PCMCIA is it all the same?

[darren99]

Hi

I've got a question regarding PCMCIA slot's.  Bit's of it are Amiga related.  I've just arranged a wireless network around my house, at the moment I have my PC and my sisters PC connected to it, my plan is to also get my sisters laptop and my Amiga 1200 connected as well.  To start the network off I bought the BT Voyager pack with the 2100 router, 1060 PCMCIA card and 1040 PCI card, and also an additional USB thing.  I got nearly all of them plugged in except the PCMCIA card.  At first I thought I'd put it in my sisters laptop and get another one for the Amiga later but it get's so far down and then wont go any further, so I thought as my sisters laptop's really old maybe it could be a different style of PCMCIA slot, I checked the manufacturer and it says it's a PCMCIA Type I,II and III slot (which the card needs a Type II slot), so I thought can't be anything wrong with the slot then, but just to make sure I'll see if it goes into the Amiga (then I could always use it with the Amiga if it does and get her a different one).  And it doesn't fit into the Amiga PCMCIA slot either.  Are there different types of PCMCIA slots other than the Type I, II, and III or is it probably the card that's faulty? and is it ok to use these PC cards with Amiga's? will I be able to add PC connectivity to my Amiga? also is it possibly to add USB to an Amiga in this way?  Also what type of PCMCIA slot is in an A1200, is it a Type I, II and III?

Thanks.

[leirbag28]

@darren99

 You can most definitelt use PCMCIA Type I and II on the Amiga........that is just refering to the thickness of the card........type one is completely flat like the Apple newton flash cards...........Type II  have the middle kinda bulging out..........and Type III I think is a Type II card that takes up 2 slots because of the thickness.

You can use PCMCIA Type II as long as it i a 16 bit card...........there are some that are 32bit which you cannot use.............they both look identical except on the bacck of the card under the PC CARD symbol it usually tells you if it  is 16 bit, 3.3Volts of 5Volts or 12V...........I think you can only use 16 3.3V and 5V.don't use the 12V ones as they may fry your port.

Anyways.I go online all the time with My PCMCIA ethernet card on my Amiga 600 as well as 1200.............also you can use Compact flash cards.....Sony Memory Stick........SD cards and many others!   you just need to get Fat95, cnet.device and cfd.lha from Aminet and you are set!

You will love how easy it is and it opens up a new world to your Amiga........2 nights ago I just went online with my Amiga 600 Wirelessly!  but not with a Wireless PCMCIA.Im not sure if those work yet but I will test one soon..................but basically I connected my Amiga 600 to my brotjhers Mac laptop that was wireless........and just sucked the signal from him by sharing it through his ethernet port, to my PCMCIA ethernet card.

You can alo get a PCMCIA ethernet card and than a Wirelss bridge to go wireless on your Amiga!

hope this helps

[ncafferkey]

leirbag28 wrote:

You can use PCMCIA Type II as long as it i a 16 bit card...........there are some that are 32bit which you cannot use.............they both look identical except on the bacck of the card under the PC CARD symbol it usually tells you if it  is 16 bit, 3.3Volts of 5Volts or 12V...........I think you can only use 16 3.3V and 5V.don't use the 12V ones as they may fry your port.

Actually, only 5V cards can be used on Amigas. 3.3V cards have a special notch that stops them being inserted into 5V-only slots. I've never heard of any 12V cards. If the box didn't mention that you need a 3.3V slot, I think the original poster has a good case for a refund from the shop.

You will love how easy it is and it opens up a new world to your Amiga........2 nights ago I just went online with my Amiga 600 Wirelessly!  but not with a Wireless PCMCIA.Im not sure if those work yet but I will test one soon.

No wireless card will work with the existing drivers, but I'm currently writing one for wireless cards with the Prism II chipset.

[Doobrey]

ncafferkey wrote:
I've never heard of any 12V cards.

Early flash based cards needed 12v to as a programming voltage.

[/quote]
No wireless card will work with the existing drivers, but I'm currently writing one for wireless cards with the Prism II chipset.[/quote]

Sweet, good luck!

[whabang]

No wireless card will work with the existing drivers, but I'm currently writing one for wireless cards with the Prism II chipset.

Sweet! :afro:

[leirbag28]

@ncafferkey

No wireless card will work with the existing drivers, but I'm currently writing one for wireless cards with the Prism II chipset.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Oh man!  Please please do this!!! hope you can get it to work with most 16bit Wirelss cards. I really dont understand why there arent any companies out there doing this.its just plain dumb to me.................I even wonder why it was not included in OS3.5 and 3.9.this stuf is just simply essential.

uhm ......what is Prism II chipet?

Oh yeah.....I think your wrong about the 3.3V cards...............I am using one that says its 3.3V and 5V  16bit 2Gigabyte memory card from Toshiba...............I believe the 3.3V is Read and the 5V is Write

It works great on my A600.I use it for Music and to transer downloads from my PC

[ncafferkey]

leirbag28 wrote:
@ncafferkey

No wireless card will work with the existing drivers, but I'm currently writing one for wireless cards with the Prism II chipset.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Oh man!  Please please do this!!! hope you can get it to work with most 16bit Wirelss cards. I really dont understand why there arent any companies out there doing this.its just plain dumb to me.................I even wonder why it was not included in OS3.5 and 3.9.this stuf is just simply essential.

uhm ......what is Prism II chipet?

It's quite close to being finished. Prism II is an 11Mbps 802.11b chipset used by too many manufacturers to mention :-) Have a look at
this list (not all of which are Prism II).

Oh yeah.....I think your wrong about the 3.3V cards...............I am using one that says its 3.3V and 5V  16bit 2Gigabyte memory card from Toshiba...............I believe the 3.3V is Read and the 5V is Write

It works great on my A600.I use it for Music and to transer downloads from my PC

If a card says it's 3.3V and 5V, it means it can work at either voltage.

[darren99]

3.3V cards have a special notch that stops them being inserted into 5V-only slots

Ah-ha... maybe that's why this card wont go in either the Amiga or the laptop.  It's a 3.3V card.  I take it that somewhere they do make 5v cards? and why the voltage difference?

[Doobrey]

darren99 wrote:
It's a 3.3V card.  I take it that somewhere they do make 5v cards? and why the voltage difference?

 They use less power at lower voltages, which is always a plus for something designed to connect to a laptop.

[darren99]

Just found another interesting thing out though about PCMCIA cards, which I presume is another affecting factor.  I didn't know that there are two variations of PCMCIA - 16-bit & 32-bit.  I presume the Amiga PCMCIA slots are 16-bit as well as my sisters laptop (it's quite an old laptop).  It seems the 16-bit ones are based similar to ISA and the 32-bit ones are similar to PCI but some silly person decided that rather than change there name to the outside world (like they did with the PCI/ISA cards they'd just change it internally and not bother to tell anyone.  I've also just found out that SD cards for cameras are defined by PCMCIA and so are kind of also PCMCIA cards!  I'm just wondering though why did Commodore use a 16-bit PCMCIA slot in a 32-bit A1200???

[SamuraiCrow]

darren99 wrote:
I'm just wondering though why did Commodore use a 16-bit PCMCIA slot in a 32-bit A1200???

The A1200 is such an old design that 32-bit PCMCIA didn't exist at the time.  (Or 3.3v cards for that matter.)

[Stedy]

Hi

To darren99:

The PCMCIA group, (http://www.pcmcia.org) define the physical dimensions and electrical characteristics of the card.

A 32 bit card is defined as a Cardbus card, it is typically either Type II or III and has a 33 MHz 32 bit PCI interface and is normally 3.3V technology.

The original 16 bit, ISA style cards, can be a Type I, II or III size.

At least the new Express card has a different size!

[Piru]

I'm just wondering though why did Commodore use a 16-bit PCMCIA slot in a 32-bit A1200???

Just because A1200 cpu is 32bit doesn't mean everything else in it is 32bit too. In fact the A1200 standard cpu has 24bit addressing, IDE bus is 16-bit, Audio is 8-bit etc etc.

[darren99]

looks like now the best way to go wireless on my Amiga is to get a 16-bit ethernet card and plug it into a wireless router 'cos I can't seem to find a 16-bit wireless card.  

Many thanks for your help in getting this problem sorted.