dinn@ug.cs.dal.ca (Michael Dinn) (10/13/90)
A theory here folks... If the Amiga is anything like the C64 in the I/O department (i.e. if the 8510 chip acts like a 6526 interface chip) then it should be possible to output to the joystick port on the Amiga. Is it therefore possible to build a TTL to +/- 12V converter and write software to control the joystick port as a second serial port? I have the hardware built already for my C64 (ages ago, may it compute in peace) but I don't know how to write a device driver. Anyone care to help out? -- Michael Dinn, Sysop of the Moose's Swamp - Nova Scotia's largest Amiga BBS +1 (902) 463-0483, 3/12/24/48/96/14,400 baud * 170 Megabytes online Full Internet/Bitnet subscribing to the BBS is available. Send mail. Home: moose%swamp@tmpor.UUCP (Amiga1000/BBS) +-------------------------- School: mdinn@ac.dal.ca, mdinn@dalac.bitnet | These are my opinions and Work: 01Moose@ac.dal.ca, 01Moose@dalac.bitnet| noone else's. (blame me :-)
DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (10/13/90)
Regarding the use of a joystick port as a serial port... It's a clever idea, but won't go too far on the Amiga, because to implement such a "bit banging" UART you'd need to more or less take over the system. This would actually be hard even on a '64, and the Amiga is far less of a "real time" system than the '64. Your need of cheap additional serial ports (and parallel ports too) will soon be satisfied, however. Jeff Lavin (of The Puzzle Factory) has designed a super-cheap 4-serial, 4-parallel board for the 500/1000/2000! This will be a public domain hardware project similar to Lucas/Francis. The availability of the IO board depends largely on when the article describing it is published (in Amazing Computing)...unless one of you wants to buy 100 boards. :-) Software support is good right now and getting better. At some point I'll post all the details of this project to the net. In the meantime, feel free to ask any specific questions you may have. -- Dan Babcock