Amiga Inheritance! (now what?!)

[RedWarrior]

I just scored a truckload of Amiga 1200's- which for me is pretty exciting as I only ever had a 500, then a 2000, then a 600... the 1200's have always been the fabled awesome machines- though I guess I may have come in a little late to be amazed by AGA graphics but thats beside the point! =)

I have 8 machines- though not all have been tested so far, and one seems DOA... but I'd really like to find a way to put the machines to use again- they were used for the timetable screens at the train station- and have the train timetable softeare on them- which is potentially awesome- but the machine boots up and is waiting for input from the serial port- so it wont do much as is...

In all these years of Amiga afterlife development- have we yet found a convenient way to get data on to these old machines? Is there maybe SOME non expensive way to connect these things to USB?  I can't network them easily- though it would be amazing to get them running the timetable software again.... if I could fake the right serial port feed...

but baby steps- just fitting them out with software when all my old Amiga floppies are well past their useby date- I"m not sure how to share data among these machines etc...


Hope to hear from you guys! If there are any developers out there who might like to help get these things used in public space again- get in touch! =)

[RedWarrior]

Ah genius! Yeah I forgot about that- I have a CF/PCMCIA thingy somewhere... will use that.  I can post the software on here- would be great to see if anyone else can make it work!  Ideally I'd like to run it on a self contained machine- somehow hack the timetable software to read info locally instead of the network (which I don't have)... then I could use it for public events n festivals etc and put event times with fun scroll text...

Once I get the PCMCIA thing running I'll copy to CF and upload for you guys... This is the QR system from Brisbane Australia...

I did ask about how they were connected up and I think they had some things called "digi boards" which apparently made multiple serial ports- I think how they were all connected...

Very efficient system anyway...

[RedWarrior]

Sorry for huge time lapse- I hope everyone on this thread originally is still alive & with us...

I'm hoping to ressurect the timetable software on these old machines - so I'm uploading a copy here for the experts to dissect.

This software needs a signal from the serial port to work properly- the information for each train platform would come in, and be updated n displayed in real time, complete with scrolltext telling you news and stay behind the yellow line =)

If there's no signal from the serial port, it just displays the train company logo.

Would anyone have an idea how I might be able to get this software to just read from a text file or something instead? Also toying with the (complicated) idea of using an arduino to send serial port signals and emulate the signal this program needs....

Hope to hear from you lot! =)
The program is PIDS... (public information display system I guess)- and looks like it might be made from Scala or something...?

[RedWarrior]

These were still in operation up until maybe 2 years ago or so... Now they've "upgraded" to PC's in widescreen... not nearly as easy to read or as smooth scrolltext...

=)

[RedWarrior]

I have a nullmodem device somewhere, but not the slightest clue what to do with it...

[RedWarrior]

I opened the main program file just in notepad on my pc- it looks like maybe AMOS? I thought it was Scala... Can anyone tell by looking if this might be something you could just open in an easy amos editor and fiddle with? =)  (uploaded zip file on earlier post if you want to take a look)

[RedWarrior]

What does that mean? can it be opened & edited in any useful way? Or can you see what it's looking for on the serial port?

=)

[RedWarrior]

Any takers?