Interesting Article about cheap ethernet.

[TechWolf]

Gojirax said:

Do you have a link to the actual article? I clicked the Ebay link but it said the auction has ended.

Unfortunately, no -- I used to have the information online, but it was removed when I wrote the article and Blacklisted published it.  However, the issue with the article is still on the shelves and can be purchased.  Otherwise, once the article is no longer in the "current" issue, I may go back and put the information back online -- seeing as how I wasn't paid for the article, I don't think there's any problems with me retaining the rights to publish elsewhere.

JJ said:

Does this thing basically just use slip then.

Did something like this years back I think. Connect your amiga to a pee cee with a null modem cable. And then set miami up to use a null modem driver or aomething

can temeber the exact details. But with hypercomm used to get decent internet sharing back in the 56k days

Actually, it uses real PPP connections.  It's wired for a straight-though serial connection (no null-modem necessary). I was using it at 19200 on my C64.  I believe iirc that it can communicate as high as 57600.  There are some limitations, obviously with speed, and certain ports being locked out (no running servers with this thing) but for someone who wants a cheap way to be able to plug into an rj45 home network and do web browsing and the like, it should be just fine.  But again, at this point, it's all theoretical, as I have to set everything up and actually try it with the amiga.

TW

[leirbag28]

@TechWolf


If this Works..........Awesome dude!


@everyone

This is Not Slow...................just se it as a way to get Ethernet to Amiga's that Dont have the capability.

 The CD32, The A500, The A1000.

Been Dying to NOT have to use the phone line on my CD32/SX32 Pro :-)

[Plaz]

Blacklisted published it

According to the Blacklisted site, I should be able to find it at a local book store. And as a bonus to the amiga crowd, the index for this same issue also has an article called "WinUAE: Your Amiga on x86  Page 73 ". Cool, I'm going to see if I can find a copy this weekend.

Plaz

[DamageX]

Get a proper 7-wire serial/nullmodem cable so you can enable hardware handshaking (RTS/CTS) on both ends and you will see that the A500 will manage 38400 without dropping Bytes.

I do have a 7-wire cable. I have found that my problem with dropping bytes during disk access was tied to the A2630 card. Since I have swapped it out for a GVP A3001, 57.6Kbps now works fine. In fact, even 115.2Kbps works.

[TechWolf]

Tonight, I successfully tested the palm cradle with my '020 Amiga 2000 running OS 3.1, Miami TCP/IP (evaluation version) and Ibrowse 1.0.  

It looks like the stock amiga serial port will handle no more than 19200.  In miami, I deleted all the "modem init/dial strings" because the cradle just ignores those.  In fact, if you don't delete the init string, Miami seems to choke because it expects to see a response from it.  

However, if you delete all the modem strings, it seems to work.  I get a couple error messages, one about not being able to get an IP address (the cradle already -has- the IP address assigned to it) and something about PPP LCP, but if you hit the cancel button, it continues and goes online.  

Once the tcp/ip stack is running, I figure just about any amiga software should work.  As I said, I tested it with ibrowse 1.0 (I had the disk handy) and loaded up Google, The Straight Dope Message board, etc.  I also took a couple pictures.   I'm going to try out some other apps, like an IRC client and the like.

TW

[Argus]

@TechWolf

That's incredible, and we can get an A500 with ethernet!

Wasn't Rockford, IL the HQ of ICD?  Ever see their operation?

[adolescent]

@TechWolf

On an 020 you should be able to use 57600 or at the very least 33600.  Just drop the color depth down to 4 colors and that will free up a lot of speed.  

Also, you can get a MultiFace 3 card for fairly cheap these days (mine didn't sell on eBay for $10!) which will give solid 115200 on it's serial ports.

[cv643d]

Hello, I want to try this on my A500/030.

Cant you make a schematics image of how to connect it to the Amiga? I can not wait untill the issue gets old!  :-)

edit:
I am from Sweden, where can I order the magazine from?

[dnelsonfl]

I'm just trying to find a store on the list for my area that actually does carry the magazine. The Barnes & Noble and Borders in my area had no clue what I was talking about, and it wasn't on the rack, despite being on the site's list of stores. There's quite a few more to check, though, but it's tedious.

[DamageX]

Designed by Jim Mazurek

First, the wiring diagram:

Here's the connection list:

palm            db9
cradle          female

1  ------------ 1,4,6
3  ------------ 2
4  ------------ 7
5  ------------ 3
6  ------------ 8
10 ------------ 5

The cradle is designed to use a standard 9pin male-female cable.

[Louis Dias]

My SX-1 has a standard Serial port!

SX-1 FTW!

[Louis Dias]

http://pinouts.ru/PDA/palm_iii_pinout.shtml

maybe this can be of use to people getting online with the Amiga via the palm cradle...

it looks like the receive and transmit lines are crossed on the pinout listed a couple of posts above...

[adolescent]

lou_dias wrote:

it looks like the receive and transmit lines are crossed on the pinout listed a couple of posts above...

No, they are crossed in the pin out YOU posted.  The diagram posted by DamageX above is correct.

[Louis Dias]

actually, they are crossed in the one I posted because the one I posted is made to connect to the palm instead of to the cradle...

either way, looking at both means that they are both correct for their application so it's a good reference