#Sidecar
24 messages in this thread
Thanks for the replies Todd and Bob ( I'm replying to Todd here with a
message to Bob to read this ). I'm glad to hear you guys are using sidecars
succesfully. My Amiga 1000 has a spirit 1.5 meg board and spirit's HDA506
hard disk adaptor, So I can use this same hard disk and controller in the
sidecar.
Does the Sidecar use the same software as the Bridgeboard or it's own
version? What kind of PC programs do you guys run? Do you have any PC cards
besides the hardcards?
I bought the Sidecar at a Hamfest flea market. It has no power supply,
disk drive, manuals or software. The disk drive is easy and I know the
power requirements for it. I figure the Sidecar needs power similar to a PC
like +5, -5, +12, but I need to know what pin needs what. I think there's a
power supply connector on the Amiga board too, the upper level one in the
Sidecar.
I would be happy to pay shipping and handling costs for copies of tech
manuals. My address is:
Jon Dickason
278 Elmwood Ave.
Rochester, NY 14618
(716) 442-3591
Thanks for your quick replies guys, I hope to hear from you soon.
"Long live the Amiga 1000 and Sidecar"
Jon,
We had to change the drive in my SideCar, just about the time I gave it to
my son-in-law. We had to move a jumper to make the drive work. I don't
remember exactly what we did, but a friend looked it up in a reference book
he had, and told us where to put the jumper. Before that, it simply would
NOT recognize the drive.
……Betty
thanx for the note about the sidecar drive problem. Probably a drive select
or something. there aren't too many jumpers on floppy drives. I think I can
handle those. I've worked with IBM PC's alot.
Jon, as best I can recall, it was the pin that turns on the motor when the
drive is selected. If you have a problem, I could ask a friend who looked
up the info for us. He would probably remember, since he rarely forgets
ANYthing!
……Betty
The SideCar uses the same software as the BB. I am using PC-Tools 4.2
(having problems with the mouse and 5.0 [I think it's QMouse on the Amy]),
WordPerfect 5.0 (haven't installed 5.1 yet), TurboC 2.0, SPF/PC 2.0,
Script/PC 2.0, and a few other things. I haven't found any
incompatibilities yet, except for the mouse (which is probably on the Amy
side).
I have a Tecmar multi-function board that gives me a full(?) 640K as well
as the hardcard.
As far as I know, any version of MS-DOS will work with the SideCar. I will
look for the manual tomorrow. I can get one of my assistants to copy it on
Monday if I can find the manual. Whether I can or not, I will send another
message.
BobS
Bob, you seem to run the same type of stuff I am looking to run on my
Sidecar. I have several versions of MS-DOS to play with. I think my S.car
has 256k in it with sockets for another 256, does this sound right? Thanx
for looking for the manual.
The 256K onboard with sockets for another 256K sounds exactly right.
I think that you shoul go to your dealer and get a copy of Janus 2.0. It
has the latest version of the Janus software _and_ MS-DOS 3.3. I am going
to buy a copy next weekend (if I can find the time).
I found the manual … but I don't think that it will help. No specs on
the power supply that you need, but I will send it on Monday anyway. I, or
the medical center, will cover the postage (25 sheets should be less than
$1).
BTW, I have absolutely no idea of what C= is talking about on p 42 of the
SIDECAR user's guide. If you (or anyone else with a Sidecar) can figure it
out, let me know. It looks to me as though they combined part of a manual
for the A500 with the A1060, but I could be wrong.
BobS
Have you got Qmouse to work on it? Meaning, the BB has the capability to
use the second joystick port as a mouse port for the IBM. Hit a few keys
and it switches ports. Is there any way to make this happen with the
SideCar? I would really like to run windows with the Amiga mouse so that I
don't have to contend solely with MS-DOS (gag). GUIs are much better to
work with.
Also, I have a KickWork disk in the mail to me right now. I am going to
use this to boot the computer and do all of the assigns and the DJMount for
the SideCar. I figure this will cut down the boot time a little. For some
reason I have to put a WAIT 30 command in the Startup-sequence before I
Djmount , is yours any different?
I put a switch on my Spirit Inboard to choose between auto configure
memory and non-auto configure memory. Why? Can't use the auto configured
memory with the SideCar, I have to Addmem. But, if I want to play a game
that requires a meg then I need auto-configure. Works fine.
In the manual it talks about a place to add Amiga memory into the
SideCar. Does it make any sense to you? I haven't totally torn my SideCar
apart, but things just don't seem to jive with the manual at that point.
Any ideas?
Todd,
There is a slot under the disk drive in the SideCar that would accept the
memory boards that were being made at the time the Amiga 2000 was being
developed – a 512K card that brought the 2000 up to 1M. Those cards are
extremely rare, especially on our side of the Atlantic, and very, very hard
to find. I've never even seen one.
As for the mouse, when you have Amouse running on the SideCar and also on
the Amiga side, left-Amiga-P will switch the mouse to run with the Sidecar
or with the Amiga, and all from its regular port. It can work with only
one at a time, and you use this switch according to the place where you
need it. The same sequence will switch it back.
……Betty
I will check the disks that Commodore sent me with the SideCar, but I am
not sure that those two programs (Amouse) are on them. I will look though.
Also, if there is a place to add memory in the SideCar, then it can't be
too hard to rig something up to put there.
Todd,
Do you have Janus2? I know that the Amouse programs are on the disk that
came with that. I use it on my AT bridgeboard and my son-in-law uses it on
his sidecar. I believe there is is a different driver for the Sidecar –
Amousex.drv or something like that.
……Betty
Todd,
The memory that is placed under the drive of the Sidecar is extra AMIGA
memory – not extra SideCar memory! There are sockets for the memory chips
for the Sidecar itself.
……Betty
I know that (memory under drive is Amiga memory). I just think that there
might be a way to rig it up with more Amiga memory without tracking down
one of the rare 2000 cards. (never heard of 'em) All of my sockets on the
motherboard (SideCar's) are filled and I even have a RAM expansion in one
of the slots.
Todd,
AMouse is part of the Janus 2.0 software (which you must get from your
dealer). Mine made a copy of the copyable stuff (Amy side and Amouse stuff
for the PC) before C= was selling it separately for BB/SideCar owners (it
originally came with new BB purchases). I am going to buy it soon as it
comes with MS-DOS (ick) 3.3, which is better than 3.2 (less bugs).
I guess that I should have combined both messages, but I didn't notice
until too late.
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
Betty,
Thanks from me too. I guess that I would have to take the SideCar apart to
get at that slot (and get a board from Europe). Too much work, I already
have 2MB external between the A1000 and the SideCar (even though it isn't
supposed to work).
The left-amiga-P works fine … except when QMouse1.6 is running on the Amy
side, then the mouse always locks up (ctrl-Amiga-Amiga time). Or if some
program that uses ARP Library does not end normally, the mouse might not
work if I didn't PCColor or PCMono fast enough. I haven't tried one of the
other programs that do mouse acceleration, screen blanking, and Sun mouse
yet, but if one of them works, I would be glad to switch (even if it means
dumping ARP, I can always buy and get used to WShell).
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
Oh! I just thought of a problem I have been having, maybe you can give
me some insight.
I had the old SideCar (recently received a factory new one, much
different) and it allowed me to choose either PC-Color or PC-Mono from
Workbench. The new one seems to have a jumper inside that picks either
Color or Mono and if it is set to color on the dip switch, I can't display
mono and vice-versa. Do you have this problem or am I doing something
wrong. I really liked being able to run color if I needed it, but be able
to also run mono with resizable, movable windows. Hmmmm.
Todd,
The jumper is for setting the default video mode. You should still
be able to select color or mono; however, you must first go thru the
default mode and tell the system to switch to the other mode first.
Example, you jumper it for color, but want to bring up a monocrome
screen. You open the Color window, type in MODE MONO (you won't get any
response…it'll look like the BB died). Close the color window and open
the mono window and it'll work just fine.
BTW…you must also have both modes enables in PCPrefs for this to
work.
Don
Don seems to have answered for me on your most recent question. That is
the way that I have been doing it when I had to switch back and forth. Some
PC programs have done it for me (either mono to color or vice versa), so I
had to switch after they switched. I think that EasyFlow switched to mono
by itself, but it was so long ago that I tried it that I can't remember.
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
Bob,
I don't use the mouse very much on the BB side, but I have used DMouse on
the Amiga side and switched over to the BB and used Amouse a few times. I
did not notice a problem, but as I said- I have done it only a very few
times.
……Betty
Betty,
Thank you. I guess that I'll D/L DMouse soon and see how it works.
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
I haven't gotten QMouse to work. If I am very careful and shut QMouse down
before even thinking about PCColor or PCMono, I can get the mouse to work
on the PC side if nothing else trashed the dual ported ram on the Amy side.
It seems as though some ARP programs (if they don't terminate normally)
might cause a problem. I've seen equivalence symbols scattered over the PC
display sometimes after a program that uses arp.library abends. I hope it
isn't ARP as I use the ARP Shell.
_Why_ are you sending away for a KickWork disk? The equivalent is here on
CI$ in lib 14. D/L either KBNCH3.ARC or KCKB13.ARC (I think that I am
using KBNCH3 with no problems). You should also D/L ARPTOO.LZH from lib
14, it has an asn command that does all the assigns, sets, and setenvs from
a single data set rather than assign, set, and setenv statements. It seems
to be a bit faster for me.
I have my Startup-Sequence separated into multiple parts. First, I do the
regular stuff (SetPatch, etc.), then I "BindDrivers", then I AShell to load
all my resident and Ares programs (this runs asynchronously with the
following wait), then I wait 50 for the BindDrivers to finish, then I
AShell to DJMount and do the assigns, this AShell also starts 2 AShells …
it might be easier to send you all my startup sequences. If you would
like, I'll do that via E-Mail.
I have an Escort2 (2MB on the expansion bus) and have had no problems with
config vs. auto-config memory. It configures at $00200000 – $00400000.
I guess that you're talking about the last appendix in the manual (mine is
at work being copied to send out). That appendix doesn't match up with
anything. I think it's part of an A500 manual that got included
accidentally, as the figure # doesn't seem to match.
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
Please do send it to me. I sent away for a commercial KickBench type of
thing because I had heard not so glorious things about the PD and Shareware
versions.
When you send your startup-sequence, please also send a listing of your c
directory so that I can make sure I have all the programs needed in it. If
you have anything that your setup needs specifically, be sure to highlight
it for me. I'm going to check to see if my Janus is Janus 2.0. If not, I
will go to my dealer for an upgrade. later.
I will try to get everything together tonight or tomorrow night and send it
to you via E-mail as it is considerably more than 2000 bytes.
BobS "Stupidity is a capital crime …"
I have a 30 meg HardCard and QuadRam Multifunction board (parallel port,
serial port, game port, ram expansion, battery backed up clock, etc.)
inside the SideCar. I use Enable mostly (don't need much of anything else
if you have Enable). I only put 10 meg on the IBM partition because I
don't use it that much (boring). It took me 9 months to get it to work
properly due to a large number of problems (both mine and Commodore's) but
they (Commodore) finally made things right for me and now this thing works
and is kicking some major butt. I just bought another SideCar that I am
fixing up to sell. Hopefully I will find a buyer soon because I need the
money. CUL