Help needed for an A1200 and how to use an ethernet card in the PCMCIA port

[Hodgkinson]

Apart from that fact that im still on OS3.0 and KS3.0 (And no scsi...) I use a 3C589D card regularly with cardpatch+cardreset+3C589 drivers+AmiTCP+SMBFS. Works all the time - Just make sure that if you happen to use SMBFS, throw as much of the stack command at it that you can.

Never quite figured out the link between cardpatch and cardreset. The docs seem to imply that both are required to function, but they're not explicitly stated.

Re the hardware fix for the reset problem, see Amigakit - They've got two different ones!

EDIT: Not sure about this, but cardpatch and cardreset might be sensitive with respect to which one is started first...I might be able to dig out my startup sequence; but I’m a bit busy tinkering with the A1200’s PSU at the minute.

Anyway, just thought I’d chip in,
Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

Hi there,
The PCMCIA problem is fixed only by software on my A1200D. AAMOF, I was thinking about getting one of these hardware fixes, but then I decided that if I did, apart from needing a big hole cutting in the RF shield, it would also mean that certain scan-doublers couldn't be fitted.
(Heh, there’s now a whacking great heat sink over the three custom chips...Designed in such a way that the RF shield can still be used... :-) )

The startup sequence looks something like this:
(Top of form and version info)
C:SetPatch QUIET
Run >NIL: C:Cardpatch
Run >NIL: C:cardreset

I didn’t bother with all the switches at the time. It just seemed to work OK so that’s how its stayed.

Btw, im sure that when I was messing with networking for the first time on my A1200 that the PCMCIA card occasionally wouldn't be initialised correctly on cold-boot. Other times it was OK. After I added cardpatch/reset, everything worked fine every time.

PS. What software are you planning on using for networking? AmiTCP/SMBFS are fine providing you don’t mind only being able to control the movement of files from the Amiga end (Other machines can't see the Amiga). Also, SMBFS really needs DOPUS configured alongside it to make it user friendly. Apart from that, SMBFS is great.

Hodgkinson.

[Hodgkinson]

Just remembered. I was planning on using a 3C589D card in my A1200T (Micronik tower) for networking, but I just couldn't get it to work. The system wouldn't work with PCMCIA SRAM cards either. And a motherboard swap diddn't help.

However, I did make a backplane extender for one of these cards in advance (See my *earlier* photos), and I just thought it might give you an idea with your setup.


Hodgkinson.