26 Nov
2002
26 Nov
'02
3:54 p.m.
Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
I'm thinking more towards commodity laptops
because they are much
more common. The LX palmtops certainly qualify for an out-of-the-box
device that's easy to add a terminal emulator to.
The 95LX/100LX/200LX have the terminal emulator in the ROM; in fact
the 95LX's usefulness as a portable terminal is why I got interested
in the HP MS-DOS palmtops way back when. But it's been long enough
since I used a 95LX that I don't remember what its is like, other than
the less-than-24x80 screen. The 100LX/200LX have a usable VT100
emulation, and have a serial port that can do hardware flow control
which is a plus.
The 1000CX is a 100LX/200LX that just boots to MS-DOS without the
applications that are built-in to the 100LX/200LX; you'd need to add
an MS-DOS terminal emulator program to that, but then it would sit in
the internal RAMdisk until you let the batteries go flat. Maybe you
would put it on a PCMCIA flash card.
If you want to go the commodity laptop route, I wonder if the easiest
solution wouldn't be a flash device with an IDE connector. Just install
it as the "disk drive" and put FreeDOS and your favorite MS-DOS terminal
emulator. These things do turn up on eBay fairly regularly.
-Frank McConnell
27 Nov
27 Nov
4:35 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
--- Frank McConnell <fmc(a)reanimators.org> wrote:
I didn't know that. The screen size is a limitation, of course.
Does it act like a tiny VT100 (ANSI escape sequences)? Is there a
UNIX termcap for it?
Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm thinking more towards commodity laptops because they are much
> more common...
The LX
palmtops certainly qualify for an out-of-the-box
device that's easy to add a terminal emulator to.
The 95LX/100LX/200LX have the terminal emulator in the ROM... If you want to go the commodity laptop route, I wonder
if the easiest
solution wouldn't be a flash device with an IDE connector. Just install
it as the "disk drive" and put FreeDOS and your favorite MS-DOS terminal
emulator. These things do turn up on eBay fairly regularly.
I have several adapters - 3.5" desktop (fits in a drive bay, takes a
full-sized PCMCIA card) and two models of CF adapters (mounts in place
of a 2.5" IDE drive). What I lack are enough CF or PCMCIA cards to
dedicate them to a task. I've been looking around for 2MB-4MB PCMCIA
flash cards for a couple of years now, and not finding them. There
must be a cache of them somewhere. They _used_ to be common for digital
cameras. I'd buy a dozen if they were cheap enough - I play with floppy-
based Linux routers. 2MB of flash is plenty for what I'm doing.
At the moment, I have 1 8MB CF card and a couple of 16MB CF cards. Plenty
of space, but I'd rather not lock them away for an indeterminate amount
of time.
Anyone know where to get a stack of low-capacity PCMCIA or CF cards? I'm
thinking in the $0.50-$1.00/MB price range (since 16MB cards can be had
for $10 retail).
-ethan
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5:06 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
there's always epay;). this guy seems to have quite a few 4mb cards-
the smallest sizes I've seen for about 2-4$US. You might be able
to get a qty price. I have no connection to this seller.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1941201783
Now if I could only get a nice cheap (<10$) cf to IDE adapter-
the kind that plugs piggyback style right onto the motherboard
40 pin IDE header. I've seen may source including the TAPR-
but they tend to range from 25$-75$US. If I could source some
cheap ($<5) through hole CF right angle connectors, it would be
worth it to lay out a cheap double side pcb of a few sq inches/
heinz
Anyone know where to get a stack of low-capacity
PCMCIA or CF cards? I'm
thinking in the $0.50-$1.00/MB price range (since 16MB cards can be had
for $10 retail).
-ethan
5:32 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
--- Heinz Wolter <h.wolter(a)sympatico.ca> wrote:
there's always epay;). this guy seems to have
quite a few 4mb cards-
the smallest sizes I've seen for about 2-4$US.
That's not too bad.
You might be able to get a qty price...
That would be better. I haven't hit ePay because I don't want to
get nibbled up by $3-$6 each in shipping. It's cheaper to wait
for a sale on 16MB cards at the corner store. I'm interested in
getting a stack of flash cards in one go, for one shipping amount.
Anything else gets too expensive to justify.
Now if I could only get a nice cheap (<10$) cf to
IDE adapter-
the kind that plugs piggyback style right onto the motherboard
40 pin IDE header. I've seen may source including the TAPR-
but they tend to range from 25$-75$US....
I've not seen anything that cheap. The TAPR one is about as cheap as
it gets.
I got a few 3.5" 40-pin-connector w/hard-disk-style molex power connector
for about that (a woman wrote me to offer them to me because she saw me
discussing them on some webified mailing list somewhere), but they are
PCMCIA, not CF, so you'd need an adapter, plus they take up lots more
room than the TAPR units.
If I could source some cheap ($<5) through hole CF
right angle
connectors...
I have never seen thru-hole CF adapters, only SMT. Doesn't mean there
aren't any; I've just never seen any.
-ethan
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7:43 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
Rumor has it that Heinz Wolter may have mentioned these words:
[snip]
Now if I could only get a nice cheap (<10$) cf to
IDE adapter-
the kind that plugs piggyback style right onto the motherboard
40 pin IDE header. I've seen may source including the TAPR-
but they tend to range from 25$-75$US
Well, I can find a *little* cheaper than $25 -- Cloud9 has a CFIDE adapter
for $20 -- will plug straight into the IDE port from the looks of it -- and
the guy builds & sells 'em to support the CoCo community. Find it here:
http://www.cloud9tech.com/Hardware/CFIDE.html
Anyway, HTH!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
9:31 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
Well, I can find a *little* cheaper than $25 -- Cloud9
has a CFIDE
adapter for $20 -- will plug straight into the IDE port from the looks
of it...
http://www.cloud9tech.com/Hardware/CFIDE.html
On the site it states:
"all CompactFlash cards from 8MB up to 512MB"
I wonder if that's a CoCo limitation?
Adaptors I've seen like this are completely passive
with nearly 1:1 connection mappings and no logic at
all.
John A.
some logic present
9:56 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
Rumor has it that John Allain may have mentioned these words:
This is MHO, but I honestly don't think there's a limitation at all --
anything less than 8MB would be near pointless to monkey with as a "HD" for
the CoCo, and >512MB prolly didn't exist at the time...
-- Unless, of course, there's the possibility that there were some
flashcards that were smaller than 8MB that didn't have the full ATA spec
built-in - these might not work - not due to the adapter, but due to the
drivers for the CoCo IDE interface...
'Course, you could zing him off an email - he'd be the best one to talk to
about that...
HTH,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
Well, I can
find a *little* cheaper than $25 -- Cloud9 has a CFIDE
adapter for $20 -- will plug straight into the IDE port from the looks
of it...
http://www.cloud9tech.com/Hardware/CFIDE.html
On the site it states:
"all CompactFlash cards from 8MB up to 512MB"
I wonder if that's a CoCo limitation?
Adaptors I've seen like this are completely passive
with nearly 1:1 connection mappings and no logic at
all. 
28 Nov
28 Nov
2:49 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
Roger Merchberger wrote:
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin,
Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
Make pie!
30 Nov
30 Nov
6:47 a.m.
New subject: PCMCIA/CF flash cards as boot devices (was Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?)
John Allain wrote:
On the site it states:
"all CompactFlash cards from 8MB up to 512MB"
I wonder if that's a CoCo limitation?
Adaptors I've seen like this are completely passive
with nearly 1:1 connection mappings and no logic at
all.
... and in the FAQ on the site it says:
Q. How large of a CompactFlash card will the adapter support?
A. Theoretically, any size will work, just as any size IDE hard drive
will work.
Currently, CompactFlash cards are available on the market in 256 and
512MB sizes.
We haven't tested those sizes but feel confident that they will work
fine.
7839
days inactive
7843
days old
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
allain＠panix.com -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
fmc＠reanimators.org -
h.wolter＠sympatico.ca -
MichaelDavidson＠pacbell.net -
zmerch＠30below.com