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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: kamiga on January 05, 2012, 11:07:37 PM
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I'm looking for a (preferably new) ARM controller for the minimig v1.1.
I've searched through many a-thread for availability and have no idea who I should contact to purchase of these.
Are there distributors in the US?
Thanks
kamiga
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I'm looking for a (preferably new) ARM controller for the minimig v1.1.
I've searched through many a-thread for availability and have no idea who I should contact to purchase of these.
Are there distributors in the US?
Thanks
kamiga
An arm controller is probably worth more than the minimig itself :)
you can try to contact farenheit on minimig.net
that is where i got mine. I'm not sure if he sold them all.
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Can someone remind me of exactly what the Arm board for the MiniMig gives you above and beyond the regular PIC controller?
If I install 4mb of RAM on my MiniMig v1.1 project (I bought a bare pcb and all the parts) and use the PIC controller instead of trying to find an Arm board for it, what will I be losing?
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The ARM controller only speeds up disk access.
The latest 4MB firmware does everything the ARM can except access to the SD card Hard Disk File is slower.
We asked the original creator of the ARM controller if we could manufacture them for sale in our webstore, but unfortunately had no reply.
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Can someone remind me of exactly what the Arm board for the MiniMig gives you above and beyond the regular PIC controller?
If I install 4mb of RAM on my MiniMig v1.1 project (I bought a bare pcb and all the parts) and use the PIC controller instead of trying to find an Arm board for it, what will I be losing?
The ARM controller will allow you to use large HDF files at normal hard drive speeds (The PIC alone struggles with large HDF files - the larger the HDF the slower the response... and I mean a BIG difference here when you're using HDF files in the Gigabyte range).
Also, upgrading the ARM simply means putting the updated file on the SD card and using the onscrean menu to reflash the ARM. No buggering around with TinyBootloader and serial cables.
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The ARM controller only speeds up disk access.
The latest 4MB firmware does everything the ARM can except access to the SD card Hard Disk File is slower.
We asked the original creator of the ARM controller if we could manufacture them for sale in our webstore, but unfortunately had no reply.
Keep at him. I know a lot of people keep asking about them and IMHO they're worth the money.
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Can someone remind me of exactly what the Arm board for the MiniMig gives you above and beyond the regular PIC controller?
If I install 4mb of RAM on my MiniMig v1.1 project (I bought a bare pcb and all the parts) and use the PIC controller instead of trying to find an Arm board for it, what will I be losing?
Back in the early days the PIC was limited to fat16, 8 character file names, did not support hard disk files, etc, so the ARM was a substantial upgrade.
it still probably is a nice upgrade for the speed, and I'm glad I have it, but at this point I'd wait for Replay which is Minimig 2.0
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@darrin: Hello again friend! Who exactly is the "him" in the "keep at him" phrase? Who makes it? Supports it? Created it? A user here? email addr?
@amigakit: fired off a sales email yesterday asking about the ARM and the 4mb service.
Thanks
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@darrin: Hello again friend! Who exactly is the "him" in the "keep at him" phrase? Who makes it? Supports it? Created it? A user here? email addr?
Hey mate :)
Actually it is 2 people.
The ARM controller was designed by Jakub who is the same chap who is designing the daughterboard for the FPGA Aracde. He made the sources for the ARM board "open" and then Farenheit made a little production run of them (not sure how many or what they cost as I got my prototype from Jakub back when it was being tested).
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The ARM controller only speeds up disk access.
The latest 4MB firmware does everything the ARM can except access to the SD card Hard Disk File is slower.
We asked the original creator of the ARM controller if we could manufacture them for sale in our webstore, but unfortunately had no reply.
Thanks for the info and I agree, keep asking the creator of the ARM board until you get a reply.
Since I already have a Replay board, I doubt I will spend the extra money to get an ARM board for the MiniMig.
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The ARM controller only speeds up disk access.
This is not true. The disk speed-up isn't the only benefit but it's noticeable. E.g. my 512 MB Workbench partition boots with my ARM controller in 5 seconds (hard disk read speed over 2000 KB/s as reported by SysInfo) and the same process takes 1 minute 45 seconds when a PIC is used (benchmarked read speed 150 KB/s). When a smaller hard file of 20-50 MB is used it becomes usable but the slowdown is still substantial.
The latest PIC firmware has been partially back-ported from ARM sources but due to hardware limitations of the PIC it doesn't support all the features.
The ARM displays the contents of a directory sorted alphabetically with directories displayed above files while the PIC displays mixed directory and file entries in the order of their creation. Moreover with the ARM you can use keyboard shortcuts like PageUp/PageDown/Home/Backspace to quickly scroll through displayed entries and get back to parent directory. It's very convenient to scroll through large collection of files (but it's recommended not to put more than a hundred entries per directory to keep browsing at maximum speed).
As it's known long file names on FAT volumes can be over 250 character long. The ARM scrolls horizontally a name which is longer than 30 characters (and does this smoothly). The PIC only displays first 34 characters of it.
The ARM parses ADF name to display current disk number and total number of disks of a multi disk set. Taking into account the limitations of the PIC and the length of TOSEC collection file names you are very often not able to tell which disk number to select.
The ARM stores configuration in a file on a memory card so you can use different configuration for every card. The PIC stores configuration in its internal EEPROM and can use only one.
Upgrading ARM firmware is very easy because you only need to put a new firmware file on your memory card and invoke the update option from the OSD menu. To update PIC firmware you need a PC with appropriate software and null-modem serial cable.
Current ARM firmware occupies only 20% of its program memory so it's still possible to implement more features (e.g. loading of alternative cores). The PIC has been already filled up.
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I'm looking for a (preferably new) ARM controller for the minimig v1.1.
I have one spare (the last one) I can part with. It's brand new, has never been used. Just send me a PM.
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Since I already have a Replay board, I doubt I will spend the extra money to get an ARM board for the MiniMig.
I'm looking to buy a replay board too. Sent a message to get on the "list." No reply yet, but hopefully I'm in there some place.
I see the minimig and replay board as different beasts and see room for both for me! :)
Thanks
kamiga
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@Yaqube,
You talked me into it. If someone else hasn't claimed it already, I will buy your last ARM board for the MiniMig.
See your PMail
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@Yaqube,
You talked me into it. If someone else hasn't claimed it already, I will buy your last ARM board for the MiniMig.
See your PMail
I sent him a PM about an hour or so ago claiming it. :)
Thanks
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I sent him a PM about an hour or so ago claiming it. :)
Thanks
Good choice! Congrats on deciding to buy it (drats!).
I hope that someone like AmigaKit, or ACube gets the design from the creator(s) and mass produces it with the MiniMig v1.1, as it appears to make it a much better computer system.
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Good choice! Congrats on deciding to buy it (drats!).
I hope that someone like AmigaKit, or ACube gets the design from the creator(s) and mass produces it with the MiniMig v1.1, as it appears to make it a much better computer system.
Thanks AD.
So payment is sent, and hopefully I'll have my ARM board soon enough.
YAY!
You know, I wish that we could form some sort of consortium or association, with the various DIY'ers, creators, amiga dealers where there was a consistent place to store project info/status, designs/specs/manuals, access to common resources like PCB manufacturers, part suppliers, a store front, and so on. We have so many different silos operating now where we could take advantage of economies of scale, one-stop shopping, centralized documentation pools, and so on.
The regular amiga consumer would benefit in multiple ways, the creators would sell more boards, the dealers would move more product, and it would be an overall benefit to the amiga community.
kamiga
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We are always happy to support these type of products By taking financial risk and provide on-going after sales support. We have been in the Amiga market for many years now providing support and Amiga hardware providers trust us knowing that we can distribute their product and be there in years to come to provide support and customer service. This could have been the case with the ARM controller.
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We are always happy to support these type of products By taking financial risk and provide on-going after sales support. We have been in the Amiga market for many years now providing support and Amiga hardware providers trust us knowing that we can distribute their product and be there in years to come to provide support and customer service. This could have been the case with the ARM controller.
As a customer how has purchased a good amount of Amiga equipment from you over the years including 2 Minimig's 1 with 2MB and a second with 4MB plus my sam440ep and a good amount of other toys for my A1200's I would like to say thanks for always providing a first class service. :-)
At some point in the future I would love to purchase a second arm controller for my original Minimig from you if you secure the rights to manufacture and sell them, as I expect it will be a few years before the FPGA Arcade reaches the same level of compatibility and maturity that the minimig v1.1 has currently and even at that stage the current Minimig's I own will run A500 games every bit as well as they do now so I expect to get as many more years of fun out of them.
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As a customer how has purchased a good amount of Amiga equipment from you over the years including 2 Minimig's 1 with 2MB and a second with 4MB plus my sam440ep and a good amount of other toys for my A1200's I would like to say thanks for always providing a first class service. :-)
At some point in the future I would love to purchase a second arm controller for my original Minimig from you if you secure the rights to manufacture and sell them, as I expect it will be a few years before the FPGA Arcade reaches the same level of compatibility and maturity that the minimig v1.1 has currently and even at that stage the current Minimig's I own will run A500 games every bit as well as they do now so I expect to get as many more years of fun out of them.
Seconded.
Even with my FPGA Arcade, I don't think I could ever part with my Minimig.
If it ever does end up on eBay though it will be a nice buy: 4MB, ARM, built into a black PS2 keyboard.
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.... This could have been the case with the ARM controller.
I hope this statement does not mean that you have given up on trying to work with the creator(s) of the MiniMig ARM board to get it produced in higher quantities and made available in your store?
Did you ever get a reply from him/them?
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If I remember correctly the rights were given by the author to IMM Informatique (Faranheit) but their website is now gone.
So maybe in hindsight the author of the ARM controller should have given the rights to one of the long-standing Amiga companies. This would ensure that the product gets a long shelf life and on-going after sales support.
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You might want to have a look here:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60249
;)