interface and releasing it!
emj 2mo ago
I was trying to do a virtual camera on the RP Pico but found the LLMs to be really bad at it. So impressive work.
aa-jv 2mo ago
This has been a very fun peripheral to add to my 40 year old Oric Atmos system ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric_(computer) .. which didn't quite live long enough in the 80's to evolve a proper modem/BBS scene, like many of its peer systems in those days did. But now .. in the 21st century .. with the LOCI device .. https://www.raxiss.com/article/id/38-LOCI https://www.raxiss.com/article/id/38-LOCI .. the Oric joins the 80's-era systems online, finally, in a very viable way. The Oric got USB, and combined with the PicoModem, it becomes an exremely fun way to get into BBS'es again. And these periperhal devices have brought so much power to the Oric .. there are efforts under way to produce a rudimentary web browser, an ssh client, and some other funky/cool things - multiplayer network gaming on a 40-year old 8-bit machine? YES PLEASE! So thanks, /u/byb, for your great contribution to the retro- computing scene. It has really been rewarding to apply your work to my old system. ;)
- byb 2mo ago
  Hi, thank you, but I don't want to steal credit for PicoModem, which is a different project that passes modem AT commands over Wi-Fi https://github.com/mecparts/PicoWiFiModem https://github.com/mecparts/PicoWiFiModem I was not familiar with the Oric, but while it does look like the LOCI does support cdc_ncm, I am not sure that the pico-usb-wifi is the right firmware for it. The pico-usb-wifi is more aimed at any computer with a USB port, so anything from ~1995-onwards with a USB and IP networking stack - if it runs Linux and has cdc_ncm and cdc_acm - there's a good chance it'll work. Earlier systems might be feasible with PCI/ISA USB cards. cdc_ncm is really helpful for early 2000s systems and locked-down embedded systems. For example, I've been hacking the Spotify Car Thing, which only has USB device mode. After switching it into host mode, there's no 'way in', so any change required re-flashing the firmware over-and-over. Once I had cdc_ncm set up and attached the pico-usb-wifi, I could telnet in and develop, of course a USB UART likely could have established the same thing.

56 points by whiteblossom 3mo ago

This is so cool!! What a nifty way to make use of a pico

byb 3mo ago

Author here - original HN post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48654676

ustad 2mo ago
I’m glad it got reposted because I just tried it out. What a smooth experience! I managed to get an old desktop - with no wifi and far from n ethernet port - connected by this gadget! Great job in getting this to work, creating a nice user interface and releasing it!

emj 2mo ago

I was trying to do a virtual camera on the RP Pico but found the LLMs to be really bad at it. So impressive work.

aa-jv 2mo ago

This has been a very fun peripheral to add to my 40 year old Oric Atmos system ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oric_(computer) .. which didn't quite live long enough in the 80's to evolve a proper modem/BBS scene, like many of its peer systems in those days did. But now .. in the 21st century .. with the LOCI device .. https://www.raxiss.com/article/id/38-LOCI https://www.raxiss.com/article/id/38-LOCI .. the Oric joins the 80's-era systems online, finally, in a very viable way. The Oric got USB, and combined with the PicoModem, it becomes an exremely fun way to get into BBS'es again. And these periperhal devices have brought so much power to the Oric .. there are efforts under way to produce a rudimentary web browser, an ssh client, and some other funky/cool things - multiplayer network gaming on a 40-year old 8-bit machine? YES PLEASE! So thanks, /u/byb, for your great contribution to the retro- computing scene. It has really been rewarding to apply your work to my old system. ;)

byb 2mo ago
Hi, thank you, but I don't want to steal credit for PicoModem, which is a different project that passes modem AT commands over Wi-Fi https://github.com/mecparts/PicoWiFiModem https://github.com/mecparts/PicoWiFiModem I was not familiar with the Oric, but while it does look like the LOCI does support cdc_ncm, I am not sure that the pico-usb-wifi is the right firmware for it. The pico-usb-wifi is more aimed at any computer with a USB port, so anything from ~1995-onwards with a USB and IP networking stack - if it runs Linux and has cdc_ncm and cdc_acm - there's a good chance it'll work. Earlier systems might be feasible with PCI/ISA USB cards. cdc_ncm is really helpful for early 2000s systems and locked-down embedded systems. For example, I've been hacking the Spotify Car Thing, which only has USB device mode. After switching it into host mode, there's no 'way in', so any change required re-flashing the firmware over-and-over. Once I had cdc_ncm set up and attached the pico-usb-wifi, I could telnet in and develop, of course a USB UART likely could have established the same thing.