About

PerryFi 2 is a wifi expansion card for the Amstrad PCW series of computers.

As the PCW does not contain the RS232 circuitry, the PerryFi 2 uses a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board to implement an Amstrad CPS8256 in software, running much faster, to achieve far higher speeds. For the wifi part, it uses an ESP12-F (ESP8266 module) running PerryZi, a modified version of the Zimodem firmware, which implements many network features including:

• Telnet (e.g. to online BBSes)
• IRC client
• NIST client (time and date from network server)
• Network printing
• FTP client
• SLIP mode (TCP/IP)
• PPP mode (TCP/IP)

The PerryFi 2 is designed to either plug into the PCW Backplane, or directly into the PCW's expansion port.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

You can either download the BOM in the attached XLSX, or see the full one which includes sockets and component links here.

Firmware

The PerryFi 2 requires two different firmwares. They can be downloaded from the links below:

PicoDART - Raspberry Pi Pico Firmware

PerryZi - ESP12-F (ESP8266) Firmware

Software

Software tested with the PerryFi 2, including boot disk images, can be found here. Note that they are designed to be used with a modded Gotek.

Licensing

PerryFi is licensed under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2: CERN-OHL-S. If you intend to produce boards to sell, please make sure you read and understand the terms of this licence first.

My Other Projects

If you like this project, please have a look at my others on PCBWay:

• PCW Backplane - Connect multiple expansion cards to your Amstrad PCW.
• PCW Gotek Mod - Required for Goteks to accept 720KB disc images.