Plipbox + Case (Ethernet Network Adapter)

[pgovotsos]

I bought two of these from salocinx. I must say that when received them I was very impressed. I was expecting something that works but would probably be ugly since it was a homemade piece.

What I received was a product that matched or exceeded the quality of commercial products. The case was simply beautiful. If I hadn't known it was 3D printed I would have thought it was molded. It came with printed instructions that are clear and comprehensive. They cover basic installation but also covers various configurations like hard drive/no hard drive, directions for 3 different CPUs. He also includes a link to a manual for setting up the TCP/IP stack - all stacks available for the Amiga, not just one.

A nice touch was the floppy included that has the drivers on it. The disk looks like it's a virgin disk, not one that's gone through 30 years of use. The disk was labeled clearly and better than many for commercial products.

On top of all that, he even made a custom design for me and didn't charge me extra for that work. He made changes to work with the A1000 and it's different parallel port and a custom case.

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of the entire package and very satisfied. Questions I had presale were answered quickly and clearly. Everything is done for you. Just plug it in, power it, install from the floppy, set up your stack.

I think anyone would be satisfied with this.

[radfoo]

Received mine today, although not had a chance to use it yet I am very impressed with the case, also very please to receive software disk and instructions.

Nicolas Would you be able to sell a modified case on its own? Would like one slightly narrower for a 23pin disk drive connector without the ports on the back? I have one of the KMTech external Gotek adapter PCBs and it looks ugly, case matching my Plipbox would be perfect - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1116066228...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

No problem if you can't do a case, can't stress enough how great the Plipbox Deluxe case is, thanks.

Oli

[salocinx]

Hi Oli

Thanks for the positive feedback :-)

Regarding the Gotek case. This is quite some work to re-design the case, since the 3D program I am using, does not feature a history on the modifications of the 3D models. Nevertheless, I would make a case for you. But I would need the Gotek device at my place, otherwise it's nearly impossible to make a good case that fits. If you could borrow me your device would be great. I think this would fit in a letter to save some postage costs? I could then send the case and your device back to you. I would ask for 20 USD + shipment costs for this service.

Let me know if you're still interested.

[salocinx]

@pgovotsos: Thanks for your very detailed and positive feedback too :-) ! I am happy you love the devices!

[radfoo]

Originally Posted by salocinx

Hi Oli

Thanks for the positive feedback :-)

Regarding the Gotek case. This is quite some work to re-design the case, since the 3D program I am using, does not feature a history on the modifications of the 3D models. Nevertheless, I would make a case for you. But I would need the Gotek device at my place, otherwise it's nearly impossible to make a good case that fits. If you could borrow me your device would be great. I think this would fit in a letter to save some postage costs? I could then send the case and your device back to you. I would ask for 20 USD + shipment costs for this service.

Let me know if you're still interested.

Great, thanks. I'll send you an email.

[Codetsu]

Originally Posted by salocinx

thanks for your feedback. happy you love it :-)

by the way, if you are using more than one plipbox in the same network, you will need to overwrite the MAC address of one of the plipboxes, since factory-default, every plipbox has a identical mac-address.

with miamidx for example, this is easily done by going to "hardware -> edit your device -> sana-II parameters.. -> change one digit of hardware address".

let me know if you encounter problems. thanks.

yep you get all that and more on the ins. thanks

[Hanzu]

How about designing PoE-version and having its power through RJ45-cable with PoE-ethernet switch such as http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/business-...desktop-switch

This would eliminate the need for external PSU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

[Predseda]

Oh my god, I received my plibbox far before Christmas and I still did not have a time to test it

[salocinx]

Originally Posted by Hanzu

How about designing PoE-version and having its power through RJ45-cable with PoE-ethernet switch such as http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/business-...desktop-switch

This would eliminate the need for external PSU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

Looks promising, thank you for the idea. But for this to work, you need a "special" PoE capable network switch, do you?

I can think of this as an additional power input alternative, if PoE is available, power it by this source, otherwise still keep the other two power variants on the board (USB + 9V PSU). I will think about this for the next board revision. Thanks for your input, always welcome!

[salocinx]

By the way. I meanwhile sorted out two issues I would like to share here. I hope these problems will be addressed for the next firmware release:

A.) Always power on your Plipbox before you power on your Amiga. If you don’t, you may get a message, that the Plipbox is unable to connect to the LAN/Internet. When using MiamiDX as TCP/IP stack for example, you will get this error message: Error(3,1) trying to configure the SANA-II device.

B.) If you power off your Amiga while downloading a file or browsing the Internet, the Plipbox may hang and you will end up in a uncertain state in which the Plipbox jams your network! In such a case, any other computer connected to the same network, may not be able to send nor receive any data anymore. Disconnect and re-connect your Plipbox from the power in such a case.

Always disconnect your Plipbox properly from the network before shutting down your Amiga! I mean by setting the Plipbox to “offline” in your TCP/IP stack software.

[Predseda]

So finally I managed to test my plipbox today. Works perfectly on 1st attempt and the connection is stable. Its average speed is some 35kbps, which is nothing perfect in comparison to PCMCIA LAN adaptor that gives about 330kbps.

But it is enough for Aminet and jabberwocky, it is hidden beneath my Amiga (better than vulnerable Netgear on the side of my A1200, exposed to my small children) and I have a free PCMCIA port for my CF adapter and / or Squirrell.

[thgill]

Received mine today!

[salocinx]

Originally Posted by Predseda

So finally I managed to test my plipbox today. Works perfectly on 1st attempt and the connection is stable. Its average speed is some 35kbps, which is nothing perfect in comparison to PCMCIA LAN adaptor that gives about 330kbps.

But it is enough for Aminet and jabberwocky, it is hidden beneath my Amiga (better than vulnerable Netgear on the side of my A1200, exposed to my small children) and I have a free PCMCIA port for my CF adapter and / or Squirrell.

Thanks for your positive feedback. You might want to check-out the newer firmware 0.6 which reaches up to 235 kb/s if higher speed is a requirement, but it's currently not working on all systems. That's the reason, why I delivered the Plipbox with the more compatible firmware 0.5. If you upload the new firmware, you also need to update your DEVS:Networks/plipbox.device to version 0.6. But I would wait until the new rev. 0.7 is released, which should address all the issues rev. 0.6 currently has.

[salocinx]

Originally Posted by thgill

Received mine today!

Great! I am looking forward to your video review

[Codetsu]

i made some fix because
it make using it my BBS a lot easier

1) no more external PSU

2) Reset whit Amiga

it only need two wires add to PlipBox
and one fix to Amiga

Reset: Amiga Paraller port have own reset line (pin 16) so i connect it
directly to Arduino Res pin.
i was little bit worried 5v reset signal to RJ45 board (it's 3.3v)
both Arduino and this RJ45 adapter are connect same Reset line
and i measure it and yes it's 5v reset line and it work fine
so Amiga own reset sod work there and it did

Power: for this you need 1 fix to PlipBox and one for Amiga.
Amiga have Paraller port pin 14 for 5v pull up power
but it not power up any HW device
main board have 47ohm 0.5w Res
(A4000 R383 47ohm 1w)
make that impossible so you have to sort it to get real power out
A2000 rev6.0 it is R310

PlipBox you need add one wire to connect
parallel pin 14 and Arduino 5v line
it read top of Arduino board what pin is what

warning: those fix may not work other modes !! be sure what you do
and if you have some device what use Parallel pin 14 pull up some data lines...
the lines newer goes down any more after Amiga fix.
i am not sure but some Amiga modes have Fuse before pull up resistor
but if there is none you may sort that resistor whit one 1A Fuse just to be sure...

[Codetsu]

My PlipBox have now serv. My BBS 24/7 full week no problems at all 7o7

[salocinx]

Hi Codetsu. Thanks for sharing your hacks You're using the Plipbox inside your bigbox Amiga, correct?

[Codetsu]

inside ? no.
bigbox yes

the main reason to buy A565
was fast switching between machines without opening the boxes
with the Zorro card you have to always open the lid if you need the card in another project.

PlipBox is also the only one that is good for all Amiga models 7o7

and now when it no longer even need a separate power supply switching is ridiculously easy. Adding a reset also deleted crazy problem
which manifests itself in the Amiga crash. the only help is PlipBox reset
or cut the power ( reset button is little hard to use )

[salocinx]

So you are powering the Plipbox by pin 14 (+5V) of the parallel port ?? Don't do that! It may hurt your Amigas in the long run, since the parallel port can only deliver 10mA according to the docs and the Plipbox does draw up to 400mA. This may damage your entire Amiga! That's the reason why you need an external power supply.

Moreover, never use a gender changer with this hack, since the A1000 has it's +5V on pin 23 and GND on pin 14!

Connecting the Reset pin of the Arduino with the RESET___ signal of the Amiga is fine, as long as you don't use a gender changer to connect your Plipbox to an A1000. Otherwise you would connect +5V to GND directly.

[Codetsu]

yep that's why i add warning
my 4xAmiga are not stock any more