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calcmandan

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Joined: 24/07/2020
Location: United States
Posts: 5

Posted: 10:17pm 14 Jan 2026

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I've been interested in building Geoff's vt100 project and was wondering if anyone managed to find off-the-shelf wifi cards that can work with it. I want to use it as a dumb terminal to connect to my various linux boxes and vps's.

Thanks

calcmandan
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Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8448

Posted: 10:45pm 14 Jan 2026

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Completely untested, but ESP8266-01S using the stock firmware is a serial transceiver module that connects via wifi. It connects to a COM port using RX and TX lines and is driven using AT+ commands, similar to modems. It might be worth investigating as it's very cheap and easy to find. Remember to put a 100uF capacitor directly across its supply pins.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

calcmandan

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Joined: 24/07/2020
Location: United States
Posts: 5

Posted: 11:26pm 14 Jan 2026

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Thanks -

Have you used that esp8266 board by chance? I'm hoping to find a kicad.
Edited 2026-01-15 09:31 by calcmandan

calcmandan
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PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1692

Posted: 12:55am 15 Jan 2026

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My take:The Arduino world is horrible compared with what we have.

However, it is there and pretty much everything is already done.

Bite the bullet and use it to create the peripheral that you need.

I became quite comfortable with it but I want to handle as much as possible in our awesome interpreted MMBasic.

For serious real time stuff, the Propeller is king but I will always have a MMBasic front end.

Times are gooood

Edited 2026-01-15 10:57 by PhenixRising

calcmandan

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Joined: 24/07/2020
Location: United States
Posts: 5

Posted: 03:45am 15 Jan 2026

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I intend to bite the bullet. Just seeking answers as I research. I dont have an opinion on arduino either way. Had an arduboy for a while but the kids confiscated it.

calcmandan
sysop : air & wave bbs
finger : calcmandan@bbs.erb.pw

Mixtel90

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Posted: 08:50am 15 Jan 2026

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All you need is the command list for the ESP8266-01S.
I don't use KiCAD so I've no footprint for it, but the module is a simple 2x4 0.1" female header.

As I mentioned, fit a capacitor on the supply rail. Link EN to 3V3 to keep the module enabled.

Here's one source for the module with links to other resources.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
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Posts: 1692

Posted: 12:28pm 15 Jan 2026

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I only had to make a couple of obvious mods

Mixtel90

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Posted: 02:53pm 15 Jan 2026

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Don't get into a knot with the ESP8266-01S. It isn't a ESP32 and doesn't have those capabilities. In this instance it's a simple com port to com port wireless link that happens to be at 2.4GHz and use AT+ commands to control it. There are no GPIO pins used on it (it only has 2 anyway, IO0 and IO2). Very much like using a modem.

I advise setting the TX power very low while you are experimenting. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

dddns
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Joined: 20/09/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 728

Posted: 05:40pm 15 Jan 2026

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Question and suggestion: It would be a real nice use-case to turn a Picomite into a VT100 terminal. Would that be possible in terms of speed?

okwatts
Regular Member

Joined: 27/09/2022
Location: Canada
Posts: 64

Posted: 09:25pm 15 Jan 2026

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Note that one of the alternate vt100 projects referred to on Geoff's page is by David Hansel. He has also made the Versaterm which uses a Pico and has PS/2/USB VGA/HDMI ports. You can choose ttl serial also as well as RS232. Whether you could use a PicoW and alter the firmware is a point that would need to be investigated. I have built Geoff's and a variant with a higher speed crystal oscillator as well as the Versaterm all of which work. The strength of Geoff's is that you can use a composite monitor for that old time feeling, while the others give better display if using VGA.

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