just saw the worrying Poseidon news

[mantisspider]

Due to reasons I will not explain here further (ask me in private), Poseidon keyfiles cannot be bought after 01-Aug-03. People having just bought an USB card, that does not come with an OEM Licence, have the chance to register Poseidon until the end of this month.

Support for existing users is NOT affected and will continue as usually.

It is recommended that dealers stop selling USB cards without licence to avoid angry customers buying an useless piece of hardware, until the vendor delivers his own software solution or the situation is solved somehow.

Chris Hodges
Author of Poseidon

the Elbox website says

The CD enclosed with the Spider card contains Mediator EHCI (USB 2.0) and OHCI (USB 1.1) drivers for the Poseidon stack.

But i gather from the news post Poseidon licencing ceasing on 01-Aug-03 that they dont supply the drivers for the Poseidon stack. :-( im pretty confused again.

basically; if i buy the spider PCI card i wont be able to use it cos Poseidon dont support it and supply drivers for it anymore? that right?
also saw that the spider is the only PCI hardware controller for the amiga. DAMN biscuits!

im sure there must be a lot of people coming back to the amiga who got excited about USB on their miggy (i told a friend of mine on the phone and he was stunned for a fair few moments). any info on how to show the glory of the digital cameras and easy data exchanging to our amiga 1200s will be greatly appreciated.

[bhoggett]

Poseidon support for the Spider has been terminated due to issues between Chris Hodges and Elbox.

Elbox are supposedly preparing to release their own stack for use with the Spider, but AFAIK this has not happened yet.

Alternatively, the next release of OpenPCI should allow Guido Mersmann's ArakAttack driver to work with ordinary Amigas. Of course, if you have an A1200 with a Mediator, you probably won't have OpenPCi support either, so you have no choice except to rely on Elbox.

Welcome to today's real Amiga scene!   :-(

[mantisspider]

damn that sucks incredibly.

so the long and the short of it is that I wont be able to have USB on my amiga. DOH!

[Targhan]

You could try a subway (clockport?) which is supported by Poseidon (and the cost for it is included), or wait on Elbox to deliver their driver.  All I know for certain is that it is a hairy situation.

[Acill]

Yup its true, basicly if you get a Spider USB card for mediator you have a 30 min use of Poseidon. Its lame and stupid to say the least. This has been a long ongoing battle in the mediator mailing list for ages now too. I got a spider just before the post about him not supporting it, by the time I got my card it was to late. I have since sold it because Chris refused to issue me a key even if I paid for in twice! I'm now using a ZII Algor card (I think the big thing was Elbox sold more Spider cards then E3B sold clock and Zorro cards)

[lempkee]

mantispider:  go get a subway usb, it has a usbstack included and there will be no fuzz when getting it.

it fits on the clockport (a1200) , or if you have a ziv mediator then you can fit it on there also,  on a catweasel etc..

dont wait for elbox on this as elbox still just tells you that go to aminet and download poseidon demo and use that bla bla..

anyway to remove the confusio:

(PCI) Spider 2.0 =  Poseidon Impossible to Register (since aug.2003)

(Clockport)Subway = Still possible.

also all products are shown on the poseidon website what it supports , and its not likely support will stop for the adapters like subway etc.

also a small note to all spider owners , to them who registered before august 2003 can still get updates but it havent happened yet.

anyway i have a spider2.0 and its good, and i regged before aug2003 (phew) ...

cheers

[Lemmink]

(I think the big thing was Elbox sold more Spider cards then E3B sold clock and Zorro cards)

I honestly doubt that ther were more then a few Spider cards sold. The whole issue is about Elbox not being open an honest to Chris about e few things. He has the whole story on its website and I actually bothered to read the whole thing. Unfortunately (well I think at last for you) most of it is in german.

[tjaoz]

But i gather from the news post Poseidon licencing ceasing on 01-Aug-03 that they dont supply the drivers for the Poseidon stack.  im pretty confused again.

Spider drivers for the Poseidon stack have never been included in the Poseidon stack archive.

Spider drivers (spider.device and usb.device) have been developed by Elbox. They are enclosed on Elbox SpiderCD, which is bundled with the Spider card.

[tjaoz]

Poseidon support for the Spider has been terminated

Poseidon has NEVER supported the Spider card directly. Poseidon is the USB stack.

The support for the specific USB cards is provided by hardware drivers. Spider hardware drivers for the Poseidon stack have been developed and are supplied by Elbox, not by the Poseidon author.

Poseidon is like TCP/IP stack (e.g. MiamiDX, Genesis or Envoy 3). TCP/IP stacks do not support any network card directly. Drivers for the specific Ethernet or FastEthernet cards are supplied by the network card or the PCI busboard manufacturer.

Elbox still supports Poseidon stack and Spider/Poseidon users. OHCI and EHCI drivers for the Poseidon stack are enclosed with each Spider card.

due to issues between Chris Hodges and Elbox.

Here is my translation of the the most important part of the message from Elbox which appeared last month in one of the Polish news list in this respect:

----
Pursuant to the agreement made with Chris Hodges, author of the Poseidon stack,
(mutually agreed official release see here:  
http://www.elbox.com/news_02_09_11B.html) Elbox undertook to write hardware
drivers for the Poseidon stack for users of our USB controllers, and the author
of the Poseidon stack undertook to provide problem-free, paid registration of his
shareware software to every Mediator user who asks him for such registration.

Since making this agreement Elbox has been keeping all his obligations.

Unfortunately, the other party of the agreement, author of the Poseidon stack,
Chris Hodges, has been violating provisions of the agreement for several weeks
now, refusing sales of registration keys to users of Spider cards.

Chris Hodges refuses to answer our messages in this respect.

This dishonest action of Chris Hodges we perceive as an attempt at forcing
Mediator users to buy controllers of the USB 1.1 standard, produced by the E3B
company, with which Chris Hodges is very closely related.

We are now taking steps to cool down Chris Hodges from harming Mediator users.

Independent of this, every Mediator user who wants to use the Spider card and the
Poseidon stack, is fully entitled to demand problem-free registration from the
stack's author: Chris Hodges.
----

[tjaoz]

Alternatively, the next release of OpenPCI should allow Guido Mersmann's ArakAttack driver to work with ordinary Amigas.

ArakAttack drivers are USB 1.1 (OHCI and UHCI) ONLY.
 
Spider drivers by Elbox are EHCI (USB 2.0)!

AFAIK ArakAttack drivers do not include the Poseidon registration too.

[tjaoz]

You could try a subway (clockport?) which is supported by Poseidon

New Elbox drivers (e.g. for Mediator) do not work when you have any USB card from E3B (subway, highway, algor) installed in your computer.

[tjaoz]

The whole issue is about Elbox not being open an honest to Chris about e few things. He has the whole story on its website and I actually bothered to read the whole thing. Unfortunately (well I think at last for you) most of it is in german.

No. The 'Soap Opera' is not in German. It is in English.

I read all this 'Soap Opera' of Hodges and I have to admit I respect Elbox for peace and good manners in treating this 'partner,' who since very beginning wanted to go against them. Problem is that it was HODGES who BROKE the agreement. It is Hodges who is not honest.

For more about Hodges' ethics see my post in the Mediator ML http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga-Mediator/message/16577

[Lemmink]

You aren`t by any chance on the payrole of Elbox ? Heck I belive you are FROM Elbox.

But you are right, the elboxstory on Chris page is indeed in english. I didn`t "notice" since reading english in the web has become quite naturally for me, so I often don`t "feel" the difference.

[tjaoz]

@ Lemmink

I'm Hodges' customer. Hodges cheated me. He switched off my registration keys for Poseidon, for which I paid him.

[mantisspider]

damn after reading all this things about the relationship between Hodges, Elbox and E3Bug makes u fill sick how people are still causing so much trouble around a platform which is trying to stop itself being killed.

guys developing for it should be applauded and hats off to Hodges, but if any of the accusations against him are true, it goes to show that the mighty dollar (quid, buck, sheckles, whatever) really turn something good into something bad.

So to use USB 2.0 devices on an Amiga, with OS3.9 (until OS4 comes out) what do we actually need?
barring in mind it has to be an option compatible with the Mediator PCI bus or the Eyetech PCI solution for those using that one.

This must be a question that is on so many Amiga users minds... cos face it, USB is one of major features required on any machine today.

cheers guys