>Message: 21
>Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 14:07:09 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Fred Cisin < cisin at xenosoft.com >
>Subject: Re: Vintage Portable Computing Suggestions?
>
>Howzbout:
>HP95LX
The 95LX runs MS-DOS 3.0, has a non-standard serial port, and non-standard screen, so I would go with the 200LX.
>The tablet that Fujitsu came out with when they bought out Poqet
This Poqet (the Poqet Plus, IIRC) can use more PC cards than the two earlier models (PQ165 and PQ181), but might be hard to locate. You will almost certainly need to rebuild the rechargeable NiCad battery. The earlier models use 2 AA batteries.
>Antikythera!!
I don't think that was programmable and I doubt that you can find one for sale.
>iPaq pocket computers with Windoze CE ?(Palm Pilot competitor)
>
>You could probably install Windoze 3.00 on a Poqet! ? 8086??, CGA video
Yep, I have Windows 3.0 on my Poqet PQ181 (the middle model). Works nicely with a Barbie (as in the Mattel doll) pen mouse, which might still be available from California Digital, but the serial port adapter is hard to find. If anyone is interested, I think I still have the artwork I made up to make a serial port adapter from printed circuit board.
As to the HP LX palmtops, since they run MS-DOS, you can use any number of programming languages. I have used MASM and Turbo C 2.0 on both the 95LX and 200LX.
I have a 200LX and?3 Poqets (only one is working, though), but I have heard good things about the Psion 5.
Bob
I'm putting this out because I know there are some who tinker with
microcontroller applications on the list. I can't really get an
answer from web searches.
At any rate, I've got an ATMega AVR that I'm using with SDCards in
SPI mode.
I've got a random assortment of MMC and SD and SDHC cards and they
all seem to work as expected--until I ran into a bunch of Kingston
4GB Class 4 SDHC cards (model SD-K04G). Then things fall apart. The
cards function normally in SD mode. SanDisk 4GB SDHC cards work just
fine.
Here's the SPI conversation from its start:
Sending: 40 00 00 00 00 95
Receiving: 01
Sending: 48 00 00 01 AA 87
Receiving: 05
Sending: 41 00 00 00 00 01
Receiving: 05
Note that both CMD8 and CMD1 fail with "illegal operation". I'm
running the SPI clock at about 250KHz, so speed isn't the issue.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
--Chuck
pdp11 CPU on S100 board?
jim s jws at jwsss.com
<mailto:cctalk%40classiccmp.org?Subject=Re%3A%20pdp11%20CPU%20on%20S100%20bo
ard%3F&In-Reply-To=%3C4DD317BE.4050704%40jwsss.com%3E>
Tue May 17 19:50:06 CDT 2011
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________________________________
I have raised the issue of documentation for the Soviet parts with a
fellow who posted here recently who lives in Moscow. He will help with
getting documenation translated if it can be had.
I passed him three auctions with the parts I believe people here could
bid on and obtain. He also looked for some information and sent it to me.
[snip]
-----REPLY-----
Hi Jim! Thanks! I appreciate your enthusiasm for the S-100 PDP-11 CPU
board project. I am willing to capture a schematic in KiCAD, layout a PCB,
and get some prototype boards for build and test. At S100computers.com and
N8VEM home brew computing project we have a substantial library of free/open
source S-100 board designs we could reuse and borrow from to reduce
technical risk. However we are missing an important part of this project --
someone to the design the board!
I know almost nothing about PDP-11 and certainly not enough to design an
S-100 CPU board based on one. Nearly any S-100 CPU board is a significant
design effort even with the mere 8080 which the S-100 supports almost
natively. Were someone to send me a handwritten schematic I could capture
it in KiCAD and send it out for review.
Hopefully the datasheets can be made available or translated. That would be
helpful. Also, a reliable source of the chips would be helpful too.
However, I would like for people to have realistic expectations. This
project won't happen unless an actual designer steps forward. This is a
substantial project and it will require many skilled and able hands.
It would also need someone to write and/or modify an existing free/open
source PDP-11 operating system to use existing S-100 peripherals. I suspect
that is a major task as well for which we have no volunteers. I would like
to see this project happen but it is missing key participants to make it
work.
Thanks and have a nice day!
Andrew Lynch
This is only a test, if this were a real message, then it wouldn't be a test.
Just testing, for some reason, the last two times I've tried to reply to a list message, I get a bounce:
Remote host said: 553 5.3.0 Spam blocked
-Ian
I've recently acquired a Morrow MDT 60, which, as far as I had always known, is basically just a Zenith Z29. Playing with it, it seems to have a rather brain damaged control character scheme, and insists on using parity no matter what. If you want a laugh, look at the MDT60 User's Manual, available on Bitsavers, and check out page 2-4 (PDF page 21). Even though switch 3 is defined as parity enable/disable, it's *also* defined in the table below, selecting which kind of parity to use... Therefore, it seems to me that disabling parity simply is not possible...
Anyway, I took the back off and took a look at the board. Interestingly enough the logic board itself says "Morrow Terminal Bd", even though the casing and keyboard are clearly the same as the Zenith Z29. The monitor section itself definitely appears to be Zenith. I'm wondering if anyone has a Z29, if you could remove the back and take a picture of the logic board. It's really easy - three 1/4" hex cap screws and the rear pan just folds down. For bonus points, I'd love a copy of the terminal's ROM.
I'm wondering just what is going on with this terminal. Did Morrow have Zenith make them? The other way around? Are the logic boards of the two terminals the same, with only different ROMs, or are they totally different devices? Is there any way to make the MDT60 not use parity and otherwise play nice with *nix systems?
-Ian
Anyone interested in several cartons of empty 8" floppy boxes? A few
are cardboard but most are the typical plastic unit. There are at least
several dozen.
Last chance before the recycler.....
steve
wow - unexpected response!
steve: the large flat rate is 12x12x5.5 so 3 will just fit on the
short dimension...
Adrian: not sure if flat rate goes to Canada - let me check
Erik: I'm in Boulder Creek so we could meet someplace for the rest...
steve
Here's an interesting freebie. I haven't tried it yet but it looks worth
trying. Still actively developed, the guy is porting it to Android.
http://www.ppcompiler.org/index.php?lng=en
