VarIO online manual

Welcome to the online manial of the VarIO interface board. This manual is much more detailed than the instruction sheet of the VarIO, and it should answer all questions. Especially the pictures for the many different possibilities to connect the card in an Amiga will help you avoiding (expensive) mistakes.
If this manual leaves any question, please e-Mail us, we will try to answer your question as fast and detailed as possible.

The picture shows a VarIO that is expanded with a Silversurfer.

Installation in a Zorro slot

When installing the VarIO in a Zorro-slot, the parallelport pinheader must face to the back of the computer. This means that the component side must face towards the diskdrives in an A2000. In A3000/4000 desktop and tower computers, the component side must face up. After turning the computer on, the red LED is on to show that the VarIO has recognized the Zorro mode.

Installation on another Zorro-board

Caution: This kind of installation requires a software update that will be available by mid-January 2002. The update will be free for download on our web page!

Use the included 26-pin cable for this kind of installation. Only the ports of Buddha, Buddha Flash, Catweasel Z-II, ISDN Surfer, X-Surf, and the VarIO itself are supported. The 26-pin ports of Hypercom (made before 1997), ISDN-Blaster or Highway are not supported. This is impossible for technical reasons: The pinout of these ports is totally different. Never try to connect your VarIO to unsupported ports, this causes permanent damage to the board!

The red marker of the cable points to pin 1 on the VarIO. On the Zorro-board, the red marker must face away from the Zorro-slot. Orientation of the 26-pin ports is the same on all boards by individual Computers - except for the VarIO, here the port is rotated by 90 degrees. The red marker must always face to pin 1:

connecting a VarIO to another VarIO

connecting a VarIO to an ISDN-Surfer

connecting a VarIO to a Buddha Flash IDE controller

connecting a VarIO to a Catweasel Z2

connecting a VarIO on a X-Surf ethernet board

Insulate the Zorro-connector for this kind of installation (for example with insulating tape or regular scotch tape), so metal parts cannot cause shorts!

Installation on an A1200 clockport

This way of installation is only possible with a special version of the VarIO that is only manufactured on special order. Please contact us if you want your VarIO modified to work on a clockport! The technical background for this is simple: Serial ports work with logic voltages of +12V and -12V (that's why the serial port is also called V24 interface in old literature). If the VarIO is used in a Zorro-slot or on a 26-pin expansion port, the voltages are available. The clockport on the other hand has only +5V, so the serial voltages must be generated by so-called charge pumps. The two photos show the difference in the assembly of the VarIO:

level-converter of the VarIO for Zorro/26-pin usage	level-converter for Zorro/26-pin/clockport usage

As you may have seen on the diagram of the instruction sheet, the clockport does not have a pin 1. The red marker of the cable must face to pin 40 of the port. Unfortunately, the Z4 board for the A1200 has a "1"-marker printed next to the ports. This is wrong! This is supposed to be a 19! Numbering of the clockport pins starts at 19, and ends at 40. If you connect the cable the wrong way round, the VarIO will be damaged permanently. Faults like this are of course not covered by warranty! Another common mistake is that you've only hit one of the two rows of the clockport. This also causes a short that damages your VarIO!

On the clockport of the A1200, the red marker of the cable must face towards the accelerator card (away from the PCMCIA slot):

connecting a VarIO to an A1200 clockport

connecting a VarIO to a Z4 clockport CAUTION! The clockport on the A1200 mainboard must be left unused with a Z4 board!	Enlarged photo of the connection

The left picture also shows a Silversurfer that is connected to another Z4 clockport. You should only use the clockports of the Z4 board if all Zorro slots are full. Our recommendation is always for a Zorro-slot, because of the better mechanical stability.

connecting a VarIO to the clockport of an ISDN-Surfer

connecting a VarIO to a clockport of a X-Surf

connecting a VarIO to the A600-adapter
(currently not supported by the driver software)

Expansion of the VarIO

The clockprot of the VarIO is not only for interfacing an A1200. It can also be used to connect a Silversurfer that will be used as another serial port by the VarIO driver software. Connect the Silversurfer as shown in the first picture of this manual. Double-check that you've hit both rows of the pinheader!

connecting a Silversurfer limited edition to the VarIO

Please mind that only one of the two expansion ports can be used at the same time: If the VarIO is connected with the 26-pin cable to another Zorro board, the clockport must be left unused, and if the VarIO is used on a clockport (e.g. A1200), the 26-pin port must be left open.

Software installation

For installation of the drivers, there's an installer-script on the disk. Just follow the instructions on screen, the installation is completely self-explanatory.

If you want to use a ZIP drive on the parallelport of the VarIO, the drivers must be installed separately. Double-click on the icon "Install Parallel ZIP". This installer is also self-explanatory.

After successful installation, the serial port(s) can be accessed through the varioser.device. Caution! If there are Silversurfer serial ports in your system, they are also utilized by the VarIO driver software, and must be used through the varioser.device instead of the silversurfer.device from now on. We recommend to delete the silversurfer.device from your system, so no conflicts will occur.

The parallel port of the VarIO can be accessed through the variopar.device. Enter this name in Turboprint or any other print-program.

Device names are case-sensitive on the Amiga. That means that you have to mind upper- and lower case letters if you enter the name in the configuration fields of your software (terminal programs, TCP/IP stack or printer handler). All device names of the VarIO only use lower-case letters!

IOBlix-emulation

If you want to use a parallelport scanner and you have a driver for it to work with the IOBlix interface board, it will also work on the VarIO. This emulation rules out the use of an IOBlix board in the same system. It is technically impossible to use both at the same time in one computer.

This document © Copyright 2002 Jens Schönfeld, individual Computers.