Nixdorf LK-3000 - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

2 May 1999

The module I have is the notepad one and I've been trying to find a manual
(or copy) for it as well as for the main unit.

...
 Many modules were made for it.  There are the general
purpose modules,
like the Calulator, and I think there was a Computer module but I'm not
certain (if there was then I don't have one but I want one).  Of course
its primary goal in life was to be a language translator, and I happen to
have English-Spanish, English-Italian, English-Polish, English-Arabic, and
probably a couple others that I forgot (I have one unit with the Arabic
alphabet above the keys :) 
Do you have any spare module?

...
 I have one carthridge that was already popped open, so
I looked inside and
found nothing extraordinary.  Looks like a TI microcontroller of some sort
and a ROM or two.  But yes, the smarts are definitely in the modules.  The
actual handheld unit is really just a dumb terminal. 
Any actual info on the pinout of the cartridges? It seems like this unit has
hacking potential...

...
 I believe the Nixdorf LK-3000 is the first (uh-oh,
there's that
word again) handheld computer device, first introduced in 1978 or 1979. 
The dates I found indicated 1975.

...
 The NiCad batteries shouldn't need replacing.  If
you just stick it in a
charger for a day then they should come back alive.  The one I played with
hadn't been on in probably a decade or two and it came up after I left it
charging for a while.  I used a 6V, 200ma power supply, center positive. 

The NiCads in mine had started to run (whitish crysltals all over the bottom
of the case) that's why I had to replace them.

Francois