New products for C64 and Amiga from Individual Computers

[alenppc]

Thanks Jens. I will get the card ready for mailing today. Unfortuantely trackable envelope from Canada to Germany is not an option, as it costs more than the card itself, but a small packet airmail should be a good alternative.

[Khyron]

Learned my lesson with the ACA630.. wait until your're 100% sure the bugs are out of the product before you order it..

The tracking/insurance costs for warrenty work to ix 2 were the same amount as buying 2 more from amigakit with shipping included.. With clients around the world and only places to ship to, on one side of it. You'd expect the designer to include some sort of software or end user capable update..

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Khyron

Knowing you have customers around the world, the magiks of "in circuit programming" and the internet.. which doesn't charge by weight or destination country.. you'd expect the designer to include some sort of software or end user capable update..

That would require special equipment (JTAG programmer) at the user's site, and publishing the only copy-protection I currently have. The Jedec file for the CPLDs will not leave this site unprotected - sorry. I might as well publish the source code and watch someone else make money from my development - great suggestion.

It's different with FPGAs, which are S-Ram based, for example the Chameleon and my flickerfixers. A CPLD-based design cannot be upgraded with an internet download as easy as you know it from my flash-based designs.

BTW, the update for your ACA630s is still free, and if you send them with registered mail, it should not cost you too much. Definitely not as much as buying new boards. If I see the amounts people pay for those units on eBay, you can make a good chunk of your spendings back. Just go ahead and send me that parcel - there is no need to keep these units off the market.

Jens

[Khyron]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

BTW, the update for your ACA630s is still free, and if you send them with registered mail, it should not cost you too much. Definitely not as much as buying new boards. If I see the amounts people pay for those units on eBay, you can make a good chunk of your spendings back. Just go ahead and send me that parcel - there is no need to keep these units off the market.

Jens

The money didn't acutally bother me, I'm still happy that you even built an 030 for the A600, but from a time/money wasted point of view, ordering 2 new units form amigakit had cost about $80 more than returning the units, and they were on my doorstep in 3 days, so it made more sense at the time, and then the A604 pretty much took care of the bug, so I'm eventually going to build 2 more A600's with them and give them to the nephews/neices.

The issue is that from a consumer point of view, we don't have a clue how long you'll build the units, so if you want one you're pressed to get it before it's gone, and then have to take the risk of a an unforseen issue being present. I understand it's niche market segment, but I think some more focus should be in there for end user fixes, if not on the hardware side, maybe locating someone trusted on the other side of the world to handle fixes of this nature to cut the expese of these types of fixes etc..

I've got a couple indy aga's and ACA's on my "to buy" list, and I'm just waiting to see that they're at the right maturity level before buying them so I avoid these hassles, the only question is if they'll still be availble by that time.

[Amiga1992]

I feel Khyron's pain on transcontinental problems. When I was living in South America I was facing even worse issues with purchases of similar equipment abroad. Shipping charges are ridiculous, shit gets lost/stolen in the mail, and whatever. It was a big risk that I usually didn't take.

If I had to return an item for replacement, I usually just kept it as is because of fear it would get lost or stolen in the mail somehow, or that I would be charged twice for customs (which they did, no matter what paperwork you filed)

[alenppc]

The cheapest option to send the ACA620 back through any form of trackable mail is $65. The non trackable option costs $9. That's the scale we are talking about here. So I sent it using the latter option.

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by alenppc

The cheapest option to send the ACA620 back through any form of trackable mail is $65. The non trackable option costs $9. That's the scale we are talking about here. So I sent it using the latter option.

Canada post does not have any tracking options available for international packages unless you pay the big bucks like Alenppc mentioned. Small packet air is the only economical means of mailing for the relatively inexpensive items. It sux, but mailing a small packet to Australia for example is cheaper than mailing it within Canada.

[SpeedGeek]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

Canada post does not have any tracking options available for international packages unless you pay the big bucks like Alenppc mentioned. Small packet air is the only economical means of mailing for the relatively inexpensive items. It sux, but mailing a small packet to Australia for example is cheaper than mailing it within Canada.

Ditto that for international shipping with USPS. It will cost 2-3x the price if you want tracking!

[Schoenfeld]

OK, maybe those postal services make a difference between registered mail (aka certified mail) and trackable mail. All you need is registered mail, because that includes some kind of insurance.

Anyone can send a "maxi letter" (padded envelope) from Germany to anywhere in the world for 3.45 EUR, and the added price for "registered mail" is 2.05 EUR, so the total is 5.50 EUR. If I remember right, this is according to international postal contracts and should be available from almost anywhere in the world if you ask for the right thing.

I already got an ACA620 from Poland, and the amount of stamps on the letter was 16.80 Zloty, which translates to 4.10 EUR. I had to sign for the letter at the door, so the service was registered. BTW, that board is already fixed and on it's way back to the customer.

I take it that most services want to sell you additional insurance or some kind of express service. However, if it's just "international mail", the envelope should be at it's destination within a week, because there just is no mail with sea freight any more. Everything goes by air mail, even some domestic mail in a small country like Germany.

Jens

Edit: Speedgeek, I just tried the USPS site and I think I found the "problem": You have to open the "first class mail international" tab, because as a standard, the most expensive service is offered (GXG express mail for 50 bucks and more). A 4oz "international large envelope" is 4.09US$. Haven't found an option to make that a "signed for"-service, but it's surely something you can ask for at the post office.

[alenppc]

Jens, trust me I tried every single option and I even have a small business account (with discounts) with Canada Post since I ship a lot of stuff back and forth. For small business, they even have an application ("EST") that you can download and will instantly transmit data back to the post office and print the shipping label. It lists all the available services with relative pricing and lets you pick the one you want.

For some reason it refused to give me any insurance option (tracking is out of the question basically) for anything besides the $65 shipping option. Same thing at the post office. It's just not available.

I am always amazed when Vesalia sends me trackable items from Germany for just 5-6 euros! Once they sent me a wrong item and I had to return it. The only option I had from here was to pay $35 to send it back, with no insurance or tracking. Thankfully everything I shipped to Germany through this method always arrived OK.

[demolition]

If I want to return a non-trackable package (i.e. a letter) from Denmark to Germany, it will cost €6.5 for 500g. Not too bad, but if I want it registered (signed by recipient), I'll have to add €10 to that. Trackable package is €24. For some reason it is cheaper to ship stuff from Germany to Denmark than it is internally in Denmark.

Edit: Polish mail is also quite cheap in my experience. I've bought from Polish sellers a few times on ebay and postage is among the cheapest I've seen.

A similar example is that if I want to take the train from Sealand to Jutland (east to west Denmark), it is cheaper for me to go to bahn.com (German Railway), buy a train ticket from Copenhagen to Germany and just get off in Jutland, than to buy the correct ticket through the Danish Railway. Silly, but that's how it works here.

And to stay a little on topic, I can add that I have just tested the fixed ACA620 that I received today, and after 6½ hours of memtests and a few games, it seems like the instability problems have gone. So everybody go get your ACA620s fixed today.

[Amiga1992]

Yeah Jens, it works differently in the rest of the world.
And registered has no insurance or tracking, it's only recorded delivery.

When I was in the US I used to ship in a flat-rate international envelope, which used to cost 13 USD, but that did not include any sort of tracking or insurance.

Germany seems to have a very good price mail system, this is why Gideon of 1541 Ultimate makes his shipments through Deutsche Post. It is cheaper for him to ship from Holland to Germany then to anywhere else in Europe.

[dJOS]

Speaking of Jens products, where to ppl install the DB15 for the IndyECS in a500's?

I've heard the cable is too short to reach behind the FDD?

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by demolition

For some reason it is cheaper to ship stuff from Germany to Denmark than it is internally in Denmark.

That is true here in sweden to.

Originally Posted by Akira

Yeah Jens, it works differently in the rest of the world.
And registered has no insurance or tracking, it's only recorded delivery.

When I was in the US I used to ship in a flat-rate international envelope, which used to cost 13 USD, but that did not include any sort of tracking or insurance.

Basic "registered" (or as they call it, rekommenderad (Recommended)) is about 17Euro from Sweden to Germany, 18 to the whole of US, and allows a package where width+length+thickness=>|90cm, with no side more then 60cm, and a total weight of max 2kilos. The postservice wont refer to it as a insurance, but they are liable for values up to 1200Euros without any extra fee's. I've never had the pleasure to try and get them to come up with that money, I'm guessing that might be harder then it looks. Also, it pretty much only covers "lost" package, if anything ever breaks, you packaged it poorly, and it's your fault. Doesn't matter if it fell out of the truck, and a heavy forklift truck ran over it. Or if it looks like someone used it as a football. What ever you do, NEVER use a fragile sticker. Here in Sweden at least, those are picked out manually, and kicked around "for fun" by some post office employees. If it broke, it's the senders fault, and they do everything to try and make it happen.

[lukassid]

Luckily in UK we have amigakit a true legends.

[Calabazam]

Originally Posted by dJOS

Speaking of Jens products, where to ppl install the DB15 for the IndyECS in a500's?

I've heard the cable is too short to reach behind the FDD?

I would just get it loose through the side expansion bay. Why damage your A500 case?

@ Jens: What about the ACA500???

[dJOS]

Originally Posted by Calabazam

I would just get it loose through the side expansion bay. Why damage your A500 case?

I dont mind some case modding, I already have a rom switch and slot at the rear for my CF Card.

Hi

Jens thank you Now ACA its great product. No freez, mega stable

[Schoenfeld]

Now *that* was a fast shipment ;-)

Thanks for the feedback. Please wait for ACAtune V1.8. The older V1.7 adds too much memory to the system and will crash if that memory is used.

Jens

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Please wait for ACAtune V1.8. The older V1.7 adds too much memory to the system and will crash if that memory is used.

That is weird as I am able to perform memtests on all 11.3MB without any problems?

Edit: Unless the problem is that parts of the memory is mapped to the same physical adresses? Because the memtest wouldn't be able to catch that.