CPC Ethernet card development.

[rpalmer]

Hello all,

Well I have finally been able to make an etched PCB prototype which can be used to build an ethernet board.

Lets hope that I can solder the cs8900 chips as the square which is top center of attached picture has about 100 small leads to solder.

There is a small error on the board, I need to use A10 as well as A5 to make the board behave properly.

I am still waiting for a number of parts before I can fully build and then test the board, so its only going to a short while before things start to really rock on.

regards
rpalmer

[Gryzor]

Nice... What are you going to use to drive it?

[Bryce]

Looks good, did you etch it yourself or have it made? As someone who's done this (and messed it up) many times in the past, I can confirm that soldering 0.5 Pitch is a serious pain in the ass, all I can advise "use loads of flux!". And good luck.

Bryce.

[rpalmer]

Hello bryce,

Yes I did etch the board myself (using the toner transfer method) and it took me over two days to get that far.

I want to first build a prototype to iron out any bugs.  If it is not that hard then I will simply do it all myself.

I have tested my ability to etch the 0.5 mm pins on the IDE to CF adaptor and i feel i can do the CS8900.

To Gryzor,

I have already started to develop the drivers to be built into the drivers rom for HDOS.
Dont forget that I also converted TCP/IP to work from ROM, so all things going to plan it should work very soon.

regards
rpalmer

[Gryzor]

Don't forget to set a BBS up, eh?

[rpalmer]

hello all,


here is what the ethernet board is currently at.

Soon will be completed and this is when the fun really begin.... testing.

Draft drivers already created.

I have found that the PCB is quite hard to make given that the ethernet chip has very close pins. Several of the boards also had issues, which i hope have been resolved with this one.

rpalmer

[TFM]

OMG! You soldered SMD parts!    Great work!!! 

[rpalmer]

Well I have finished putting all of the items onto the board.

However the led's and resistors (they are the vretical ones to the right of the led) are connected in the wrong order to Vcc.  The should have been connected with the resistor between the cs8900 and the led with the led connected to Vcc, I have them the other way around so I hope thats not an issue during testing.

rpalmer

[Bryce]

They're just current limiting resistors. For an overly pedantic twat such as myself it would be wrong, but in reality it doesn't matter in the slightest whether the resistor is before or after the LED.

Bryce.

[MaV]

For an overly pedantic twat such as myself it would be wrong, but in reality it doesn't matter in the slightest whether the resistor is before or after the LED.

For a twat like me you need to explain what's "before" and "after" an LED supposed to mean, so that I may become as pedantic as you.

[TFM]

Let me ask a more "stupid" question here (... Redbox waits since years for that chance...). Now we have an Ethenet port at the CPC. Let's ignore the software side for a moment. My question is, what can we technically do with that port? (Connection to ? Communication with ?? Protocols ). Maybe somebody out there can answer that silly question easy and precise? (A good answer will earn a personalized FutureOS version for free!).

[OCT]

My question is, what can we technically do with that port? (Connection to ? Communication with ?? Protocols ).

Pretty much anything. People have been making webservers out of C64s for almost a decade already http://www.tomshardware.de/commodore-64-kommt-als-webserver-zurueck,news-4462.html (building on stacks such as uIP http://www.sics.se/contiki/), and both platforms are ahead of what the ARPA-/Internet first came to life on - back in 1962!

[Ynot.zer0]

My question is, what can we technically do with that port?

I want to be able to read this forum from my CPC!

[Bryce]

I just want to be able to log onto my server, click on attached devices and see 192.168.0.128 - Amstrad CPC6128

Bryce.

[OCT]

I just want to be able to log onto my server, click on attached devices and see 192.168.0.128 - Amstrad CPC6128

Make this 192.168.6.128 instead...

[TFM]

Hmm... I see I get no easy answer here,... and I'm (sorry!) just not interrested in all that c64 crap.

[rpalmer]

hello all,

The interface has only just been built and have not started to test whether its working yet.

Well lets not forget that i converted the CPC/IP software to run from a ROM and can have configurable settings unlike the CPC/IP which is built with its settings hardwired in.

Once the software is shown to work with what has been converted, I will create a set of library like functions (such as open_socket, close_socket, etc) to interface into TCP/IP such that others can write there own software.

As for what this can do for us CPC users, well lets say that we can:

1. Possibly setup a web server using the CPC as the host,
2. Access web sites such as twitter (seen it done on a MSX url is http://www.konamiman.com , so its not beyond us to try),
3. Access a file servers using FTP,
4. Maybe in the near future setup a Chat service along the lines of MSN Messenger, and
anything else that people may conjure up that can be easily developed within the capabilities of the CPC.

rpalmer

[OCT]

Hmm... I see I get no easy answer here,... and I'm (sorry!) just not interrested in all that c64 crap.

Crap it's not, just because it saw first light on a 6502. The point is that with a TCP/IP stack, you can also make a CPC control your home appliances or model railroad, and talk to the Internet (including your iPhone ) on the other end, or spread its good news for the whole world to see.
Someone's got to say it: "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!"

[Ynot.zer0]

hmmm.... I wonder if I can connect my set of Arduino devices up to my CPC.... then when I am working away, I'll be able to communicate with my CPC & control the Arduino devices.  Sure I could use a PC, but it's a lot of hassle to setup the PC, the CPC would not only be cooler but much more energy efficient and my wife can restart it in 2 seconds .
What sort of Arduino devices?.. I have gardenSensors that measure soil temp, moisture etc.. I could get the CPC to control the ability to water my garden when it needs it and where it needs it.  Not the most obvious use of CPC Ethernet, but certainly something I plan to make a start with and then grow the inventions from there 

[robcfg]

I see the ethernet port as an easy way to copy files or entire disks from the PC to the CPC.


If you don't want to mess with an old PC and your 3" drives, you could simply create a program that reads a dsk image from the PC and writes the disk on the CPC. It could also be used to make images of disks and store it in your pc directly with no further complications.


That's my two cents. 

[MacDeath]

The real question is : what kind of game should be developped for this ?

I mean, massive multiplayer online RPG anyone ?

[Bryce]

WoWCPC ?

Bryce.

[arnoldemu]

The real question is : what kind of game should be developped for this ?

I mean, massive multiplayer online RPG anyone ?

You're too high above the clouds


Serious: I think a simple small network game would do well with this.

[Ythcal]

I mean, massive multiplayer online RPG anyone ?

An ASCII based MUD on CPC, yeah! 

A jabber client would be very nice, too

[TFM]

A lot of arguments and ideas here remember me about the CPC Booster+

Now, the question is, what can this card do, that the CPCB+ can't?

Since I'm not familiar with Ethernet (up to now the CPC has none!) and nobody like to tell me exactly what we can do with it, I just stick with the "CPC in the internet" idea.