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Documentation about the Vampire hardware

Vampire 4 Standalonepage  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 

Ian Parsons

Posts 230
17 Dec 2018 12:53


Today's update from the A1200.net team for the new A500 cases campaign reveals that mounting holes are being added to the V4. This means the V4 standalone will screw straight into the new case with no need for a mounting cradle.

So there will be a new board revision before full production can commence.


Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
17 Dec 2018 14:50


Ian Parsons wrote:

  Today's update from the A1200.net team for the new A500 cases campaign reveals that mounting holes are being added to the V4. This means the V4 standalone will screw straight into the new case with no need for a mounting cradle.
 

 
  Great, that should complete the choice of
  A500 case (A1200.net)
  A1200 case (A1200.net)
  Checkmate A1500 kind of A3000 desktop look (AmigaSystems)
 


Allonsanfan %

Posts 57
17 Dec 2018 16:16


Vojin Vidanovic wrote:

   
    Great, that should complete the choice of
    A500 case (A1200.net)
    A1200 case (A1200.net)
    Checkmate A1500 kind of A3000 desktop look (AmigaSystems)
   

Choices are nice, but the cases will be empty and gathering dust until the V4 is released. Let's send some positive vibes to the team so they can iron out the remaining bugs (or whatever else) that are delaying the release. Go team!


Simo Koivukoski
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 601
17 Dec 2018 18:13


Testing IDE40 header, boots OK to WB.




Vojin Vidanovic
(Needs Verification)
Posts 1916/ 1
17 Dec 2018 20:02


Allonsanfan % wrote:

  Choices are nice, but the cases will be empty and gathering dust until the V4 is released. Let's send some positive vibes to the team so they can iron out the remaining bugs (or whatever else) that are delaying the release. Go team!

Exactly. But before that, non-standard size was quite a question. We could have boards but nowhere to place them (Ok table and power, but ...). Now, we just need em to roll!


Allonsanfan %

Posts 57
18 Dec 2018 06:31


Simo Koivukoski wrote:

Testing IDE40 header, boots OK to WB.

Great!

What is different about this header except the obvious? Is it not wired exactly the same as the 44 pin header?

Can both ports be used at the same time, or is it one or the other?


Simo Koivukoski
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 601
18 Dec 2018 07:21


Goal is have two ports (44+40) which both are master-slave. So total will be 4 devices.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
18 Dec 2018 16:35


VERY cool seeing all the progress with the Standalone.... I'm incredibly excited to see this and am hoping that we're closer to weeks vs months away for preorders...

I'd like to start designing a case for this thing, but I have a couple questions based on what I'm seeing for the board layout.

1) what are IO Ports 1,2 and 3 for (or planned to be for).

2) are there any pins for breaking out things like power and drive activity lights?

3) What are P13, 18 and 19 for? (maybe answers #2?)

4) Given that there is only the microUSB 5V power in, how would one go about providing the 12V for devices plugged into the IDE40 port?  Alternatively, is there a way to power the Vampire from an ATX type PSU so we can get the power for the drives as well?


Simo Koivukoski
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 601
19 Dec 2018 05:34


Mike Kopack wrote:
Given that there is only the microUSB 5V power in, how would one go about providing the 12V for devices plugged into the IDE40 port?  Alternatively, is there a way to power the Vampire from an ATX type PSU so we can get the power for the drives as well?

If soldering is not a problem, Meanwell NET-35B (or something similar) is good for this.
 


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
19 Dec 2018 20:39


Simo Koivukoski wrote:

Mike Kopack wrote:
Given that there is only the microUSB 5V power in, how would one go about providing the 12V for devices plugged into the IDE40 port?  Alternatively, is there a way to power the Vampire from an ATX type PSU so we can get the power for the drives as well?

  If soldering is not a problem, Meanwell NET-35B (or something similar) is good for this.
 

Ugh, that's far from an elegant clean solution. It would mean either cobbling together some sort of cable off the PSU-->Micro USB into the Vampire, or desoldering the micro USB power port on the Vampire and soldering directly into the board. Neither is particularly clean and the latter would easily void any warranty.

Just seems like a bit of an oversight to have 40 pin IDE which drives we know would require 12V power, but no way to get that into the board or hook a PSU that can deliver that into the power jack. Was really hoping to be able to easily hook in a CD drive...

Maybe something like Ian Stedman's picoPSU adaptor could be utilized here? I use one to power my A1200 and it works great hooked to a laptop PSU, and the picoPSU I got had a molex drive power cable coming off it too. I would need to take the +5V and GND lines off the Amiga side of the adaptor and hook to microUSB to power the Vampire...

But, yeah I get the whole drive for everything to be powered via microUSB push that Europe seems to be pushing.


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
19 Dec 2018 23:03


Mike Kopack wrote:

   
Simo Koivukoski wrote:

     
Mike Kopack wrote:
Given that there is only the microUSB 5V power in, how would one go about providing the 12V for devices plugged into the IDE40 port?  Alternatively, is there a way to power the Vampire from an ATX type PSU so we can get the power for the drives as well?

      If soldering is not a problem, Meanwell NET-35B (or something similar) is good for this.
       
     

     
      Ugh, that's far from an elegant clean solution. It would mean either cobbling together some sort of cable off the PSU-->Micro USB into the Vampire, or desoldering the micro USB power port on the Vampire and soldering directly into the board. Neither is particularly clean and the latter would easily void any warranty.
     
      Just seems like a bit of an oversight to have 40 pin IDE which drives we know would require 12V power, but no way to get that into the board or hook a PSU that can deliver that into the power jack. Was really hoping to be able to easily hook in a CD drive...
     
      Maybe something like Ian Stedman's picoPSU adaptor could be utilized here? I use one to power my A1200 and it works great hooked to a laptop PSU, and the picoPSU I got had a molex drive power cable coming off it too. I would need to take the +5V and GND lines off the Amiga side of the adaptor and hook to microUSB to power the Vampire...
     
      But, yeah I get the whole drive for everything to be powered via microUSB push that Europe seems to be pushing.
   

   
  Another smaller than a desktop ATX supply solution could be one of these 5V/12V Molex Power supplies.
   
    EXTERNAL LINK     
    Solder together a cheap Y adapter one going to a micro-USB plug, the other to what ever you want HDD, CD-ROM etc...
 
  Sure it requires a little soldering, but I mean this is a hobby level niche device. 
 
  edit: Or easier, you could also just run this to power your CD-ROM/HDD device and run the Vampire on a separate micro-USB supply


Shane Stringer

Posts 22
20 Dec 2018 01:03


I got a nice little mini-ITX case with power supply.  It's a good size for a V4 and a 5.25in rack that holds a slimline CD-ROM and a CF adapter in a 3.5" bracket.  There's room for a hard drive, if needed.  For the power to the V4, I got an adapter that plugs into a 4-pin Molex connector from the PSU, and has a micro-USB male plug.  I tested it on a Raspberry PI 3+, which is a relatively power-hungry little unit, probably on the same scale as the V4 based on the figures we saw  on the power draw, I think it was earlier in this thread.  Everything worked great.  I think I'm going to leave the Pi in there, and use it as an ethernet-to-WiFi bridge.


John William

Posts 563
20 Dec 2018 01:20


Mike Kopack wrote:

Simo Koivukoski wrote:

 
Mike Kopack wrote:
Given that there is only the microUSB 5V power in, how would one go about providing the 12V for devices plugged into the IDE40 port?  Alternatively, is there a way to power the Vampire from an ATX type PSU so we can get the power for the drives as well?

  If soldering is not a problem, Meanwell NET-35B (or something similar) is good for this.
   
 

 
  Ugh, that's far from an elegant clean solution. It would mean either cobbling together some sort of cable off the PSU-->Micro USB into the Vampire, or desoldering the micro USB power port on the Vampire and soldering directly into the board. Neither is particularly clean and the latter would easily void any warranty.
 
  Just seems like a bit of an oversight to have 40 pin IDE which drives we know would require 12V power, but no way to get that into the board or hook a PSU that can deliver that into the power jack. Was really hoping to be able to easily hook in a CD drive...
 
  Maybe something like Ian Stedman's picoPSU adaptor could be utilized here? I use one to power my A1200 and it works great hooked to a laptop PSU, and the picoPSU I got had a molex drive power cable coming off it too. I would need to take the +5V and GND lines off the Amiga side of the adaptor and hook to microUSB to power the Vampire...
 
  But, yeah I get the whole drive for everything to be powered via microUSB push that Europe seems to be pushing.

Dude the V4 is identical to Commodore 64. The Commodore 64 have it's own power supply to power the computer and the disk drive have it's own power supply to supply it and if you have a second disk drive it too need it's own power supply in additional if you use all 4 disk drives and plus an external hard drive that is:

1) 1 power supply for 1 computer
2) 4 power supplies for 4 disk drives
3) 1 power supply for 1 external hard drive

to a sum total of 6 different power supplies and don't forget a power supply for the printer too!

Now the V4 is no different than the C64 in a sense you need a power supply for the main motherboard and a seperate power supply for all additional peripherals. The only difference between it and the C64 is that with this..you get a normal ATX PC power supply and it can power 8 devices in one shot and leaving you with the motherboard (which is the V4) to be powered by it's own power supply.

I am going to use the official..legit...raspberry pie power supply to power my V4 and the ATX to power all the hard drives, disk drives and of course CD-ROM for my V4. After all...V4 is a legit official REAL motherboard computer and not like minimig or fpga arcade or WinUAE an emulator. So I treat it like a serious computer as such. For me, for my V4 it will have two Amiga disk drives, a slot dvd player, a sata 2.5" mechanical hard drive with space size of 1 TB to store all my data and the MicroSD where my main OS will boot from. That one I will never see ever again since it have one purpose and one purpose only...to boot an OS from it. My SD will have one single partition of 4 GB where the main OS will be stored and any future applications and games where it need to put things in the dev: libs: fonts: etc will be updated.

My 1 TB will store hundreds of movies, mp3s, games and pdfs to read from in future. My slot dvd player will be used to transfer data between PC and it and the USB ports for me will be used exclusively for one purpose alone..mouse and keyboard.

That is my setting. When I power my computer...my NG Amiga 68k I will power the peripherals first (like the Commodore 64) then I will power my V4 after that! Problem solved. Since this is an Amiga...after I power it...I don't think I will ever..ever..need to power it off again! No..need for it. This NG Amiga 68k is like buying an A4000T for me..it will have AGA, RTG, new Pamela and the list of awesome features is too long to list them here and will not give it justice.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
20 Dec 2018 03:09


John William wrote:

 
  Dude the V4 is identical to Commodore 64. The Commodore 64 have it's own power supply to power the computer and the disk drive have it's own power supply to supply it and if you have a second disk drive it too need it's own power supply in additional if you use all 4 disk drives and plus an external hard drive that is:
 
  1) 1 power supply for 1 computer
  2) 4 power supplies for 4 disk drives
  3) 1 power supply for 1 external hard drive
 
  to a sum total of 6 different power supplies and don't forget a power supply for the printer too!
 
  Now the V4 is no different than the C64 in a sense you need a power supply for the main motherboard and a seperate power supply for all additional peripherals. The only difference between it and the C64 is that with this..you get a normal ATX PC power supply and it can power 8 devices in one shot and leaving you with the motherboard (which is the V4) to be powered by it's own power supply.
 
  I am going to use the official..legit...raspberry pie power supply to power my V4 and the ATX to power all the hard drives, disk drives and of course CD-ROM for my V4. After all...V4 is a legit official REAL motherboard computer and not like minimig or fpga arcade or WinUAE an emulator. So I treat it like a serious computer as such. For me, for my V4 it will have two Amiga disk drives, a slot dvd player, a sata 2.5" mechanical hard drive with space size of 1 TB to store all my data and the MicroSD where my main OS will boot from. That one I will never see ever again since it have one purpose and one purpose only...to boot an OS from it. My SD will have one single partition of 4 GB where the main OS will be stored and any future applications and games where it need to put things in the dev: libs: fonts: etc will be updated.
 
  My 1 TB will store hundreds of movies, mp3s, games and pdfs to read from in future. My slot dvd player will be used to transfer data between PC and it and the USB ports for me will be used exclusively for one purpose alone..mouse and keyboard.
 
  That is my setting. When I power my computer...my NG Amiga 68k I will power the peripherals first (like the Commodore 64) then I will power my V4 after that! Problem solved. Since this is an Amiga...after I power it...I don't think I will ever..ever..need to power it off again! No..need for it. This NG Amiga 68k is like buying an A4000T for me..it will have AGA, RTG, new Pamela and the list of awesome features is too long to list them here and will not give it justice.

And you don't feel that it could be done SOOOO much better today  than it was back then with the 64? I used to HATE the spaghetti of cables all over the place and the fact that I had to have 5 different things plugged into a power strip just to use the computer. Even with my old Amiga 500 I had to do similar because I had to power my SCSI HD through an external AT case+psu.

I'm just trying to figure a way to make a nice looking Amiga-stylized small case that could hold the Vampire stand-alone, an optical drive (CD/DVD whatever), and either an IDE-SD or IDE-CF adapter. But I want it all together, one power switch. Maybe even integrate a USB hub in the back for more ports. 

Multiple power supplies is a non-starter IMO. I want it all inside and clean looking, or worst case a laptop style PSU with a single cable going into the back.



John William

Posts 563
20 Dec 2018 04:31


Mike Kopack wrote:

John William wrote:

 
  Dude the V4 is identical to Commodore 64. The Commodore 64 have it's own power supply to power the computer and the disk drive have it's own power supply to supply it and if you have a second disk drive it too need it's own power supply in additional if you use all 4 disk drives and plus an external hard drive that is:
 
  1) 1 power supply for 1 computer
  2) 4 power supplies for 4 disk drives
  3) 1 power supply for 1 external hard drive
 
  to a sum total of 6 different power supplies and don't forget a power supply for the printer too!
 
  Now the V4 is no different than the C64 in a sense you need a power supply for the main motherboard and a seperate power supply for all additional peripherals. The only difference between it and the C64 is that with this..you get a normal ATX PC power supply and it can power 8 devices in one shot and leaving you with the motherboard (which is the V4) to be powered by it's own power supply.
 
  I am going to use the official..legit...raspberry pie power supply to power my V4 and the ATX to power all the hard drives, disk drives and of course CD-ROM for my V4. After all...V4 is a legit official REAL motherboard computer and not like minimig or fpga arcade or WinUAE an emulator. So I treat it like a serious computer as such. For me, for my V4 it will have two Amiga disk drives, a slot dvd player, a sata 2.5" mechanical hard drive with space size of 1 TB to store all my data and the MicroSD where my main OS will boot from. That one I will never see ever again since it have one purpose and one purpose only...to boot an OS from it. My SD will have one single partition of 4 GB where the main OS will be stored and any future applications and games where it need to put things in the dev: libs: fonts: etc will be updated.
 
  My 1 TB will store hundreds of movies, mp3s, games and pdfs to read from in future. My slot dvd player will be used to transfer data between PC and it and the USB ports for me will be used exclusively for one purpose alone..mouse and keyboard.
 
  That is my setting. When I power my computer...my NG Amiga 68k I will power the peripherals first (like the Commodore 64) then I will power my V4 after that! Problem solved. Since this is an Amiga...after I power it...I don't think I will ever..ever..need to power it off again! No..need for it. This NG Amiga 68k is like buying an A4000T for me..it will have AGA, RTG, new Pamela and the list of awesome features is too long to list them here and will not give it justice.
 

 
  And you don't feel that it could be done SOOOO much better today  than it was back then with the 64? I used to HATE the spaghetti of cables all over the place and the fact that I had to have 5 different things plugged into a power strip just to use the computer. Even with my old Amiga 500 I had to do similar because I had to power my SCSI HD through an external AT case+psu.
 
  I'm just trying to figure a way to make a nice looking Amiga-stylized small case that could hold the Vampire stand-alone, an optical drive (CD/DVD whatever), and either an IDE-SD or IDE-CF adapter. But I want it all together, one power switch. Maybe even integrate a USB hub in the back for more ports. 
 
  Multiple power supplies is a non-starter IMO. I want it all inside and clean looking, or worst case a laptop style PSU with a single cable going into the back.
 

What I said above is no different than what is been done in modern devices now, actually. If you buy an external 3.5" hard drive it have it's own power supply. SCSI external dvd/hard drive they have their own power supply (even if it is internal). Anything external that is not SD/CF or 2.5" hard drive will have to have their own external or internal power supply. This is the nature of the beast. But to satisfy your craving for a single power supply with one single switch that CAN be done also. Bare in mind...the v4 will be the only one that powers off while the other devices will only power off with the ATX power switch but then there is your on/off switch if you prefer. Simply use MOLEX to microUSB adaptor which can be bought from eBay and you are done. Your on/off button will be at the back-end but it will do the job as you seek.

For me however, I like it the other way...gives me the retro feel :D - grin -

V4 is food...it is up to the user to add spices to give it the flavor the consumer wishes to enjoy eating!


Captain Zalo

Posts 71
20 Dec 2018 09:34


[words]
 
  Mike: Looks to me like you're after what the Checkmate A1500 plus case delivers. It gives you enough room for the V4 standalone (or A500, A600, A1200, Tabor 1222, mATX, ITX and RPi) inside a small desktop case modeled on the A3000, and it's powered by an internal SFX power supply. The case is custimizable and can be shipped with addons for any configuration you need within the case parameters. It's currently in production, and slated to be shipped to backers in may 2019.


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
27 Dec 2018 14:49


No, that's WAY too big for my needs. I just want a small cube case roughly half that size - thinking something like Vampire at the bottom, maybe space above it for 1-2 3.5" bays (floppy or gotek, maybe a SSD drive or space to put a CF or SD card, accessible from the front) and then an optical drive on top of that.  4 port USB hub integrated on the back (plugged into the rear USB port.) MAYBE a little extra room (or side expansion?) for adding expansion when they provide stuff for the IO ports...

Think something the size of a couple Intel NUC's stacked on top of each other...

Do it in Amiga white with Amiga and Vampire stylized text on the front or top...

THAT is what I'm wanting for my Vampire...


Mike Kopack

Posts 268
29 Dec 2018 02:07


This is a notional mockup of what I'm thinking/wanting to do... Things are generally to scale.
     
      EXTERNAL LINK
     
      All the ports on the rear are through panel mount extensions (except the 3 USB 2.0 ports, which would be from a 1->3 hub.) The power would be coming from a laptop style barrel jack power adaptor.
     
      The CD/DVD drive would go through a SATA/IDE40 adaptor.
      The front panel SD (or CF if you prefer that) would be through an IDE44/CF or SD adaptor.
     
      The lighter color module on the side would be optional for if/when legacy floppy support is added - it would work like the A1000 sidecar unit with a cutout on the base unit case to pass the cables through. (It would actually be color matched, but I did it in another color to denote that it's separate.) Put in either a legacy floppy or Gotek...
     
      Man, it's amazing how difficult it is to find a white CD/DVD drive these days! They're all black these days... Man how times have changed.
 
  I could get it less tall if I go with a slimline style DVD drive, but then the sidecar floppy unit would stick up above, so not sure I want to do that. More space to work inside the case never hurts either..
 
  Here's a quick change to show a slimline version:
  EXTERNAL LINK
 

And sorry for hijacking the thread...


Alan Haynes

Posts 140
29 Dec 2018 10:00


Hi Mike,
 
Just go with one of the new case options already mentioned
above which will be available probably by the time the V4 Standalone is out. I have gone for the Checkmate A15oo plus.
The new a500 case from the A1200.NET people or the new Checkmate A1500 plus from Steve Jones. Both will take a Vampire Standalone or other options.
  Both these teams have done all the hard yards for us so will save time and money but as per "Only Amiga Makes It Possible" if you really want to do that yourself go for it. That is what I love about the Amiga Vampire. You can have it your way.
  Cheers,
  Alan


Simo Koivukoski
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 601
27 Jan 2019 14:09


Testing AROS on Standalone:



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