This is great ! I was lucky to use my A4k online back in 1993 in my room as we had a wall ethernet plug in my engineering school campus residence (yes, that's incredible for that time, they built it new with a connection in each room). The internet was pretty empty back then (mostly IRC, aminet via ftp, etc) but its was just incredible.
If it makes you feel any better, the very first production run of Raspberry Pi's were delayed because the factory substituted a cheaper transformerless jack for the spec'd mag-jack in the BOM.
The Ethernet Magnetics is just a transformer that allows you to connect two devices with different potentials without blowing either up. SO it might be possible that you just blew up the chip due to no magnetics between the cable and the chip...
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.
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.
My A1200 was online since 1996 using dialup 28.8k modem. I could not get it to work at first, so I took my A1200 to the Internet providers HQ and we got it working. Back then, ISPs were local and customer service was excellent. Good work making it work.
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 😅
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.
I don't think I've ever felt the need to say this after a video, but congrats! :) The enthusiasm you were feeling once you got life out of that card was contagious enough that I think I'll be doing a little work on my Amigas soon enough. With as much fun as people seem to be having with it, I think I need to get a PiStorm first.
In the day, there were some interesting Clock Port, expansions, like the Cat Weasel 1/2/3 - the Delfina 1200, Melody 1200, Prelude 1200, then the USB Subway - there are a few (faster than native UART / Serial ), there is a n MP3 decoder - however since you are running a big-box Amiga, ( a delightful build btw ) running a PiStorm, a lot of the ClockPort stuff you can find in Zorro 2 form factor or is rendered kinda mute due to the speed and flexibility of the PiStorm - ( but for completion purposes ;) ). back in 1998/9 - I was running an 060 + prelude 1200 with a Winner Z4 Busboard ( later upgraded to Mediator Z4 PCI ) with a 256mb ATI PCI video card and PCMCIA networking ( lol 10mbit BNC Networking!!! ) - fun times =) Thanks for sharing your build, I love the EAX A2000, makes me look at my 2 a2k's with some ideas ;)
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.
Something very satisfying about getting a vintage machine online. I used to run an obscure Digital Equipment Corporation "Shark" as my home webserver for quite a few years, and then an even older VaxStation VLC. Currently waiting for an 8 bit ISA network card to arrive for my IBM 5150 to get it online.
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.
It's okay top use a big tip, as long as you use flux. Flux prevents bridging and bigger tip means more heat transfer. So your method is a good one. Another method is preparing the pads with solder and then use a heat gun to fix the chip
Nice to see you were able to network your Ami after 30 years. I never did get any of mine networked, beside using Parnet. I depended on it alot. Had a Comodore Amiga ethernet card, but was never able to get it up and running.
Congratulations! Back then I had an Amiga with a modem. This allowed me to access the Internet. But the dial-up didn't always work. The provider gave me a Windows CD with a dailer that I can't use on the Amiga.
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.
Very nice work there! I didn't put so much effort into getting online. I just ordered a plipbox for 60 UKPounds for the parallel port so it's compatible with all Amigas (own version for A1000). Yes it blocked my printer plug, but I got my printer back online anyway. Keep up the good work! Great videos!
Most of the LAN confrollers will be 00:00:00:00:00:00 or FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF and are programmed by the manufacturer. Most manufacturers buy blocks of MAC addresses that are identified by the first three XX:XX:X part of the address.
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.
@@SockyNoob 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.
I am glad to hear you that you finish this job. It is very difficult to make something like that with the Amiga. I was trying with an Wi-Fi pcmcia expansion but nothing was happening until yet. P the best from your video is that I saw the Amiga was very quickly. That is the best . Its like you get in the internet with a pc. Fantastic!!!! Bravo ,Bravo ,Bravo!!!
I know what you mean about the tip of your iron. I was soldering the other day with a 2.3mm chisel tip similar to what you're using there, and had the thought "This would be easier with a smaller tip." I couldn't be bothered to actually find where my smaller tips were, and just did it with the fat tip anyway.
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.
Really cool video. I like your EATX 2000 board in a modern case. Very clean and organized, unlike most Commodore case designs which were horrible internally IMO. Network sharing is soo much more convenient compared to sneaker net storage based swapping. I need to watch your EATX 2000 videos to see what that LED display is inside the case.
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 don't recall whether I ever got my A2000 online but I do have a 10base-T network card in it. Back in the day my main computer had a network card may have had regular Ethernet but it also had a 10base-T connector allowing me to easily move files between machines. When I get my A2000 up and running again I will keep this board inmind as I no longer have 10base-T on my main computer.
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.
Flux is your friend. Should use some tape or sticky tack to hold stuff down while first installing them so it doesn't wiggle around. Now I know why my soldering has sucked so much. I've relied too much on built-in rosin core flux. I need to get a big syringe of rosin core flux. None of that no-clean crap that seems to be commonly sold in syringes. I end up having to use way too much solder (which is some of the good stuff and therefore not cheap) just to get a good amount of flux.
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, 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.
Nice one. I remember getting my A500 plus (with an 030 and serial modem 56k ) onto internet - well bbs and file depositories. Then A1200 and proper silver surfer? connected via ethernet to my router and Ibrowse, Miami, when Napster was just starting, and downloading music. It was mind blowing for different reasons back than in late 90's early noughties. I have forgot more about configuring all that than is healthy!!! but i learned loads, which meant everyone used to ask me to set up lan parties and get early PC users logging on.
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.
Being onlline on an Amiga can be a frustrating experience. So many websites don't, or only barely work. Often you see download links but nothing happens when you click them. I tried to download version 1.2 of Turrican II AGA on my Amiga / IBrowse - impossible as, ironically, the site it's hosted on doesn't really play ball on Amiga. How ridiculous having to download it on PC, burn it to CD and take it to my Amiga! I take nothing away from the IBrowse developer though. I'm eternally grateful that developent is ongoing in 2023! The Amiga after all is a (comparitively) ancient, slow machine and to expect miracles with modern sites seems a wish too far. IBrowse and an internet connection IS a godsend though for Aminet and WHDLoad!
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.
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.
The clockport could be used to put an a314cp in there. However most of the features this gives you (network, easy file transfer, …) you already have now. Maybe therefore, as you said usb would be a nicer addition.
There was a attempt of a port of Firefox to Amiga OS4 and the brothers ported it got a bounty for doing it however Firefox changed their build system shortly after from what I understand.
I am surprised that you did not use PCMCIA LAN cards for A1200 ? I was one of my first addons when I got A1200 in 2006. I think I have 4 or 5 of them, for spares 😅
Groupbuys must be fun when it's exclusively with friends tbh. I can imagine a group chat too. If I could work and had money, I'd definitely invest in those new Tomlov digital microscopes with a built in display and HDMI out. Almost every channel that's bought one has said they're game changers. They're like $100-ish or somewhere in that range for the cheaper models. Have you thought about getting those? Would help a lot with fine pitch soldering and of course checking for broken traces and whatnot plus make for good TH-cam footage! You and Adrian's Digital Basement are the two channels off the top of my head that still use magnifying goggles. I have to use them as well and it sucks because you can't solder AND have magnification.
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.
Nice work - thanks for sharing about this card, too, that I didn't know. I just got my first Amiga 2000 online last month using the MNT ZZ9000 RTG and network multi-function card. Currently, the network driver/performance part of it is abysmal, though. It still usually works (since TCP/IP is tolerant of loss and poor performance at the Ethernet level), but it's very slowly (like plipbox slow.) Seems this is a known ZZ9000 driver problem; the driver seems to be just sort of a "proof of concept" state and it's mentioned in MNT's software notes that it needs improvement. I haven't decided if I want to dive into how that (open source) software can be improved or maybe just use another network interface card like you. :) Anyway, re: the MAC address, the ZZ9000 also comes without it preprogrammed, however they did arrange for an official unique MAC address, and the documentation shows you (then end user) how to configure it. I think this is a reasonable compromise, to save money and a manufacturing step, by passing along this part of the config to the end user. For anyone interested, you can see how a MAC address is provided in the document supplied with the ZZ9000 with this example one here: mntre.com/media/ZZ9000_info_md/zz9000-manual-r3.pdf
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 gave up trying to get my Amiga online (using a PCMCIA adapter), as everything I tried would see the card, see the network, but couldn't get any traffic through it. I'll stick to swapping around CF cards lol
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.
You know, I love that there is a lot of things being made for the Amiga. But it is almost like there is too much choice sometimes. Which is absolutely a good thing. But I went from having an 030 accelerator with IDE, to finding an internal SCSI controller with HDD for relatively cheap, to now finding this little card which has pretty much anything you need (sans accelerator obvs), so now I gotta wonder what do I ultimately use. I think the SCSI will be my choice since I have an external SCSI ZIP drive which should make transferring files a little bit simpler. But we will see. Great video as always.
@@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.
Those "transformers" are for impedance matching and electrical isolation. Not having the correct RJ socket probably damaged your network chip as it would be getting full 12Vpp from the network
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.
Now your finally online after 30+ years on your amazing Amiga and your parents wont call you down for tea or to go to bed for school, You've only the Wife to tend to so you can sign up to some BBS boards and also game with some one across the Interspace!.
Thinking back a bit, the browser was the "killer app" that pushed me to abandon the Amiga for the PC. I vaguely recall a friend of mine going though a LOT of effort to get his Amiga 500 connected to the internet via SLIP, a 9600 baud modem, some sort of hacked together TCP/IP stack at the time. I think someone managed to compile Mosaic on the Amiga? I don't recall specifically.... I just remember that it... sort of worked. This was about 1995 ish, which expectations for browsers were low, so I think it must have been fairly primitive even for the time. Nice to see this is sort of do-able after 30 years or so. The barriers have long been lack of access to ethernet on the Amiga. Nice to see someone fixed that via some OS Hardware. Any idea system requirements? Will this work decently on a 7mhz 68000, or is their just no real hope of doing SSL and graphics decoding on such a slow CPU?
Awesome video. Does anyone make these cards fully assembled? Perhaps if we could all connect our Amigas to the internet we would have several more web browsers that could be still updated today. IMHO it would have made a big difference to the viability of the Amiga in today's computing world.
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 TH-cam 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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Less a comment than a question , what is the value of RN1 . It is not stated in the BOM , and since you have built this and have it working maybe you can tell me ? I am presuming 10k or 4k7 as it is tying the programming inputs high .
@@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’ve stopped ordering essentially anything off AliExpress, I just don’t trust it. Yes, it costs more off DigiKey and Mouser but I’m sick and tired of all the time I’ve wasted on crap chips. Recently had some 7805 regulators off Amazon that under even the slightest of current dropped to 1.2V output. They’re not “fake” per se, just way out of spec or are rejects, essentially useless.
what the hell am i lookin at? re: the computer... its a custom made amiga with expansion ? forgive me im not familiar with this thing what is it and what alternate timeline did you steal this from you got the delorian out back?
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.
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.
This is great ! I was lucky to use my A4k online back in 1993 in my room as we had a wall ethernet plug in my engineering school campus residence (yes, that's incredible for that time, they built it new with a connection in each room). The internet was pretty empty back then (mostly IRC, aminet via ftp, etc) but its was just incredible.
If it makes you feel any better, the very first production run of Raspberry Pi's were delayed because the factory substituted a cheaper transformerless jack for the spec'd mag-jack in the BOM.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who's made that mistake then 😆
The Ethernet Magnetics is just a transformer that allows you to connect two devices with different potentials without blowing either up.
SO it might be possible that you just blew up the chip due to no magnetics between the cable and the chip...
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.
My A1200 was online since 1996 using dialup 28.8k modem. I could not get it to work at first, so I took my A1200 to the Internet providers HQ and we got it working. Back then, ISPs were local and customer service was excellent.
Good work making it work.
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
Aaah the pure happiness warms my heart. It is true what they say: "do you remember when computers where fun?".
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 😅
Your enthusiasm reminds me of the first time I got on the Internet back in 1995.
Neat. Nice to see a bit of emotion there too. We sure are taking the internet for granted these days. It was such a game changer.
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.
I don't think I've ever felt the need to say this after a video, but congrats! :) The enthusiasm you were feeling once you got life out of that card was contagious enough that I think I'll be doing a little work on my Amigas soon enough. With as much fun as people seem to be having with it, I think I need to get a PiStorm first.
In the day, there were some interesting Clock Port, expansions, like the Cat Weasel 1/2/3 - the Delfina 1200, Melody 1200, Prelude 1200, then the USB Subway - there are a few (faster than native UART / Serial ), there is a n MP3 decoder - however since you are running a big-box Amiga, ( a delightful build btw ) running a PiStorm, a lot of the ClockPort stuff you can find in Zorro 2 form factor or is rendered kinda mute due to the speed and flexibility of the PiStorm - ( but for completion purposes ;) ).
back in 1998/9 - I was running an 060 + prelude 1200 with a Winner Z4 Busboard ( later upgraded to Mediator Z4 PCI ) with a 256mb ATI PCI video card and PCMCIA networking ( lol 10mbit BNC Networking!!! ) - fun times =)
Thanks for sharing your build, I love the EAX A2000, makes me look at my 2 a2k's with some ideas ;)
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.
Something very satisfying about getting a vintage machine online. I used to run an obscure Digital Equipment Corporation "Shark" as my home webserver for quite a few years, and then an even older VaxStation VLC. Currently waiting for an 8 bit ISA network card to arrive for my IBM 5150 to get it online.
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.
i am as happy as you glen....seeing your internet on amiga!!!! i am freakin mind blown.!!!!absolutely fantastic glen!!
Yeah I did get a little carried away but Amiga on the internet 🤯
@@CRG 👍
It's okay top use a big tip, as long as you use flux. Flux prevents bridging and bigger tip means more heat transfer. So your method is a good one. Another method is preparing the pads with solder and then use a heat gun to fix the chip
Nice to see you were able to network your Ami after 30 years. I never did get any of mine networked, beside using Parnet. I depended on it alot. Had a Comodore Amiga ethernet card, but was never able to get it up and running.
Thanks, yeah its great to have this online. I'm now trying to collect address of sites I can visit.
Congratulations! Back then I had an Amiga with a modem. This allowed me to access the Internet. But the dial-up didn't always work. The provider gave me a Windows CD with a dailer that I can't use on the Amiga.
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.
Very nice work there! I didn't put so much effort into getting online. I just ordered a plipbox for 60 UKPounds for the parallel port so it's compatible with all Amigas (own version for A1000). Yes it blocked my printer plug, but I got my printer back online anyway. Keep up the good work! Great videos!
Most of the LAN confrollers will be 00:00:00:00:00:00 or FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF and are programmed by the manufacturer. Most manufacturers buy blocks of MAC addresses that are identified by the first three XX:XX:X part of the address.
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.
@@SockyNoob 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 👍
I am glad to hear you that you finish this job. It is very difficult to make something like that with the Amiga. I was trying with an Wi-Fi pcmcia expansion but nothing was happening until yet. P the best from your video is that I saw the Amiga was very quickly. That is the best . Its like you get in the internet with a pc. Fantastic!!!! Bravo ,Bravo ,Bravo!!!
I know what you mean about the tip of your iron.
I was soldering the other day with a 2.3mm chisel tip similar to what you're using there, and had the thought "This would be easier with a smaller tip."
I couldn't be bothered to actually find where my smaller tips were, and just did it with the fat tip anyway.
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.
Really cool video. I like your EATX 2000 board in a modern case. Very clean and organized, unlike most Commodore case designs which were horrible internally IMO. Network sharing is soo much more convenient compared to sneaker net storage based swapping. I need to watch your EATX 2000 videos to see what that LED display is inside the case.
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 don't recall whether I ever got my A2000 online but I do have a 10base-T network card in it. Back in the day my main computer had a network card may have had regular Ethernet but it also had a 10base-T connector allowing me to easily move files between machines. When I get my A2000 up and running again I will keep this board inmind as I no longer have 10base-T on my main computer.
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.
Flux is your friend. Should use some tape or sticky tack to hold stuff down while first installing them so it doesn't wiggle around. Now I know why my soldering has sucked so much. I've relied too much on built-in rosin core flux. I need to get a big syringe of rosin core flux. None of that no-clean crap that seems to be commonly sold in syringes. I end up having to use way too much solder (which is some of the good stuff and therefore not cheap) just to get a good amount of flux.
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.
I like the way you've done the keyboard and the Amiga looks lovely in that case.
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 this at uni in 1995 with amitcp on my A1200 as kermit was limited, it was a massive pain.
Must have been cool to get an Amiga online in 1995. I must have been around 1998 before I even got a PC online.
Nice one. I remember getting my A500 plus (with an 030 and serial modem 56k ) onto internet - well bbs and file depositories. Then A1200 and proper silver surfer? connected via ethernet to my router and Ibrowse, Miami, when Napster was just starting, and downloading music. It was mind blowing for different reasons back than in late 90's early noughties. I have forgot more about configuring all that than is healthy!!! but i learned loads, which meant everyone used to ask me to set up lan parties and get early PC users logging on.
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.
Being onlline on an Amiga can be a frustrating experience. So many websites don't, or only barely work. Often you see download links but nothing happens when you click them. I tried to download version 1.2 of Turrican II AGA on my Amiga / IBrowse - impossible as, ironically, the site it's hosted on doesn't really play ball on Amiga. How ridiculous having to download it on PC, burn it to CD and take it to my Amiga!
I take nothing away from the IBrowse developer though. I'm eternally grateful that developent is ongoing in 2023! The Amiga after all is a (comparitively) ancient, slow machine and to expect miracles with modern sites seems a wish too far. IBrowse and an internet connection IS a godsend though for Aminet and WHDLoad!
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.
Nice work and nothing at all wrong with the man sized soldering iron tip, I nearly always use a 3mm tip for this kind of stuff and smaller!
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.
The clockport could be used to put an a314cp in there. However most of the features this gives you (network, easy file transfer, …) you already have now. Maybe therefore, as you said usb would be a nicer addition.
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.
We can see how happy you were and how much it touched you! :-)
Nice!
Yeah, I was using it last night and still got a massive smile on my face when going to Aminet to download a utility.
Good job! Evil space eyes background is sweet.
There was a attempt of a port of Firefox to Amiga OS4 and the brothers ported it got a bounty for doing it however Firefox changed their build system shortly after from what I understand.
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.
I am surprised that you did not use PCMCIA LAN cards for A1200 ? I was one of my first addons when I got A1200 in 2006. I think I have 4 or 5 of them, for spares 😅
Never did it, I had looked before (say in the last few years) but never took the leap.
Groupbuys must be fun when it's exclusively with friends tbh. I can imagine a group chat too. If I could work and had money, I'd definitely invest in those new Tomlov digital microscopes with a built in display and HDMI out. Almost every channel that's bought one has said they're game changers. They're like $100-ish or somewhere in that range for the cheaper models. Have you thought about getting those? Would help a lot with fine pitch soldering and of course checking for broken traces and whatnot plus make for good TH-cam footage! You and Adrian's Digital Basement are the two channels off the top of my head that still use magnifying goggles. I have to use them as well and it sucks because you can't solder AND have magnification.
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.
Nice work - thanks for sharing about this card, too, that I didn't know.
I just got my first Amiga 2000 online last month using the MNT ZZ9000 RTG and network multi-function card. Currently, the network driver/performance part of it is abysmal, though. It still usually works (since TCP/IP is tolerant of loss and poor performance at the Ethernet level), but it's very slowly (like plipbox slow.) Seems this is a known ZZ9000 driver problem; the driver seems to be just sort of a "proof of concept" state and it's mentioned in MNT's software notes that it needs improvement.
I haven't decided if I want to dive into how that (open source) software can be improved or maybe just use another network interface card like you. :)
Anyway, re: the MAC address, the ZZ9000 also comes without it preprogrammed, however they did arrange for an official unique MAC address, and the documentation shows you (then end user) how to configure it. I think this is a reasonable compromise, to save money and a manufacturing step, by passing along this part of the config to the end user.
For anyone interested, you can see how a MAC address is provided in the document supplied with the ZZ9000 with this example one here: mntre.com/media/ZZ9000_info_md/zz9000-manual-r3.pdf
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 did this quite a while back with my amiga 1200 a pcmcia network adapter and netconnect v2
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.
Very nicely done! You seriously deserve more subs!
Thanks, the channel's been slowly growing. Had hoped to get to 10k this year but should get there early next year.
I gave up trying to get my Amiga online (using a PCMCIA adapter), as everything I tried would see the card, see the network, but couldn't get any traffic through it. I'll stick to swapping around CF cards lol
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 :)
You know, I love that there is a lot of things being made for the Amiga. But it is almost like there is too much choice sometimes. Which is absolutely a good thing. But I went from having an 030 accelerator with IDE, to finding an internal SCSI controller with HDD for relatively cheap, to now finding this little card which has pretty much anything you need (sans accelerator obvs), so now I gotta wonder what do I ultimately use. I think the SCSI will be my choice since I have an external SCSI ZIP drive which should make transferring files a little bit simpler. But we will see.
Great video as always.
Parlink was a good option back in the day
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.
Those "transformers" are for impedance matching and electrical isolation. Not having the correct RJ socket probably damaged your network chip as it would be getting full 12Vpp from the network
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.
Now your finally online after 30+ years on your amazing Amiga and your parents wont call you down for tea or to go to bed for school, You've only the Wife to tend to so you can sign up to some BBS boards and also game with some one across the Interspace!.
Definite Dr Frankenstein vibes with the "it's onliiineeee!" moments :)
I should have animated some lightning onto the screen "It's alive hahahaaa"
Thinking back a bit, the browser was the "killer app" that pushed me to abandon the Amiga for the PC.
I vaguely recall a friend of mine going though a LOT of effort to get his Amiga 500 connected to the internet via SLIP, a 9600 baud modem, some sort of hacked together TCP/IP stack at the time. I think someone managed to compile Mosaic on the Amiga? I don't recall specifically.... I just remember that it... sort of worked. This was about 1995 ish, which expectations for browsers were low, so I think it must have been fairly primitive even for the time.
Nice to see this is sort of do-able after 30 years or so. The barriers have long been lack of access to ethernet on the Amiga. Nice to see someone fixed that via some OS Hardware.
Any idea system requirements? Will this work decently on a 7mhz 68000, or is their just no real hope of doing SSL and graphics decoding on such a slow CPU?
I was going to suggest getting usb onto the amiga.
Yeah a usb addon for the clock port would be a cool addition.
Awesome video.
Does anyone make these cards fully assembled?
Perhaps if we could all connect our Amigas to the internet we would have several more web browsers that could be still updated today.
IMHO it would have made a big difference to the viability of the Amiga in today's computing world.
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 TH-cam 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.
I wonder if connecting the live cable to the direct transformerless jack overvolted and damaged lines on the ethernet chip.
Possibly, lesson well and truly learnt on my part though. Probably best to have that digikey chip on there anyway with the preprogramed MAC.
Hi I have a ACA500+ for my A500 very nice. I also got the X-Surf-500 to go with it so I can down load Amiga files.
"I have an amiga on the internet!" That's pretty funny actually :)
Build one for the 1200 now Glen, I'd definitely like to see that. ( plipbox ? )
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.
Another left handed person. Greetings !
Hello there fellow leftie 🙂
it would be nice to find a person who sells these cards populated. I would love to have the sound card you made and this card for my A2000.
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.
Great video! Can the edge connector of an A500 be bodged to accept that card?
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 👍
Well done Commander!
o7 🫡
Fantastic! Does TH-cam work on your network upgraded Amiga?
No, TH-cam 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?
@@SockyNoob Not tried it but can do later and I'll let you know.
I had my 1200 online in the 90s with a dialup modem.
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 😅
Brilliant Glen 😊
Thanks
As usual, a great video with lots of humour.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
Super interesting. Thanks.
Thanks for watching.
Love it! Nicely done.
Thanks
Great accomplishment!!
Congrats!
Thanks
i wonder why you don't use uart-ethernet converter?
Any idea what kind of through put this can do? Also did not realise your A2000 was running PiStorm. Mine has a 68040 as well as an A2630.
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!
Is this a good internet connectivity solution for an Amiga 4000?
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!
Where can one get the boot rom bin file ????
Brilhante
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
is that board from ikea? 😅
It's from JCL although there's plenty of other pcb houses. Don't think IKEA have started pcb manufacturing 😂
Less a comment than a question , what is the value of RN1 . It is not stated in the BOM , and since you have built this and have it working maybe you can tell me ? I am presuming 10k or 4k7 as it is tying the programming inputs high .
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.
Amiga Explorer WIN PC AMIGA is amazing with network drag and drop :)
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)
What is that case?
It's a deepcool ck500.
I’ve stopped ordering essentially anything off AliExpress, I just don’t trust it. Yes, it costs more off DigiKey and Mouser but I’m sick and tired of all the time I’ve wasted on crap chips. Recently had some 7805 regulators off Amazon that under even the slightest of current dropped to 1.2V output. They’re not “fake” per se, just way out of spec or are rejects, essentially useless.
what the hell am i lookin at? re: the computer... its a custom made amiga with expansion ? forgive me im not familiar with this thing what is it and what alternate timeline did you steal this from you got the delorian out back?
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.
Pis suk any way.. andrinne have coax and fiber connection way faster
You didn't go to TH-cam.
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
why would you need to go online with an amiga ?
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.
its not captain tape its called capton tape
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
Awesome! Thanks for the video!
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.
Happy hello everyone.
Hello 👍