Deneb VS Spider II USB Card

[HammerD]

Poseidon V4.4, available since February last year, has no longer any keyfile protection or similar code in it. If you want to use it with the spider.device, I'm not stopping you from. If it doesn't work due to bugs in the spider.device, you should contact Elbox for an updated driver. Apart from removing the "compatibility hack" in the V4.x versions (which simply did not send the reset command to the driver at start), I do not see any reasons why it shouldn't work.

You won't get "proper" USB 2.0 support though (regarding split transfers and such), but rather the way it was in Poseidon V2.x/V3.x, because as far as I know Elbox has not updated their driver in that direction. The docs how to do this are in the AROS repository.

This is as far as my support for the Spider gets.

How about the ArakAttack driver for amithlon? I purchased that driver, although it was for poseidon 3.x i believe.  Have to see if it would work with poseidon 4.x on my amithlon system.

[Xanxi]

Poseidon V4.4, available since February last year, has no longer any keyfile protection or similar code in it. If you want to use it with the spider.device, I'm not stopping you from. If it doesn't work due to bugs in the spider.device, you should contact Elbox for an updated driver. Apart from removing the "compatibility hack" in the V4.x versions (which simply did not send the reset command to the driver at start), I do not see any reasons why it shouldn't work.

You won't get "proper" USB 2.0 support though (regarding split transfers and such), but rather the way it was in Poseidon V2.x/V3.x, because as far as I know Elbox has not updated their driver in that direction. The docs how to do this are in the AROS repository.

This is as far as my support for the Spider gets.

That's very interesting, thanks

So, fellow amigans, you know where to direct your mails. My Mediator setup is not in working order right now but i will give it a try very soon and if it does not work i will spam out Elbox until they make their Spider 2 to work

[Gulliver]

Note that the Subway is especially slowed down by waitstates on the clockport. It could go much faster. It is nearly up to par with the Highway on a Zorro clockport. If somebody would wire the _NET_CS (not on the clockport) to the _SPARE_CS, I guess the transfer would be the same as on a Zorro clockport.

Then again, the speed is amazing in spite of the clockport being only a 4 bit address bus and 8 bit data bus :-D

Hi, could you please elaborate a bit more on the hack/mod for a faster subway? Where can those signals be found? A simple wire between them and that is it?

Thanks in advance

[esc]

That's very interesting, thanks

So, fellow amigans, you know where to direct your mails. My Mediator setup is not in working order right now but i will give it a try very soon and if it does not work i will spam out Elbox until they make their Spider 2 to work

Hey, sorry to reopen an old thread...but has anyone had any success with this?  I have an a4k with mediator and spider II card.  I can't get it to work with Poseidon v4.

As far as I can tell, it can either be hacked together to work with v4 OR elbox needs to make a new driver.  Any luck with either of these?

[Darrin]

Have you emailed Elbox?  They were very helpful to me when I was trying to get my Radeon 256MB card running on my A4000.

Check their (Elbox's) support page for the latest Spider drivers and install them, and then make sure you have the latest Poseidon package from Chris' website.

I'd be interested to see if this works too.  Currently I'm using a Deneb in my A4000 along with a Mediator, but if I could use a Spider card in there instead then I'd put the Deneb in my A2000.

[esc]

Yeah, if you look back further in this thread, basically it comes down to this:

spider.device worked with Poseidon v2/v3

spider.device does NOT work with Poseidon v4.  The author of Poseidon says that elbox needs to update the driver, but the latest driver from elbox still doesn't work.  

[Darrin]

Yeah, if you look back further in this thread, basically it comes down to this:

spider.device worked with Poseidon v2/v3

spider.device does NOT work with Poseidon v4.  The author of Poseidon says that elbox needs to update the driver, but the latest driver from elbox still doesn't work.  

Damn.  How about trying older spider devices?  I've got a older MMCD for the A4000.

I see that the last upadte on the Elbox website for the Spider device was in 2008 to v3.18.

I'm going to drop them an email and see if I can get some clarification.

Edit:  Email sent.  I'll let you know if I get an answer.

[amigadave]

........ if it does not work i will spam out Elbox until they make their Spider 2 to work

Good luck with that strategy!  Let us know how it turns out.

[esc]

Thanks for the help  I did a bit more research.  Apparently, the author of the Poseidon stack (Chris Hodges) had a falling out with Elbox when he found out they were selling PCI USB cards with illegitimate keyfiles for Poseidon.  So, v3.4 will work with spider.device for a spider 1 card, v3.8 will work with a spider II spider.device, but since then the support for spider.device has been removed

The kicker is that I can't find Poseidon 3.8 ANYWHERE, and it is probably illegal for me to go asking for a keyfile for 3.8 even if I do find the software...and it's impossible to get a new keyfile.

[Darrin]

Thanks for the help  I did a bit more research.  Apparently, the author of the Poseidon stack (Chris Hodges) had a falling out with Elbox when he found out they were selling PCI USB cards with illegitimate keyfiles for Poseidon.  So, v3.4 will work with spider.device for a spider 1 card, v3.8 will work with a spider II spider.device, but since then the support for spider.device has been removed

The kicker is that I can't find Poseidon 3.8 ANYWHERE, and it is probably illegal for me to go asking for a keyfile for 3.8 even if I do find the software...and it's impossible to get a new keyfile.

Chris' "falling out" with Elbox predates the v4.4 update by a long way, so when he says:

Poseidon V4.4, available since February last year, has no longer any keyfile protection or similar code in it. If you want to use it with the spider.device, I'm not stopping you from. If it doesn't work due to bugs in the spider.device, you should contact Elbox for an updated driver. Apart from removing the "compatibility hack" in the V4.x versions (which simply did not send the reset command to the driver at start), I do not see any reasons why it shouldn't work.

You won't get "proper" USB 2.0 support though (regarding split transfers and such), but rather the way it was in Poseidon V2.x/V3.x, because as far as I know Elbox has not updated their driver in that direction. The docs how to do this are in the AROS repository.

This is as far as my support for the Spider gets.

I really don't see any deliberate attempt to make his stack not work with the Spider.

It is all rather confusing.

[amigadave]

Thanks for the help  I did a bit more research.  Apparently, the author of the Poseidon stack (Chris Hodges) had a falling out with Elbox when he found out they were selling PCI USB cards with illegitimate keyfiles for Poseidon.  So, v3.4 will work with spider.device for a spider 1 card, v3.8 will work with a spider II spider.device, but since then the support for spider.device has been removed

The kicker is that I can't find Poseidon 3.8 ANYWHERE, and it is probably illegal for me to go asking for a keyfile for 3.8 even if I do find the software...and it's impossible to get a new keyfile.

That sounds accurate, from what I can remember reading a long while ago.  I think that is why anyone selling a "New-Old Stock" Spider USB2 card is in a difficult situation, as they can't get a valid keyfile for any version of the Poseidon stack that will work with it and apparently the Elbox stack (if there is one) does not work either.

I am not sure why the latest free version of Poseidon4.4 does not work with the Spider USB cards (and Chris Hodges seems not to know either), but I wouldn't be surprised to find out later that Chris Hodges has still left something in his stack that prevents it from working with the Spider USB cards, because of his lingering anger toward Elbox for what they were allegedly doing with illegal keyfiles for a while.  Since I use Subway and Deneb and not any Spider cards, I don't have to worry about these problems and may not be accurate in my guesses, as I have not researched it thoroughly.

[esc]

That sounds accurate, from what I can remember reading a long while ago.  I think that is why anyone selling a "New-Old Stock" Spider USB2 card is in a difficult situation, as they can't get a valid keyfile for any version of the Poseidon stack that will work with it and apparently the Elbox stack (if there is one) does not work either.

Interestingly enough...Elbox is still selling the Spider II.  Without any Poseidon stack.  Only the spider.device drivers.  

http://shop.elbox.com/cgibin/shop?info=705S20&sid=1456ff06

[platon42]

but I wouldn't be surprised to find out later that Chris Hodges has still left something in his stack that prevents it from working with the Spider USB cards, because of his lingering anger toward Elbox for what they were allegedly doing with illegal keyfiles for a while.

Quit the crap.

[esc]

I think that in this case, if it's a question of ethics, Chris doesn't really owe anything to anyone...but Elbox needs to make good on a product they're selling.  A car manufacturer wouldn't sell a car that you need an obscure, old, outdated 3rd party key for.

[Darrin]

and for the record, Elbox haven't replied to my email... yet.

[Reflex]

Elbox is a crappy company.
The only goo thing the did for the Amiga Community is the Mediator busboards but, hey boys let's think about it...
1) no DMA support
2) troubles on the 3.3 volt power line (look at the Radeon 9200 mess)
3) bad driver.

they were only lucky that DCE didn't developed good drivers for their G-Rex as it was a much superior Hardware.

I bought a boundle consisting of Mediator 4000D and SpiderII and the day after it arrived to me Hadges stopped any support to the Spider board so now I have a nice piece of crappy hardware that has no use for my computer and no way to make it work.

Obviously Elbox doesn't reply to my emails neither.