plipbox

What is it?

plipbox is an Arduino-based device that allows to connect low-end classic Amigas via Ethernet to your local network. It bridges IP traffic received via PLIP on the parallel port of the Amiga to the Ethernet port attached to the Arduino.

Introduction

With the plip2slip project I already presented a device that uses a cheap AVR 8 bit microcontroller (as found on the popular Arduino boards) to bridge network traffic from the Amiga’s parallel port (with the MagPLIP protocoll) to another machine via a fast serial link.

plipbox extends the plip2slip project and replaces the serial link for IP traffic with an on-board Ethernet port. This allows you to connect your Amiga directly to your local network without any other machine assisting.

With the on-board Ethernet port the plipbox HW is more complex than the plip2slip HW, but I tried to use common and easy available HW modules to simplify the recreation of this device. This allows even novice users to build their own plipbox. (See the hardware document for details).

Firmware Releases

The current release is:

• v0.2 2.9.2012 – plipbox-0.2.zip
  • size: 158248
  • md5: 3d5b998f80ce5b48e2c151f756712467
  • sha1: ed06ce9bdf52911b1d0eeeafd6fef89072423233
  • changes:
    • added support for AVR-NET-IO board
• v0.1 22.7.2012 – plipbox-0.1.zip
  • size: 140029
  • md5: f16007cb4e09f6adb2a2566b22fb6c84
  • sha1: 1db80031969395371647e6e974f0dd738e49c79e
  • changes:
    • first public release
    • initial feature set: DHCP, ARP and full TCP/UDP bridging

The firmware for plipbox is open-source and hosted on GitHub: plibbox@gitbub. Clone this repository if you want to build the firmware yourself or if you want to play around with it.

Documentation

• Hardware (Arduiono based)
• Firmware Setup and Usage
• magplip driver setup on Amiga

Quick Start Guide

1. Build the hardware (see Hardware page)
2. Flash the firmware
   • Connect the device to your Mac/PC via USB only
     (no Amiga or Ethernet connection yet!)
   • Flash the supplied firmware file with avrdude (see Firmware page)
3. Configure plipbox via serial terminal
   • Setup your terminal program on your Mac/PC to connect to the plipbox firmware
   • Configure the plipbox device (in command mode):
     • Enable DHCP mode or set netmask, gateway, ethernet port IP
       (‘pd’,'pn’,'pg’,'pe’ commands)
     • Adjust Amiga/PLIP port IP if necessary
       (‘pa’,'pp’ commands)
     • Write Paramters to EEPROM to keep them
       (‘ps’ command)
4. Test Ethernet Connectivity
   • Connect your plipbox to the Ethernet (keep PC terminal connected)
   • Test by pinging gateway or server
     • Use ‘g’ and ‘s’ keys in terminal
       (press multiple times so ARP lookup can be performed)
   • If ping is replied -> Ok, Ethernet works!
5. Test Amiga PLIP Connectivity
   • Setup magplip networking on your Amiga (see magplip page)
   • Connect device to Amiga (keep Ethernet and Mac/PC link)
   • Enable magplip on your Amiga
   • Have a look at the plipbox terminal: “plip: online” tells you the magPLIP device was successfully detected!
   • Test by pinging the Amiga from plipbox terminal
     • Use ‘a’ key in terminal to send ping
     • If ping is replied -> Amiga/plipbox networking is Ok!
   • Ping directly from your Amiga (call ping command in CLI):
     • ping PLIP port of plipbox
     • ping Ethernet port of plipbox
     • ping gateway or server on local ethernet
   • Ok, plipbox seems to work!
6. Standalone Operation
   • Disconnect Mac/PC and stop terminal program there
   • Use a USB power supply to supply the Arduino with power
   • Connect Ethernet and Amiga to plipbox

Have fun!