User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Nov 04, 2022 12:44 pm

IMG_0415.jpg

I was really late to the party on this one. Earlier this year a new USB solution for big box Amigas hit the scene called the Freeway and Freeway Pro. They all sold out but I was able to luckily get one of the Freeway Pro cards.
  • Zorro 2 interface
  • Multiple USB connectors
  • Compatible with USB 1.1 and 2.0 specifications
  • Supports USB 1.1 transfer speeds
  • Clock port to connect compatible devices
  • Requires at least 68030 @ 25 MHz
The Freeway Pro has a faster USB chip than Standard Freeway Card (1.2MB/s vs 600Kb/s). It also has a 1MB FlashROM like the Algor PRO USB from 2003 timeframe.

The Pro also has 3 USB ports (one on the card and 2 on an expansion). So beyond using a simply hot-swappable USB drive, it can also support USB mice and keyboards should I ever need or want to go down that road.
IMG_0416.jpg

Algor FlashROM Details:
Integrated 512 kB (Algor Pro: 1 MB) flash ROM to transparently include the USB stack right after cold powerup, boot off USB mass storage devices, use USB mice and keyboards during Early Startup Menu and to include system patches like those from OS3.9
The card shipped with a full license of the Poseidon USB stack, which is super cool. It also comes with a Flash Tool (Luciferin) in order to be able to program the FlashROM at some point should that need arise.

Looking forward to installing this over the weekend!

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:01 pm

Happy for you that you got one.
They seem to be quite state of the art. I mean, for Amigas, that is ;).

Actually the design is based on the previously mentioned Algor/ Subway designs.

The folks rather recently even published how to make a „Triton“ card, a next step in development.

The only thing that’s missing is a redesign of the Deneb. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though, as DMA is quite tricky for the developers.

For memory quite impressive what is possible with these old computers and how many new things and designs are coming out. Matze even designed a new 060 card for the 4000…

Anyway, have fun with the Freeway!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:47 am

I installed the Freeway Pro over the weekend and ran into a bit of an issue.

Before going down the road of getting a USB flash drive to work, I first wanted to make sure plug-and-play HID devices were operating normally.

I plugged in a brand new WASD keyboard - and voila! Worked perfectly.

I next plugged in a USB mouse and... nothing. In fact, it froze the entire computer. I tried a different mouse and got the same exact results.

I pinged the gentleman I got the card from and he'd seen this behavior before. He suggested I only boot with the 1 USB mouse plugged in (meaning remove the original serial mouse) and if the machine still locked unplug then re-plug in the USB.

That worked! Felt like a janky solution but it the USB mouse did come to life. However, I moved the mouse in slow circles across the screen and saw it pause every 1-2 seconds before moving again. After about 10 seconds the mouse locked up entirely again.

Feels like a hardware/bus issue.

I'm going to pull my ZZ9000 card and see if that resolves the issue. I've got a friend with this same exact card in a non-RTG A2000 and it works perfectly for him. So something is going on somewhere. If I can resolve this issue I'll move forward and start to learn how to get the USB/fat95 piece working.

User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Mon Nov 07, 2022 10:38 am

AFAIK the card uses Poseidon as its USB stack, right?

Put fat95 in l: and that’s it. Poseidon supports hot-plugging.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Nov 07, 2022 3:00 pm

AFAIK the card uses Poseidon as its USB stack, right?
That is correct. And Poseidon/Trident is very cool. It's kind of the Device Manager that AmigaOS never had.

User avatar
obitus1990
USA

Posted Wed Nov 09, 2022 9:19 pm

I don't have one of these cards, but, I did experience the same 'skipping' behavior with trying to use a mouse with a Thylacine USB card. Even on my 060 equipped 2000.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Nov 09, 2022 10:11 pm

@Obitus

Was that machine running RTG?

I have a friend who has this same exact card running in a non-RTG A2000 and he says it runs perfectly. I think I have some sort of funky conflict going on somewhere. (Which, admittedly, could be the 060.)

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Nov 10, 2022 11:03 am

Well it does appear this Freeway Pro card and the 060 simply don't like each other.

Yesterday I would boot up the machine - with nothing plugged into it at all - and after letting the machine simply sit for several minutes untouched it would lock up. In other words, the OG :commodore: mouse would stop functioning. I rebooted and tested the mouse 10 minutes later and it was locked up again.

This morning I pulled the card entirely. After 30 minutes of running the machine is rock solid again.

My theory right now based on my experience is this card simply can't co-exist with an 060. Big bummer.

User avatar
A1-X1000
Toronto, Canada

Posted Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:11 pm

Sorry to hear your issues with this USB solution and 060 and hopefully the issues can be worked out in the future since the Freeway Pro is open source. I've got my RapidRoad USB connected to my X-Surf-100 via the clockport and no such issues with my Amiga 4000 and 060.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:43 pm

@A1-X1000 are you running Super Buster -11?

I have a spare chip; I can't remember if I upgraded this machine or not. I'm hoping WhichAmiga will show me, which I plan to try later today. I really don't want to have to tear the entire computer apart just to look at the chip v-number.

(I think originally it came with an -07)





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