My Plipbox isn't working. Can anyone help?

[Erik765]

Hi all,

I've recently built a Plipbox for my A500 and I'm having a hard time getting pings out to my network or any communication with my router at all.

So far I've tried:

Checking and re-checking continuity between all plipbox components. All the pins and connections are lining up correctly.

Checking network connectivity on the line, using another ethernet device (works just fine)

Using version .5 (which won't work in AmiTCP or Miami (says SANA-II can't find the device))

Using version .6 shows the device as going online in both AmiTCP and Miami (using one or the other), but I can only ping the assigned Amiga IP (all addresses set statically), and the loopback. Whenever trying to ping the router or anything else, I get 100% packet loss.

Using various MTU sizes (1492 - 1518)

When using the Dev_Test utility, I can see the RX light on the arduino light up when sending packets to it, but the statistics show no traffic at all in any direction (and nothing shows up on the Amiga side, but I don't think it's supposed to)

In my router UI, I can see the device connected on the correct port and it shows some packets have moved in both directions, but no IP address is assigned to it (even though I have it set statically), so I'm assuming that's all moving via the ARP (mac address) table?

In the instructions on the plipbox site, you can assign the device an IP in the terminal (set to 192.168.2.222 by default), but I'm guessing this doesn't actually have to be the IP you're using (in all other instructions and videos I've watched they're assigning the Amiga whichever IP they'd like regardless of this setting)

Could it be my Amiga's parallel port? If so, shouldn't the Dev_Test at least show traffic?

Could it be that I'm using cheap clones of arduino and the ethernet shield? (I verified I'm using the correct chip type on the ethernet shield).

At this point, I'm really not sure what else to try and am really hoping someone can point me in the right direction here.

I have a spare Amiga motherboard, but I'd rather not have to take everything apart if I don't have to (and I'd have to borrow the Gary and CPU from my current board)

Thanks in advance.

[apsturk]

I sent you a PM

[DMackey828]

Have you tried using a different Nano and Ethernet device?

Did you put the Plipbox driver on to the Amiga?

I assign my Plip in Miami as static with :
192.168.1.68
255.255.255.0
192.168.1.1

Just guessing is all.

[Erik765]

I don't have any extra hardware currently.

The plipbox.device driver is in Devs:networks, yes.

I've tried several different ip addresses, all within my subnet range, yes.

[LuigiThirty]

Just received my Plipbox and I'm having a similar problem. It's hooked up to the same switch as my PC but I can't get an IP from my router via DHCP. Doesn't work if I assign a static IP on my subnet either, I can ping 127.0.0.1 but not my router. I'm using driver and firmware 0.6, Miami Deluxe and OS 3.9 on an A2000. If I make any progress with it I'll let you know. :/

[LuigiThirty]

I solved the problem. Version 0.6 of the Plipbox firmware defaults to a transfer burst mode that the A500/A2000's parallel port doesn't support.

Create a config file called plipbox.device in ENV:SANA2/ containing the word NOBURST, then reset the Amiga and the Plipbox. plipbox.device will automatically read it and disable the burst mode and you'll be online.

[Erik765]

Thanks for the info.

I've actually tried this and still no luck. I'll mess around with it again tonight. I have a rev6 motherboard I think I'm going to try it on as well (just have to pull my current system apart to borrow some chips from it).

One thing I've seen and that am concerned about is-
Is pin 17 really ground? I see the plipbox schematics as showing it as ground, but on the A500 schematics I've seen, it shows it as SELI? On the A2000 though, it is ground? Am I not looking at the schematic correctly here, or? (see pic)



Also, I've tried the PB_test again, and am getting nothing back at all on the statistics, after sending auto and manual packets (this also concerns me).

Can anyone let me know which LEDs on the arduino should be lit up besides 'Power', if any? What's weird is I get a faint glow on 'L' (whatever that is) when it's plugged into the Amiga and ethernet, but before plugging in the power adapter (not sure if that's normal).

Anyway, I'll be digging into it some more. I'm determined to get to the bottom of the cause of it.

Any help or further insight you can shed on it is much appreciated.

Thanks again in advance, and I'll report any findings here.

[LuigiThirty]

The faint glow with no power is normal - the parallel port can only source a fraction of the power the whole assembly needs.

[Erik765]

So, I tried on my Rev 6 board and the results are identical. At least I've narrowed it down to it not being an issue with my main (Rev system itself.

I don't know... I think the last two things to try are removing pin 17 from the ground plane and if that doesn't work, then trying new plipbox hardware (maybe not buying cheap clones this time).

Any other ideas before I scrap this hardware and build a new plip?

(on the plus side, while I had it all apart, I installed my Rev 3 keyboard with the C= key)

Thanks again.

[paul1981]

Other than checking for correct voltage / stable power, I wouldn't know. That GND you mentioned too...did you find out about it? Good luck, I hope you get it working.