HP 660LX unboxing and review + questions!

I recently picked up an HP 660LX on ebay with the original box and most of the original materials:



I've got it connected to my Windows 11 desktop via a Windows XP VM in Hyper-V. I was able to install ActiveSync and then Windows CE 2.0 SP1 and the network service pack from this website. When connected via the serial cable, I have network but it looks like DNS doesn't work because I can access by IP address but no domain names work.

I'd like to get a Wifi card but seems almost impossible now for a reasonable price.

Is anyone doing anything interesting with one of these devices now?

I installed all the development tools on my XP VM but I don't yet have any ideas on what to develop.

I installed PockedDOS but the performance on a 75mhz SH3 is really not great. I was hoping to maybe use it as a portable DOS machine but it seems too slow for that.

Unless you only want to run very old real mode DOS programs , I think there is not enough processor and memory. I have a 620LX that I use mostly for reading (mobipocket) in dark places and playing around with chip8 games. (The Win CE 1.0 chip8 emulator works fine on 2.0) Spectrum emulation works fine but for the stupid o key not working. Smaller GB games are also usable in the gameboy emulator.

You probably will want to replace the battery cells if you are going to mess with emulators, though. 2 new 18650s are almost as good as the extended battery pack.

The batteries are still... functional. So I hesitate to replace them yet.

@wvenable Even with s/h to Canada (so much more reasonable than s/h from Canada), you could pick a used Orinoco Gold card on ebay. They're reasonably-priced though you're stuck on 128bit WEP. You'll have to decide whether to attach a WEP-enabled second router to your main router, or explore other ways to get on-line. Do you still have access to 2G/3G in Canada? If so, you could connect to an old infrared phone, eg: some ancient Nokia, and use the C:Amie-made ir driver, available here for download.

Once on-line, you'll have trouble getting email since most email companies have stopped using a 110 port (though earthlink.net still does), replacing 110 with more sophisticated security. Browsing could be limited as well (but 68k.news works on all CE browsers, I believe). If you choose to telnet, there is one bbs that allows lynx browsing, pretty much to all sites, though text-only.

I guess the main point is that networking is available but with caveats and necessary workarounds. That's part of the fun

Welcome here.

Jake

You didn't mention HPC:Factor in our video, so I can't give you a community badge for your video

I think there is a reasonable amount of software for CE 2.00, but the device is better supported if it has the CE 2.11 ROM upgrade. The 620 / 660 were the black sheep interim devices really, they didn't last very long before HP came back with the 680 and then obviously hit a home run in that device's evolution with the 720.

> You didn't mention HPC:Factor in our video, so I can't give you a community badge for your video

Is that a thing? I didn't do much planning for that video.

If I do another video with some software, I will definitely mention HPC:Factor.



Edited by wvenable 2023-10-02 7:20 PM

> Even with s/h to Canada (so much more reasonable than s/h from Canada), you could pick a used Orinoco Gold card on ebay.

@Jake is there anything I should look out for when looking for a Wifi card? Is something like this just going to work?

> I guess the main point is that networking is available but with caveats and necessary workarounds. That's part of the fun

Indeed. I think I would just have to proxy everything though some custom software on the desktop. Or write some custom clients for things -- I, of course, installed all the development tools. It's just hard to think of something interesting to write for it that doesn't necessarily involve networking of some sort. It's times like this I also wish I had a more flexible home router.

Yes it should. Use the CE2.0 driver here
https://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/detail.asp?hcdid=489&pn=1&categoryId=%2D1&sortBy=&hclq=lucent&gowince=1%2C3%2C5%2C7%2C10

I have the Orinoco Gold with my CE2.0 MobilePro 700. Works!

@wvenable - it's a thing https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20044&posts=24&start=1

@torch agreed, in a big way. The Orinoco Gold is, in fact, the gold standard for wifi cards, tho others work as well.

@wvenable for proxy: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20403&posts=5&start=1

Buying an old netgear router that can do WEP is always an option, just ethernet attach to the main router.

A wifi card will eat that aged battery of yours pretty quickly, so you may want to invest in a MiniGorilla external battery or some other ilk that can produce voltage/plug of your device.

As you see, we're very anxious here to spend your money for you

Jake

@torch -- I just looked at the Orinoco ebay listing. I don't remember it being blue; I always thought they came in purple. CE Geek would know for sure, if you don't.

Such as this:

Something about Lucent as the best model is ringing a dim bell...

Jake

Edited by Jake 2023-10-02 9:57 PM

The blue one is the Lucent version; the purple one is the Agere version. They're the same card with slightly different labels. But for CE 2.0 you have to use the Lucent WaveLAN driver.

Ah. Thanks for refreshing my memory. Once you have a working backup for these devices, you forget how you got there.

Jake

Another really nice site to find SH3/MIPS softwares is this one:

http://old-hpc.narod.ru/prog.html

It even has screenshots! As you might guess from the URL, it's all in Russian. Don't forget to check all three links near the top of the page, marked ???????? "stranetza?" 1, 2, 3. They lead to more programs.