PlipBox and MiamiDX
The PlipBox is a budget ethernet adapter for the Amiga that plugs into the parallel port. While far from the fastest, it offers about an 8 to 10 times speed increase over using serial. I found an .ADF image that would take 8 to 10 minutes to download over serial (19200 was the maximum reliable speed I could get), would be transfered in about a minute and a half over the plipbox. The total cost for the hardware was under $20 for the arduino nano, and the network shield.

Constructing the PlipBox

Once you’ve built the hardware, and have the firmware loaded:

From the command line:

copy plipbox.device devs:networks/plipbox.device  echo "NOBURST" > sys:Prefs/Env-Archive/sana2/plipbox.config

My PlipBox would not run with out the NOBURST parameter.

MiamiDx Install

Original SourceLocalDescription
http://aminet.net/comm/tcp/MiamiDx10cmain.lhaMiamiDx10cmainMiamiDx TCP Stack
http://aminet.net/comm/tcp/MiamiDx10c-MUI.lhaMiamiDx10c-MUIMiamiDx User Interface
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=16697&highlight=miami+keysMiamiDXKeysActivation Keys

From the command line:

lha x MiamiDx10cmain.lha ram:
lha x MiamiDx10c-Mui.lha ram:
lha x MiamiDxKeys.lha ram:

Open Ram Disk on the desktop, and the MiamiDx folder inside.

Run Install_MiamiDx.

From the command line:

copy #?.key#? miami:

MiamiDx and PlipBox

  • Launch MiamiDX
  • Select Hardware Tab and click New:
    • In Select Hardware Type pick Ethernet
    • Enter a name for the hardware, e.g. Name: plipbox
    • Keep Type: SANA II
    • Pick plipbox.device: Driver: devs:networks/plipbox.device
    • Confirm with Ok
  • Select Interfaces Tab and click New:
    • Pick Interface Type: Ethernet
    • Pick Interface connection: LAN
    • Select your hardware: plipbox
    • You can either configure your Amiga statically or with DHCP: Select static or dynamic in IP Type, Netmask Type, Gateway Type. Enter your network parameters in static mode. (You will need to move the slider next to gateway to ‘un-gray’ the box to make an entry)
    •  Multicast: disabled.
  • In Databases Tab select Table DNS servers and add your static DNS server IPs (if you don’t use dynamic DNS via DHCP)
  • Do not forget to save your settings with Amiga+S or Menu: Settings -> Save
  • Now you can go online with your new interface plipbox

You can test your interface is talking with the network with miamiping:

cd miami:
miamiping 192.168.x.x
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Filed under: Amiga,Commodore,Retro Computing - @ September 2, 2020 3:30 am