Cybiko (was Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 Nov 2002

On Nov 29, 12:33, Brian Chase wrote:
...
  On Fri, 29 Nov 2002, Peter Turnbull wrote: 
...
  > After some of the posts here, I'm seriously
thinking of getting one.  Can
...
  > anyone tell me what the screen resolution is
(chars x lines) if I use it as
...
   a terminal?

 I found a site that offers a VT100 emulator for it.

 The original model (which is now selling for 25$US on Amazon.com), has
 the following specs:

 32bit, 11MHz Hitachi H8S/2246; a 4MHz Amtel AT90S2313; 512KB of RAM, LCD
 display of 160x100 pixels, 
I found that, and also saw in the terminal emulator blurb that there's a
choice of fonts including 3x5, 4x6 and 5x7, so it should be able to make a
reasonable display, say 40 chars by 16 lines.  The software is hardly a
VT100 emulation though; it only does clear screen and cursor movements, and
none of the other VT100 ops.  So far :-)

...
  an RF2915 transceiver, RS232 serial port. The
 RF communication specs are that it operates in the frequency of
 902-928MHz.  It supports 30 digital channels, with rates of 19200
 bps/channel.  The range is 150ft indoors, and 300ft outdoors. 
It says "up to 150ft".  In some places I've been, I bet it would be pushed
to manage 150" :-)

...
  And it
 mentions a "max on-line Cybiko computers" of 3000 (100 units on each of
 30 channels).  My impression that each unit can communicate
 simultaneouly with that number of other units.

 This information was found near the end (pg 46 or 47) of their online
 guide: http://www.cybiko.com/guide/guide.pdf

 The newer Xtreme (gah!) model has more RAM, a faster main processor, and
 a USB port (I don't see an RS232 port mentioned.)
 http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/support/specs.asp 
USB isn't useful to me.  None of my SGIs, Suns or older machines support
it.

BTW, the RRP in the UK is ?29.99 according to Cybiko's online shop.  I've
seen it for ?26.99 at Jungle, it may be cheaper elsewhere.  That includes
batteries, charger, RS232 cable, etc, so it's worth buying "on spec" at
that price.  And the Linux SDK is free, like the Windows one, except it's
(the Linux SDK) currently one revision ahead, interestingly.

Anyway, I found the terminal emulator.  More importantly, I found Asteroids
and Colossal Cave ;-)   Now I just need Wumpus ;-)

http://www.devrs.com/cybiko/download.php

-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York