Release V1.8.2 - June 2026 · thehighnibble/s-132

Installation Notes

See the S-132 Firmware Update Guide for details.

This is a PATCH release that

fixes a cold-boot regression in V1.8.1 where a USB keyboard could fail to be detected on some systems
carries forward all of the V1.8.1 startup-speed and host-handshake improvements, now without that side effect

If you are on V1.8.1 you should update; if you are coming from V1.8.0 you also gain everything V1.8.1 introduced.

on V1.8.1, some systems could power on with the USB keyboard unresponsive — the screen stayed blank for several seconds and the keyboard was then treated as absent (falling back to PS/2)
the USB host controller simply hadn't finished detecting the keyboard at the instant the S-132 checked for it; V1.8.1's faster boot had narrowed that window, and whether you hit it depended on the keyboard and the system
V1.8.2 now waits for the host controller to report in — retrying briefly rather than checking just once — so the keyboard is found reliably, including keyboards behind a hub and low-speed keyboards that take longer to come up
detection is also quicker in the common case, and after a firmware reload (when the keyboard is already up) it is recognised immediately

the S-132 reaches its first ready prompt noticeably sooner from power-on — the boot loop no longer waits for things that can run in the background or be skipped entirely (the power-on RAM self-test, a post-recall settle delay, and USB-keyboard LED setup now happen out of the critical path)
no user-visible behaviour change beyond the speed-up — saved configuration, the System Menu, and steady-state operation are unchanged

on DoubleScan video modes, the very first frame after a cold power-on is now far less likely to show a brief "comb" of mismatched raster lines before the picture settles
this is a startup-only cosmetic improvement; once the picture is up there is no change

with matching new host firmware, the S-132 holds its initial-device switch on power-on until the host signals it is ready to listen
this closes the small window where keystrokes or output to the initial device (TTY:, VIO: or Dazzler) could land before the host had finished its own boot
with older host firmware that doesn't emit the handshake, the S-132 falls back to the previous behaviour — no change
NOTE: the cleaner sequencing requires matching host firmware that emits the LOG / READY signals.

There is only 1 (one) file required to update the firmware, either

update.bin             ~277KB - used with the IMSAI8080esp and Cromemco Z-1 emulator kits
S-132.bin              ~520KB - used with the SDH-100 kit

Instructions for updating the firmware on an existing system are included in the Firmware Update Guide

If you need to flash a new ESP32-WROVER module, use the procedure described at S-132 Firmware Install & Console Logs

There is a limit of 512 disk images that can be displayed in the Library (LIB:) or when selecting a disk image to be mounted. When this limit is reached the last entry in the list of disk images will show <Limit Reached>. (Carried over from V1.7.0 — unchanged in this release.)