BSW-100

What is it?

BSW-100 is a video terminal made of atmega328p and some parts.

Warranty

No warranty. Be prepared that BSW-100 will destroy your PC, router, monitor, PS/2 keyboard and power supply, cause fire, explosions, epilepsy and unexpected radiation (including ionizing radiation).

See LICENSE.txt for details.

Features

• Popular 16Mhz atmega328 chip with small number of other parts
• 40x29 characters, 6x5 font (or 6x10, even lines are black)
• Single color on black background, whitespace can be highlighted
• VGA output
• PS/2 keyboard
• Serial interface that can be connected to a router or a PC
• BackSpace Works! Arrow keys, F1-F12, Home/End too.
• Terminfo entry
• Working programs: bash, vim, more, links
• TODO: mc, alsamixer, less, aptitude, nethack, emacs, info, nano
• TODO: NumLock, CapsLock, Shift+Function keys, Ctrl+[, Alt+X
• TODO: highlight text to make mc usable

Misfeatures

• Meagre font
• Delayed reaction to key presses

Installing with platformio

To build firmware install platformio and run

./rebuild-font.sh
platformio run

To flash firmware run:

platformio run --target upload

Installing with Debian or Ubuntu

Install dependencies:

apt-get install gcc-avr binutils-avr avr-libc avrdude

Run:

./build.sh

Flash with avrdude:

avrdude -p m328p -c arduino -b 57600 -U flash:w:out/vgaterm.hex -P /dev/ttyUSB0

or just:

./flash.sh

Using as a PC serial terminal

Launch:

sudo setsid /sbin/getty -L 57600 ttyUSB0 dumb

Instlling terminfo

This command writes terminal description to ~/.terminfo/

tic bsw100.terminfo

Using as a console for router

Break you router apart, locate UART interface, solder some wires and connect GND, TX, RX from router to GND, RX, TX pins of atmega328p.

Hardware

ROUTER_RX--TX1            VIN
ROUTER_TX--RX1            GND--KB_GND--VGA_GND
           RST            RST
ROUTER_GND-GND            5V---KB_POWER
           D2             A7
VGA_VSYNC--D3             A6
           D4   Arduino   A5
           D5    Nano     A4
           D6             A3
           D7             A2---1k resistor--VGA_B
           D8             A1---1k resistor--VGA_G
VGA_HSYNC--D9             A0---1k resistor--VGA_R
GND--------D10            REF
KB_DATA----D11            3V3
           D12            D13--NOT gate--NOT gate--KB_CLK