In Newsletter #0 I have described how you create an SD card to use and set up the PiTrex from macOS, this article is about doing the same from Windows.
Install the SD Card
Format the SD Card
Format the SD Card with a program like SD Card Formatter which you can download from here.
It should look similar to you as in the above screenshot. Press Format and wait until your card is formatted. After that, you have to install the PiTrex image on it which is the easiest to do with the program Etcher. Download and install it
Install the PiTrex image
When you start Etcher, you select “Flash from Url“ and enter this URL in the next screen: http://classicscoder.com/downloads/pitrex8gb.zip
Press ok and select target (Your SD Card) on the next screen
Now we have an SD card with the PiTrex OS installed. All that is left now is to do some configuration on the card itself, so it’s possible to connect to it.
For that, you create a text file (use Notepad or a similar text editor) and put the following text in it. (Don’t forget to replace NETWORK-NAME and NETWORK-PASSWORD with your WiFi name and password).
country=us
update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="{NETWORK-NAME}"
psk="{NETWORK-PASSWORD"
}
Now save this file with the name wpa_supplicant.conf
on your SD Card.
To use ssh later it also needs an empty file ssh
or ssh.txt
in the boot portion of the PiTrex image (thanks Stefan to remind me of this)
Those files are just used to start up the PiTrex in headless mode and are deleted after the first startup automatically.
That’s all for now and you can now insert the SD Card in your PiTrex and the PiTrex cartridge in your Vectrex.
Turn now your Vectrex one and the lights on the Pitrex should be blinking while the Vectrex screen itself shows nothing.
Wait until the lights are not blinking anymore and continue with the Setup of the PiTrex.
Setup the PiTrex
After installing the card, the setup is the same as already written in
Newsletter #0 since we are just using ssh on Windows as a Terminal to connect to the PiTrex. Jump directly to chapter Setup the PiTrex.
Sideletter #1 - Windows Setup
Hi Roger,
Took me a while but I got the PiTrex up and running. There is one detail that you may have forgotten in your instructions for Windows users. Be sure to add a blank file named "SSH" (no filetype) onto the SD card or you may not be able to SSH into the PiTrex. Great work!
-S