ECE A1000 Midi interface with A1200?
Johnny S'traction
I now have an A1200 and I was wondering if it was "safe" to use on
the A1200. The A1000's serial was not standard and I'm afraid to test
the waters. Could I make an adapter? Also, is the pass-thru serial
connection on the ECE 1000 a standard RS-232 or the odd A1000-type?
Thanx in advance!
Bryan Poole - jne...@phoenix.cs.uga.edu
Alejandro Garza Gonz lez
>Hey, I have an ECE Midi interface that I used to use on an A1000. Well,
>I now have an A1200 and I was wondering if it was "safe" to use on
>the A1200. The A1000's serial was not standard and I'm afraid to test
>the waters. Could I make an adapter? Also, is the pass-thru serial
>connection on the ECE 1000 a standard RS-232 or the odd A1000-type?
John, I would recommend that you get out both your A1000 and A1200
manuals, and look at the pinouts for the serial ports. Find out
Which lines are used, and make an adapter to re-route the serial
lines from the 1200's serial port to be A1000-compatible.
To do this, you could build an adapter cable from parts from
your local friendly Radio Shack (read Crap) store :) Or get a
'gender-changer' which you would the modify to re-route the signals
that are different.
What *I* did, to get a SupraFax to work on MY A1000, was to get an
'IDC' connector and some ribbon cable, and just leave cut the wires
that weren't needed, and moved the ones that were needed but were
in different place-- you could get an IDC connector which would snap
onto the ribbon cable of your ECE midi interface (I KNow, I have one)
and THEN connect that to an adaptor that radio Shack sells-- I'm not
sure what it's called-- something like "Serial Shunt box" or something...
What it sdoes is that it lets you re-route, bridge, etc. any signal
from one side to the other (it has two DB-25 connectors).
Maybe I'm not being very clear, but I hope this at elast points you in the right direction. Bye!
>Thanx in advance!
>Bryan Poole - jne...@phoenix.cs.uga.edu
You're Welcome :))
-Alejandro Garza Gzz.
al15...@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (MEXICO! MEXICO! MEXICO!)
JanusMan @ IRC, Chan #Amiga
Daniel Barrett
>>Hey, I have an ECE Midi interface that I used to use on an A1000. Well,
>>I now have an A1200 and I was wondering if it was "safe" to use on
>>the A1200.
In article <al159410.747679327@academ01> al15...@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Alejandro Garza Gonz lez) writes:
>John, I would recommend that you get out both your A1000 and A1200
>manuals, and look at the pinouts for the serial ports. Find out
>Which lines are used, and make an adapter to re-route the serial
>lines from the 1200's serial port to be A1000-compatible.
I think it's not that simple, according to testimony I've read on
the Net. The A1000 and A1200 serial pins carry different voltages.
Pin-swapping isn't enough to make an adapter.
>What *I* did, to get a SupraFax to work on MY A1000...
MIDI interfaces draw their power from the serial port. Modems
have external power supplies. I suspect this difference is important.
Disclaimer: I am not an electrical engineer.
Dan
//////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
| Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center |
| University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- bar...@cs.umass.edu |
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
Alejandro Garza Gonz lez
>>jne...@phoenix.cs.uga.edu (Johnny S'traction) writes:
>>>Hey, I have an ECE Midi interface that I used to use on an A1000. Well,
>>>I now have an A1200 and I was wondering if it was "safe" to use on
>>>the A1200.
>In article <al159410.747679327@academ01> al15...@academ01.mty.itesm.mx (Alejandro Garza Gonz lez) writes:
>>John, I would recommend that you get out both your A1000 and A1200
>>manuals, and look at the pinouts for the serial ports. Find out
>>Which lines are used, and make an adapter to re-route the serial
>>lines from the 1200's serial port to be A1000-compatible.
> I think it's not that simple, according to testimony I've read on
>the Net. The A1000 and A1200 serial pins carry different voltages.
>Pin-swapping isn't enough to make an adapter.
OK, now I have my handy Amiga Hardware Reference manual handy, and there
IS a diference ]in the voltages provided by both ports (1200s and A1000s).
(Besides the fact that they're on different pins...) Here's a little table
with the differences and similarities::
Pin #s A1000 A500/2000/300 (which I'm sure == A1200)
-------- -------- ----------------------
1-8 GND,TXD,RXD, Same things on A1000 and this ones
RTS,CTS,DSR,
GND,CD
9 Not used +12v
10 Not used -12V (THIS line is missing in A1000 port)
14 -5vdc Not used
20 DTR DTR
21 +5Vdc Not used (<-- PROBLEM!)
23 +12Vdc Not used
Ok, the problem is trying to make an A1000 serial interface (MIDI) work
in an A1200. Since some signals are in different pins, we have
to reroute them, no problem. But the thing is, if the ECE interface
uses either the +5v or -5V line (and there's a pretty good chance ]it
does), you cannot simply connect everything else and expect it to work.
What I could recommend is to either use a stand-alone power supply (but you
would need one that would issue both +5v and -5v , that is, if they are
indeed used) or, make a circuit that would provide you with +5 and -5
volts from the computer... which would probably not be very good, due
to the danger involved (shorts, too much drain, etc).
So, to be sure, try to open your ECE interface, and see if pins 14 or
21 are used in it... if only pin 21 is used, you could use a normal
battery eliminator to power it. If pin 14 is also used, you could use
TWO battery eliminators to provide both +5 and -5v .. hmm... or use
a power source that does indeed output both voltages.
Mail me if you need exact specs on how to go about this.. :) I'd hate to take
up more Usenet Bandwidth (or maybe not) :)
>What *I* did, to get a SupraFax to work on MY A1000...
> MIDI interfaces draw their power from the serial port. Modems
>have external power supplies. I suspect this difference is important.
It is :) I forgot to take the power supply from the computer into account :)
> Disclaimer: I am not an electrical engineer.
Disclaimer: I have one more semester to go... (=^)
> Dan
>| Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center
-Alejandro Garza Gzz. (with his usual .sig nowhere in sight)
al15...@academ01.mty.itesm.mx
JanusMan@IRC
//
\X/ Solo amigas!
johne...@gmail.com
Christophe Prevotaux
say:
The Amiga comes with everything that was in the box ?
- Amiga OS disks 3.0 Disks
- Video cable
- Power Supply
- Mouse
- Manuals (AmigaDOS , Workbench and AReXX)