#AMAXII+ is here
39 messages in this thread
Well, here I am, online with AMAXII+, (internal card) via FreeTerm. The
installation of the board was no big deal. To make use of your Amiga floppy
drives as MAC drives, you have to disconnect the Amiga floppy ribbon cable
from the motherboard, plug it into the AMAX card, and then run the provided
cable from the card to the motherboard. As I said, no big deal… and it
works! My MAC dfloppy drive is no longer connected. AMAX startup is _very_
quick… and Control Panel settings are now saved!
I sy, uh, still have to go out and get System 7 disks, but everything
appears to work just fine. I idi, (opps, I don't have my backspace set up
properly) I did the installation just a minute ago, so haven't exactly put
the system through any real tests yet (except this one to see if the serial
port is working!). As I learn more, I'll post messages here.
In anycase, AMAXII+ has arrived, and it does allow you to read/write MAC
format disks in your Amiga floppy drives. It is set up to allow access to
the new AMiga HD floppy when it becomes available, and this will give us
the same capability as the MAC SuperDrive!
Michael
..from the North Coast (GO CAVS!)
via MAMAX, uh, AMAXII+ on an Amiga 3000
I got my Amax II software upgrade yesterday and installed it. I don't
have the + card. Everything seems to work. I find the installing wait
is a bit longer than the previous software version and have no idea
why. I tried an impossible transfer from my AmigaDos partition to the
Mac partition – a file larger than a floppy. Works as advertised! I
have MMU and no 32bit bit Ram. I've been messing with the memory
settings. I can't seem to make the Amax run all programs properly
with more than 4096K of System Ram and the rest for a Ram disk. Don't
know why! My Photoshop Demo program hangs if I say Use All Ram and
don't have any memory allocated for the Ram disk. However, this is
the same problem I had with the previous software version. It seems
with the MMU it wants System memory in 2meg chunks. I'm running 6.0.3
and am on the fence about installing 7.0.
How much Chip & FAST memory do you have in your system? Is your fast
ram all instsalled on the motherbaord, or are you using an ram
expansion card?
I've got one meg of chip, 6 of fast mem. The fast mem isn't together,
two megs in the harddrive and 4megs in the belly of the beast.
According to page 28 of the manual, if you don't have a MMU, it
appears that you might have better luck with memory management using
System 7 and running your MAC programs under multifinder. Apparently,
multifinder in System 7 handles memory in a way "that is compatible
with A-max II".
Well, there's the reason you've been looking for to get system 7!
Let me know how things progress. So far, I'm quite impressed with the
new software.
Oh, I guess I didn't make it clear, I do have the MMR with the MMU and
512K of the static ram but no 32bit ram.
I wonder if if not having any 32 bit ram but having the MMU makes a
difference to A-Max. I'll fax a note to ReadySoft and ask.
Oh good you can save me the $7.50 long distance phone call while they
politely put me on hold – but they do. They have always helped me out
and answered my questions. I'm a very happy Amax owner. I've had one
since it came out and I could get the box and the Roms.
SOunds like your an experienced user…I just got the amax II plus
and when I tyr to run it ???? I have tried a few progs iwth there own
valid sys folder…the dirve starts to boot with the welco,me mace
ooops I mean mac …then a folder may or may not appear or I just get
the disk icon…at this point things just freeze and the drive light
stays on ? any ideas. DA
Sounds like you don't have the card in right. Just a guess, but you get it
half going and then it crashes. I find that the Amax cartridge which is
what I have, needs to be plugged in well and if you don't have the floppy
drive cables plugged in, Amax may run but it will do very strange stuff.
Now the really big trick would be to get the serial port to work
under AmigaDOS as well, so that I could hook my laser printer & modem
to it and still be able to use them either with Mac or Amiga OS
without having to shut off the machine to swap cables!
Well, you _could_ do that the old fashioned way (with a switchbox),
but supposedly, AmigaDos support for the ports on the A-Max II+ card
is in the works. ReadySoft said that drivers had been written, but
that the 'deal' for them fell through.
If I'm gonna give up one of my few Zorro slots (3000's only have 4)
then I surely better get more use out of it than only a Mac emulator.
2 more high speed serial ports surely would be welcome, or better
yet, a high speed serial port, and an appletalk port both usable via
AmigaDOS. My PS laserprinter supports Appletalk, and I'd love to use
it to talk to the printer for both Mac & Amiga applications. In all
actuality, If the Amax boards ports were available to AmigaDOS I
might be able to replace my A2232 board with it (as it is I'm only
using 2 of the ports anyway!
Other than the serial ports, what other improvements do the HARDWARE
offer to me rather than just upgrading the software on my current
AMAX/Apple drive setup? As I already said slots are at a premium on
my 3000 so if I can get real close to the same functionality with the
older hardware, I might just stick with it, as it's been working fine
for me so far.
The software upgrade alone allows you to use your Amiga floppy drives
(regular OR high density) as MAC floppy drives, and boasts a much
slicker user interface than the previous version.
The II Plus card gives you "two Mini DIN-8 RS422 serial ports,
identical to those found on all current Macintosh computers which can
be connected to any MAC RS422 serial device or RS232 device with an
appropriate cable". The card is also ApleTalk compatible allowing
"Apple LocalTalk and PhoneNet interface boxes to access networks and
direct printing to Apple LaserWriters. Built in Mac compatible MIDI
interface to directly connect to MIDI sequencers and other devices.
Runs many popular Mac MIDI applications such as Performer, Vision,
and Finale. Also compatible with standard Mac MIDI interface boxes
and the Apple MIDI Manager. Reads 128K roms in less than 5 seconds,
and faster with accelerator."
The upgrade cost, if you send back your A-Max cartridge, is only
$259.95.
If you don't need the hardware bells and whistles, the software upgrade is
only $54.95.
I personally think either option is a steal.
Michael:
So even with just the software upgrade I wouldn't need my Mac floppy
anymore? That's good, I'd rather not have extra hardware taxing the
power supply of my 3000 if I don't need it, and I think the software
only upgrade might be the way for me to go. Can you use system 7 with
the software only upgrade? As I understand it the current AmaxII
emulates a Mac+, does the newer software emulate any higher Mac, or
only the Mac+ still?
Because it still uses only the 128K roms, it's still a MAC plus
emulation. The software will allow use of System 7 with your old
cartridge (assuming 128K roms).
You need the A-MaxII+ board to use the Amiga drives as MAC drives. With
just the software upgrade and the A-Max cartridge you still need an Apple
(or compatible) drive to read Macintosh disks. I am using an Amiga 3000
with the A-Max cartridge system and the new software and am still using an
Apple drive.
-David Cattell
Mike…
I was wrong… I misread the literature. Amiga floppy drives can only read
MAC disk with the AMAX II + _board_ installed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Michael
….from the north coast
Margaret: I have the same problem with a MMU, 32-bit RAM and Amax II.
I've got to leave a sufficiently sized RAM disk or it won't boot up.
I wonder, too, if it could have anything to do with Amiga memory
fragmentation before AMAX bootup. >>>> Ron Legro / Milwaukee via
WHAP!
What is a sufficient size RAM disk? Under the old Amax software I could
boost the system memory another 512K above the 4megs and things would run.
<- Does not appear to allow me that with the new software. As far as memory
fragging, I generally go to Amax as soon as I boot up. How much 32bit Ram
do you have?
8.5 megs of 32-bit RAM, here. I can't answer how much of a RAM disk I
need, because I've temporarily got no AMAx — bad CIA chip — and I
haven't run through all the combinations. It appears in my case that
I've got to set aside 2 megs or so for a RAM disk. I also have 3 megs
of 16-bit (including CHIP) RAM. By the time my startup is loaded and
all the goodies from WBStartup are fired up, I've used a couple megs
up. Will have to comment out the memory-resident utilities and see if
that makes AMAX a little less picky. But first, a new CIA chip. >>>>
This is true, maybe I've just got that much memory available. I tried to
bump it up a half a meg and started the Amax program. The screen went blue
with little white lines I got this very odd noise luck a stuck car alarm.
Two megs for a Ram disk seems a bit generous.
One thing you might want to check is to see if the AMAX preferences are set
to boot from the RAM disk. This seems to be the default, and I would have
trouble when RESTARTING after I upgraded to AMAX v2.5. It would always boot
fine the first time, but would hang when restarting.
I turned off the 'boot' option for the RAM disk, and my problem
disappeared.
BTW, I have an A3000 w/ 2MB CHIP, 4MB FAST, 2HD's, AMAXII+, and Toaster.
The only problem I have run into is the File Exch. Util. doesn't work with
any of my hard disks, although others have reported no problems.
As an aside, I just Uploaded a set of icons for AMAX that (I think) look
better than the stock ones supplied with AMAX v2.5. They are animated and
come in color sets for WB20 & WB13. They can be found in the Icon library
of the Amiga User libraries w/ the name AMAXIC.LZH.
Keep On Toastin',
Erik Flom
I'll have to report no problems with the partition transfer. I have a GVP.
I'll try turning off the 'boot' – at this point I've nothing to lose by it.
What problem are you having with the file transfer part? The harddrive
preferences in the Amax menu is a little screwy. It only seems to take a
volume name, no directories. When you get the Mac side fired up and run the
file transfer software it bounces up the save menu on the first item read
from the hard drive. I'd cancel that and then ferret around to find the
file I want to transfer. Then it works fine. Weird software.
"The harddrive preferences in the Amax menu is a little screwy. It only
seems to take a volume name, no directories."
Margaret…
That's correct… you set a default DEVICENAME and then when you get to the
AMAX side, you can go to the directory/subdir etc. It's a bit odd, but
certainly no big deal. Just something else to get used to I suppose.
Michael
….from the north coast
I think you can agree it would be spiffy if you could ask it to default to
a directory. Would be even nicer if it could do a power load – but well,
Mac land does not have AmigaDos or Arexx :')).
Yup! Sure would be nice to have the file management capabilities of the
Amiga under Amax.
Michael
….from the north coast
Well it is strange because the Amiga has so many good file requestors and
so does the Mac. They can get you to your directory. Oh well I shouldn't
complain much, it works.
Glad to hear it works for you (got your messages in AmigaVend also).
The rrror I get is when firing up the util on the Mac side, it gets to the
file requestor screen, and then brings ip a dialog box saying: "Operation
failed, Error -1:, ." (where commas indicate line breaks).
The prefs setup is a little ambiguous, it seems to take the VOLUME NAME
entered into the File Transfer Partition field and searches the Rigid Disk
Blocks (or mountlist if not using RDB's) for a volume that corresponds to
the supplied name. In a sense it Auto-configures, once given a clue as to
which partition to use.
Interesting to hear that the first thing you get is a 'save dialog box'
when firing up the transfer util, but hey, at least it works. Remember:
'Chiggers can't be Boozers' :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Don't you think they could have thought of something besides "error -1"?
Maybe like "error -54 Hah Hah!".
My question: Is 'Error -1' a Mac error message, or should we blame
ReadySoft for the obscurity of the message?
It does bear a striking resemblance to the standard pre-7.0 system errors
for the Mac.
Under 7.0, they are much friendlier, giving you descriptive messages like:
'A Bus Error has occured. (Cancel) (REBOOT)'
Gee . . . Thanks for the info . . .REBOOT.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik FLom
Erik,
My Mac experience is minimal. But just when I thought Mac was good about
giving error messages, I tried to print and got Error -4,101. I can't seem
to be able to do very much with the Mac. 🙁
Malcolm
Mac operating system errors are very terse. I got a table one time and the
explanation was worse than the number. Unfortunately, you need to start up
the Amiga all over again, then Amax, then on the Mac so it takes longer to
get rolling again.
My AMAX II PLUS Board works perfectly well with my Commodore High
Density drive… it reads and writes 1.4MB floppies!
<green with envy> My dealer tells me the HD floppy drives we ordered
are still not shipping from CBM. Glad to hear that the A-Max software
(v. 2.5) works with the HD floppy as advertised.
Where did you get your HD floppy? Did you get it with a 3000 or did you
buy it elsewhere?
Where'd you get your HD Amiga drive?
How much did it cost?
How does it work with WorkBench 2.04?
What . . . is your favorite color?
Thanks,
Erik Flom
Pat, Where did you get an Amiga Superdrive? I would sure like to install
system 7 on my Amax II+ but system 7 is sold on 1.4 meg mac disks so I need
the HD amiga drive! HELP -Glenn
I have to tell everybody that AMAX II PLUS does *NOT* yet support GVP
40Mhz 68030 accelerators that use the 68030 chip without MMU… They
are now aware of the problem and a bug fix should be out soon!