classics Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Larger Photo I happy to announce that in co-operation with ABBUC, the Atari XL/XE USB Cartridge is now available. The cartridge is professionally produced, with all open-source software. Pre-ordering begins now and ends with shipments starting 12/01/2004. Limited edition pricing is $39.99 per cartridge (about 31 Euro). After 12/01/2004 the price will increase to $49.99. For complete product information and the order form go to: http://www.atarimax.com/usbcart/ Highlights: USB 1.1 Chipset compatible with 'Low' and 'High' Speed Devices. Hardware and software designed by ABBUC, the largest Atari 8-bit Users Club in the world. Open source software development. Hobbyist oriented design, no surface mounted parts. Highest quality color labels. Early beta software already shows great promise. PCB includes full layout for future 'slave mode' components. ABBUC will also have cartridges available for purchase by its members and possibly on thier web page as well once product starts shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Exactly what does this cart do? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 There's always the same question raised whenever a device like this comes out....... will there be a Mac version of the USB cart upload software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted November 12, 2004 Author Share Posted November 12, 2004 It adds USB host capability to the Atari. That it you can talk to and control USB peripherals like a PC does, depending on what drivers are written. More information is at http://microusb.org in the XL/XE section. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 @ classics: pm sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 <-------- Cart#1 belongs to that guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Thats fantastic, but I think I'm going to wait a bit until more drivers become available... It certainly would be cool to see more generic keyboard drivers, maybe modem or possibly ethernet Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 Nevermind my question then, I assumed it would be another USB memory cartridge, to transfer software from a PC to an Atari XL/XE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 There's always the same question raised whenever a device like this comes out....... will there be a Mac version of the USB cart upload software? Hello Steve, the current USB Cart is an USB Master Device, that is it can manage USB Slave Devices like Keyboards, Joystciks, Scanner, Pronter etc. PC's and MAC's are also USB Matser devices, and it is not possible to attach two master USB Devices directly. But there are special USB Cable to connect two PC's or two Mac's, but we have to investigate if this cable needs an properitary protocol. But be sure, if there will be ever such solution for the card from me, it will be first for Mac, then for Linux/xBSD and last for Windows.... Of course it will be OpenSource, so every Windows Programmer can port it to Windows anytime. Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 would it be possible to connect an USB stick? and with an usb stick containing tons of ATR/EXEs... booting & playing them????? this would be a great step forward as with the existing flashcart where you have to "flash" the cart which takes a long time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I must be #2 then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted November 12, 2004 Share Posted November 12, 2004 I don't know which number I get but I know I am HAPPY with any number Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 I think a mass storage driver that connects to disk drives and memory sticks has not been written yet. Since only 3 or 4 prototype carts exist right now, we'll have to wait and see what happens when everyone can get involved with the project. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 would it be possible to connect an USB stick? and with an usb stick containing tons of ATR/EXEs... booting & playing them????? this would be a great step forward as with the existing flashcart where you have to "flash" the cart which takes a long time... Hi, the Microusb team is working on supporting USB Storage (USB Sticks, Harddisks, etc). There will be a USB Cart FAQ on http://microusb.org/ in the next days that will answer this question in detail. Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazah Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Can you hook up a 3.5" drive to it? That would be cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Can you hook up a 3.5" drive to it? That would be cool! Harddrive, USB Stick, ZIP Drives, Floppy Drives, CF Card readers, .... everything is USB Storage and might be handled by an USB Stroage driver. We are working on it. But it might take a year or more to finish a driver for USB Stroage. Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 The MicroUSB FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Webpage is online at http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Mic...ousb/ProjUSBFaq We hope this will answer most questions. There is also a special discussion forum for the MicroUSB Project at SourceForge https://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=111428 Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Can this allow multiple device connections at once via a hub? I also wonder what the overhead is in talking to USB, how much the Atari8 has to massage the data going in and out. If the cart does most of the hard work then you'd presume this thing could solve a lot of the problems that MIOs and Black Boxes used to solve through the PBI, namely a fast serial, parallel, and hard drive interface. You could do this quite easily in theory by hooking up USB devices to a hub. Although I assume you wouldn't be able to do concurrent USB I/O to multiple devices. The Black Box allows you to do disk I/O without blocking modem I/O via some kind of interrupt scheme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 We are working on it. But it might take a year or more to finish a driver for USB Stroage.Is a problem here that you effectively have to write you're own FAT handler in order to manage the filesystem? Or do these devices sometimes contain their own micros that do that work for you? Similarly, some of the networking devices such as http://www.zonetusa.com/DispProduct.asp?ProductID=130 could be used, but again, how much work is the device going to do for you? Studying linux device driver code could help in some instances, as trying to get help from the manufacturers isn't always fruitful. Regards, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 Can this allow multiple device connections at once via a hub? I also wonder what the overhead is in talking to USB, how much the Atari8 has to massage the data going in and out. If the cart does most of the hard work then you'd presume this thing could solve a lot of the problems that MIOs and Black Boxes used to solve through the PBI, namely a fast serial, parallel, and hard drive interface. You could do this quite easily in theory by hooking up USB devices to a hub. Although I assume you wouldn't be able to do concurrent USB I/O to multiple devices. The Black Box allows you to do disk I/O without blocking modem I/O via some kind of interrupt scheme. I'll add this question to the FAQ, it's a good one We currently don't support USB Hubs, so we only support one Device per USB Controller. Supporting HUBs is a matter of an HUB Driver, so it is a software thing, the Cart can handle this. But the HUB Driver must be able to work with all kinds of USB Devices, so this peace of software is not simple. We have postponed looking at a HUB driver for now. The USB Cart is not working with Interrupt, but with polling. The design was not made for High-Speed IO, we are working on a seperate, optimized solution here. The overhead talking plain USB is low, a normal HID driver is under 200 Bytes of code. But with Strogae devices it's get more complicated, because you have USB protocol (that is easy), SCSI on top of USB (more work) and finally VFAT32 on top of SCSI. There is a full VFAT32 driver (OpenSource) from the C=1 project (in 6502 Machinelanguage) I like to (re-)use. Whoever likes to have a USB Storgae solution attached to the PBI is free to do so (that is, build one), every bit of our work is open source (Hardware and Software) Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 We are working on it. But it might take a year or more to finish a driver for USB Stroage.Is a problem here that you effectively have to write you're own FAT handler in order to manage the filesystem? Or do these devices sometimes contain their own micros that do that work for you? Similarly, some of the networking devices such as http://www.zonetusa.com/DispProduct.asp?ProductID=130 could be used, but again, how much work is the device going to do for you? Studying linux device driver code could help in some instances, as trying to get help from the manufacturers isn't always fruitful. Regards, Mark Such Ethernet2USB Adapter are interesting. But I guess there are two main problems a) driver and protocol are not open b) TCP/IP must be done in software I would really like to have something like the Lantronix (with TCP/IP in Hardware) http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking...ers/uds-10.html with an USB instead an RS232 interface. But to connect an Atari over Ethernet to the Internet, the Lantronix Box is the best I know today. Maybe we can make a new revision of the cart with an W3100A Hardwired Internet Connectivity Chip ( http://www.beyondlogic.org/etherip/ip.htm ) on board to provide Ethernet and TCP/IP on chip. Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 http://www.beyondlogic.org/etherip/ip.htmAh, one of the pages I often visited, I liked the IPµ8930 but a bit beyond the hobyist's budget! How much is the W3100A or IIM7010? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 Maybethe UDS-10 be interfaced simply to the SIO bus via something like a PIC micro? Using the uIP library on the A8 (or even in the PIC) to handle things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas Posted November 15, 2004 Share Posted November 15, 2004 Hi, we have released an Analog Joystick Driver at http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Mic...usb/ProjUSBCart Documentation and Example Programs (Basic, Turbo Basic, ACTION!) on how to use the USB Analog Joysticks functions will be provided in the next weeks. A Game-Patch for USB Analog Joystick will follow. Does anyone has a game in Sourcecode (Basic, TurboBasic, ACTION! or Assembler) that will benefit from a real analog Joystick Driver? Here is the Patch to play Boulder Dash 1 with a USB digital Joypad http://www.strotmann.de/twiki/bin/view/Mic...BouderDashPatch Best regards Carsten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimefighter Posted November 19, 2004 Share Posted November 19, 2004 Uhhhh...looking at this device, unless I cut a hole in the side of the cartridge bay area I would not be able to use this with my 1200XL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.