Lets build an Amiga Network Adapter 

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's made that mistake then 😆

Just wondering if you need a 68040 build of AES.lib to be able to get online.

It is unlikely, though not impossible, that this happens if both devices are connected to the same ground, which his router and his amiga most certainly are.

Ground isn't the only thing. You also have to use the same phase. If you're on different ones, fun things could happen.@@der.Schtefan

I suppose its possible and like most things I've learnt the hard way to double check a BOM before ordering parts. Everything in the house is on the same earth and same phase but that's not say I didn't damage the chip or maybe it was just the aliexpress lottery and I lost keeping the faulty part.

Two devices plugged into outlets on the same breaker or even the same outlet (via power strip) does not guarantee that they will operate at the same DC ground. One device's DC ground could be even hundreds of mV above or below the other. For this reason, the mag-jack has isolation transformers on the signaling wires. They will only pass the high frequency pulses of the data, but not pass a DC voltage. Meaning the individual ground potentials of each side become irrelevant. A network card without magnetics would be trying to push DC onto the signal wires. The side with magnetics would reject it easily. Meaning the card could only destroy itself. Meanwhile, the proper network device would be attempting to pass high frequency pulses onto the wires through its magnetics. Without the appropriate mags on the other side, your card would see no signal at all. Here is a good 30 second read on all the main features of network magnetics: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/286381/how-does-ethernet-magnetics-work Networking without magnetics IS possible. It is used in compact, tightly integrated systems like drones and robots, which share the same ground potential across the entire system, and the networking wires are less than 1 meter. side note: The earlier forms of "networking" over long distances in a room or building, which you may be familiar with, all used a ground reference wire to assure all devices used the same voltage levels. Good (or bad lol) old RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485.

And such a cool Amiga you have there. Is it A3000 atx?

It's a 2000EATX, last years big project and by far my favourite system in my collection. Now that I have it online the plan is to use it for channel stuff, answering emails, noting ideas, scripts etc (not that I really script anything). It's very true "when computers where fun", imagine being excited to write an email but I genuinely can't wait to get it all setup 😅

Good luck trying something like that now, if our internet goes down all we're told is switch it off and on again 😂

Nice.. I briefly worked at one in '96 that would have been an example of that. The good ol days

Thanks, the channel's been slowly growing. Had hoped to get to 10k this year but should get there early next year.

I've always wondered if the MAC has to be completely unique. I imagine there's probably more than one device per MAC. Just can't have the same one on your network.

Ok so it's not the chip manufacturer but the board manufacturer that sets the MAC? I assume some chips must be factory set though as the replacements I got from digikey are all set with a unique MAC.

@@SonicBoone56 A mac address is supposed to be globally unique, so there should be no two cards with the same mac address. However the OS can override the mac address for a network card.

@@CRG It can be either, most card manufactures would not expect the chip manufacturer to set the MAC address as they would be allocating the MAC address out of one of their XX:XX:XX prefixes.

@@RetroBytesUK Thanks for the info 👍

Yeah, I genuinely got a little overwhelmed when it started working. It's so easy to pull out your phone these days and be instantly online but seeing it on my Amiga is just something else.

​@@CRG I imagine file transfers is the biggest game changer.

o7 🫡

Hello there fellow leftie 🙂

I'm leaning towards one of the USB solutions as there's a spare USB port on the top of the case and it would be nice to make it work. But also have another idea of something that might be cool although I need to do some homework first. The PiStorm is handling a lot of heavy lifting and providing RTG but my long term plan is to build a stand alone RTG card and a classic accelerator. Yes it won't be as powerful but I at least want to try it. I can always put the pistorm back in.

Whilst ATX cases are a little too new and different for my Amiga collection. I did find myself glazing at an Amiga 500+ olive green PCB and tying with making a 2000 based PCB based on the 8A.1 layout. From what I understand the 2000 is based on the 500 and the 500 is a cost reduced version of the 1000. It does not look so impossible and while I am possibly under stating the time involved; it would be a cool project.

It has become really handy for moving files between machines. I'm using it here on my 2000 but it's also a zorro3 device if you flash the combined firmware so will work great on a 3000 or 4000 as well.

Thanks

Yeah, I was using it last night and still got a massive smile on my face when going to Aminet to download a utility.

That sounds interesting, I must hold my hands up and say I've never had any of my vintage computers online per say. I've got them all on my lan so I suppose technically they could access a BBS or the likes but I've never tried it.

Thanks, the keyboard is out of an A500 (as I'm sure you can tell), its got 3d printed parts to cover the metal bits and act as a stand. I modded it so the reset works and built a little circuit on the back of the 2000s board to get the floppy light working on it too, although I rarely use the gotek. It's covered in the EATX2000 build videos if you're interested.

Yeah I did get a little carried away but Amiga on the internet 🤯

@@CRG 👍

Thanks, yeah its great to have this online. I'm now trying to collect address of sites I can visit.

It never cross my mind back in the day with my 1200 to even attempt to put it online but I suppose I was only 15 when it went into storage and we got our first windows 95 PC. That said though, it wasn't until the next PC when I did finally go online.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks, the EATX was a great project, it allowed me to finally get a big box Amiga. Cable management was never really a thing in the old desktop cases but for this machine and especially since its got the window I'm trying to keep it as tidy as possible. By all means watch the videos but to save you the trouble the LCD is for a gotek which is connected to one of the usb ports at the front of the case. The buttons to control it are at the rear.

I use chipquik flux, its available in 5, 10 or 30cc syringes. Its a bit expensive but does work wonders. There is no way I could do this fine pitch soldering without it.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

A lot of sites that I've tried to access complain about AmiSSL being out of date. I can download that from github but of course I can't access github from the Amiga either 😂. I'm not sure how much that will solve my problem but even just for access to Aminet and to transfer files the network card will be endlessly useful.

I should have animated some lightning onto the screen "It's alive hahahaaa"

Thanks

Thanks

Sounds cool, I wasn't online until the late 90s and had left the Amiga behind at that point. Seeing it now though is genuinely mind blowing for me. Just trying to find resources I can now use.

@@CRG just downloading stuff without having to swap cards or sticks. Next project get the Miggy on the LAN network and start some shared drives.

Yeah I don't think the size of the tip causes any real issue other than when you need to get into a tight spot. So long as you have a good flux, the solder will mostly find its way.

Must have been cool to get an Amiga online in 1995. I must have been around 1998 before I even got a PC online.

I burnt through my smaller tip so need to get some more but I don't mind the larger tip. It's got more thermal mass so I find it helps a little when drag soldering and you hit a pin on a large ground plane etc. Yeah it also adds to more potential for bridged pins but that's easy fixed. I did try using a knife tip for a while but didn't like it as much as this chisel type.

Yeah groupbuys are fun, its a great way to get the cards and all the components a little cheaper, plus there is the banter of who will build it first and find all the problems 🙂. I'd love to get one of those microscopes and its on my list of things to buy along with a few other items... For now I can just about get along with my eyes although the microscope would save the strain.

It'll either be USB or I do have another idea that might be cool but I need to do some homework on that front first.

Would be cool to have a port of firefox but it seems the best browser out there for the classic OS is iBrowse.

I think Chromium would be better choice. Firefox is quite memory hungry.

Not sure what that is?

​@@CRGapologies parnet. Always thought was called parlink. Mine was from a a600 to cdtv. Slightly easier to configure than sirnet.

@@CRG It allows you to connect 2 Amigas together through their parallel ports with a special parallel cable, mainly for sharing drives. For example you could connect an A500 and CDTV together and access data on CD-ROMs.

Yes it is are available from various outlets. If you search for zorro-lan-ide it should come up. Most website I've tried do work to some extent but you do need to keep expectations in check, it'll never work with RU-vid for example. I had hoped to access my outlook emails via the Amiga but so far not having much luck. One thing I'd love to get it something to access discord. I know it can be setup via an irc server but if it could be done directly it'd be awesome.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

I had looked at it for the 1200 years ago but just never got round to it, so happy to have the 2000 online now though.

I haven't tested the speed on this yet but the gitlab suggests it should get about 1-2MB/s and speaking to someone who also has it they are getting about 1200KB/s. I currently have the PiStorm providing RTG but the long term plan is to build a stand alone RTG card as well and eventually swap the PiStorm out for a classic accelerator.

@@CRG Ah, nice - that performance seems fine. I did not know there were RTG projects. I am still collecting my thoughts on the operation and quirks of ZZ9000, but plan a video on it. I'm running the original Fusion Forty (@25 MHz) that I bought in '91 when it was introduced. Anyway, I'm enjoying your series of videos on this Amiga you built!

@@CRG Oh, re: speed testing, in case you haven't seen it, there is this nice tool called AmiSpeedTest on aminet. I ran iperf on a Linux box on my LAN and it interoperated well with AmiSpeedTest on Amiga.

I'll have to look that up because that sounds very handy.

@@CRG its part of cloantos Amiga forever. Only one file at Amiga side tenant. Windows side explorer program serial and tcp ip.

@@TheLemminkainenyeah I went looking this morning. It can be bought separately and its not that expensive so I think I'll grab it.

@@CRG its priceless if u want make disk or move files. I think it can pack Amiga hd to hdf too. You adjust the settings from Amiga side under tooltype (icon)

I didn't get online until the late 90s and I think it was actually my second PC which was the first with a dialup modem pre installed. Cool to know folk were using their Amiga online back then too.

@@CRG I didn't get online until 2007 😅

Possibly, lesson well and truly learnt on my part though. Probably best to have that digikey chip on there anyway with the preprogramed MAC.

Yeah, lesson learnt on my part, but at least it's working now and probably better having the chip with the preprogrammed mac address. Thanks for the info 👍

​@@CRGYes and no, a MAC of all 0's will work fine on your network, unless you connect two devices with a MAC of 0's. ARP table wouldn't work at that point.

Never did it, I had looked before (say in the last few years) but never took the leap.

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah a usb addon for the clock port would be a cool addition.

Better yet there are (open source I think?) adapters that allow you to plug in a Zorro card onto the side of an A500. Also there's the Checkmate A1500 case.

Yep, as leftoverbeefcake says, there is an adapter that gives you a singel zorro 2 slot which is essentially what the side car connector is. All it does it convert from the edge connector to a socket with a pass through. Is you search for Z-500 you'll find it.

@@CRG Super many thanks. Maybe a z500 build video with network adapter set up in A500 would be an interesting follow up?

@@ddniUKI do have the kit to build one so maybe that would make a good follow up 👍

No, RU-vid doesn't work on it. Been struggling to get onto most modern sites to be honest, I think I need to update some software first.

​@@CRG does FrogFind work?

@@SonicBoone56 Not tried it but can do later and I'll let you know.

I have a 3Com PCMCIA adapter on my A1200, with drivers from Aminet, and using Roadshow as a TCP/IP stack which all works great with iBrowse. There are tutorials out there to show you how to set it all up, give it a another shot!

I'm not sure if it will help but I'm going to do a separate quick tutorial on setting up roadshow which itself can be a bit daunting since its all text based. Should get it out in the next week or so.

@@CRG Mate you're a star :)

I tested it last night and will put a image of it on my community page but to save you looking, running Amispeedtest (an internet speed test utility) I got about 400KB/s down and about 1MB/s up. The download speed is hampered by error checking which is CPU intensive so I think we can take the upload speed as a more accurate reflection of the cards throughput.

For a Amiga 2000 that does not sound too bad. I got similar X surf card. I just wish we could achieve better. I think a lot of performance issues are due to the Zorro bus which is hampered by Motorola 68k (Zorro 2 is comparable to ISA on a PC). I do wonder how these speeds compare to Parnet between an Amiga and PC. I would hope Ethernet is quicker but I find that after 30 odd years we could make some improvements here.

​@@CRG nice, that's almost full 10BASET throughput (esp given ethernet frame overhead etc, you're never gonna hit the full 1.25MB/s raw speed). Not sure what the controller chip is specced for but regular 10BASET is pretty good for an Amiga!

I'll look into it, got a load of other projects lined up but yeah it would be cool to get the 1200 online too.

I understand the sound card can be purchased fully populated on amibay. This network card though is available from a few online shops, here for example amiga68k.com/?product=amiga-lan-ide-clockport-zorro-board I've never used that retailer, it was just the first one that popped up but there are a few places selling them if you google "Amiga zorro-lan-ide". That one in particular doesn't have the breakout board so you'd have to fish the network cable in through the 2000s case.

Just seen on yours it is not fitted .

RN1, thats over by the jtag header? It's not required so I just left it off.

X-Surf 100 is probably the best option if you don't want to build your own.

@@noggin73 I would not mind building it because I like electronics, but I will take a look at the X-Surf 100. Ta.

Yeah this card will work fine in the 4000 and indeed works faster on zorro 3. If you don't want to build your own several resellers do have this card available. The x-surf is also a great option as suggested by noggin73.

@@CRG Ta!

It's from JCL although there's plenty of other pcb houses. Don't think IKEA have started pcb manufacturing 😂

It's a deepcool ck500.

Despite the fact that DeLorans were made merely 15 miles from my home I unfortunately don't own one 😂. The amiga into which I fitted the card is an A2000 but a modern reimplementation of it in an EATX form factor. I put it together last year, the build videos are on my channel if you're interested.

Doesn't work unfortunately but even if the site did load I doubt the Amiga (even with the PiStorm) would be capable of playing any videos.

@@CRG ok

File transfers mostly, but there are bbs'es that you can goto with and HTTP address.

I've been online with an Amiga since about 1995. Why wouldn't you want to be?

Why not?

Makes life a lot easier to get stuff from and to the Amiga, instead swapping cards/usb sticks etc between machines you just download or upload it with few mouse clicks.

As the other replies have said it makes it handy for downloading stuff directly to the Amiga but mostly I suppose its for the why not? We typically only tinker with these old machines for the love of it. Getting my Amiga online is something I had never done and its just fun to be able to do it.

Is that not what I said? Let's put it down to the accent.

tell me you are an american, without telling me you are an american. I am an American, but damn bro

Hello 👍

Thanks. You certainly had a fantastic Amiga back in the 90s! I've not tried the wifi dongle on the TF330 (don't have a 360) but I think all you'd need is the TCP/IP stack. In this case I was using Roadshow and I did say I would do a quick tutorial on setting that up so yes I will get that done. As I recall Dan Wood did a video on adding wifi to the CD32 via the TF cards, might be worth a look.

@@CRG Yeah my father bought the CD32 and SX32 for me when i was a teenager, yeah i have great dad, and later i bought the Amiga 1200 ? the rest, i will look for Roadster, and see if i can get internet true that. Yeah i saw it and i did not understand why it worked for him but not me, so i hope you have a better video, when you bring it out.