Date   : Wed, 27 Jul 2005 14:08:02 +0200
From   : Chris_Johns <chris@...>
Subject: Re: Econet-Ethernet bridge?

Eelco Huininga <eelco@...> wrote on 27.07.2005, 13:18:56:
> 
> Just curious: what is the maximum allowable length for the cable
> between the socket box and the computer?

I think it was 2 metres. You could, IIRC, get 2m and 0.5m leads. The
general recomendation seemed to be to use the 0.5m ones if you could,
to minimise the distance between the socket box and the computer.

You could usually get away with longer - Econet in general would work
with all sorts of out-of-spec setups (eg. missing terminators) but
things tended to get more unreliable.

Econet is a bus network, designed to have (only) two ends. For a small
network (ie. in one room) I found the t-pieces and cables worked pretty
well.

Speakling of Econet wiring - I have some of the big fat SJ resarch
econet cable spare along with a few socket boxes if anyone's interested
in a more "permanant" setup. Email me directy if you want any of it.

I also have an (acorn) Econet bridge up for auction on eBay - last I
looked it was at 99p :)

On the PC-Econet front, if a PCI card was developed, this could be put
in one of those MiniITX PC systems to become a "super server" for
econet. You could so all sorts of clever stuff on the server then, such
as a print server that took epson FX80 style codes (that most beeb
software used) and output the page to whatever printer you connected to
it, be it Inkjet or Laser.

This server would be a little smaller than an MDFS too :P

Cheers

Chris