Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 controller  (Read 5541 times)

Description:

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline redrumloa

  • Original Omega User
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 10126
    • Show only replies by redrumloa
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #14 on: July 20, 2004, 12:08:50 AM »
Quote
and there are loud murmurings of MOS-based developers doing the same with their software


Been there, seen that, old news. Many MOS developers openly refuse to do Amiga versions. That's fine and all, can't really argue people should do something they don't want to.

Don't get me wrong! As both a Pegasos owner AND a reseller I'd love for their to be free native MOS support, but it is what it is. No sense of pointing the finger of blame directly at Jens when there is more than one party involved. Maybe Jens doesn't want to make drivers under OpenPCI, again his choice.
Someone has to state the obvious and that someone is me!
 

Offline smithy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 511
    • Show only replies by smithy
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2004, 12:15:51 AM »
Quote

The Catweasel MK4 is delivered with drivers for Linux, Windows 98(se)/ME/XP/2000, Amiga OS4, and for Mac OS X at a later date. MorphOS drivers are available for a surcharge.


I can't believe I'm reading this.  This is blatent penalising of a single platform... and by offering even Windows drivers free of charge is clearly just rubbing in the salt... and now trying to hide behind any justifications just makes him look ridiculous.

This is very childish behaviour, and it won't have any good effects.  We'll see developers who primary platform is MOS retalliate with similar measures.  It's not good for anyone.

Quote

"To be honest, I already regret having offered MorphOS drivers. I better leave everything up to the MorphOS developer pool, and not have to deal with persons who lack basic communication skills. It might cost me a few sales,...


And it gets even more childish!!  Not only is he charging MOS users extra, he's also insulting them!!!  But they're still good enough to take extra money off, right Jens?

I'd say this'll cost you more than a few sales:  There are far more Pegasos machines out there than AmigaOnes, you've probably just wiped out 70% of your market.

Quote

...but the gain is infinitely more valuable: I'm free of people demanding stuff from me.


You're free of people asking for a bit of fairness and equality?

Punishing users for a private disagreement with someone from a company seems a bit extreme.
 

Offline FuZion

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Jul 2002
  • Posts: 223
    • Show only replies by FuZion
    • http://www.deceptiveaudio.co.uk
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2004, 12:53:20 AM »
This is NOT flame... This is NOT flame... Although it is OT.

@KennyR

I would REALLY like to see AmiNetRadio for OS4. Currently I can only get v2.5 working. Works great too. I'd like to see the new ones though. Some of those GUIs look crackin!

IIRC they complain about not being able to find a GUI although they are there.

FuZion.


I'll most likely be investing in a Catweasel too. Nice stuff.

FuZion again.
 

Offline KennyR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 8081
    • Show only replies by KennyR
    • http://wrongpla.net
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2004, 01:27:55 AM »
Quote
Fuzion wrote:
I would REALLY like to see AmiNetRadio for OS4. Currently I can only get v2.5 working. Works great too. I'd like to see the new ones though. Some of those GUIs look crackin!

IIRC they complain about not being able to find a GUI although they are there.


This is a problem in OS4, in one of the pattern parsing functions. It's already worked around and will be fixed for the next release. *

Well...that's if Jens Schöfeld's recent actions haven't pissed off Gelb too much, that is.

You won't be able to use transparency though, not unless P96 emulates CGX5 transparency calls...

(* -  It would be even nicer if you could convince Hyperion to fix the problem routine, though.)
 

Offline Trev

  • Zero
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: May 2003
  • Posts: 1550
  • Country: 00
    • Show only replies by Trev
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2004, 01:37:34 AM »
I agree with Jens. If you want MorphOS drivers, write them yourself. Like Redrumloa said, the card's primary target is Windows. As far as I know, it's just Jens doing the hardware and a friend doing the software. We're not talking about ATI, nVidia, or Creative here. In my experience, Jens has been nothing but helpful, open, and honest about his products. That's pretty rare in the Amiga community.

Trev
 

Offline amigarulez

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Dec 2003
  • Posts: 4
    • Show only replies by amigarulez
    • http://www.amigarulez.com
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2004, 02:12:18 AM »
Jens sure knows his hardware!
 

Offline angrybrit

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Sep 2003
  • Posts: 127
    • Show only replies by angrybrit
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #20 on: July 20, 2004, 04:07:44 AM »
Quote
@KimmoK
You want drivers? Make your own. The Catweasel MK4 is not designed for MorphOS or the Pegasos. Any support is experimental."

Very nice.  I am still learning C++ but I'd love to have a BeOS version for x86 PCs. :-)
 

Offline itix

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2002
  • Posts: 2380
    • Show only replies by itix
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #21 on: July 20, 2004, 04:34:45 AM »
@fuzion

Quote
I would REALLY like to see AmiNetRadio for OS4. Currently I can only get v2.5 working.

It is a bug in OS4 dos.library. One of functions gives wrong return code.
My Amigas: A500, Mac Mini and PowerBook
 

Offline itix

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2002
  • Posts: 2380
    • Show only replies by itix
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #22 on: July 20, 2004, 04:40:42 AM »
Quote
I agree with Jens. If you want MorphOS drivers, write them yourself.

It looks like classic Amiga is not supported either. Only AmigaOne and BPPC/CSPPC with OS4 supported bus board.
My Amigas: A500, Mac Mini and PowerBook
 

Offline Trev

  • Zero
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: May 2003
  • Posts: 1550
  • Country: 00
    • Show only replies by Trev
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #23 on: July 20, 2004, 05:46:58 AM »
Quote
It looks like classic Amiga is not supported either. Only AmigaOne and BPPC/CSPPC with OS4 supported bus board.


A not-so-OpenPCI driver would be a good project for anyone with the motivation to write one. Hopefully, Jens will continue his tradition of publishing low-level hardware information. If the Linux driver isn't open source, I doubt it will be long before some kernel hacker writes one that is.

Trev
 

Offline Ilwrath

Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #24 on: July 20, 2004, 06:37:46 AM »
On one hand, I'm happy Jens is able to continue to bring new and improved products to market.  On the other hand, this one kind of ticks me off, as it means my MK3 is obsolete before really becoming as useful as advertised......

Quote
Improvements to the SID audio part

DC-DC converter eliminates noise
On the Catweasel MK3, it was possible that noises from 3D-graphics cards or high-speed harddrives were coupled into the 12V-power supply of the SID audio part. This cannot happen any more on the Catweasel MK4, because a DC-DC converter is an insuperable obstacle for such noises.


I really wish my Catweasel MK3 had been designed this way.  :-(  The SID function is probably the coolest thing about the card, but the background buzz, pop, click was annoying enough I ended up pulling the card from my main workstation and putting it in an older machine, and only use the floppy functions to save old disks.  

The Atari style joyports are another feature that would have been cool too.  But with no hardware counter, using things like an Amiga mouse becomes poling intensive.  And then to rub a little salt in the wound, there are no Windows HID device drivers for the joyports.  And to rub some more, none of the C64 emulators seem to use them directly, either.  So basically, the card has two DB-9 decorations on it.  They tempt me to plug things into them, yet they don't actually work in anything.

Driver scarcity always hampered the CW-MK3, and now things look even worse, as an incompatible MK4 is readied, and a MorphOS feud breaks out.   :pissed:

Don't get me wrong.  I don't regret buying my Catweasel.  It's a great card at controlling floppy drives.  It's ability to read and write practically any possible disk format has seriously come in handy several times...  (And I'm thinking of a project to use it on again...)  

But I was just hoping that the "fun" features support would slowly fill in.  Unfortunatly, it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
 

Offline AmiDog

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 62
    • Show only replies by AmiDog
    • http://www.amidog.com
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #25 on: July 20, 2004, 06:55:59 AM »
Quote
Yeah, far be it for anyone to support their own hardware. We shouldn't ask too much of Jens. The poor baby.


I thought it was bad enough that people behaved like you on ANN... Let's have a look at the facts:

1. Jens says there's not enough sales to justify the time, effort and cost to support MOS.
2. Plenty of MOS users attack him (at AmiGBG for example, I was there, I saw it).
3. Jens is (despite all the attacks) kind enough to say, "Ok, I'll buy the hardware and make drivers available, but you'll have to pay a small fee to cover my costs.".
4. Rather than being thankful, plenty of MOS users attack him for NO reason at all.
5. He gives up.

I can't blame him, I would've done the same.
 

Offline Cymric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 1031
    • Show only replies by Cymric
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #26 on: July 20, 2004, 08:13:28 AM »
And all this silly political {bleep}ing and biting and bellowing for the support of an obsolete medium... That is the real surprise here.

Edit: since when am I not allowed to use the word b-i-t-c-h any longer? Surely it's not that offensive a word?
Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.
 

Offline Jupp3

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 364
    • Show only replies by Jupp3
    • http://jupp3.amigafin.org
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #27 on: July 20, 2004, 02:36:57 PM »
I also find the comment
Quote
If you have a Mediator, you're under-privileged ;-)

very childish, but Elbox sure has earned that (But users of their hardware not)
 

Offline System

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Jul 2003
  • Posts: 199
    • Show only replies by System
    • http://amiga.org
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #28 on: July 20, 2004, 03:38:19 PM »
Guys?

It's Jens' product, and he can do what he wants with it.  If there were enough sales possible out of the MorphOS community, I'm sure he'd reconsider.  In fact, he didn't say he wouldn't write them, he just has to buy Pegasos hardware in order to write the drivers, and has to recoup the costs of doing so.  It's simple economics and the fact that you want to whine and {bleep} because he doesn't support your chosen platform is irrelevant as well as extremely childish.  You want him to write drivers for MorphOS, help him buy a Pegasos.  It's that simple.

In my many meetings with Jens, I have always found him to be incredibly professional, incredibly helpful, friendly, and incredibly talented.  The personal attacks on him for his professional choices of which platform to support are completely unwarranted, and totally unacceptable.

I know that I wouldn't put that amount of money into a Pegasos just to be able to give away free drivers.  I very much fully support and understand his decision.
 

Offline dammy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 2828
    • Show only replies by dammy
Re: Announcement: Technical data of the new Catweasel MK4 co
« Reply #29 from previous page: July 20, 2004, 05:32:12 PM »
Poster: Wayne  Posted: 2004/7/20 10:38:19

Quote
It's simple economics and the fact that you want to whine and {bleep} because he doesn't support your chosen platform is irrelevant as well as extremely childish.


Is it childishness or Scortched Earth operation?  I fear it's a combination of the two.

Dammy
Dammy

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arix-OS/414578091930728
Unless otherwise noted, I speak only for myself.