Amiga to PC Linkup issues (laplink A1200 to PC winXP)

[Austin1200]

www i recently purchased the ami2pc linkup kit, from amigastuff.co.uk

This was recieved rapidly for the sum of £15, however, the instructions were minimal to say the least, firstly they only covered software, and not hardware, so my question is this really...

What settings does my pc's parallel port need to be on (i.e spp ecp epp?)
What setting does my amiga need to be on through prefs/serial? (handshaking/parity/bits char/stop bits)

ive tried to set this up time and time again following the instructions first running PC2Amres on the pc, then PC4KS3 on my Amiga 1200  but to no avail! :-?

Anybody thats got this software/cable and has it working i would be very appreciative of some help please!

P.S. I have contacted Amigastuff, but there response so far hasnt been very helpful.  

[Stedy]

Hello,

It's been while but here's what I remember.

What settings does my pc's parallel port need to be on (i.e spp ecp epp?)

This should not matter as it uses the input only pins to RX data. I normally use ECP on my PC for general legacy stuff.

Do you have the right cable. I bought PC2Amiga from EPIC at WoA 99 and got the wrong cable! A PC Parallel Laplink Cable will work. If you have a multimeter, you can check the cable out, see this file on Aminet.

 PC2Am308.lha PC<->Amiga Ser/ParNet-like filesystem

What setting does my amiga need to be on through prefs/serial? (handshaking/parity/bits char/stop bits)

Providing you have the correct cable, you are using the Parallel port so ignore the serial port settings. You can use a Null-Modem cable if you want but it is much slower (6K/sec compared to 25K/sec)

I had data dropouts due to the Amiga parallel port hammering the CPU. The best approach I found was to drop to a 4 colour Workbench, PAL (640x256) screen and run the software.

I hope this helps.

Ian

[Austin1200]

well epic (who are based in my hometown of swindon uk) seemed to know their stuff when they were based at the pembroke centre, i bought a cannon printer driver disk there years ago, seems strange that, and i seriously hope ive got the right cable, they should know what there doing after all this time, esp when the instructions warn you not to use another type of cable as this may damage your machine!

anyway, i tried to run it again tonight and i get this message pop up in an Iconx window . . .

Can't open prefs/env-archive/sys/def_disk.info for input - object not found
Can't open prefs/env-archive/sys/def_pc.info for input - object not found
ERROR: device 'PC' is already mounted

What does this mean, how do i fix it, is my £15 down the drain???

[Austin1200]

it seems exactly the same as the ami2pc software ive already got on both machines.

do you know what the pinouts are meant to be? (or an easy way to test it, and do pc world sell the laplink cable, how much?)

as you can tell, im absolutely dying to get this link to work!

[Stedy]

Lets see.

Have you run the ConfigPC2Amiga tool?

Run it and use these settings:
Select the Laplink4W cable,
Use PC2AmPar.device,
Set the timeout to 100,
Maxmimal length of packet to 2048
That's what I used.



Here is the cable pinout:




Maplin will sell the standard Laplink cable,

Maplin code BJ27E, £9.99 or a serial Transfer cable, AS87U, £12.99

The error about def_pc.info just relates to some Icons used for the Mounted PC volume. It just makes icons show up on workbench. If you use Dopus it will work fine.

[Austin1200]

I dont seem to have the ConfigPC2Amiga tool, would that be on the amiga or the pc

Also, whats Dopus?

(yes i do feel a complete noob now!)

 Too many years gaming on the amiga, and not learning!

[Austin1200]

Is there any difference between a laplink cable & a Serial Transfer cable?

[Austin1200]

how do i open the tool btw?

[iamaboringperson]

Austin1200 wrote:
Is there any difference between a laplink cable & a Serial Transfer cable?

There is no real difference between a 'laplink' cable and a null-modem cable.

'laplink' is an old DOS program used for transfering data between dos machines (windows too)

[Stedy]

Hello,

If you download PC2Amiga from the link I posted earlier, you will find a ConfigPC2Amiga program in the root directory of that archive, it runs as a C= Installer program.

A laplink cable and a serial transfer cable are completely different.

A laplink cable is for the Parallel port and on Amiga's allows upto about 25 K/Sec transfers. A serial or Null-Modem cable is for the serial port and allows transfer upto 6K/Sec with the built in serial port.

Good luck,

Ian

[Austin1200]

the cable they sent out looks the same, a=the pahaging was labelled 'serial laplink cable'

i tried to use ami-pc again under wb3.1 no joy, so i re-partoned(formatted)

and installed 3.0instead, installed Ami-pc to the hdd, ran PC2Amres on the pc, then ran MountPC4ks3 on the amiga ....

AND it still comes up with the same iconX error messages on the amiga

IconX:
env-archive/sys/drf disk.info fir input - object not found
env-archive/sysdef-pc info for input - object not found
Error pc is already mounted (theres no icon on desktop) Could not open def_disk2


(what am missing guys )

[Austin1200]

lol not having much luch, there no win executable files within the filder, damn damn x damn :-o

[lorddef]

I bought ami2pc linkup from epic about 1999ish. I had problems with it too, basically is {bleep}.

First I thought they had sent me a bad cable so I sent it back and got a replacement, still didn't work.  In the end I found after some fiddling and only if I booted from the floppy diskette it would work.

Amigastuff are epic marketing, as far as I know its theit 3rd name change since they were epic, they were awfull ripoff merchants, supplying commercial games on cd-r etc.

In the ned I sacked off ami2pc and just bought a cheep ethernet card that gave me full network and internet access.

[Stedy]

Hello,

back again

Quick kludge to fix the Iconx: error messages.

1) Open a shell window (I normally press RAmiga E and type newshell)
2) Type the following:
copy sys:disk.info to sys:prefs/env-archive/sys/def_disk.info
copy sys:disk.info to sys:prefs/env-archive/sys/def_pc.info

3) In the shell type:

dir pc:

Do you see anything?

Right, you have a serial cable. You need to configure PC2Amiga correctly.

There is a config program in the PC2Am folder of the archive off Aminet, I know, I just run it! It is called ConfigPC2Amiga.

Select the serial port option and set the baud rate to 38400 for now.

Inside the PuttoPC directory are the programs for the PC.

Have you run the install program?

[Quixote]

Austin1200 asked:

Also, whats Dopus?

;-) "DOpus" is short for "Directory Opus," which is a file manager utility for Workbench.  It can also be used in Workbench replacement mode, as I use it.