ai065@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Thomas Hill) (02/07/91)
I'm surprised that nobody has talked about that new hardware hack in
the lastest Amazing Computing. For roughly $70 in parts you get two serial
ports and two parallel ports, and it can be used with all Amigas. It takes
advantage of some of the I/O hardware already in the Amiga, and thus is
pretty cheap and simple to build. You have to pop out a few chips and such
to install it, but it will fit inside your 500/1000! I was wondering if any
hardware hacks out there will offer to build this thing for you, for say
$100+ to cover the labor involved. I'm handy with a soldering iron, but I
don't think I'd care to solder this one together. Seems like a good idea for
hardware hacks to offer producing PD boards (digitizers, I/O ports, LUCAS)
pre-built for a slightly higher fee. Makes you a little money and makes a
lot of Amiga owners happy.
Tom
--
...............................
Why purchase a MAC when | Amiga...The computer for _ | IBM's greatest sales
the Amiga will run MAC | the creative mind! _ // | tool is ignorance on
software faster? |.......................\\//..| the consumer's part.doctorj@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeffrey W Davis) (02/07/91)
In article <20945@know.pws.bull.com> ai065@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Thomas Hill) writes: > > I'm surprised that nobody has talked about that new hardware hack in >the lastest Amazing Computing. For roughly $70 in parts you get two serial >ports and two parallel ports, and it can be used with all Amigas. It takes >advantage of some of the I/O hardware already in the Amiga, and thus is >pretty cheap and simple to build. You have to pop out a few chips and such >to install it, but it will fit inside your 500/1000! I was wondering if any >hardware hacks out there will offer to build this thing for you, for say >$100+ to cover the labor involved. I'm handy with a soldering iron, but I >don't think I'd care to solder this one together. Seems like a good idea for >hardware hacks to offer producing PD boards (digitizers, I/O ports, LUCAS) >pre-built for a slightly higher fee. Makes you a little money and makes a >lot of Amiga owners happy. Well, not meaning to sound rude, a complete summary of the I/O board was posted to the net a while ago by the designer himself (I believe). I also mentioned this hack in my post about the Lucas/Frances and Amazing 512K hacks. The purpose of the PD hardware is to provide the public with the hardware at as low of a cost as possible. This usually means just a bare board with documentation. It is usually done by an individual, or small group. Building these boards up would be a great undertaking. You could make a full time job out of building these things, and would probably HAVE TO to make any money. I used to build printer interfaces and sell them commercially. They were a lot simpler than any of these PD hacks, but took a long time to build between just two of us. This too started as a PD hack, later we built them for sale. Then someone else came out with a production model of similar function and we just couldn't compete. Our hardware was better by far, but cost more to make. So met the demise of our interface. It is pretty difficult to compete with the commercial hardware when you add the labor charges into the PD hacks. Labor is expensive, hence the purpose of PD... without the labor and extra charge to keep the company going... hardware is fairly cheap! On the other hand, hiring someone to build it for you on an individual basis is another story.... These are just my opinions and experiences. No flames! *********************************************************** * Jeff Davis * Relax! And get into /// * * doctorj@en.ecn.purdue.edu * the STRESS!!! /// * * * \\\///030 * * * -Gigahertz!- Amiga\XX/ 882 * *********************************************************** -=[ In Stereo Where Available ]=-
rusty@steelmill.cs.umd.edu (Rusty Haddock) (02/08/91)
Thomas Hill (ai065@cleveland.Freenet.Edu) writes: > > I'm surprised that nobody has talked about that new hardware hack in >the lastest Amazing Computing. For roughly $70 in parts you get two serial >ports and two parallel ports, and it can be used with all Amigas. It takes [slight nit] ---------------------------------------------^^^ Not quite. It doesn't work on the A3000's. There was a short description of the project a while back in this or one of the the other amiga subgroups. Since then I've been anxiously awaiting the February issue of AC. I think the folks at the various book stores around town are glad it finally arrived and I'm out of their hair. :-} Yes, it looks like an interesting little project. Compared to other multi-port boards this one has a couple of very distinct advantages. 1) It's INEXPENSIVE!!! $70 for 2-serial ports AND 2 PARALLEL ports. I doubt Perry could make one for that little cost but then there are other considerations as well (overhead, profit, support, etc) 2) This is one of the few, if not the only, board/box that adds parallel ports to the Amiga. For the Amiga, even with an expansion box (admittedly, Zorro I), a number of devices want to be connected to the parallel port like framegrabbers, audio digitizers, and printers. If you have several of these devices it's either unplug-and-plug or switch box time. The first is not very good especially if you don't kill the power before disconnecting and reconnecting the new equipment. The second, while somewhat better than the first, has been known to be frowned upon by various manufactures. Having everything available at once without having to switch cables/connectors around is much better. 3) For us A1000 owners, who else makes such an I/O expansion board/box? Even for those of us who thought they were doing "the right thing" by purchasing an expansion box (instead of a series of SOTS boxes) for our brand new Amiga 1000, there are (and have been) VERY FEW Zorro I boards on the market. Whilest some Zorro II boards will work in my expansion chassis because they're half-boards the majority won't and Zorro II I/O expansion boards are few and far between. Alas, this PD project won't fit in my expansion box but it certainly should fill my desire for additional serial/parallel ports. About the only disadvantage that I see is how and were to put some "sturdily" mounted connectors to the outside world. I'd really rather not cut up my back panel on the ol' A1000. There's a small matter of the metal RF shield too. Admittedly, I'd love to have this PD I/O board in my expansion box. At least it has plenty of ventilation slits that I could slip the ribbon cables through to, maybe, a box holding the various DB-25 or DB-9 connectors. In the worst case I could cut some holes in ye ol' expansion box and mount the connectors there. There's room to do that as opposed to an already crowded A1000 backside. Enough of my diatribe. I'll repeat the request for further discussion on this subject (especially on how to get connectors connected :-). -Rusty- -- Rusty Haddock / CompSci Dept DOMAIN: rusty@mimsy.cs.umd.edu University of Maryland PATH: {uunet,rutgers}!mimsy!rusty If someone points a quad-vectored, hyper-thermic, cosmic blaster at you it's a safe bet that you're about to become toast.