NEC usb hack for mediator

[Heiroglyph]

I understand funding the driver development, but ouch, $70 markup for 9 years is not cool.  And if you have two mediators?  You paid $140 for drivers!  That's more than most whole OS's.

Good hack job mech!

Edit: I forgot, we're still paying for Mediator CD's on top of that...Isn't THAT supposed to be funding driver development? Yeah, I have NO problems with this little trick.  Bravo.

[mendark]

WANT! Do you ship to the Netherlands

[mechy]

I understand funding the driver development, but ouch, $70 markup for 9 years is not cool.  And if you have two mediators?  You paid $140 for drivers!  That's more than most whole OS's.

Good hack job mech!

Edit: I forgot, we're still paying for Mediator CD's on top of that...Isn't THAT supposed to be funding driver development? Yeah, I have NO problems with this little trick.  Bravo.

Thanks, i am not the originator of this hack,but its a good one! i have 20 cards coming the beginning of the week and i will mod them and stick them on the shopping cart.
I didn't really do any of this to stab elbox in the eye or anything,because the mediator is damned fine hardware(even if it doesn't do proper DMA),i mean mines been running for 10 years 24/7 i think now.They have stood the test of time. But the thing with the spider was wrong and advertising stuff that is not for sale etc.. I still want the mpeg card drivers! thats one thing i was really looking forward to.

[Darrin]

Thanks, i am not the originator of this hack,but its a good one! i have 20 cards coming the beginning of the week and i will mod them and stick them on the shopping cart.
I didn't really do any of this to stab elbox in the eye or anything,because the mediator is damned fine hardware(even if it doesn't do proper DMA),i mean mines been running for 10 years 24/7 i think now.They have stood the test of time. But the thing with the spider was wrong and advertising stuff that is not for sale etc.. I still want the mpeg card drivers! thats one thing i was really looking forward to.

Yep, I agree that the Mediator is a fine piece of kit.  I have the A4000D version for an A4000 destop in a tower case and it has more PCI slots and Zorro slots than you can shake a stick at.  I have a FastATA4000 and Deneb in the Zorro slots (and a Emplant II than needs to be installed), and a Radeon 256MB card (which also provides an extra 192MB of RAM) and a Soundblaster 128 in the PCI slots (want to add my PCI Catweasle too).

Even if you have a desktop A3000 and A4000 in original cases then there are smaller models for them.

If you want a proper graphics card in an A1200 thenthis is one of the few solutions and the only one you can actually buy.

It isn't cheap, but it is worth the money.

[Daedalus]

I do love my Mediator 1200 (though it sees little action recently). I was thinking though - if all Elbox did was change the vendor ID, and with this hack the same card is now "spoofing" as an Elbox card, surely there can't be a way to write a driver that will stop them working since they appear identical from a software perspective? Unless there's some other field which they modified as well...

[mechy]

I do love my Mediator 1200 (though it sees little action recently). I was thinking though - if all Elbox did was change the vendor ID, and with this hack the same card is now "spoofing" as an Elbox card, surely there can't be a way to write a driver that will stop them working since they appear identical from a software perspective? Unless there's some other field which they modified as well...

 In theory your right, if they do change the driver,it breaks their own cards.. but there may be other places in the nec rom to check and do something. They know the hardware in and out so you never can tell be sure.they are probabaly analyzing it bit for bit now to find a way to cripple it
keeping spider.device 3.21 is the best thing to do.

LOL
 Mech

[_ThEcRoW]

@darrin
You can use video ram of graphic card as system ram?. How is it done?
Didn't know it was possible.
Thanks!!!

[Duce]

Extremely cool news and kudos on the hard and good work - a lot of people will benefit from this.

[x56h34]

I do not own a Mediator anymore, but I hope that this will help existing users get USB2 working on their Mediator enhanced setups, in a little more cost effective way.

Great work.

[Darrin]

@darrin
You can use video ram of graphic card as system ram?. How is it done?
Didn't know it was possible.
Thanks!!!

Oh, it can be done OK, because I'm doing it.  :-)

You need one of the Radeon cards with lots of RAM and the latest Mediator Radeon drivers.  You decide how much RAM you wish to reserve for graphics and data (by changing a value in a text file) and the rest is allocated as system RAM.  It effectively treats your graphic card's spare RAM like it was a Zorro based RAM Card.  It is nowhere near as fast as RAM on a CPU card, but it is there to be used by the software.  

When you consider a 256MB RorRAM card is $195 then suddenly a Mediator board with a Radeon card looks like a very good purchase.

Here's an old screen grab from my A4000 Workbench:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/darrin01311/grab2.jpg
If you look at the top and bottom left you'll see the memory displayed in the title bar and on Tiny Meter.  That's the RAM left after displaying a 1920x1080 desktop with a bloody big wallpaper, various tools & add-on.  16MB Fast RAM & 2MB Chip RAM is on the mobo, 64MB is on the CPU card and the rest comes from the Radeon.

(Ignore the date on Tiny Meter... I've removed the battery and never replaced it)

[Hizoap]

@mechy
You might want to check your LDO too, depending on the cards you use.

Finally someone understood my signature.

[mechy]

@mechy
You might want to check your LDO too, depending on the cards you use.

Finally someone understood my signature.

I ran all these cards for a good while with the ports loaded(1hr+). the 3 port card has a ldo regulator and a jumper for 3.3/5v  i ran the card at 5v on the 3.3 setting(torture testing),it makes me think the chipsets are 5v tolerant,because i saw no i'll effects.The 5 port card has no regulator to speak of but it too ran flawless for over a hour loaded.My mediator does not have a 3.3v hack.

the 2- 5 port cards i have are going to friends for stress testing,and i won't have more till the beginning of the week. by then multiple people have tested them and if theres a problem to be found it should surface. but i am confident they work well.
-----------------------------------------
From wiki-take it for what its worth:

Card voltage and keying

 
 
 
 Typical PCI cards have either one or two key notches, depending on  their signaling voltage. Cards requiring 3.3 volts have a notch 56.21 mm  from the card backplate; those requiring 5 volts have a notch 104.47 mm  from the backplate. "Universal cards" accepting either voltage have  both key notches. This allows cards to be fitted only into slots with a  voltage they support.
-----------------------------------------------

the cards i'm using have both notches,so i believe them to be universal.

mech

[Opus]

Fantastic work!  let me know where to send my money!

[smf]

I want one! :-)  i have never been able to justify the price of the spider with how much i would use it. But for this price it's okey

[psxphill]

Yeah, I have NO problems with this little trick. Bravo.

The only thing to watch out for is that this probably breaks the DMCA in America and EUCD in every country in the European Union. It may also fall foul of local reverse engineering laws.
It will also affect your contract with Elbox for running the software.
 
I'm not a lawyer or the police.

[amiga1084]

Hello All,

I really wish I knew about this hack before I bought one of those expensive Spider Cards from ElBox. Well done, shame on you ElBox!

Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent