@328gts

ITS ALIVE!!!!

Would have posted about an hour ago, but I foolishly decided to test it with super-skidmarks AGA, A game I haven't played in ages. The fact it kept me distracted for that long should be a slight hint as to this rigs functionality.

Anyway, got a pic of what the whole thing looks like, put together:

The thing shipped with 2 controllers, however the other one was in the other room, and I was too lazy to go get it at the time. The Sega plug fits nicely into the DBN-9 male connector, and the controller doesn't plug into anything (of course ).


And the (top part) mess of cables behind my tower:


The black, shiny electric-tape laminated cable is the "adapter", and the DBN=9 fits in there perfectly, too.

After finding out the Atari was reduced to the status of spare parts before I even tested it, I finally got sick of the suspense, and figuring I have 2 other damaged A1200 MOBO's that I could pry CIA chips off of in case one decided to blue-smoke-suicide on me, I killed the power on the 1200T, plugged the thing in, and turned it back on.

First good sign: No smoke pouring out of the case, and after the 1st reboot, the cheesy A1000 boot-up jingle hack I like to use piped over the speakers. System booted normally.

Second good sign: Pressed a button on the controller, and the LED on the receiver turned on.

Third good sign: Skidmarks AGA loaded, and I was able to kick my feet up, recline in the chair, and race about unencumbered by the cables that my other 2 sega controllers use. Finally, quit Skidmarks AGA, and decided to run more specific tests.



Using both Joystick from Aminet, and IR Monitor for my PDA (useful for finding out if a remote is dead, or receiver isn't responding), I set about pushing the various buttons to see if they work. As expected, the 4-directional hat switch worked fine, as did the A and B buttons. The other 4 buttons didn't do much. (Theres at least one other thread in here, or AW.net/A.org that covers why.. I complained about that one before. )
Only bad thing, the "second" button seems to flicker. I'm not sure if this is a setting on the controllers turbo functions, though playing with them didn't help. I'll have to check with a 2-button game to see if its a prob. with the Sega pad, or the testing software. The fact that I can't think of such a game off the top of my head shows how much I really care, though.

The receiver also has another plug, which is currently dangling about the back of my desk (in such a manner as to not attract unwanted attention from my cat), though I'm going to plug it into my joy/mouse switch and see if it works. (Regular sega controllers don't need the +5v line swapped to work, and the receiver responds when I switch the controller to player 2. Thinking it should be happy, now its getting its power from the joystick port. Plus don't want to suck too much juice out of the Mobo.)

@328gts

So far, not very well. Haven't plugged it into the Amiga at all, had the thing since 1994, don't want to blow it up. So, I plugged it into the Atari 800, which my wife just informed me hasn't worked since an unfortunate incident involving a moving van and a loosly packed book. (Something about planes, I think it was my hard-cover Janes Encyclopedia of aircraft) Haven't worked the courage to plug it into the 1200 yet.

Finally got around to making this thing. I have a set of wireless sega controllers, and the receiver for them. Unfortunately, Sega and Amiga game port have the +5v line on different pins. (Amiga is on pin 7, Sega on pin 5).
So I bought a generic dbn-9 male-to-female serial cable, and chopped it off so it wasn
t a foot long. Unfortunately, I happen to be soldering-disabled (I've tried, end up making a huge mess and spewing language that my daughter doesnt't need to hear, as well as repeatedly burning myself.) So I got a wire-crimping/stripping kit. In this thing, I found a bunch of connectors that snap together, as well as the crimping end. After stripping all the wires, crimping the connectors, and testing the male end (I'm still looking for a paper clip that isn't made out of plastic), I have 2 dbn-9 connectors that look like they're held together by electric tape.... Going to use it on my old Atari 800 (In case I screwed something up, I don't want to fry the Amiga), then on the Amiga..

@cha05e90

While I've not had much luck with Basilisk, Shapehifter came in quite handy when I had to e-mail resumes, and the businesses demanded Microsoft formats instead of RTF or PDF. (My resume's, school work, techie write-ups, and even a few dirty jokes are all done in either FinalCopy or AmigaWriter) I used to use PC-Task with Win3.11+Calmira+M$ works 3 or Corel, but Mac emulation is much more convenient, with Shapeshifters ability to share the clipboard (VERY hand with word processor stuff), direct mouse polling, and the ability to dump mac. h/w calls straight to the cpu instead of converting x86 stuff. (Much, much faster) Plus, the Mac ha a ton of educational games, which my daughter likes.
I would love to betatest,but between said daughter, my job, and school, I'm afraid time is a bit short. :( Though, I would like to know if a wine-type API wrapper could work?

@JosDuchIt

Another thing that can happen (this happened to me with AOS3.9, I didn't have a cd-rom drive to install it so I set the wife computers D:\ to shared and mounted it via Samba, unfortunately this wreaks havoc with file protection bits), if the .backdrop file is write protected, everything you "leave out" won't stick either. (protect work:.backdrop +rwd should fix this)

@Paul

The only drawback to doing things this way, is using PalmOS as a central language for converting Amiga stuff to Android, a separate converter would probably be better for this, and would be alot easier to manage as well. (XML is alot more intuitive than PDB stuff...)

Anyway, I've also set up a web site for this little project. (Even have a UtilityBase site set up for it, though I'm not sure I see the point of that). I put my contact stuff on the bottom, including a direct link to this thread. The mailto is a javascript onclick event that parses my email address from several string, for the sole purpose of avoiding discount viagra ads. I have a twitter and yahoo link in there, to.

The reason I went with writing the html stuff is because I tracked down a memory leak to the date conversion stuff, and have been going blind trying to fix it. Wound up playing heretic for an hour, and after blowing stuff up for a bit, I was too tired to stare at C code. I'll got at it a bit more today, though.

Edit: screwed up the url on the utilbase link
Edit2: finally activated my Charter web account, got rid of herobo, changed URL

@Paul

I'm not sure. How proprietary are androids files? The biggest prob. with PalmOS stuff is the weird way it allocates records and such. (Its actually quite compact and efficient, looking at it) It's very "database record" based, I imagine it looks kinda like an AmigaGuide document after being compressed, if such a thing was ever done. Luckily, the format was well-documented (including the fact that PalmOS time is measured in seconds from January 1st, 1904... Did you know there are 2,082,844,800 seconds between that date and January 1st, 1970? I'd like to find the developer who had THAT idea and ask him how well a Palm M130 works as an anal probe...) It is rather limited, in that you're limited to $FFFFFF (16,777,216) records, and the attributes structure is very PalmOS centered.Though if some of Palm's devs. (are there any hiding in here?) worked on it, it might be a similar format. Also, if I had an Android-enabled device, it might help (I really just wanted to sync my datebook and addressbooks, along with a few 3rd party apps, and decided to write a translator for the files themselves, I imagine with Android stuff the biggest prob would be getting the stuff to the Amiga itself.) Anyway, right now I've hit something of a brick wall on how I'm doing the actual conversion. (Flexible enough to handle several different file types, modular enough to expand to new files, easy enough to write/document that I won't have to go blind staring at a hex editor every time a new popular file type comes to light.. Emphasis on the easy to document part)
Anyway, getting my ADD addled-brain back one subject, I'll take a peek at Android's stuff too one of these days.


Edit: Googles Android dev. site has some sample code, looks like its all JAVA based with XML formatted data, so it should be pretty easy to write Palm <-> Android conversion stuff. (If I can get the AddressBook into Amigaguide format, I should be able to do that, too! )

@Rex

I think I have a copy of sbase. I also downloaded a HanDbase database from here. looks like the method I'm using might need some revision. Anyway, I'm currently printing off the source code, so I have something to go through while awaiting Windows Vista to install on my school computer. (A+ certs.... fun fun...) I could put it on the PDA, but that much reading will require squinting...

@328gts

I'll try to dig that one up, though it does sound familiar. Would HandBase lend itself well with an AmigaGuide conversion, or would a specific database proggy be better?

Just to mention, the sync software I'm using is just PDAtransfer 1.1 (came with the poseidan USB stack), I'm just writing somthing to make the database files themselves easier to deal with. (There's about a million ways to get the .pdb files to the Amiga, most of which I've explored before breaking down and getting the SubWay card that sparked this whole thing. )

EDIT: Thanks to google, digging that up wasn't too big an issue. I'll try to kick up a demo version or sample database to go digging about in. Also, one thing thats probably going to take longer than banging out the code (It is a rather simple proggy, after all) is the documentation. The conversion modules are nothing more than ascii files, a dedicated geek could reverse-engineer them if they wanted. But I'm trying to document what I'm doing in a Amigaguide format so that won't be terribly necessary, as well as add a few "developer" cli arguments to reveal the structure of whatever .pdb file you want to tinker with.

@ChrisH

yeah, I didn't think too many Palm users would be about. (Though there are some Palm cellphones, that might be interesting) However, if this might be useful to someone I figured I'd give it a shot. I've not used any psion stuff, though. I'll have to look for one sometime. (A thrift store probably, considering the vintage) And yes, Amiga refuses to die. (luckily enough, as I would probably join an Amish community if it weren't for my 1200)
Anyway, I've gotten it to the point it can decode the record and database attributes. (All bit-encoded, was over-thinking how to handle it. A simple bitmask and power-of-2 loop was all that was needed, though) Just trying to settle on which method to convert stuff now.

Hello all. I've finally gotten my development environment working again, after overhauling it. And was continuing with a project I had started last year. I figured I'd ask for any suggestions with it before I continue much further, as I've gotten the basic skeleton down, and am now just slapping the meat on it. (apologies for the rather macabre metaphor, haven't had enough coffee yet...)

Its a program designed to convert PalmOS .pdb file into various formats supported by the Amiga. (The spitfire package looks nice and all, but I already have applications that handle everything it does, except for the to-do list)

I originally started it because I own a Sony Cli?, and am attending school. I use it to maintain my class schedule, homework assignments, job searches, and several video games to "spice up" the occasional incredibly boring lecture.

After manually entering the same information into the Cli?'s datebook, address book, memo pad, the URL manager, etc.. and equivalent Amiga applications (limpidclock, YAM, Ibrowse password manager, etc....), I was growing frustrated. I have USB capability on the Amiga, and the hotsync function works wonders. Basically, the pda class in Chris Hodges ingenius USB stack launches an amigados script containing the CLI applications for backing up the device. Which is great, if I'm using the Amiga as nothing more than a place to dump files.

However, I have the data on my computer, and want it displayed on my pretty little Limpidclock desktop calendar, which I couldn't do (and stil can't, pending a final "GCC pdatools.c -o c:pdatools" command).

Anyway, as I've mentioned before I started rambling, I've finally gotten the program to load the pdb data in a manner that can be easily re-arranged to various formats as needed, granted just using printf() to test the concept. My biggest questions are:

How many Amiga users use PalmOS PDAs?

How many of these users are OS4 users? (I can E-Mail the source code to my brother, who has an A-1 if needed)

What Palm Apps. are commonly used by Amiga users? (The basic ones, being datebook, to-do list, memopad, and the addressbook are being addressed.)

What Equivalant apps are used on Amiga? (I'm initially developing it to convert datebook to limpidclock, addressbook to YAM's address book, while memopad and to-do lists will probably end up as Amigaguide or HTML formats)

Are there any specific "needs" any Amiga user with a PalmOS PDA has?

The method I'm using to convert files is developing a scripting method triggered by the pdb files creator/type tags, and will support multiple conversions (eg. datebook can convert to either yam, DFA (if anyone even uses that anymore), simplemail, etc.. formats). While this doesn't really "synchronize" the data, a merging routing also applying a script might work, too. (If needed)
I'm probably not going to develop a GUI for it, as I'm not quite that skilled in ways of the source yet (plus it is designed to be integrated into a script). But I plan on getting MUI stuff working. (I've tried writing MUI GUI apps, which has resulted in flashing red boxes on my TV, compiler errors, drop-kicked programming manuals (I have a 600-page C++ reference manual that's particularly therepeutic with this method), shouted profanities in every language I've bothered to learn them in, desires to take a foreign language course to learn more profanities, grey thinning hair, ulcers, etc...)
Anyway, any suggestions for this thing? (I might start a new thread with the same title, only with "lite" in the title to avoid the lengthy reading.. )

@328gts

I e-mailed the guy links to the Amiga history guide, a.org, amigans, and amigaworld. As well as a link to the eric shwartz beat-up pissed-off looking A4000 on crutches picture. Hopefully he has a couple days off to catch up. LOL

@328gts

Thanks for this thread... I wasted 3 hours last night playing pinball fantasies after reading it. And 40 Mins of that was spent staring at the intro "spinning donuts" screen and listening to the music.

@Amigo1

Just pulled up my YAM config. Gmail DOES use SSL encryption, I'm not sure if simplemail supports this. (The last guy got it to work apperently, though I can't read French, and neither can Google, despite what they claim. ) Anyway, the SMTP is pop.gmail.com port 465 and it uses SSLLv3 Authentication. The POP3 settings are for the same server (pop.gmail.com), only on port 995 instead. My ISP switched over to Gmail instead of maintaining their own POP server (Beacuse TDS are a bunch of cheap a$$ $&^*%^%@@!!!), and I'm still using "their" email to send stuff. The server/port settings should still be the same, though.

EDIT: Looks like K-L shows the right settings for downloading from Gmail, but he's using a different server to send mail. (The SMTP stuff)

EDIT2: Tried the english translation, Google didn't slaughter it as badly as I thought it would.

@Caveman

Hmm... I also have a 1232scsi daughter card, might be something there, too. I'll have to check..

@all
As always, quite the helpful bunch, thanks for the advice!

@Antique

That wouldn't surprise me either. Had to break the thing apart to strip the RF shielding off for the tower upgrade, something to do this weekend. Perhaps next weekend, being payday, and I've talked my wife into getting a nice 5 1/4" LCD panel for the last CD-ROM bay thats begging for a geek toy. Would be a good excuse to open her up again!

@Raziel

Yeah, I'll have to pop her open and push on the roms. Been thinking of throwing a tower fan in there, too. I wouldn't be surprised if she's overheating a bit, with all the stuff I have in there. Anyway, I was thinking blizkick was the culprit because it seems to happen when I use SDL apps alot, as well as excessive CPU use. Virge screenmodes can cause it, as well as GFX processing stuff, heavy web-browsing. Come to think of it, anything that spikes the CPU did it, and usually after the system has been on for some time. Also, the mouse batteries dying can accelerate this, which would make sense if the reciever has to draw more current off the mobo. It has a AC/DC jack, but I'm unsure as to its rating... tried googling it, unfortunately the mouse is one Fellowes apparently wanted to forget ever existed. (Fellowes 98910 5-button wireless USB attached via mr. mysza mouse adapter+ps/2 to usb adapter)

Hello all. I have (yet another) prob. on the miggy, I'm using a blizzard 1260 w/ blizkick to get the 3.9 rom in place, which works well, however the machine locks up once in awhile, a warm reset results in a red screen followed by another reset. (Endless loop) After turning the power off and on, it works fine again. I'm thinking after blizkick copies the ROM image to fastram, something is writing over it. Is there any way I could track down the memory range Blizkick uses, and use some kind of MMU-base memory block on it? This is the startup-sequence up to setpatch:

c:date >logs/boottime.log
if exists sys:logs/OS3.1boot.log
c:echo "Amiga OS 3.1 boot second attempt @ " noline >>sys:logs/OS3.1boot.log
c:date >>sys:logs/OS3.1boot.log
else
c:echo "Amiga OS 3.1 boot first attempt @ " noline >sys:logs/OS3.1boot.log
c:date >>sys:logs/OS3.1boot.log
endif
If Exists C:IDEFix
C:IDEFix
EndIf
C:BLIZKICK devs:rom_v45.57 EXTRESBUF=130000 MODULE fastfilesystem filesystem.resource romupdate.idtag ram-handler console.device exec.library shell bootmenu fixgetmsg BBlank prepareemul newalert romfixes speedychip a1000jingle waitide >sys:logs/blizkick.log
C:SetPatch NOROMUPDATE >sys:logs/setpatch.log

Hello all, started another thread here about my LCD monitor questions, and I've finally gotten this one to work right. Took all weekend to do, as the required clock speed was higher than what the picasso96mode program would allow, forcing me to dig around the settings file with a hex editor. (If alot of ppl have this monitor, I'll upload the settings file to Aminet after I get it cleaned up a bit) I was using the chart on the specs sheet as a guide, but finally got the resolutions configured.

As I mentioned in the other thread, my original resolution of 1152x900 wasn't supported, so I had to drop to 1152x864 (at least until I get the 1152x870 configured right). Still a few modes to configure, have to tweak with the 1152x864 24-bit screenmode to stabalize it, until then I'm running in 16 bit. But the image is nice and crisp, and the 80 pound, electricity guzzling, 20" behemoth CRT is now sitting on the floor in my computer room until I can move it into the basement without giving myself a hernia.
Unfortunately, this monitor can't sync down to 15khz, so NTSC and PAL screenmodes still won't work without a scandoubler. (I'm using this one, though its a 16-bit doubler that causes a bit of a green shift, which can be adjusted for a bit with the monitors RGB controls, which this one has) Otherwise, this thing is working great!

@Daz

Looks like someone beat me to the punch. Anyway, not sure which OS you're using, but the 68k/3.X version has the font prefs under global settings, the rest is as the prev. post stated. I'll have to remember this myself, having PDFs that complain about missing fonts...