Joystick and network advice

[Bloodwych]

I've just moved into a larger room and I can finally have my PC setup next to my Amiga 1200. Guess what this means? Yep, network time!

I've found this site which has the kit I require (I'm in the UK), but which should I go for - the parallel solution or the serial solution?

Parallel solution

Serial solution

The serial seems better because I can still have printers hooked up to the machines, but which has the fastest transfer speed, serial or parallel?

How fast can I transfer files across these cables?

Right, now on to decision number two.

I need another 2 old-school joysticks. I've got currently got 3 cruisers (2 broken, 1 dodgy), 1 zipstick (missing in action, still trying to retrieve from my brothers friend) and 1 gamepad (doesn't feel right in most games).

Here is the line up: Joysticks available

Now I want the most robust, long-life, durable joystick. The cruisers are out because they keep on breaking!

What about the Competition Pro?

Thanks, as always, for your advice.

[RetroMan]

If you want a long-life Joystick, be sure to get the Competition Pro I still got my first one, and it still lives (after 14 years) and WOW I hurted that thing

[Bloodwych]

Thanks Retro (or is that boss/guv - congrats on becoming a mod ), one vote chalked up for the old Pro! I've always liked the classic look of those joysticks.

[TikTok]

The serial seems better because I can still have printers hooked up to the machines, but which has the fastest transfer speed, serial or parallel?

How fast can I transfer files across these cables?

Parallel will be faster than serial, because it uses several lines in parallel to transfer the data. I use a serial cable between my A600 and PC though, and get speeds of about 115200 bps using TwinExpress.

[Akira]

2 joystick recommendations: Competition Pro 5000, and The Butg
1 pad recommendation: Competition Pro Pad (looks sweet! i will buy one)

about networking... use parallel. Serial is fine for small files and such, but it will take you about two hours to transfer a hundred megabytes (using TwinExpress at 115200). I know I tried, and I already got sick of it! :P

[Bloodwych]

Thanks for the advice!

Looks like the Comp Pro and parallel networking so far! Bollocks to the printer connections, the Amiga is more important!

About baud speeds. Those speeds on the serial are in bps (bits/second).

8 bits = 1 byte.

In data storage 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes

Therefore you guys are getting 115200/8*1024 Kbytes/s = 14.0625 KiloBYTES/Sec?

Is this correct?


I take it parallel uses 8 wires to send a byte symoltaniously while serial sends bits one at a time over a single wire to make up a byte?

How many times faster is parallel about?

EDIT: I'VE JUST NOTICED I'VE GOT THE 1000th POST IN THIS HARDWARE SECTION!!!!!! :laugh What do I win Retro, what do I win???????

[Akira]

No, that's too bloody fast maybe?. From my experience, it transfers an ADF in one minute. Do the math, perhaps it's correct.

And this is my opst 1989.... A golden year in computing era

[Bloodwych]

Akira, an ADF in 1 minute means your rocking along at approx. 14 KB/s.

As for your personal post count, can't you freeze it? I was going to suggest "bring on the millenium" but you're right slap bang in the golden era right there!

How about transferring files by cd-rom? It saves time if you can write cds and have a cd-rom drive connected to amiga, and you can always borrow pc's cd-rom for this task

[Bloodwych]

Good idea Burseg, but I want a true network for no hassle 2-way read/write of files. It's also kind of cool having the Amiga and PC linked.

Hey guys, I'm now thinking of a network solution because it's quite cheap and lightening fast.

I've got an Amiga 1200 therefore I'll need a PCMCIA 10/100 network card and the same for my PC right?

The great thing about this is that the hardware can be used in the future for Laptops or home networking.

Is this a good solution? I'm VERY new to networking

[Shadowfire]

If you're seriously considering this I recommend checking out Amiga Explorer by Cloanto. www.cloanto.com

I couldn't get amiga explorer working at all. And I have a legal version which is not an usual thing for me

Writing CDs is two way, you can use MakeCD (from aminet) to ubrn Cds on amiga! That computer amazes me everyday. It was not designed for this task at all but it can successfully handle it. That's what a computer should be

The guy I bought the 1200 from was burning CDs on os3.9 with that program and the machine has just a standard 2.5" to 3.5" cable that connects the writer and hard drive to the mobo. I formatted the system but I remember he had AsimCDFS installed.

[Shadowfire]

What kind of problems were you having? (I'm running Windows NT Workstation 4.0 & AmigaExplorer on the machine I'm on right now - hooked up via serial cable to my A3000).

[Akira]

Amiga Explorere is POOP. I cant get decent speeds. Compared to TwinExpress, its much slower...

The ehernet network solution is nice, but be reay to set up every damned thing... I think ill give it a try, as soon as someone recommends me soms PCMCIA ethernet card brand to get for my meega......

I set up two programs on two computers and change the serial preferences as requested but a connection simply cannot be established from the pc to amiga. That's all I can tell because that's all Aexplorer tells me

edit: The exact message that appears is, "Error reading from COM port."

[Steve]

I can't speak for AExplorer but I can speak about the program AmigaTrans. I set it up exactly according to the docs and when it comes to detecting the transfer from Amiga to PC the program just doesn't see the connection or transfer. I spent hours trying to get it to work but to no avail. Eventually I gave in with it and decided to use LHA to archive the ADF and then copy it to a 720k PC disk. It's just about impossible to do though with an unexpanded A1200. It's a massive shame cos I've got a few super rare items that I'm desperate to back-up on my PC. I'm gonna give this Twin Express a try and hope that that works. Any advice on using it Akira?

[Jherek Carnelia]

Well I have just downloaded Amiga Explorer and I recommend it. I have had nothing but trouble with the stuff from Aminet.
I used PC2Amiga with a parallel connection and it was fast - but I found that 99% of the (large) files wouldn't unpac/dearchive - even though there were no reported errors.
Personally I am prepared to wait a bit longer and get a decent, uncorrupted file!

[Shadowfire]

Twin express IS faster, but doesn't have nearly 1/4 as much funcitonality as Amiga Explorer (such as dragging & dropping .adf/.adz files onto the disk currently in the Amiga's drive).. Burseg, that COM message means that the systems are not seeing each other. You may want to check your serial port settings in the BIOS and/or your cable configuration.

[TikTok]

Incidently, what is your PC performance like whilst transfering with Amiga Explorer? Using Twin Express, everything on the PC side slows right down; the mouse pointer jerks all over and screen updates become sluggish. OK, my PC is only a PII 333 but that is ridiculous. Needless to say, my A600 only slows down a tad .

[Shadowfire]

Actually I tend to twiddle my thumbs while waiting for a disk transfer, but from a technical perspective, since the serial ports lie on the ISA bus side of things, it wouldn't surprise me at all if things got herky-jerky during a highspeed serial transfer.

I have mine set to 115,200 baud. Technical issues on one of the sides (I'm not sure which) prevent me from moving up any higher.

[Bloodwych]

Well I’ve got the Amiga-PC parallel link-up kit and a Competition Pro this morning.

The Pro is built like a tank but a little stiff for my liking. I’m sure that either a few games of BattleSquadron (Novabombs) or showing it a picture of Margaret Thatcher will transform that newbie Comp Pro stiffness into putty in my hands.

The parallel linkup kit has been my best Amiga purchase for a long time. For a mere £15, I’ve got a decent PC-Amiga network pushing speeds of around 22-40 KBYTE/sec depending on if reading or writing! Best of all however is that my PC is now the Amigas bitch , with the miggi being the master and the PC the dominated slave.

I’m very impressed with the software. A simple Pcdrive icon on my WB gives me direct access to all the PC drives for reading, writing or extra storage space. Brilliant!! The simplicity and power of the Amiga WB always amazes me.

One thing confuses me about the Amiga WB and I’m hoping one of you guys could explain. This issue has troubled me for ages, before I even started networking:

When large files are copied on the Amiga (be it HD to HD, Disk to HD, PC to Amiga etc.) within WB windows it always writes the entire file to RAM first then writes it back to disk. This causes problems with large files because if you run out of RAM the transfer fails.

Now, if you copy large files using some program like Afcopy, Dopus or Filer then the file is written to disk in small increments using a set amount of RAM (or cache). This means large files can be copied no probs.

Why is this the case? Is there a way of setting up a limited RAM cache when using Amiga WB windows for large file copying so it doesn’t run out of RAM and fail?

Also, which is the best: Afcopy, Filer or Dopus?

Thanks for the tips and advice!

[jmmijo]

So this Twin Express software supports a bi-directional Parallel cable connection between your Amiga and PC? I've thought about this myself and wonder if it's better then my current serial port connection via null-modem cable. It appears to be faster but if errors are going to occur then I too would rather wait

@Akira, I still have my Bug Joystick as well It's a black little palm size joystick with the auto-fire switch built-in

[Bloodwych]

Jmmijo, with the Parallel link up kit I received a special 4-way cable and a pre-modified, configured and setup version of PC2Ami308.

I can transfer files from the Amiga to the PC at 40 KBYTE/sec (loads faster than 14 KBYTE/sec on serial) and from the PC to the Amiga at 22 KBYTE/sec with no corruption. I believe the latter is slower because my Amiga is the master controlling the file transfers.

Since my Amiga is using an 020, 030 machines will see faster speeds!

Haven't found any corrupt files as of yet (3MB files are the largest I've tried so far) but like I said, this PC2Ami was altered and pre-configured unlike the Aminet do-it-yourself version. Seems like a top package considering the cable alone is worth £10 in the shops.

[jmmijo]

Do they ship to the states and where is the company I can purchase this cable from? Seems like it would be cheaper then getting a network card for my 4000

[Bloodwych]

I've linked the shop earlier in the thread. They run a few websites and I think they ship abroad.

amigastuff

You don't need this special pack however; it was just cost effective for me since I ordered a Comp Pro at the same time.

The lead they provide is a 4 way Laplink that you should be able to get hold of (common for Laptops) and the PC2Ami you can grab off aminet.

It works well. I've just uploaded 300+ MB of stuff off my Amiga HD onto my PC for CDRW backup and WinUAE. I've found no corruption problems, although the network needs resetting from time to time, which can be annoying.

My advise is if you want a solid connection for transferring large numbers of files on a weekly basis, go the network card route.

If you want a means to transfer a large number of files on very rare occasions or small numbers of files weekly, go parallel.

[jmmijo]

Thanks Bloodwych