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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Spidi on September 10, 2015, 06:13:29 PM

Title: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Spidi on September 10, 2015, 06:13:29 PM
Sum A600 (http://retro.7-bit.pl/?lang=en&go=projekty&name=sum_a600) development has been completed thereby introducing a new and compact solution that allows connecting USB keyboard devices to Amiga 600 computer.

Sum adapter enables connecting USB HID keyboards to your Amiga. It has been designed for installation inside A600’s casing. Sum is based upon 16-bit Microchip microcontroller.
Sum provides built-in USB stack which enables USB HID keyboards support without the need for installing additional AmigaOS software drivers. Device’s installation procedure consists of simply attaching it the U7 chip located on A600’s motherboard.

Features of Sum A600:

(http://retro.7-bit.pl/images/SumA600_450.png)
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on September 10, 2015, 07:06:52 PM
Very nice, for only your second post here.  Kudos, sounds like a great project!  :)
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: duga on September 10, 2015, 07:54:38 PM
Great stuff! Same price as for the A1200 adapter?
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Spidi on September 10, 2015, 09:27:52 PM
Quote from: duga;795414
Great stuff! Same price as for the A1200 adapter?

Price should be similar to the price of Sum A1200.
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: ExtremeWays on September 11, 2015, 12:05:19 AM
Quote from: Spidi;795405
Sum A600 (http://retro.7-bit.pl/?lang=en&go=projekty&name=sum_a600) development has been completed


This is fantastic work Spidi!  

I've been waiting for a decent A600 keyboard adaptor for years!

Keep up the good work..
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: ExtremeWays on September 11, 2015, 12:45:11 AM
Just a quick additional question..  Do you know when this will be available from the reseller websites?

As you can tell, I'm a bit keen to get a few!
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: VingtTrois on September 14, 2015, 08:49:20 PM
Oh yeah! I would like to have one for my A600!
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Dandy on November 18, 2015, 09:48:33 AM
Quote from: Spidi;795405


Sum A600 (http://retro.7-bit.pl/?lang=en&go=projekty&name=sum_a600) development has been completed thereby introducing a new and compact solution that allows connecting USB keyboard devices to Amiga 600 computer.



Sounds like a great product!

Just one question:
Why just support for USB keyboards - why not also support for USB mice with the same device?
Original Amiga mice and even PS/2 mice are also rare nowadays...

Quote from: Spidi;795405


Sum adapter enables connecting USB HID keyboards to your Amiga. It has been designed for installation inside A600’s casing. Sum is based upon 16-bit Microchip microcontroller.
...



Would it also be possible to make such a device for the A500 series?
I would have use for three A500 compatible devices and one A1200 compatible device...
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: duga on November 18, 2015, 05:25:19 PM
Because the keyboard controller doesn't handle the mouse.

Sum A1200 already exists. http://www.vesalia.de/e_suma1200.htm
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on November 18, 2015, 06:21:49 PM
Quote from: Dandy;799282
Original Amiga mice and even PS/2 mice are also rare nowadays...

Just FYI in case you were not aware:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1259
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: motrucker on November 18, 2015, 07:47:59 PM
One question. Would it be possible to make this for an A2000 Amiga? Most A2000 user use a '030 or larger accelerator, so, what are the chances?
or, have I missed something.......
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Dandy on November 19, 2015, 06:49:44 AM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;799285


Just FYI in case you were not aware:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1259



Thanks for the link - but the last time I bought an off-the-shelf USB/PS2 mouse for use on my Amigas with the Cocolino adapters I could have bought 5 of those off-the-shelf USB/PS2 mice for the price of one of these Classic Boing Ball Mice...
:crazy:
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: Dandy on November 19, 2015, 06:59:51 AM
Quote from: duga;799284


Because the keyboard controller doesn't handle the mouse.
...



Hmmm - I highly doubt that USB keyboards and USB mice connected to an USB host (be it a Deneb/Poseidon like in my case or a SUM like in this discussion) are controlled by the keyboard controller at all...
:confused:

But I also might have gotten it completely wrong...

EDIT:
Then I might be better off with the Anaiis USB stack (http://aminet.net/package/driver/other/anaiis) and an clockport Subway from E3B for my A500s. I have clockports on the Viper520s fitted in my A500s.
This solution seems to offer both - keyboard and mouse support - and even more:

"ANAIIS, acronym for Another Native Amiga IO Interface Stack
...
Native because it is all written in C language (some parts are in Assembly).
Amiga because this computer worths this kind of program.
Input/Output because it works for mice, keyboards, thumbs and printers.
Interface because it translates usb transactions into Intuition events.
Stack because this kind of program is called like that.
...
ANAIIS controls internaly :
- (9,0,0) alias hub
- (3,1,1) alias keyboard (boot keyboard)
- (3,1,2) alias mouse (boot mouse)

and externaly:
- (7,1,1), (7,1,2) alias printer (uni and bi-directional)
- (8,6,80) alias massstorage (bulk only with embedded scsi commands)
           SATA disk, sticks, keys, thumbs, card readers...
- (3,0,0) vendor=0x044f 1103 product=0xb320 45856 ThrustMaster (joypad with
rumble)
- all external program by using a Sirion like API.
- like pl2303 vendor=0x067b 1659 product=0x2303 8963
..."
Title: Re: Finalization of Sum A600 development
Post by: psxphill on November 19, 2015, 11:17:11 AM
Quote from: Dandy;799293
EDIT:
Then I might be better off with the Anaiis USB stack (http://aminet.net/package/driver/other/anaiis) and an clockport Subway from E3B for my A500s. I have clockports on the Viper520s fitted in my A500s.
This solution seems to offer both - keyboard and mouse support - and even more:

You might be better off, but the major disadvantage with a usb stack is that it's not compatible with anything that hits the hardware directly & devices don't work until you have run it. So if you boot a different disk or skip your startup sequence then you no longer have a keyboard (although you'll need to use a real amiga mouse or one that uses a separate usb adapter to get into the early startup). The boot problem could be sorted by burning a kickstart that supports it (although I don't know if this is currently possible), but that won't help software that bypasses the operating system. So games and demos and utilities that bypass the OS are still a problem.

The separate keyboard and mouse to usb adapters are the only safe way to go. The usb adapters that need a usb stack are more useful for storage/printer/network etc. A mouse isn't a major problem as you can easily have an amiga mouse plugged in at the same time, but having to have a backup amiga compatible keyboard is too much of an inconvenience.

I don't think there is a solution yet that allows legacy keyboard and mouse emulation as well as supporting a usb stack, this would be the ultimate solution and is the way the PC gets round the issue. In the mean time this is a good compromise.

This product exists purely because there is a need for it.