This is a Z80-MBC2 emulator running on a TTGO ESP VGA32 board, an ESP32 device with a VGA connector, PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors, an audio output jack and a Micro-SD card connector.
This emulator runs a Z-80 processor at ca. 5.7 MHz (without throttling). The emulated Z80-MBC2 system is internally connected to the FABGL terminal, emulating an extended color ANSI terminal.
It has a terminal configuration menu, accessible when the USER button is pressed on boot. The configuration menu has the following options:
[D]isplay mode: select the VGA resolution and color depth;[K]eyboard layout: select an international keyboard layout;[T]ime settings: automatic clock set-up on boot, via an Internet time server;[W]i-Fi settings: select a Wi-Fi network, used to set the clock.
The Z80-MBC2 configuration menu is also accessible using the USER button. The menu has been modified from the real Z80-MBC2 system:
6: set Z80 clock speed, changed to6: Change user debug mode- to invoke the simple debugger by pressing the USER button while the emulated Z80 is running;9: change RTC time/date, changed to9: Change auto-boot mode- to choose between always invoking this menu on start-up or only via the USER button.
To build this sketch, the following items are needed:
- Espressif ESP-32 hardware support tools and libraries for the Arduino IDE, either integrated using the "Additional Boards Manager URL": https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_dev_index.json or by cloning the GitHub repo or downloading the ZIP from https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32 (be sure to select the release branch "release/v1.0");
- FabGL library from Fabrizio Di Vittorio from GitHub: https://github.com/fdivitto/FabGL.git or my fork, which also contains support for the Belgian keyboard layout: https://github.com/GmEsoft/FabGL.git.
In Arduino IDE v1.8.x, in Tools - Board:, select the "ESP32 Dev Module" board. In the configuration settings, select the following:
- Partition Scheme: "Minimal SPIFFS (1.9MB APP with OTA/190KB SPIFFS)";
- PSRAM: "Disabled".
To start this emulator, get a FAT32-formatted Micro-SD card, copy all files from the original Z80-MBC2 card image onto it, insert the card in the VGA32 module's SD connector. Connect a VGA monitor to the VGA blue connector, a PS/2 keyboard to the PS/2 purple connector, and an USB power supply to the Micro-USB connector.
Thanks to the Z80-MBC2 Just4Fun project and its author SuperFabius - Fabio Defabis: https://hackaday.io/project/159973-z80-mbc2-a-4-ics-homebrew-z80-computer and https://github.com/SuperFabius/Z80-MBC2.
Also thanks to the FabGL library from Fabrizio Di Vittorio that turns an ESP32 embedded system into a smart VGA terminal with keyboard, mouse and audio output, and a Micro-SD card slot: https://github.com/fdivitto/FabGL.
Created by Michel Bernard (michel_bernard@hotmail.com) - http://www.github.com/GmEsoft/Z80-MBC2_VGA32 Copyright (c) 2021 Michel Bernard. All rights reserved.
This file is part of Z80-MBC2_VGA32.
Z80-MBC2_VGA32 is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Z80-MBC2_VGA32 is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Z80-MBC2_VGA32. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.