Hello All,

Wow, I havent log into this site since 2003! I just wanted to say that I will be buying the new Efika board when MorphOS is officially out for it. I have been a long time Amiga user and frequenter of A.org.

I have never owned a PPC Amiga system, so this will be my first! I'm thinking about using it as a semi portable system that I can bring with me in my car for my 45 minute drive to work each day.

I'm still thinking about what kind of case I'm going to use for it. I like the lego idea that I saw posted here.

I was also wondering if a 16 mb voodoo 3 card that I have sitting on my shelf will work with MOS?

Thanks everyone! Hope I'll posting more here.

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Hope your main aim is not to look like a serious business man. ;)
No idea concerning the Voodoo3, but I wouldn't think of it as a problem since the driver is existing for MOS.
But as a semi-portable solution, you might want to get a low-profile Gfx-card instead (smaller lego case ;)). E.g. a Radeon 9250. No idea yet about XGI-support in MOS 1.5.

[ Edited by quadpol on 2006/12/2 1:03 ]

@quadpol,

I dont think is possible for me to look like a serious business man

The voodoo card is AGP so it would lay on top of the board. I also have a Radeon 7000 32 MB AGP card on my shelf.

I havent read any threads about power supplies yet but I'm gong to scan some of the Car PC sites for some ideas.

Quote:

You need a low profile AGP card because for most "standard profile" cards the on board connector for network/usb will be in the way.

@pega-1,

Yea, I just looked at some of the pictures and realized that

I should be able to find a cheap low profile one somewhere

I am also looking forward to buy an Efika once Morph OS is out for it (hopefully bundled).

Oh, and I`ll wait for the final version of the motherboard, not going to buy a prototype/beta :P

Whats with the case though? Does efika fit in a standard case or you have to make your own?


[ Edited by Everblue on 2006/12/11 12:54 ]

-Low-profile, smlow-profile: http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/td741_ca/detail?.dir=3b55re2&.dnm=cce6re2.jpg&.src=ph
(Depending on how the card is made, you can just remove the bracket. :P)

For a case, I think people are still working on that, if you want to look at this thread: https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4958&forum=2
You can read about my work-in-progress at fitting my Efika inside a Mini-ITX case.

One of the biggest problems is that the holes don't line up, oh, and getting a good backplate.

Ei there!

I may get an EFIKA soon too ;)
Looking forward to MorphOS release :D

The case is one worry, but I also worry about the power supply... The EFIKA needs 4W rite? (1W CPU, 3W memory), plus the things you plug in. Maybe instead of a harddisk, we could plug one of those flash memories with IDE interface. And a cheap graphics card. I have a radeon 9200 ... How much power does it use?

One PSU I'm considering is this one:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20020719/etc_acpower.html

it's in japanese but u can check the pictures. It's 60W (12V/5A). I think it may be enough, rite?

Is there any cheap way to put chargeable batteries? Because I was also considering buying a junk notebook and try to fit the EFIKA inside ;) EFIKA laptop! ;)

Any info you have, please share it! :D

Weird... I lost the post I just posted? (Hopefully I won't post more then one message on here. :P)

The powersupply that came with my Mini-ITX case has the same ratings (60W/12V/5A). It powers my EFIKA, Video Card, HD, USB Stick, Mouse/keyboard without any problems. It also doesn't have a fan so it's amazingly quiet (even compared to my iMac). :P

The main problem I would see with using an EFIKA in a laptop is including the video card. You'll probably need to use some sort cabled PCI/AGP connector. (Of course, and of course add a way to plug in keyboard and mouse via USB, LCD panel to the video card.)

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Consider for the gfx card about 3-5 W while idle mode and up to 20 W under full stress. That's only guestimate (will start my real measures soon). A 2.5" hd should consume 1-5 Watts.
All in all your PSU should provide a stable 30 W output.

A 60 W PSU should be ideal. If you find a 40 W PSU that's fine, too. The bigger PSU will offer no benefit, but wast some electric energy due to the not perfect efficiency.

A suggestion for the psu is the 60W AC/DC psu by Morex (84% efficiency) combined with the pico 12V->ATX converter (93% efficiency).

A low energy hd is e.g. the MHT2080AH

How about this one?

I'm using a 120W Pico-PSU in my EFIKA, powered by 12V DC. It's not much bigger than the ATX-power-socket itself, so it will allow me a CD-ROM-style case. :)


[ Edited by phx on 2006/12/13 0:07 ]

[ Edited by phx on 2006/12/13 0:08 ]

I got a list of AC-type PSU,

http://www.ko-soku.co.jp/sales/ps_ac.htm

The list is in japanese (again ^^; ) but you can see the picture, the maker, and the power.

phx: your pic just says "you are stealing bandwidth" ^^;

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Oh, indeed. Sorry, I would have to make an html-page for the picture, but no time for it now. :P

There will be a detailed report once the first prototypes with mini-case are finished.

My WIFE, of all people, found a case for my EFIKA. It's an acrylic cosmetics case with metal corners. The thing even has a keyed lock. It'll be a bit before I finish it, as I'm having my father-in-law help with the cutting (I can make holes in a case, he can make the holes look like they were factory cut....).

While we were going over some EFIKA ideas, I ran accross our old metal detector, and realized that an EFIKA (complete board and hdd) would fit in the attached box. I wonder just how many "on site" tools could use an efika in some way or another?

I got my EFIKA this morning ;)

Some pics:
http://www.img.cs.titech.ac.jp/~david/hhhalbum/efika/efika.html

Now I just need a PSU, a cool (as in "low-power consumption") graphics card (the one in the pic is a radeon 7500 which i took the fan off and replaced by a huge heat sink ^^; ), an AC-type PSU, and a cool (as in "fashionable") case. Maybe in an old Nintendo case? ;P

@Hawk,

Thanks for the pics!. Looks cool!.

@everyone,

Would it be possible to put some kind of pci riser card in so I could run a graphics & a sound card?.

Any particular reason why you'd want to add a sound card?

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Aside from the fact that Efika already has decent sound, no, it can?t be done. The PCI controller, inside the CPU, can only handle one device. That's why the (hopefully) forthcoming Efika with XGI graphics chip will not have a PCI slot.
Then you have the much more expensive and feature loaded Samantha 440, which uses a similar CPU, but has more PCI expansion. That's because it also has some kind of PCI bridge chip, if I'm not mistaken.

@jcmarcos

yes and no

you can't put a "silly" PCI riser, but there are "intelligent" risers that include a PCI to PCI bridge. But that would require support from the firmware and I'm not sure about these kind of bridges being supported yet.

I thought next Efika version would simply use a new Freescale 5200 cpu version with graphics support (that's what appears in Freescale's roadmap).

I use a computer to play backing tracks for my band at live shows. I thought it might be cool to have this tiny machine and a tiny LCD be my onstage computer. I'm not sure if the sound out of the AC97 would be good enough for my needs.

I also want it as an Amiga geek toy as well! :)

@Spihunter

Efika includes a digital sound output, that may help...

I think this is the forum I was dropping info about my efika project into... Anyway, I should be getting a 3.5" screen come monday, so the "VideoCube" project is go

@Crumb,

I havent had any dealing with audio digital out. I'm using anolog amps for the live stuff so I'm not sure I would be in luck there.

that might be aimed at the home theatre folks?

After a few weeks I finished my Efika-case project, following the idea of Guide Mersmann and Axel Knabe of putting it into a 5.25" "IcyBox" case. Also refer to http://www.geit.de/eng_efikase.html for the original design.

My finished Efika-case differs in some aspects, but is still nice, IMHO: http://sun.hasenbraten.de/~frank/computers/efika.html

Now only a useful OS, like MorphOS or NetBSD, is missing.

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[ Edited by Velcro_SP 22.09.2011 - 15:55 ]