--- On Tue, 12/2/08, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
not having to
haul a[n old] laptop around for a serial
terminal will be a
huge boon. There's a keyboard just about
anywhere, and I envision a
"production" model with, say, a 5"
LCD
in the case, running on batteries.
Literally a shirt-pocket terminal.
If you know of a smallish VGA LCD, that'd be great. I
myself have
nothing smaller than about 12", larger than my Planar
ELT-320
terminals.
I like it because you can show up on site with just the
pocket-sized
box and a wall-wart, and use available resources (kb and
monitor)
rather than hauling them around.
The great thing about a project like this, is that you can build it however you want.
Another option would be to build it right onto a PS/2 keybord. Not necessarily _into_
because it'd be quite hard to make it all fit, but you could have it as a flat box
affixed to the bottom of the keyboard itself. You could even have a rechargable battery
for power (and, of course a power socket for a wall wart). Then, you could simply have one
device - this thickened keyboard - and you can plug it right into any monitor and go.
But, once again, here's the beauty of this project - build it however you like, build
it into whatever you want. If I get around to building one, I'm probably going to have
both male and female 25 pin connectors on the back, wired in parallel, as DTE. Add a
second set of 25 pin connectors wired the other way (DCE) - eliminating the need for null
modem adapters and gender changers. You could only use one plug at a time, but at least
one of the four should work.
Of course, it all depends on your tastes and what you need in your life - and wether you
have more monitors or keyboards laying around. Myself, I seem to have more terminals
laying around, but, it's sometimes a pain in the neck to get past their individual
quirks. For example, I've been working on a project centered around a PC, and while
it's VGA output and keyboard are busy being dedicated to the application I'm
setting up, I have a terminal plugged in to edit files and issue commands, without having
to quit out of the other app. I'm using a Televideo 921, which, while it has a termcap
entry, it still doesn't work properly. None of the screen editors want to cooperate.
I've found that if I lie and say it's an adm3a, it works, but then I lose other
functionality (arrow keys stop working, occasional display glitches), but at least I can
run vi.
-Ian