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Naomi Pi 'WiPi Netbooter' - compatible with Pi 3&4

I think I got it to work. I re-imaged the SD card with the AIO from scratch and re-applied the desired wifi settings. Seems to be connecting to my home wifi now.
 
I'm trying to get mine on my home wifi so I can SSH in to try and get my LCD working. On the setup screen I enter my non broadcast SSID and password but it's not connecting. I notice that the top field that picks up broadcast SSID's auto selects one with no way to deselect it. I'm wondering if it's trying to connect to that instead of my manual entry.

Update:
I set my SSID to broadcast and still can't get it to connect to my network.
 
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You can either pick one from the drop down, the Pi scans for local SSIDs to populate the list, or if you enter anything in the SSID box manually it ignores the drop down selection and uses whatever you enter in there. You can also add/edit a file called wifi.txt in the root of the boot partition when in hotspot mode with simply your SSID name followed by a space followed by your password (wrap each in double quotes) then restart and the start up script should read it and update your Wifi settings. What IP address range are you using on your home network? if it's 10.0.0.0/24 it'll clash with the wired interface and probably won't connect properly. Also if you use a single or double quote in your Wifi password that could cause an issue with the script.
 
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I am using a single quote as an apostrophe in my wifi password. Thanks for the tip, I'll work on that this week.

Update - success! Here are the steps I took to get the Adafruit 16x2 blue LCD (navigation buttons on right side) working with the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ using the AIO image, in case it helps someone else:

I changed my wifi password so it did not have an apostrophe in it.
I created an empty reset.txt file on the boot partition of the SD card and verified that the pi booted into hotspot mode.
I removed the SD card from the pi and edited the wifi.txt file on the boot partition with my SSID and password, each in double quotes and separated by a space - "ssidname" "password". When booted, the pi connected to my local wifi.
From my cable modem I was able to see the device connected via wifi and get the assigned IP address.

I used the terminal program Putty to SSH into the IP address of the pi and logged in using the name 'root' and the password 'raspberry'.
I navigated to /sbin/piforce/lcd-piforcetools and verified that the piforcetools.py file was there.
I entered 'cat piforcetools.py' to display the file and found the entry pertaining to the LCD.
I entered 'nano piforcetools.py' to bring the file into the nano editor and added a # next to the line lcd.backlight(lcd.BLUE) to make it a comment.
I saved the file, then exited the editor.

I unplugged and replugged power to the pi. At this point the LCD was still not working.
I connected my phone to the pi hotspot and via the options menu I enabled the 16x2 screen.
I issued the shutdown command from the menu.
After a minute or two I unplugged and replugged the power to the pi. This time when it booted the screen worked.
I adjusted the brightness pot to where I could see the text.
I removed the SD card from the pi and once again created a reset.txt file in the boot partition.
I installed the SD card in the pi, powered it on and verified that both the hotspot and the LCD screen were working.

Feature request:
Assuming the reason that commenting out the line lcd.backlight(lcd.BLUE) is how you get the single color LCD plate to work is because the command is actually for the RGB version of the LCD plate, add to the options screen the ability to select single color LCD or choose between the available colors if you have an RGB model. That way folks won't have to SSH into the device to get the screen working.

Thanks for your work on this project! Now that I've got the screen and hotspot working, I need to set up one of my Naomi's and actually try loading a game.
 
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Mini update - I've managed to finally solve the real time loading progress bar, only a little thing but it's nice to have it totally accurate!

Update these files: /sbin/piforce/webforce.py and /sbin/piforce/triforcetools.py, then update /var/www/html/load.php from my github: https://github.com/chunksin/WiPiNetbooter

For anyone interested, I've updated triforcetools to stream a running percentage value to a temporary file in memory in the tempfs located at /var/log/ so it doesn't impact on SD card writes and the load.php pulls the value in and uses the value to progress the loading bar. If you use that version of triforcetools standalone it also displays a running bytes/total and percentage loaded values on the command line.
 
Does WiPi bridge the child to WAN or is it LAN only? I also wondered about SaturnNiGHTS's changes to the cards reader scripts - asked in Discord but you never replied. Are these changes published anywhere besides there?
 
Hmm, to be honest, not sure. So you have say a Chihiro wired to the Pi that has a wireless connection to your home router? As for the card emulator scripts all I have done is automated them for convenience. There is a GitHub page set up but I think those are the original versions.

Edit: Just tested and not by default but you can run these commands to route traffic out over the wireless interface:

iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wlan0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables-save
sudo apt-get install iptables-persistent

At the prompt choose to copy the existing IPv4 rules, you can ignore the IPv6, reboot and it should work fine
 
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Anyone have an (Amazon) link to a touchscreen they have used successfully with this project and a Pi 4?
 
chunksin said:
This is the one I use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Touchscreen-320x480-Monitor-Display/dp/B07WSVS1Q1/ref=sr_1_5?crid=3C1Z840XFJ7XK&dchild=1&keywords=raspberry+pi+4+3.5+inch+touchscreen&qid=1630141208&sprefix=3.5+inch+touchscreen,aps,160&sr=8-5
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Is there anything special needed to get this working?

I got one and the screen lights up white until the Pi boots then it just sits at a black screen. Web interface works via phone and it shows 3.5 lcd selected under options. If I shut down the Pi then the lcd goes back to a full white screen again.
 
Strange, it's an MHS35 so should work OK, on the back is there any text? mine has MHS35, SPI 180MHz, XPT2046. I've been using mine on my Pi3B+ and it's been fine, just tested on my Pi 4 and I got an all white screen, I changed the mode in options to LCD16 via Wifi, the Pi shuts down, powered back up and enabled 3.5 mode, shut down again then it was fine at the next power up.
 
Hi guys, I have been busy in the past few weeks. I think I know where the problem I encountered come from. That is the power issue. When I power the Naomi console (pi attached to it with a wire) and the Blast City cabinet separately. Everything went smoothly. Now it leads to other questions 1) How can I integrate the power? (it is very loud the fan of console power; and does not look good) 2) If I buy another set of naomi console + pi , this ultimate solution, and put it into the Sega New Night City... Can I use one phone to control these two consoles? or it will make a clash? (same SSID but 2 pi )


I really feel lucky when I found this Pi Naomi solution, it is really changing the way we play our favorites games. Kudos to you all who contribute to making it happen. And I also hope if someone also comes up against the problems I had, my post here can help him or her solve them and leave more time to enjoy gaming.
 

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chunksin said:
Strange, it's an MHS35 so should work OK, on the back is there any text? mine has MHS35, SPI 180MHz, XPT2046. I've been using mine on my Pi3B+ and it's been fine, just tested on my Pi 4 and I got an all white screen, I changed the mode in options to LCD16 via Wifi, the Pi shuts down, powered back up and enabled 3.5 mode, shut down again then it was fine at the next power up.
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Should be MHS35 as that is what it references in the instructions for installing the driver.

I followed the procedure you outlined and the screen is now working properly. Thanks for the assist!
 
tisee said:
Hi guys, I have been busy in the past few weeks. I think I know where the problem I encountered come from. That is the power issue. When I power the Naomi console (pi attached to it with a wire) and the Blast City cabinet separately. Everything went smoothly. Now it leads to other questions 1) How can I integrate the power? (it is very loud the fan of console power; and does not look good) 2) If I buy another set of naomi console + pi , this ultimate solution, and put it into the Sega New Night City... Can I use one phone to control these two consoles? or it will make a clash? (same SSID but 2 pi )


I really feel lucky when I found this Pi Naomi solution, it is really changing the way we play our favorites games. Kudos to you all who contribute to making it happen. And I also hope if someone also comes up against the problems I had, my post here can help him or her solve them and leave more time to enjoy gaming.
Click to expand...
I have a Blast City cab and had an issue with power too, the Naomi with netdimm is very power hungry and I had to adjust the 5v and 3.3v on the Blast PSU so it would work. You need to use a digital multimeter and be very careful if you do, the chips are very sensitive to power so don't go above 5.1v.

In answer to your question about multiple Pi's you can do that, on the network settings you can change the SSID and password for the hotspot if you're using hotspot mode. Another option is to use one Pi and connect your netdimms to your home network, (or to the Pi via a switch) give each one a different IP address and you can control both from one place. If you need help with setting it up send me a PM and I can advise.
 
That card reader work looks amazing. Might need to try to find a Naomi 2 so I can try ID out with it
 
So I received my memory card and finally tried this Wi-Fi pi netbooter.

Best way to describe it would be I was playing with an Atari 2600 and I just now just tried the PlayStation 5.

Wow. Just wow. Why did i wait so long @chunksin took this project and RAN with it!! I will Never again be clicking these tiny buttons on the old loader!

Oh and i bought another cable for the card reader and i want to be able to run both ( ok really three! ) at the same time. Will this be a problem? :)

i also have the jvshat to configure and use and this all in one solution is bloody brillant!! Bravo and thank you very much for all your work!

oh and did i mention the image comes with games i had never seen or tried?! Like Alien f ing front? Wow ! Hooked up a wheel and pedals and had a blast !
 
Can't even remember what version I'm currently using, but looks like I should upgrade so I can use my local WiFi instead of connecting to the pi WiFi
 
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