User avatar
JimDrew
LHC, AZ

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 3:42 pm

WiModem232-1s.jpg
WiModem232

After a big change in life to position myself towards CBM hardware development again full time, I finally got the WiModem232 finished and into production.

The WiModem232 is like the WiModem that I already sell for the C64/128, except that it will work with any computer that has a standard DB25 male connector (or DB25 female with adapter, or DB9 with adapter).

Baud rates up to 115.2Kbps are supported using baudbandit.device (or other serial.device replacements). All of the standard RS-232 lines (Rx/Tx/RTS/CTS/DSR/DTR/DCD/RI) are supported, so you can use this device to run a BBS. Proper buffering hardware insures that the WiModem232 won't harm your computer.

The WiModem232 has 3MB of on board storage that can be used for holding files. I will be making a device driver that lets you mount the WiModem232's storage as a mini-hard drive.

The WiModem232 uses a USB Mini-B interface port for it's power. You can power it from USB port of some kind, a cell phone charger, etc. I am using a 90 degree USB to 2.1mm barrel adapter and a standard 5v wall wart.

I expect these to be available next month. The WiModem232 is FCC/CE approved and has a lifetime warranty.

I am also working on a new product that uses the same case and display as the WiModem232, and that is a SD card hard drive. This device plugs into the parallel port and lets you mount a SD card as an Amiga hard drive, complete with support for HDToolBox. I needed a way to move large files (like large hard files for my Mac emulation, FUSION) between real Amiga computers without the hassle of cables. Just plug this in to your Amiga, mount the drive, copy the files and then unplug and move it to another Amiga and access the files. Simple and fast.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:56 pm

Jim - Congrats on preparing to ship your slick looking modem! I can't wait.

And for that future hard-drive via parallel port... Do you think an Amiga 1000 could use that solution? Maybe not as an auto-boot, but just as an external drive?

Congrats again. The modem case looks fantastic. <3

User avatar
LambdaCalculus
New Jersey, USA

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:03 pm

Jim - that's awesome! I'm definitely picking one up!

And also thanks for making it platform-agnostic! I can take this to several of my retro machines easily!

User avatar
vk4akp

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:29 pm

A1000 & A500 have needed a simple and affordable hard drive and networking solution for a long time now.

Could this finally be it?

SD cards now can also include WiFi internally. I hope this too can be adapted some how.

And perhaps a kickstart be patched to support auto booting?

.-.-.

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:12 pm

A parallel to SD card device would be amazing. I'm guessing you would sell a lot of those!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:21 pm

mattsoft wrote:A parallel to SD card device would be amazing. I'm guessing you would sell a lot of those!
I know I want one! <3

User avatar
mattsoft

Posted Fri Oct 13, 2017 2:59 pm

This sounds greedy, but it would be awesome to have an all-in-one: (a) hard drive solution (b) wifi-modem for BBSing and (c) wifi-tcp/ip interface for LAN/internet access. I almost fainted just thinking about it! ;)

User avatar
JimDrew
LHC, AZ

Posted Fri Oct 13, 2017 5:17 pm

Well, there is 3MB of storage on the WiModem's. I will be using that space for holding disk images for the C64/128 version, but I could make a device driver for the Amiga to be able to access this memory as a really tiny hard drive... enough for a couple of .adf images. I needed something much larger for storage which is why I created the parallel hard drive thing (I need to come up with a name for it!) SLIP should work with the WiModem232.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Oct 13, 2017 7:03 pm

I have the perfect name, Jim.

In honor of Paradroid (because para... and droids) and the Parallel Port and old highly respectable brands like the SupraDrive:

ParaDrive

I was going to suggest the ParaDrive 1000, but this is Amiga agnostic so I pulled back on that (even though it would be cool).

Future models could sport suffixes based on size. For example, a 2GB SD card model could be:
ParaDrive 2G. But the ParaDrive should probably be spec-agnostic and be more of a receptacle for any sizes it supports. It doesn't have to be static. Then later, if you ever update it, you can offer the ParaDrive 2.0 or whatever.

Based on:
supraDrive.jpg
SupraDrive


User avatar
JimDrew
LHC, AZ

Posted Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:37 pm

Yeah, ParaDrive was on my list of possible names. I have a product coming out called µDrive (micro-drive) that emulates a variety of retro disk drives (at the lowest level), like the 1541, 1571, 1581, CMD HD, Atari 1050, Tandy TPDD, etc.

I have been testing the pre-production WiModem232 boards today. On a whim I decided to connect the WiModem232 plugged into my A1200 to the WiModem plugged into my C64. I was able connect the two together, chat with myself, and even transfer files via X-Modem. :) Looks like NULL modem games should work just fine, you just need to connect systems prior to running the game.

I have to test the hardware handshaking to make 100% sure it works, but 115200 baud works perfectly so far, I think we have a winner here. :)





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