What are people using their clockports for?

Overmann · 16 July 2018, 14:51

Hi there,

I'm just wondering. I have so many clockports, and more are coming in expansions that I'm about to order, but all i find for sale are clocks or USB devices. I'm guessing I'm missing something.

I've seen that some interesting devices have been developed. Sound cards, ethernet adapter and so forth, but none are on sale (or have been for quite a few years as far as I can tell).

So, what do I do with all my clockports?

Daedalus · 16 July 2018, 22:00

There was more of a need back in the day, when a lot of people used their Amigas for productivity stuff and internet, but these days there are fewer such expansions being produced. Personally I used them for a HyperCOM 3 and a Catweasel, which meant my A1200 tower had (and still has) two very fast serial ports, a fast parallel port, and access to almost any format of floppy disk, both 3.5" and 5.25". I don't really use them much any more however...

What there are though are a couple of interesting boards: First, the Prisma Megamix audio decoder card, which can decode many different compressed audio formats and mix it with the standard Amiga. If you don't already have some sort of hardware decoder in your machine, that's an option (though it's also a Zorro card, so if you have a Zorro machine you're probably better of using it that way instead). Second, there's a homebrew SPI controller for the clock port, which is a nice option for hardware hackers who can also write their own drivers.

trixster · 16 July 2018, 22:08

This is looking interesting:

https://retro.7-bit.pl/?lang=en&go=projekty&name=SPICP

Overmann · 17 July 2018, 00:06

@trixster & @ Daedalus
I saw that SPI controller while browsing the forum yesterday. It looks very interesting, actually! I'm not a hacker or a programmer, but I have no doubt some of the wonderful members of the community will be able to do very cool things with it.

@Daedalus
What are you doing /were you doing) with very fast serial and parallel ports? The catweasel always intruiged me, but I never got around to buying one. The Prisma megamix DOES look interesting if it gets some gamesupport (has it been in scummvm and some of the doom-ports?). Opening up for flac audio in game is pretty cool. Playing MP3's in workbench though is completely uninteresting to me. :P

Daedalus · 17 July 2018, 14:01

At the time, I was using my Amiga for dial-up internet, and sharing that connection to the LAN for other machines. The fast serial port helped that a lot - before that, the Amiga's serial port was the bottleneck, whereas with the faster ports, the modem was the bottleneck instead and CPU load was reduced too. It was also useful for null modem connections, being able to sustain a 115K connection without problems. Similarly with the parallel port, at the time I had a parallel inkjet printer, and the new port was much faster for printing as well as reducing CPU load. It also freed up the internal parallel port for driving a small LCD display I installed in my tower.

Yep, the Catweasel really was excellent and got a lot of use at the time for floppy transfers.

16 July 2018, 14:51	#1
Overmann Registered User Join Date: May 2014 Location: Norway Posts: 379	What are people using their clockports for? Hi there, I'm just wondering. I have so many clockports, and more are coming in expansions that I'm about to order, but all i find for sale are clocks or USB devices. I'm guessing I'm missing something. I've seen that some interesting devices have been developed. Sound cards, ethernet adapter and so forth, but none are on sale (or have been for quite a few years as far as I can tell). So, what do I do with all my clockports?

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16 July 2018, 22:00	#2
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,351	There was more of a need back in the day, when a lot of people used their Amigas for productivity stuff and internet, but these days there are fewer such expansions being produced. Personally I used them for a HyperCOM 3 and a Catweasel, which meant my A1200 tower had (and still has) two very fast serial ports, a fast parallel port, and access to almost any format of floppy disk, both 3.5" and 5.25". I don't really use them much any more however... What there are though are a couple of interesting boards: First, the Prisma Megamix audio decoder card, which can decode many different compressed audio formats and mix it with the standard Amiga. If you don't already have some sort of hardware decoder in your machine, that's an option (though it's also a Zorro card, so if you have a Zorro machine you're probably better of using it that way instead). Second, there's a homebrew SPI controller for the clock port, which is a nice option for hardware hackers who can also write their own drivers.

16 July 2018, 22:08	#3
trixster Guru Meditating Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: England Posts: 2,339	This is looking interesting: https://retro.7-bit.pl/?lang=en&go=projekty&name=SPICP

17 July 2018, 00:06	#4
Overmann Registered User Join Date: May 2014 Location: Norway Posts: 379	@trixster & @ Daedalus I saw that SPI controller while browsing the forum yesterday. It looks very interesting, actually! I'm not a hacker or a programmer, but I have no doubt some of the wonderful members of the community will be able to do very cool things with it. @Daedalus What are you doing /were you doing) with very fast serial and parallel ports? The catweasel always intruiged me, but I never got around to buying one. The Prisma megamix DOES look interesting if it gets some gamesupport (has it been in scummvm and some of the doom-ports?). Opening up for flac audio in game is pretty cool. Playing MP3's in workbench though is completely uninteresting to me. :P

17 July 2018, 14:01	#5
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,351	At the time, I was using my Amiga for dial-up internet, and sharing that connection to the LAN for other machines. The fast serial port helped that a lot - before that, the Amiga's serial port was the bottleneck, whereas with the faster ports, the modem was the bottleneck instead and CPU load was reduced too. It was also useful for null modem connections, being able to sustain a 115K connection without problems. Similarly with the parallel port, at the time I had a parallel inkjet printer, and the new port was much faster for printing as well as reducing CPU load. It also freed up the internal parallel port for driving a small LCD display I installed in my tower. Yep, the Catweasel really was excellent and got a lot of use at the time for floppy transfers.

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