gbadev.org forum archive

This is a read-only mirror of the content originally found on forum.gbadev.org (now offline), salvaged from Wayback machine copies. A new forum can be found here.

DS Flash Equipment > How do I get an RT2500-based interface card?

#66351 - tetsujin - Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:45 am

Hey,

Naturally I've seen this list:
http://ralink.rapla.net/

and attempted to use it to buy an RT2500-based interface card. However, the one I selected, the Hawking HWP54G (rev. T2) is not an RT2500-based card. It's a TI ACX 111.

So the list is imperfect. It's bound to happen. What I want to know is where I can go from here. The Hawking was the only card at CompUSA which was on the list, other than the Belkin and Linksys cards, which are specific to a particular card revision. I don't know where I could order a card online with a reasonable level of confidence about its chipset. Retail stores don't know jack about what's in the hardware they sell. Manufacturers appear to be switching chipsets with every new revision of their cards. So, in practical terms, how do I get an RT2500-based card?

I am disappointed that I don't get to try WMB today. Well, those are the breaks. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
_________________
---GEC
I think that all the work that's been done by the homebrew community so far to support people who want to program for the GBA or DS is amazing.
Thank you, everyone, I look forward to taking advantage of your work.

#66378 - Sektor - Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:02 am

Yeah you have to be careful, especially if models close to yours have a * next to them.

* chipset depends on card revision/version (could be Accton, ADMtek, Agere, Atheros, Atmel, Broadcom, Conexant, Envara, Inprocomm, Intel, Marvell, Realtek, SiS, Texas Instruments, VIA, ZyDAS or some other).

The MSI and Minitar are easily available in Australia but I can't help for other countries.

#66379 - tetsujin - Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:15 am

Sektor wrote:
* chipset depends on card revision/version (could be Accton, ADMtek, Agere, Atheros, Atmel, Broadcom, Conexant, Envara, Inprocomm, Intel, Marvell, Realtek, SiS, Texas Instruments, VIA, ZyDAS or some other).


Yes, I read the page. I am aware that chipsets sometimes vary with different versions of the hardware. The HWP54G wasn't marked with a star on the RT2500 page - though, as I've since learned, other revs. of the card are listed on the pages for other manufacturers. (I didn't expect to have to cross-reference pages for 5 different manufacturers to figure out which entries didn't have a star but needed one, I thought the RT page would be sufficient. But it's an imperfect world...) Presumably the list's info on the 54G is simply out of date. Like I said, it happens. But if it can happen for one card it can happen for another, right? I'd just as soon not waste the time (especially for mail-order) if someone can help me out.

I know that to some extent this will always be a crap-shoot except in cases where one can actually look at the card itself before buying to read the label on the chipset (if visible). I'm hoping someone can provide recent experiences or suggestions on how best to go about finding such a card, because right now, it almost seems like my retail options are run out - and I can't imagine how mail-order would work. (Who tells you on their website what rev. card you're buying? And then who sticks to that rev. when they ship?) There are people out there who have successfully bought these cards. Presumably some of them even in the last couple months. I want to know how, where, what, and if I can do the same. Maybe some people even have suggestions on places I could buy things and have a high degree of confidence in what I'm buying - I don't know. But there's got to be some way to buy a card and know what chipset's on it, right?

So how about this: both the Belkin and the Linksys revisions that I saw in retail are newer than the ones on the RT2500 list. There are some unknown rev's of the Belkin card that used the Broadcom chipset, and two of the older revisions of the Linksys used Broadcom. So from what I can see on the list the two manufacturers switched to RT2500, but as yet (as far as I can tell) there's no record of them again switching away from the chipset. So the Belkin F5D7000 (v4?) and the Linksys WMP54G v5000 seem like they might work - can anybody tell me if they've bought one of these and found out? (Presumably if someone had bought one and submitted that info to the list, it'd be on there by now.)

I guess if that doesn't work, I'll try a computer show... Seems a higher likelihood of being able to visually inspect the cards, though a much lower likelihood of being able to test it and return it if it's no good...

(EDIT): Attitude adjustment (please excuse my dickweed nature) and update.

(EDIT again): I guess I should have thought of this earlier: The manufacturers generally aren't too forthcoming about what chipsets are in their products in things like data sheets (that'd be funny if it weren't so sad...) but they still gotta provide drivers on their website, and the driver's filename is usually straightforward enough, often just the chipset name. Interestingly, Linksys doesn't show a rev. of WMP54G newer than V4, which is on the list... So maybe I misread the rev. of that card when I was in the store... Hopefully the Belkin driver will be similarly enlightening, if it ever finishes downloading, as that card was significantly cheaper than the Linksys. (Same price as the Hawking, actually...) Then again, the D-Link website doesn't seem to list anything for Rev. C1 of the DWL-G510 (which is the only rev on the list as being RT2500), either...

(EDIT): My, I'm simply champion of not issuing redundant posts, aren't I? Like nobody else had asked this question in, say, the previous three days... <sigh> Well, if anyone's interested I managed to get an older Belkin card at Circuit City (good deal, too) and so my little card-buying drama is concluded. Thanks all around for the patience as I get up to speed.
_________________
---GEC
I think that all the work that's been done by the homebrew community so far to support people who want to program for the GBA or DS is amazing.
Thank you, everyone, I look forward to taking advantage of your work.