The PowerPort Jnr was another purchase I made at WOA as I also
bought a 56k modem and didn't wish to strangle it by running the standard
serial port..
It is simply a fast serial port for the Amiga. The product was bought
from Power Computing ,so if you need one ,you know where to go! Getting
home after the show ,I proceeded to install it.
The PowerPort Jnr itself came in a small box ,opening this revealed
the circuit board . The circuit board comes with a printed sheet of instructions,
a disk with the relevant files on it and a cable to connect to your Amiga.
The instructions are quite easy to follow and even give small diagrams
showing how to install the device. I split the Amiga down... really hard
doing this bit e.g. disconnect all leads into the Amiga
and removing the Squirrel. Turning my machine upside down allowed me
to remove the screws on the base and lift off the top half. Fitting of
the port is easy although you have to disconnect the internal drive before
you can fit the board. All in all, it took about ten minutes to fit the
board . I also connected the cable to the board before installing it, I
might add.
Reassembly of the machine is simply the reverse procedure of stripping
it down. The Port fits in place of the blank plate at the side of the
mouse port and is held in place by a screw. I had
no problems fitting the board and don't expect anyone who can use a
screwdriver without injuring themselves to have any. I should also point
out that the shielding on my Amiga was
removed some time ago ,so if you have your shielding still fitted,
you might find the procedure taking a bit longer.
Rebooting the machine , you now have to install the relevant files.
This ,again, is very easy. There is an installer provided for this
and is totally painless.
That was it ready to go and I rebooted and tried it out! What a difference!
Downloading mail with my old 33.6k modem had given download speeds (on
a good day) of approx. 2200. The new modem and port gave me Approx. 3300!
News downloads of again Approx. 2800 went up to on average 6000. Quite
a difference I'm sure you will agree.
The only problem was that the downloads would stop after a couple of minutes ! Now this was a complete disaster. What's the point of a fast serial port if it only works for a couple of minutes ? And this is where buying from a good Amiga company comes in. I learned in the newslists that there were problems with the various revision boards of the A1200. 2B and the 1d4 were the ones commonly mentioned ... These boards had timing problems which caused the serial port to lock up.
A phone call followed to Power and I was told to send the board
back. It seems that the newest version of the board can overcome the timing
problems and Power sent back a new
board by return of post. I should also mention that there is a hardware
mod that can be done to the board to get it working with some boards although
I didn't have to worry about this ,
details can be found on the VMC site (the company that makes the Hypercom
devices.) New version of the software files are also posted on the site
or you can get them from Power.
The new board worked well and I was happy again!
Browsing on the Net is so much faster now even with my setup (030).
It makes a huge difference when the delays are simply down to my computer
displaying the page rather than
the long delays of downloading it.
One of the few things I have noticed that doesn't seem to like the new
port is if I set Miami to the maximum rate of the port (460000). Miami
won't connect at that speed. I have Miami set
to 130000 which I have been informed is the optimum setting for a 56k
modem. So, no worries on that score.
All in all, though, a very worthy purchase for my Amiga. It will of
course pay for itself within a short time in cheaper calls but makes the
whole experience of being on the Net better by
speeding up your access time dramatically. Highly recommended!