Poqet PC

(I tried replying to this on Friday, but was at home, accessing work email with Outlook Web Access, which my company requires. The reply didn't make it.) There were 3 Poqet models, referred to as the "Classic" (PQ-0164), "Prime" (PQ-0181) and "Plus". My information comes from Brian Mason's Poqet PC Web site http://www.bmason.com/PoqetPC/index.shtml, an excellent source. The last one is the Fujitsu model that California Digital sells. It has backlighting, built-in rechargable NiCads (which often are dead by now), 2MB RAM, and Type I/II PCMCIA slots. It is the only model that can use Flash RAM (up to 32MB, reports to the contrary notwithstanding) and modem cards (only certain ones). The first model had 512KB RAM, and the second 640KB, as well as better built-in programs. Both use two AA batteries for power. There is no backup battery -- you have about 30 seconds to change AA's before the internal RAM disk goes blank. (I asume Steve is refering to the backup batteriues in his SRAM cards.) Both can only use Type I PCMCIA SRAM cards or small linear Flash cards (as ROM cards). The expansion connector on the back is a female 80-pin edge connector. It brings out most of the PC bus, as well as the serial lines. Pinouts are in Brian Mason's FAQ and in the Fujitsu technical manual, which Brian has on his web site (http://www.bmason.com/PoqetPC/techref/toc.html). The Poqet serial adaptor is rather bulky, so I created a bitmap for etching a small PC board to use as a serial connector. I can email the bmp file to anyone who is interested. The Poqet PC web site also has archives of a mailing list, with lots of useful info. The list has been dead for about 2 years now. There was an attempt to revive a list, but it is only sporadically active. Used Poqets are popular with QRP radio fans. The New Jersey QRP web site has info on replacing dead Nicads in the Plus model. BTW, the spelling of the name is "Poqet". It is pronounced as "pocket", I believe, although I pronounce it "PO-ket". All-in-all, I think the HP LX palmtops are better and more useful computers. (I have a Poqet PQ-0181, HP 95LX and HP 200LX.) <plug> I also have two early PQ-0164's, both with broken LCD's, missing keys, opened cases, etc. (this is the way they were when I got them). The newer is serial number 5224, with PC boards made in Japan. The earlier is Poqet Computer Corp Asset #02778, with boards made in the US. This one also has a "US Govt. Prop. DOE" sticker on the screen. I'm willing to part with either or both of these. Contact me offline.</plug> -----Original Message----- From: Steve Jones [mailto:classiccmp@crash.com] Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 8:43 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Poqet PC I've muddied the waters a bit... The link I included was for the later Fujitsu Poqet PC Plus. Fujitsi bought out the original company before or while the second generation product was being offered. CA Digital is giving specs for the Plus model, which is what I believe they're selling. Gee, I wonder if this is covered on one of the timelines people have been discussing... The original Poqet PC has _no_ backlight, uses 2 std AA cells, and MS-DOS 3.3 in ROM. Not sure how much memory is in there, ISTR at least 512K and maybe more. There's a small ramdisk on D: for AUTOEXEC/CONFIG.SYS, and the DOS ROM is C:. The two PCMCIA slots at A:/B: are nice, especially with the 2MB SRAM cards - however I appear to have forgotten to refresh the lithium backup batteries in mine :^} Fred's right, the original Poqet brings pretty much the whole XT bus out to a connector on the back. I like the idea of hooking this up to a backplane... B^P Somewhere I have the docs from when I bought the thing, but it may be years before they surface again. --S.