search

geaz / simplyRetro-Z5

A 3D printed, five inch retro gaming handheld.
Other
129 stars 13 forks source link

Add WiFi configuration menu #3

Closed janzev closed 5 years ago

janzev commented 5 years ago

I didn't build this now but I will do it as soosn as possible.

I have an idea which could improve your handheld: Make wifi configurable through the gui, maybe a settings menu. If this is not possible it would be very nice if the sd slot could be reachable from the outside (maybe a sd extension cable and a hole in the outer shell.

geaz commented 5 years ago

Hi!

An external accessible sd slot is planed for my next iteration of this handheld. But I don't know when I will have the time to work on it, because at the moment I am in the process of designing a "little brother" (3 inch display).

But I will check, if I can make the wifi configurable.

janzev commented 5 years ago

After posting the issue I thought about possibilites making wifi configurable.

You can start other applications through emulationstation if you add another tab. I thought about a little python (or similar) script with a qtGui (qtGui has a virtual keyboard element which could maybe be useable with the handheld buttons) that lists all available wifi SSIDs and has a textbox for entering the wifi key. If the touchscreen is connected to the pi it could also maybe be used with touch input. Unfortunately a touchscreen doesn't support the retro feeling that this handheld should have.

If wifi is configurable I wouldn't need a SD slot. But a SD slot which is independent from the boot sd card (for roms) could be the best solution.

batorni commented 5 years ago

I think I'll work on adding this feature tonight or this weekend. I've noticed some performance issues, and I'm almost sure its due to wifi being enabled 24/7

At the very least, I'll work on creating a new app in emulation station to bring all interfaces up or down.

Found this page for creating custom app pages in emulation station: https://weekendengineer.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/adding-an-apps-tab-in-emulationstation/

geaz commented 5 years ago

Why should we create a "custom" application for it and include it into the system list?

Wouldn't it be really great to add it to the emulation menu itself? The one which comes up, if you press 'start'. THis shouldn't be to hard. The 'GuiMenu.cpp' in emulation station contains the whole menu and it would be easy to add a custom entry for simplyRetro. Would be really cool I think. The custom code can be applied by a patch each time the distribution gets build by 'BuildRoot'.

At the moment I am thinking about two menu entries for the custom menu:

Anything else?

janzev commented 5 years ago

Like mentioned above I think it would be great to configure the WiFi completely through the menu (searching for WiFi networks and entering the password).

geaz commented 5 years ago

What do you think?

https://streamable.com/1jgjp

Have to do a bit more things, but it looks promising. I took the onscreen keyboard from Recalbox and modified it a bit to work with the retropie emulation station version, which simplyRetro is using.

batorni commented 5 years ago

That's lookin' real good! better than my quick idea :)

janzev commented 5 years ago

Looks great!

geaz commented 5 years ago

Feature complete now. I will create a new release soon :)