plipbox 0.6 released

[lallafa]

A new version of the plipbox (Parallel-to-Ethernet device) software is available!

New features:

• new fast burst protocol for raw parallel transfers of up to 235 KiB/s
• see benchmark.md for detailed performance values
• cleaned up firmware and driver code
• rewrote firmware to handle a full ethernet frame in SRAM
• reduced parameters in firmware -> simplified usage
• added new test modes to allow detailed benchmarking of all system components

Download and more details: plipbox homepage
Release Post: plipbox 0.6 released

[Yulquen74]

Now its getting really interesting! Nice work!

so hardware wise:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-ENC28J6...item27e3c4ce63

and

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nano-V3-0-Mi...item2a327a9749

+ parallell port connection of some sort is all I need (+ firmware and device drivers)?
I assume it works good with the 68000 version of Miami?

[lallafa]

Yup, that's all you need on the HW side

By using these chinese clones for the HW you can get all parts including the parallel port connection for less than 20 EUR...

I do my testing mainly with Roadshow, but I ran Miami to check that it works there, too.

[ajack]

@Yulquen74:

Will you be willing to build me a unit?

[Yulquen74]

Originally Posted by ajack

@Yulquen74:

Will you be willing to build me a unit?

First of all I would have to assemble a unit myself and see it working.

Second, I will probably not put the same effort into building such a nice
parallell-port adapter PCB as the author did.

I will perhaps try and pursue the idea of making an internal version (design an adapter PCB between CIA's and their sockets that also holds the Arduino modules and perhaps electronic switch IC's to connect the CIA signals to either them or to the 25pin parallell port).

If the modules sit next to each other instead of on top of each other, it might be possible. Another thing is the ethernet connector needed on the outside.

I already mounted that since I now use a router board inside my A500+ to get internet/LAN access using PPP via serial port which is kinda slow, but quite usable for IRC and smaller file transfers:

http://s1314.photobucket.com/user/y_...tml?sort=3&o=2

[ajack]

As long as it works... You accept PayPal?

[kolla]

Very nice project!

Once upon a time I had something called Amiga-Link, which essentially was a proprietary coax based ethernet for Amiga computers, using the external floppy port. This reminds me of Amiga-Link Cool if it could be shrinken down and "productified" somehow, for example with help of AmigaKit.

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by Yulquen74

I already mounted that since I now use a router board inside my A500+ to get internet/LAN access using PPP via serial port which is kinda slow, but quite usable for IRC and smaller file transfers:

http://s1314.photobucket.com/user/y_...tml?sort=3&o=2

Why do you need a board? I've been doing that for years without one.

[Yulquen74]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

Why do you need a board? I've been doing that for years without one.

Because the A500 does not have a network adapter?

Seriously, some way or another, you need a piece of hardware to connect the A500 to a network, beeing either a plip-box, a router board connected to the serial port (mine was dirt cheap, easy to set up, and even has FTP server built in), a PC functioning as a SLIP gateway via serial cable, ethernet zorro board hacked into the side-connector, or other solutions I'm unaware of.

I wanted a standalone solution for network, and the router board is only one possible solution for implementing a standalone network adapter, the plip-box is another.

[Hewitson]

I don't understand why you would use an additional piece of hardware instead of simply running a pppd on your PC.

[Yulquen74]

Originally Posted by Hewitson

I don't understand why you would use an additional piece of hardware instead of simply running a pppd on your PC.

The PC is already an additional piece of hardware, in addition to the mandatory usb to serial adapter and serial cable.

I wanted a stand alone solution, so that if I bring the A500 somewhere, I dont need a PC dedicated to running a linux setup to do ppp to network it. My router is already a linux machine that does all those things, but managed by a windows application in addition to telnet of course.

[kolla]

Serial port has very limited speed and is somewhat CPU hungry. Doing transfers with the Amiga-Link plugged into floppy port was both fast, reliable and barely noticeble in terms of CPU usage on my 68000 A500.

[kolla]

A nice way to do null modem serial link is using bluetooth

[Yulquen74]

Originally Posted by kolla

Serial port has very limited speed and is somewhat CPU hungry. Doing transfers with the Amiga-Link plugged into floppy port was both fast, reliable and barely noticeble in terms of CPU usage on my 68000 A500.

Never owned that one myself, but yes it seems to be a pretty good system for lower end Amigas if you can use ut together with a TCP/IP stack.

[kolla]

Yes, I suspect one can do lot of useful hacks using the floppy station port.

[kolla]

I had my A500 connected to my A3000 with Amiga-Link, and the A3000 acted as router with a public /30 IP range routed to it for the Amiga-Link network. The A500 had a webserver running

[brett71]

I wish I had known about Amiga-Link when I had my A500 and A3000. More importantly, where to get one!

[Sim085]

Hello, I just came across this. I have always dreamed of connecting my A500+ to the Internet. Just for the fun of it.

I have an Arduino and a Wifi Shield for this. I was wondering would it work with this setup (i.e. - using Wifi Shield instead of Ethernet Shield?

[mjnurney]

great release.

however is it 060 compatible ? works great on 020 / 030 but 060 gets Suspend / reboot error as soon as the pillbox.device is used.

[Sim085]

Originally Posted by Sim085

I have an Arduino and a Wifi Shield for this. I was wondering would it work with this setup (i.e. - using Wifi Shield instead of Ethernet Shield?

I have found this in the documentation here;
https://github.com/cnvogelg/plipbox/...rc/hardware.md

"Please note, that you need a network card with a ENC28J60 chip from Microchip."

So I guess the short answer would be a no. Although I do wonder why there is this restriction on the Ethernet shield used.