NetusBee?

[Heavy Stylus]

Anyone know when these will be available to buy, and how much they'll cost?

[simonsunnyboy]

You can already buy the Netusbee. Try http://hardware.atari.org/ , however it is a bit pricy (for my taste).
Take note that USB functionality under TOS is limited to a beta version mouse driver.

[earx]

News

2008

January - All NETUS-Bee stock sold and dispatched. University final year project dissitation main priority.

--

that means we have to get them somewhere else.

[stimpy]

I am thinking once I have time on my hands around Jully/August I will start selling cut down versions. They will be cheaper and only do Networking. They will use the same PCB though, so can be sent back for the USB upgrade when more drivers are available.

[keropi]

really? no USB MASS STORAGE driver at all? no flash disks or usb hd's ??? wow...

[stimpy]

I was hoping that once enough people got the USB hardware, from either the NETUS-Bee of EtherNAT that some more drivers would appear, but they haven't yet

[simonsunnyboy]

The problem is that USB needs quite a bit of software. Without a standard for the USB API, it is hard to port existing drivers.
I fully think that as soon as there is some sort of USB kernel support, most Linux USB drivers could be ported with ase. At least for Mint (and possibly MagiC)
And honestly I think there are devices which will be of little use on Atari. Webcams for example need a lot of bandwidth. The mouse driver is a real useful start and IMHO mass storage should be second to this

[ppera]

... mouse driver is a real useful start and IMHO mass storage should be second to this

USB mouses actually use PS2 protocol. There is driver for it, if not for Atari ST then for some 8-bit machines. Should be much simpler than USB protocol. PS2-USB mouse - only connector differs.

[christos]

Hasn't Coda already made the usb stack?

[bullis1]

The problem is that USB needs quite a bit of software. Without a standard for the USB API, it is hard to port existing drivers.

This is very true. Adding USB software to an OS with no built-in support is a nightmare. I know this from when I added USB mass-storage support to an MS-DOS machine. It took man, many attempts even with the right drivers. I'm aware that this really isn't the same situation at all, but I read lots of docs on USB for DOS and it was a complicated matter.

[MaLICiouS]

I am thinking once I have time on my hands around Jully/August I will start selling cut down versions. They will be cheaper and only do Networking. They will use the same PCB though, so can be sent back for the USB upgrade when more drivers are available.

In that case, count me in for one!

[rian_ata]

Interested in a cut down version as well!

[jfl]

Definitely interested in a NETUS-Bee too.

[teh3pwner]

count me in

[jd]

I want one too!!

[Mr.JT]

and me!

[[ProToS]]

will be for 2 or 3 but for the full, not the cut down.

[CopperCAT]

I am thinking once I have time on my hands around Jully/August I will start selling cut down versions. They will be cheaper and only do Networking. They will use the same PCB though, so can be sent back for the USB upgrade when more drivers are available.

Stimpy, I would like to build one myself, but I can't seem to find a source of the RTL8029 IC's (nor the ISP1160). Where do you find these chips?
Maybe it would be cheaper/easier to make a version based on the Microchip ENC28J60 ? http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/72429.pdf It's only 10Mbps but tailored for microcontrollers.

Also, in the readme of the package it's mentioned that the EEPROM can be programmed with the software on http://hardware.atari.org , but I also can't find it

[Jookie]

Maybe it would be cheaper/easier to make a version based on the Microchip ENC28J60?

Using the ENC28J60 in NetusBEE would be more complicated, because it uses SPI as the communication interface - it would require another chip which would convert the ROM port signals to SPI interface. The used RTL8019 chip uses paralel FIFO interface, which is easier to connect to ROM port.

Jookie

[CopperCAT]

Maybe it would be cheaper/easier to make a version based on the Microchip ENC28J60?

Using the ENC28J60 in NetusBEE would be more complicated, because it uses SPI as the communication interface - it would require another chip which would convert the ROM port signals to SPI interface. The used RTL8019 chip uses paralel FIFO interface, which is easier to connect to ROM port.

Jookie

Yes, that is true, but the 8019 is certainly more expensive than an ENC28J60 and a PIC with hardware SPI functions together. Also, SPI is such a simple protocol that you can just bitbang it from any uC. Maybe even from the ROM-port.

[simonsunnyboy]

You can't. The ROM Port is readonly and requires special tricks on the address encoding to fake write access.
Actually the NetUSBee with parallel BUS conenction is already pretty slow, I think performance will degrade even further if you add some serial protocol (whatever you want t o use) inbetween.

[ppera]

Reading on CARTridge port can be pretty fast - over 1Mbyte/sec. Even tricky write can be over 100-150 Kbytes-sec.
Stilll much faster than some serial 'LAN' .

[CopperCAT]

You can't. The ROM Port is readonly and requires special tricks on the address encoding to fake write access.
Actually the NetUSBee with parallel BUS conenction is already pretty slow, I think performance will degrade even further if you add some serial protocol (whatever you want t o use) inbetween.

Yes i know that. Actually I got the idea when going through an Atari ST hobby book about the ROM port and then I remembered netusbee
But achieving high LAN throughput is not really important on an Atari I guess It's just that SPI is attractive because there is loads of stuff available for it, even USB controllers.

Ah well, thinking of something and implementing it are far apart

[Jookie]

Yes, that is true, but the 8019 is certainly more expensive than an ENC28J60 and a PIC with hardware SPI functions together.

I can get RTL8019 for $7.75, and I can get the ENC28J60 for $7.4 - they cost almost the same I was thinking of making some faster ethernet card (with some protocol processing inside the card to offload the ST), but I realized that people probably wouldn't want yet another ethernet card for ST (and that most people don't use ST for networking anyway)...

Jookie

[krupkaj]

Reading on CARTridge port can be pretty fast - over 1Mbyte/sec. Even tricky write can be over 100-150 Kbytes-sec.
Stilll much faster than some serial 'LAN' .

That is interesting. I have EtherNEC (what is predecessor of NetUSBee) on my TT and Falcon and writing is faster than reading. Reading from network is around 150-200KB per second while writing is around 250+ KB per second. For networking I am using mintnet. So I am curious where is the bottleneck. According to you it shoud be faster at input.