The free WiFi you get is usually slower than the paid, but here's how to get faster WiFi for free: use a USB WiFi adapter in addition to the built in laptop WiFi.
Things you will need:
A USB WiFi Adapter like this very cheap one that I personally use: https://amzn.to/2X36LpZ It's 802.11ac Windows 10 works with no additional drivers.
A Speedify Account. Free for 5 gigs a month, and it's a VPN which I highly recommend for public wifi. Really, you shouldn't use it without a VPN. Speedify. I have a paid yearly account. It's pretty cheap.
The way it works is you will get 2 'slots' vs. 1 slot so if the network is overloaded, you get a bigger piece. If it's limited to a certain speed because you're not paying for the higher speed, you get two pieces of pie vs. one.
All you have to do is connect your laptop wifi first, and once it's done, disable that connection temporarily.
Then plug in the USB and set that up. Re-enable your laptop WiFi.
Speedify will combine the links.
You could actually do this as many times as you have USB ports and you could also use one USB adapter as a shared hotspot for your other devices so you don't have to log into hotel WiFi with those.
Enjoy, and use my Amazon link above to support my blog. Or click here for ANY purchase. I get a tiny commission: https://amzn.to/2UTwiza
1. Easily pass through security because they can see through the bag. If you don't have much in it, they will often not even open the bag because it's see through.
2. The less obvious reason is that the bag BREATHES so your back stays cooler. It's full of holes. :)
Support my blog and buy one you like on Amazon. There are many choices: https://amzn.to/32SlIw8
I have one with the external pocket.
One idea, depending on what's in the bag and the weather, is a frozen water bottle against your back in the bottom of the bag.
First, the chip that gives the problem is the Prolific PL 2303HXA. It's a USB to serial.
Windows 10 will install drivers when you plug it in but they don't work. You'll see a message in device manager about contacting your supplier.
(I may experiment here a bit later with drivers...update to come...but it may be academic. I just like to have official drivers when possible.)
So a bit of backstory:
Supposedly this chip is End of Life and 'not supported'. Or another story is Prolific wrote their drivers so counterfeit chips won't work. But others have surmised that even older devices from reputable vendors are also rendered inoperative on OS versions they are supposed to work in.
So he said, she said.
There are good directions and a download for drivers from before Prolific broke them here:
The way *I* installed it is plugged it in and went thru Device Manager and did a driver 'Update' but I clicked on the option to select the driver myself from the directory I extracted the above ZIP file to.
Windows did not complain and AVG did not see any threats.
Here's a video explaining how to get it to work. One major thing is I don't think the software appears to work until you do an operation on the PIC in the socket. It will do read/write/verify but the software always complains that it can't communicate with the board.
I'd be really ticked if I'd spend the $59 original price with that level of software quality...
The software the video shows is at the top of this page:
ALSO. Apparently there are different versions of http://www.kitsrus.com/zip/DIYpack25ep.zip for the firmware the PIC on the programmer uses. The longest DIP on the board is a 16F628, and that holds the firmware. The software has to match.
So if you want to update the firmware, you have to install a new PIC. So if it's soldered in, FUN.
Did I help collect all the info you're looking for in one spot? Buy me a cup of coffee on the Ebay link on the right.
To do:
Verify that mine works and note the firmware. I'm waiting on PICs to arrive. As I said, it won't do anything until a PIC is put in the ZIF socket, apparently.
Misc Notes:
There are 3D printable cases on Thingiverse, and the one I tried was KINDA close. Took a little cutting and I just taped it closed. YMMV. Better than nothing.
Prolific has a CheckChipVersion.exe program that could talk to the chip once I got the drivers installed and it did tell me the chip I have was a PL2303HXA. I don't know if it's a 'real' one or not.
Ok, this probably won't solve your problem but as far as I can tell, it solved mine.
The short (pun intended) version:
The jumper on S0 for using a Gotek as DF0 on an Amiga looked sketchy. Like the metal stuck out too far, seemed kind of loose in the plastic housing...so I replaced it. It also looked different than the thousands of jumpers I've seen since the 90s...dating myself here...
LED lit indicating ADFs were being cycled on the drive and that Flashfloppy was running...it was just that the Amiga wasn't doing anything with it. This matches with the jumper issue. The drive wasn't being seen by the Amiga without any jumper at all set for S0.
Diode pre-crimped in push on connectors that are marked for easier install
Connectors to crimp to the wire on the car
Clear Instructions with pictures making this nearly foolproof
MY HELP if all of the above isn't enough
Disclaimer: I take NO responsibility for any of this. But many people have done it, I have done it, and even if you somehow (how did you manage?!) install the diode backwards I don't THINK it would hurt anything, it just wouldn't work...but again, you assume all liability.
Benefits: if the diode fails later, it's a simple to remove and replace. No soldering, cutting, etc. to do that. You just get a new diode and put it in. I can send you that if ever needed FOR FREE (you pay for the stamp. :)
Click the PayPal button to buy it now. $40 shipped. Technical support included.
THIS is the cable USB to serial cable you want. Trust me. It's what I've got.
Don't cheap out on one with crappy drivers or a no-name serial chip.
It uses the TI chip, which is pretty much the standard for drivers and support, IMHO.
It's also capable of 230Kbps serial transfer.
For the cable from the Tripp Lite adapter, just use Ebay if you want the lowest cost and aren't in a hurry.
There is nothing special about the serial cable. So buy the cheapest one with the appropriate ends.
One end will need to be female, to plug into the Tripp Lite and the other will most likely be male or female 25 pin depending on your Amiga. For example, IIRC, the 500 and 1000 had different ports.
You might even buy the cable and a gender changer if you have various machines.
Cheap Cables: Search on Ebay. <=-Use this link so we get a small commission.
I'm considering listing a floppy creation service on Ebay with a bootable floppy that has Amiga Explorer on it.
I.e., I'm charging for my time, the disk, the fees, wear and tear on my vintage gear, etc. and NOT the software.
The diagram above probably should have pin 20 on the Amiga tied to ground, so I just jumpered that to pin 19. YMMV.
On the Amiga, all the pins on the middle row on the VGA connector (6-11 pins) measured out to power supply ground on my Amiga 1000 anyway. So I don't think the wiring needs individual returns for ground as it all ends up in the same place anyway....probably. Feel free to comment if you know better.
Displays that WON'T sync (unsurprisingly...way too new):
Samsung C27F591
Samsung Syncmaster (ha) 2343BWX
What works:
Well, there is signaling happening. The Samsung displays gave me a 'suboptimal range' or something like that and did at least find activity on the input by autoselecting the source.
First off, you've probably found this info NOWHERE else. This took me a while.
So consider a Paypal Donation!
Here's the info on the driver I used to be able to recognize hard drives. From some readme I found somewhere.
-----Pasted portion-----
ASPI8DOS.SYS
------------
ASPI8DOS.SYS is Adaptec's ASPI manager for AIC-7850/7855/7870 based
PCI SCSI host adapters. Running Adaptec EZ-SCSI will automatically
detect which host adapter you have installed, which ASPI manager needs
to be loaded, and what the correct command line switches are.
o If you have an Adaptec PCI SCSI host adapter installed in your system,
and you have EMM386.EXE loaded from MS-DOS versions up to 6.2, your
system might hang if loading the ASPI manager after EMM386.EXE. This
has been fixed in the EMM386.EXE that ships with MS-DOS 6.22 and
later. If you experience this problem, you will either need to load
ASPI8DOS.SYS before EMM386.EXE, or upgrade to MS-DOS 6.22 or later.
If the ASPI manager detects a conflict, a message will be shown
explaining how to work around the problem. Other ASPI modules
(e.g. ASPICD.SYS) can continue to be loaded high.
o There are several techniques for a driver to determine if its PCI SCSI
host adapter is installed in your system. ASPI8DOS.SYS will determine
which is the best method, and has been written to work around the
EMM386.EXE problems discussed above. There are three command line
switches you can use to force the ASPI manager to use a specific
method. These are:
/MB - This command line switch will force the driver to use the
PCI BIOS calls (INT 1Ah) to scan for PCI SCSI host
adapters.
/M1 - This command line switch will force the driver to use the
"Mechanism 1" method for scanning for PCI SCSI host
adapters.
/M2 - This command line switch will force the driver to use the
"Mechanism 2" method for scanning for PCI SCSI host
adapters.
For example, if you want to force the ASPI manager to find your PCI
SCSI host adapter using PCI motherboard BIOS calls, your CONFIG.SYS
would be:
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D /MB
NOTE: Most PCI systems do not support all three methods for scanning
for PCI cards. It is recommended that you let the ASPI manager
determine which method is suitable.
o If you would like ASPI8DOS.SYS NOT to reset the SCSI bus, during
driver initialization, you can use the /NORST command line switch.
For example:
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D /NORST
If you would like ASPI8DOS.SYS to always reset the SCSI bus, during
driver initialization, you can use the /RESET command line switch.
For example:
DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D /RESET
o If there are more host adapters that ASPI8DOS can support, ASPI8DOS will display "Not enough
memory for all host adapters". In this case, the user should manually add more lines of
"DEVICE=ASPI8DOS.SYS" to CONFIG.SYS to support the extra host adapters. EZ-SCSI only installs one entry in config.sys for ASPI8DOS.SYS.
-----
--End Pasted Info--
I actually have a DOS FLOPPY (!!) of Adaptec EZ-SCSI 1.0 and I found some later drivers I upgraded.
Using INSTALL.BAT on EZ-SCSI 1.0 floppy DOES NOT recognize the Adapter. Probably because it's too new: it's a PCIe card.
As of this writing, the ASPI Manager for AIC-78xx/-75xx v1.32 recognizes this controller card and an attached SCS2SD device with 2 SCSI LUNs.
A common troubleshooting on technique on Amiga 2000 boards, at least for Rev 6.x for non-moving mouse is that the mouse won't move but the buttons still work.
The problem with that is you need an original mouse to use that technique.
If you have a micro controller or other adapter and a PS/2 or USB PC mouse then the buttons also won't work.
Why?
When F1 (Fuse 1 on the motherboard) blows, it disables the 5V line on the joystick ports. This is why your optical mouse no longer lights up, and the micro controller is recieving no power, therefore it can't send a 'click' that the Amiga see.
What you need is a 4 Amp pico fuse. These are very fast acting. They aren't expensive and you don't even have to remove the board to replace it. It blows open, so you can solder the new fuse in parallel with the old, or just clip the leads close to the fuse body and solder the new one to those leads. I'm considering adding a header pin set here and putting the fuse in some sort of jumper block. But that's another post.
Click here for 10 fuses for under $9. https://amzn.to/2DYUU1z This is what I got. I get a small commission.
-You must have a floppy drive connected or the front end software won't detect the hardware. An Amiga floppy works for testing the connection.
Not immediately obvious to me:
the Teensy micro USB connector is comm and power for the teensy only
-the OTHER usb connector is power only for the floppy drive.
The headers for D-/D+ aren't needed at this time. +5V can be used to feed floppy power as it's common. GND can come in at the floppy power pin.
I recommend just buying some breakaway .100 header strips and using that to connect a floppy cable, floppy power and USB power. Way cheaper and flexible. You can now put it in a case or wherever vs. having to plug the baord into a drive. Board clearance on some drives now no longer an issue.
You can cut arduino wires (,100) and solder those to a USB cable to make the power connection.
Power out via .100 header pins can now use a standard 3.5" power cable. Break off 3, cut the center one flush and then solder it in the holes on the PCB.
Cheapest build:
Use nothing but header pins and the teensy. Though I'd recommend socketing the teensy.
You don't even need the capacitor if you use a 1amp (iphone charger for example) power supply to feed the +5V for the floppy.
This one is pretty simple but not intuitive for a fix. Just slightly bend or adjust the limit travel switches.
With the printer off, you can move the head by hand. Just ensure the switch 'clicks' slightly before the head is full travel.
Let's say 1/th inch but there's probably an official number somewhere...probably doesn't matter unless you are printing something at the size limit.
In my case, when I homed the head it made a horrible grinding noise and told me the limit switch was broken.
The one on the back left of the printer as you face the screen was not clicking before the head travel hit the physical limit. The left arrow in this photo. Other arrow is another switch and there's a third one somewhere. :)
