23.Apr.2022
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'Return to Monkey Island' announced, Interview with developer
Monkey Island is a five-part graphic adventure series based on an idea by Ron Gilbert. He was heavily involved in the development of the first two parts, which were also released for the Amiga, before leaving LucasArts in the early 1990s.
At the beginning of April, the developer announced another 'Monkey Island' part in his Blog. Initially interpreted as an April Fool's joke, it became certainty with the release of a first teaser: 'Return to Monkey Island' will be released in 2022.
In an interview with ars TECHNICA, the developer now gives first insights into the development and the history of the game. (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 17:31] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
Twitter
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RTG driver: P96 V3.3.0 released
Jens Schönfeld (individual Computers) has released version 3.3.0 of his RTG driver P96 which among others offers "faster C2P/P2C (for CV3D even hardware-accelerated), new drivers for classic GFX cards like Retina Z2 (the very first one, don't confuse with Z3 version) and Visiona". Changes:
- This release of P96 adds one new feature, namely in-screen mode switches. This allows on advanced graphics cards mixing of high-color/true-color/true-alpha and chunky modes, depending on the flexibility of the hardware. This requires from the driver to implement extended interface functions.
- PicassoIV allows mixing high-color and chunky modes on the same screen. True color and true-alpha modes cannot be mixed with each other or any other modes. Hi-color modes mixed with chunky screens have pixels of twice the width.
- CVision3D supports very flexible mode switching as almost any modes can be mixed. The only exception is that double scanned, interlaced, double-clocked (very high resolution) modes or modes with more than 4095 bytes per line do not allow mode sharing. The pixel aspect ratio is not affected.
- As a side effect, the CVision3D supports now also draggable True-color screens. They could not be dragged before.
- The UAE emulator supports flexible mode sharing of all modes without any restrictions, leaving the pixel aspect ratio alone.
- P96 3.3.0 comes with a driver for the Retina (Zorro-II version) graphics card based on the NCR77C22E+ chip. Please do not confuse this card with the RetinaZ3BLT, which is a different card which was supported already. This driver requires mmu.library to be installed, because the Z2 version of Retina uses banked memory access.
- The Retina Z2 offers a hardware sprite, hi-color and true-color support, but no hardware acceleration. The sprite is not functional in true color mode (or rather, would only offer shades of grey as colors).
- If you receive the error "Direct MMU setup failed to work" from the MuEVD shapeshifter driver with the RetinaZ2, update MuEVD to release 47.1 or edit the ENVARC:MuEVD.Prefs file and include there the option "REF=Yes". This turns off remapping of the MacOs screen to the RetinaZ2 framebuffer.
- P96 3.3.0 also comes now with a driver for the Visiona graphics card based on the INMOS IMSG300 chip.
- Note that this card is notoriosly hard to configure and hard to use, as its output is not complying to the VGA standard, but rather to TV standards. Many LCD displays may not be able to show the signal generated by this card, though older CRTs should be able to show its signal. Your LCD may require to support either composite sync or sync on green, and it may be required to cut the "VSync" output of the card and connect HSync to the composite sync input.
- Visiona (and the IMSG300 chip on it) do not support a sprite nor offer a blitter, thus operations may be relatively slow. Neither does the chip offer panning, nor does the driver currently support interlace. The latter is due to a restriction of the chip which requires particular display width for interlaced screens.
- The Visiona driver is configured through the "SYNC" tool type, which can be either set to "tesselated" (default, recommended), "composite", "separate" or "green". The latter activates sync on green. Unfortunately, the "separate" sync signal is not VGA compatible and thus not suitable for most modern monitors.
- The S3 Virge chipset driver on the CVision3D has been extended again and now also accelerates planar to chunky conversion.
The vertical position of S3 based double-scanned views was computed incorrectly and doubled the vertical position. You may have to adjust your double scanned modes a little bit.
- The S3Virge allows unfortunately not to enable double scan on double-clocked modes. Thus, double-clocking is now kept disabled for double- scanned modes, which limits the resolution of double-scanned modes to approximately 1152x432. 1280x512 is not possible without overclocking, but 1280x1024 remains available as it can be double-clocked.
- The S3Virge stream processor is (at least for some steppings) not able to generate pictures wider than 4095 bytes. In this case, the stream processor is turned off and display generation is forwarded to the legacy VGA engine. This also requires disabling memory windows on such modes.
- The hardware overlays of the S3 and PicassoIV checked whether their apperture settings were consistent with the apperture setting of the screen they appear on. However, this check is no longer required as the 3.2.x release series supports on-demand apperture switching.
- Due to a missing bracked, the P-IV video window (e.g. for PalomaTV) was initialized incorrectly on the first pass, leading to incorrect clipping. Once the window was moved, everything was fine again. This problem has been fixed.
- Screen dragging support for the RetinaZ3Blt was broken, and probably never worked. This should hopefully work in this release now. The same problem goes for the Altais card which is based on the same chip driver.
- The CPU-driven chunky to planar conversions have been rewritten and as such got hopefully somewhat faster. The old roxl-based approach has been replaced by a "folding" algorithm.
- The CPU-driven planar to chunky or direct-color blitting algorithms have been rewritten and hopefully accelerated. The roxl-based algorithm has been replaced by a table-based algorithm.
- The CPU driven masked planar to chunky or planar to direct blitting has been rewritten and is hopefully faster than before. This code now also supports interleaved sources without kludges.
- The logic that re-enabled DMA when a previous RTG screen had turned it off as it wasn't still quite right. It did not turn on DMA if the new view to be loaded was non-NULL, but a native view, and it turned on the sprite DMA even though it should not.
- P96 now turns the display off when switching between planar and chunky modes. This avoids some color distortions while switching.
- If a task changed the colors of an off-monitor screen, P96 erraneously changed the colors of the front-most screen of the same board.
When double clicking on a mode in P96Mode, the mode now also becomes the active mode being edited, and all mode informations are updated accordingly in the gadgets below.
- When the display was switched away from a board with a flicker fixer such as the P-IV, though the target board was not in the display chain, the flicker fixer got disabled, even though it should have stayed on to mirror the native screen that then remains visible.
- When modifying or testing a mode with P96Mode, it could have happened that the mouse could not be moved within the entire screen. This was due to a defect in the rtg.library when creating a temporary mode.
- In case a board does neither provide a mouse cursor nor a blitter, but apperture mapping, P96 incorrectly passed the pointer to the mouse cursor through the aperture mapping algorithm, potentially damaging the mouse pointer colors, or even main memory.
- p96BestModeIDTagList() also delivered modes smaller than the requested view. While possible, smaller modes should be penaltized more and thus the algorithm was slightly modified.
- The cgxBestModeID() function did not handle modes smaller than the requested modes properly either because it worked with the dimension difference as unsigned rather than signed number.
- P96 now includes a substitute of the BestModeID() function of the Os which provides a suitable ModeID under constraints given by the caller. Unfortunately, the Os function makes assumptions on the suitability of a mode due to its pixel speed, which is irrelevant for the purposes of P96. Also, the Os function only allocates modes within a given class of monitor IDs, whereas P96 allocates a separate monitor for each resolution and thus would not find a mode of a size different from that of the monitor provided.
- The P96 guide has been reworked, the list of tool types monitor icons take have been extended and checked, and the list of environment variables have been extended and checked as well.
- The P96 guide contains now considerably larger section on the P96Settings program and how to create your own video modes.
- The P96 guide now also contains an FAQ (frequently asked questions).
It is explicitly pointed out that P96 is commercial software: Distribution via "warez" sites or file sharing is punishable and endangers the future of P96. Jens Schönfeld thanks all "members of the Amiga community who have stopped some violations even before they have been published." (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 08:23] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
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Video test: A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter
In his latest video, Chris Edwards tests the new A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter released by RetroRewind, which claims to be "the world's first and only CF2IDE adapter with buffering, which separates a total of 24 signals from the rest of the system."
This improves the signals and thus contributes to the system's stabilization. A converter is also integrated, which prevents the HDD LEDs on some CompactFlash cards from litting permanently.
Furthermore, an additional drive is also supported, which can be connected to the 44-pin connector CN3. (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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22.Apr.2022
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Emulator: QEMU 7.0 released
QEMU is an open source computer emulator and virtualizer. QEMU is able to emulate a complete computer in software without the need of hardware virtualization. So it is possible to emulate Amiga operating systems like AROS, AmigaOS or MorphOS on QEMU. This support is provided by QEMU developer Zoltan Balaton, who gives lots of tips and info on a dedicated webseite (see also our Excursion of Amiga operating systems on non-native hardware).
As he tells us on request, he did not make any improvements in this development cycle that could have been included in version 7.0, which was released three days ago. A preliminary sound support for Pegasos2 does not work properly yet and he does not have the time for bug analysis. There had been some changes to the PPC CPU emulation by others, but whether that improved the emulation of the Amiga operating systems or not would just have to be tested. In any case, all supported systems would still boot. (dr)
[News message: 22. Apr. 2022, 15:12] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022
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Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.0 Beta 4
Dirk Hoffmann released the fourth beta version of vAmiga 2.0, his Amiga emulator for MacOS which is currently under development (amiga-news.de reported). Changes:
- Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug which led to wrong geometry predictions for some HDFs (AdventuresOfQuik&Silva.hdf).
- The write-through image wasn't updated after attaching a new hard drive.
- Enhancements:
- User-settings are now managed by the core emulator and no longer by the GUI.
(dr)
[News message: 21. Apr. 2022, 18:33] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022
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Programming language: 'AMOS Professional Unity' project updates
Almost exactly one year ago we reported last time about Frédéric 'AmiDARK' Cordier's attempt to add new features to the classic BASIC compiler AMOS Professional with 'AMOS Professional Unity'.
In the meantime the project has been moved to a new website (title link) and restarted. Furthermore the developer announced on Monday to work on another project: the 'Grimoire Projekt'. The goal is "to provide a software development solution for Amiga computers which is at the same time unique, innovative, educational, scalable, and which is suitable for both beginners and experienced developers."
To achieve this goal, he explains, "GenAm" - the assembler compiler available in the "Devpac" series products - is used, and here in particular its macro system. This, he says, makes it possible to create macros that reproduce the operation of a basic language directly in the source code of the Motorola Assembler 68000.
He plans to first add Vampire SAGA Gfx/Audio support to the Grimoire project and later as a plugin to Amos Professional Unity as well. (dr)
[News message: 21. Apr. 2022, 06:42] [Comments: 0]
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20.Apr.2022
Artur Jarosik (Patreon)
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Real-time strategy: Vanilla Conquer V0.99a (update)
Artur Jarosik is known for various game ports like the platformer Hydra Castle Labyrinth or the action adventure Heart of Darkness besides his SDL implementation of the browser NetSurf. As a contribution for the AmiGameJam he started to port the first part of the realtime strategy series Command & Conquer to the Amiga and named it "Vanilla Conquer" (amiga-news.de reported).
Today he has released version 0.99 which now includes all videos. You have to re-download the game. Changes:
- Fixed NOD missions
- Fixed movies playback by converting them to mpeg1 (not on v4 atm)
The game is primarily intended for Amigas upgraded with an Apollo processor, especially the V4 series. However, as the author explained to us, it could also be playable on a 68060 processor with a graphics card with the music and sound effects turned off.
If you want to support the author, you can do so on his Patreon page.
Update: (26.04.2022, 19:03, dr)
Meanwhile version 0.99a is available. Changes:
- Avoid black screen on v4 in the menu
- Fixed movies playback on v4 (Unit 0 in AHI needs 2 channels)
(dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 20:21] [Comments: 1 - 26. Apr. 2022, 19:08]
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20.Apr.2022
Void
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Demo scene: 'Void' releases Dreams #38 and Feedback #12
Void is an Amiga demo group that has been active since 1995. During the last days, the group has released issue 38 of its demopack 'Dreams' as well as issue 12 (YouTube video) of its music disk 'Feedback' for AGA Amigas. (dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 11:33] [Comments: 0]
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20.Apr.2022
Amigans
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AmigaOS 4.1: DvPlayer V54.9 released
In early November 2021, version 54.7 of the DvPlayer video and audio playback program distributed by A-EON Technology was released, supporting the new hardware video acceleration standard introduced with Enhancer Software V2. Now version 54.9 is available via the updater tool which adds "a workaround to compensate for DTS/PTS difference in seeking when seeking is based on DTS (e-g- MP4 files)". (dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 09:00] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
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Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.1
Amiberry is an Amiga emulator for ARM-based single-chip systems like the Raspberry Pi, the Odroid XU4 or the Tinkerboard from ASUS, which brings some newly developed features like a "WHDLoad-Booter" or support for controller configuration using RetroArch.
Yesterday, version 5.1 was released, which provides numerous bug fixes. Most important changes:
- Check if X position has changed also, when using auto-crop
- WinUAE: Reinitialize Floppybridge support if drive mode is changed on the fly.
- WinUAE: Read track zero when checking bootblock contents. Disappeared in previous update.
- Custom Controls: Use strings to parse custom control configs
- WHDBooter: parse H/V Offset settings from XML as well, if found (and we're not using auto-crop)
- Fixed #944: FloppyBridge: loading a config with FB enabled would not initialize it
- Updated amiberry.conf with missing default options
- Allow parsing of Display settings from XML, optionally
- Disable Horizontal Centering by default
(dr)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
McFly (ANF)
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German Amiga Podcast #4
The fourth edition of the "German Amiga Podcast" (GAP) deals with the FPGA turbo card IceDrake V4 for the Amiga 1200. Besides there are some surf tips again. (snx)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:56] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Print magazine: Amiga Future, issue 156
The English and German issue 156 (May/June 2022) of the print magazine Amiga Future has been distributed. It can be ordered directly from its editorial office and from Amiga dealers that stock the magazine.
Content of the current issue includes reviews about Ignition and the Unithor joystick as well as a special about the demoscene. (snx)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:48] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
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First teaser video: Arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna'
José A. 'Jojo073' Gonzáles (among others 1987 Rescue in Berlin, Furtum Sacrum) is a very active graphic designer who has been creating smaller games under the Iron Gate label for years with the help of various game construction kits like Backbone or GRAC.
Now a first teaser video of the arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna' has been released, which seems to be heavily inspired by Operation Thunderbolt. (dr)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 08:39] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022
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Videos: Running Apple Macintosh 6 software on an Amiga using 'A-Max'
Almost at the same time, two videos were released, dealing with the use of the 'Apple Macintosh 6' operating system on an Amiga: In the late 80s, early 90s ReadySoft released their combination of software and hardware, called 'A-Max' and 'A-Max II' respectively, with which you could use Apple Macintosh 6 software.
The user 'intric8' has published a detailed article including a video on AmigaLove, which demonstrates the usage with an Amiga 1000.
The 8-Bit Guy' has also taken care of the topic and shows in his video the usage of the A-Max with an Amiga 500. (dr)
[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 08:25] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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Free hardware: Joystick adapter JoyDivision updated
The USB adapter for classic joysticks by Stefan 'Develin' Blixth (amiga-news.de reported), which works without additional drivers, is now available in version 20220416. This one now also supports the minicomputer THEA500 Mini. (snx)
[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 06:53] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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Aminet uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to Aminet:
thttpd2.21b_working_p... comm/www 13M 68k THTTPd with PHP support + Big...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 2.3M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
F1GP2022Carset.lha game/data 7K 2022 Carset for F1GP
MCE.lha game/edit 3.3M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.6M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 3.8M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
AmiDuke_RTG.lha game/shoot 622K 68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
Gotcha199.lha game/think 55K 68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
WhatIFF1.04.lha mags/misc 674K What IFF? #1.04-March-2022
unshield.lha util/arc 126K MOS Extract/list InstallShield Ca...
TestProgram.zip util/misc 664K 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to OS4Depot:
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb 4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to AROS Archives:
whatiff1.04.lha doc/mis 674kb AmigaGuide format Magazine Mar/A...
atomiks.i386-aros.zip gam/puz 772kb 1990)
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
AmiArcadia_28.5.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
unshield_1.5.1.lha Files/Archive Extract/list InstallShi...
ADiffView_2.2.lha Text/Compare A graphical file compar...
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 16.04.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 16.04.2022:
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite)
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Event: Amiga37 homepage online
On 15/16 October 2022 the Amiga37 will take place in Mönchengladbach, Germany (amiga-news.de reported). Now the corresponding homepage has been set up under the title link, but the list of participants is still empty and will be published bit by bit. Advance ticket sales are expected to start next week. (snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Hackster
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Open Source 3D printer: SLS4All
Every now and then we report on do-it-yourself projects such as making your own joystick using a 3D printer. Not bad, you might say, but what's the point if I don't have a 3D printer? Especially not one that is even remotely affordable!
While not amiga-inspired, Tomas Starek may have had similar thoughts when he started his DIY project of his own affordable 3D printer. However, as he tells us, he was so surprised by the positive reactions from around the world that he decided to document his 'Open Source' project thoroughly and comprehensibly.
He chose the SLS printing process for this. As the portal hackster.io reports, there are currently no consumer SLS 3D printers on the market. The process involves beaming a laser at a bed of powdered polymer, which thereby melts it and turns it into a solid. As with other forms of 3D printing, the layers build up to form a three-dimensional object. Compared to other processes, it offers the advantage of generating bridges and overhanging geometry, he said. The print chamber is 175 X 175 X 200 mm in size.
For control, Starek chose a combination of BigTreeTech 1.4 Turbo control board and Raspberry Pi 4B, both running Klipper firmware.
The main goal of his project is to use the most "affordable" (initially: cheap) parts possible. The should be able to create complex prints and be user-friendly. We asked the developer what costs should ultimately be expected by an interested user who wants to build the 3D printer himself: he estimates about 2500 euros. At a later date, he could also imagine selling the printer as a finished, commercial product or as a kit for assembly. For now, however, it is a matter of finishing the development of the printer. And the current status looks like this:
- DESIGN: Generic & Fusion 360 design 100%
- Hardware Parts fabrication and Build: Frame & Moving Parts 98%
- Electronic equipment installation: Laser, Galvo system, step motors, heaters 100%
- Firmware And Software development: FW customization & F-e development 75%
- Testing: Partial Tests, Complex testing, 3D printing 65%
- Documentation: F3D, DXF & STL files, GitHub Repos, etc... 50%
(dr)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 06:36] [Comments: 0]
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