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HPC/Windows CE device recommendation

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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 2:55 AM
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I have made that kind of set-up with my Raspberry 3B+, but with a usb-serial adapter to get my HP 200LX on-line. Since it's headless and there's no power-off button, I put a cron job in to shut the Pi down after 30mins. Soldering it all together hadn't occurred to me; I just wish there was some kind of case that would hold both Pi and battery, a one-unit thing.

I would love to figure out a way to internet share b/w Raspian and handheld via infrared, but I guess recent kernels have abandoned IR altogether.

Jake
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yeek Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 11:48 AM
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Someone did make an irDA hat for the GPIO pins, could be a cleaner setup than busting into a PCMCIA card like I was going to. Here's a link to that. https://irdroid.eu/product/irda-pihat/ $33.00 USD with a case, I'll keep looking for one that's smaller though as the real appeal for me is using a pi zero, I mean, I don't need all the ports anyway.
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 1:58 PM
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That's a great find. I wonder how they're getting IR to work if its capability is being removed from current Linuxes; I find a lot of complaints about it, but haven't yet found the definitive yes-or-no if capability still exists. Tho perhaps Raspbian maintains its own ir-capable kernel.

Jake

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Richard Plume Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 2:26 PM
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Rich Hawley - 2021-02-01 5:49 PM

Don't trust those Canucks…


Hi Rich!

I hope you're doing well too!

Rick
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yeek Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 4:03 PM
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It's a hardware solution, the MCP2120-SL is an IrDA encode/decode chip, and everything on the software side is probably in the EEPROM on the board itself. The pi sees it as a serial device so as long as the distro supports serial communication it'll work. It's looking like the most appealing option right now, everything else I can find seems to rely on lirc and really be aimed more at making a remote control than a transceiver.
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-02 6:17 PM
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Ah, that makes sense. And yes, most ir/linux googling brings lirc complaints, which doesn't serve our purposes here. I just bought an Actisys ACT-IR224UN, which has the latest chip, so it should work with Win10, but I can't get it to show up in Control_Panel/Infrared. But I wonder if that might work with the Raspberry Pi.

Jake
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Richard Plume Page Icon Posted 2021-02-03 10:04 PM
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Hmmmm. Handheld PCs and word processing – one of my great loves. I’m going to add a bit to what I’ve already said and take you is directions you might not have thought about. All of what I’m about to say is drawn from personal and professional experience over the past 40 years or so.

First of all, I have no experience constructing devices that allow H/PCs to connect to the modern internet to either get email or check web sites. If you do, more power to you, and I’ll be first in line to buy one so I get get email again on my MobilePro 700.

I’ve used pretty much everything since the original Radio Shack 100, including Psions (3 and 5 series), HP (95, 100 and 200LX), Dana and Palms (lots of them including the great TRGpro), Newtons (120, 130 and 2100) and just about every WinCE H/PCs ever made. They all have both good and bad points.

First off, the keyboard is everything. You don’t want to type a novel on an HP 200LX with a chicklet keyboard or even a Psion 5mx with it’s pretty decent keyboard (I know someone who wrote a couple of novels on a 5mx and ended up with a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome). Secondly, at least in my case, getting work off the machine for editing was also critical.

So, lets look at some machines...

First off is the Tandy series (100, 102, 200 and WP2). Their keyboards are great. Don’t dismiss them because of their limited RAM. There was an active user group (I have not been a member for a very long time, but they may still be around, try Googling them) and they’ve produced some add-ons that can bump up the RAM and allow the use of SD cards to get your work off the machine. In particular, I once owned a WP2 that came with a cable and software that allowed flawless syncing with my Mac SE. It was a beautiful setup that transfered the WP2’s text output to WriteNow 2.2 on the Mac. It was one of the greatest writing/editing setups I’ve ever used. However, I think you might be out of luck for email – I don’t remember every getting on the internet with a Tandy for email. I only received email through a BBS that we had at work.

Next up are Psions. They make great machines and the 5mx has a beautiful keyboard. Unfortunately, the 5 series has one fatal flaw – the ribbon cable that runs under the hinge. I’ve had more repairs to ribbon cables than I can count. There used to be a company not far from where I live that repaired them – but he retired long ago. I never found typing on the keyboard to be a problem, but I also have never written a novel on one – your mileage may vary. I also had problems getting articles off the 5 series. I never found the snyching software to be that great and when I transfered stories via CF card, I always had to reformat the card in the Psion. I have no idea why that happened but it did turn me off from using them.

I also used Newtons for a very long time. The best was the 2100. Incredible screen, fantastic battery life, a great add-on keyboard and the software was also great. It made for a fantastic, portable writing machine. In the early days, getting text off the machine wasn’t really a problem, but became increasingly frustrating due to Mac and Windows OS upgrades. Using cards to take text off also didn’t work, due to the proprietary nature of the Newton file system. At some point, either, late last century or early in this one, I stopped using them and switched to WinCE. There is still a very active Newton Users Group going on via email with a few web sites dedicated to Newtons. I believe you can also still do email through one or two of the sites directly on your Newton. I also believe that software have improved in the last decade or so and you may be able to transfer your files from a Newton to a desktop, but don’t quote me on that.

AlphaSmart Dana, the Palms and TRGpro. I’ve also used a good number of Palms and settled on the TRGpro as the best of them. It’s what the Palm III should have been, with an actual file system and the ability to use CF cards. Using WordSmithPro and a utility called CF2Doc, which works on the TRGpro to change Palm Doc format to text, and a Palm folding keyboard you have one very powerful and small word processor. Unfortunately I never found a way to connect to the internet other than through the Palm modem. There’s not too many landline connections around these days. The Dana is like a very large Palm with an amazing, full-size keyboard. There are also other AlphaSmart products like the Neo, which people swear by for word processing, but I’ve never owned one.

That brings me to Windows CE.

I’ve written about some greyscale WinCE H/PCs and AA betteries here: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=16157&st...

I switched to WinCE sometime before the end of the last century and they’ve served me well. As you’ve found with your z50, with a decent keyboard, they make great machines for undistracted writing.

I have a couple of favourites: the Sharp Mobilon HC-4100. Nice screen, runs on AA batteries and they keyboard, although a chicklet type, isn’t too bad. You won’t want to write a novel on it, but for a pocket-sized, jotting down notes machine, it’s pretty darn good. The Casio PA-2400U-CF is the next on my list. I love the screen on this one – everything is so much bigger. It runs on AA batteries and I have external iBIZ keyboards which have a very nice feel. The MobilePro 700 is my all-time favourite. It runs on 2 AA batteries, the screen isn’t all that great indoors, but outdoors it’s amazing. The keyboard is probably the best part of the machine – it’s very comfortable to type on. The 32 megs of RAM also doesn’t hurt. I also use the CF card to transfer files to a desktop. In short, it’s probably the best portable word processor I’ve ever used. Also, it’s younger brothers - the 770, 780 and 790 have colour screens, great keyboards and can run for a couple of hours on accessory AA battery packs. Running on AA batteries is important to me as I tend to use them in out-of-the-way places, camping, etc. Still no email though, unfortunately.

So, that brings me to today. Do I still use a MobilePro 700, Casio PA-2400U-CF or TRGpro. Yes, sometimes. Especially camping, etc. Mostly, though, I’ve switched from Windows/Mac to Linux for my desktop and a Chromebook for my laptop. Most of what I do these days is photography oriented and access to web sites is mandatory for me.

I hope this helps...

Rick


Edited by Richard Plume 2021-02-03 10:31 PM
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 12:46 AM
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Rick--man, when you come back to post, you post a proper storm. That's a great write-up and if hpcfactor ever decides to sticky things, your post should be one of them.

My only complaint is that you say you're drawing from 40 years of professional experience, which can't be true since you're only 39-years-old. I looked it up, because I'm only 39, too

Jake

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yeek Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 1:44 AM
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Richard Plume - 2021-02-03 5:04 PM
Hmmmm. Handheld PCs and word processing[...]

What, all that and no mention of the godlike Quickpad Pro? j/k

But seriously, the Quickpad Pro is a beast! Nice keyboard, CF card slot, USB, serial, IR, and it runs DOS, just like straight up DOS so load up your favorite DOS programs (Zork anyone?) and you’re off. Wanna word processor? Lotus Symphony 2.0, Microsoft Word 5.5, Microsoft Works 2.0, or for you George R.R. Martin fans Wordstar 7! They used to come up on eBay a couple times a year but seem to be getting rarer and rarer.

I’m really wondering about email side though. My new device is finally at the local USPS hub so the game begins tomorrow. First I gotta find out if it’s CE 1.0 or 2.0 then the problem solving starts.

Email’s going to be hurdle. Never mind the email application, how do we get it online with a semblance of usability and a good-enough security? No WPA2 takes WiFi out of it, or does it? We can stick a WEP access point on the network-practically everything still supports it. Then a MAC filter. Then only open the ports for the required email protocol, what’s it 143 for IMAP and 25 for SMTP. But maybe you live in a neighborhood like mine and can see 20 access points from your kitchen table... Ugh! I don’t like the thought of using WEP for email but maybe I can take the antenna off and stick it right in the middle of the house, then maybe the range wont be far enough to matter?

Might be safer to just write a script to scrape up any emails and dump ‘em to a CF card! Even then that only covers receiving... This is a great problem, so many different avenues to explore!
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 5:23 AM
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Instead of taking off your antenna of the router, try the settings and make it output the signal as least as possible. (so and so db) or maybe do both.
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 4:42 PM
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Doesn't Rich connect a WEP-based router to his main router and get in that way? I seem to remember he had a guest setup or something.

Jake
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Richard Plume Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 5:13 PM
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yeek - 2021-02-03 8:44 PM

What, all that and no mention of the godlike Quickpad Pro? j/k

But seriously, the Quickpad Pro is a beast! Nice keyboard, CF card slot, USB, serial, IR, and it runs DOS, just like straight up DOS so load up your favorite DOS programs (Zork anyone?) and you’re off. Wanna word processor? Lotus Symphony 2.0, Microsoft Word 5.5, Microsoft Works 2.0, or for you George R.R. Martin fans Wordstar 7! They used to come up on eBay a couple times a year but seem to be getting rarer and rarer.



You're right, I did forget about the QuickPad Pro (I actually own one). I also forgot about other DOS-compatible machines like the Sharp PC-3100 and all the others with a similar build (there were a number of them and they all were about the size of a MobilePro 7xx series computer).

And then there was the ultra-rare Sharp PT-9000 - basically an XT computer running GEOS that ran on lots of AA and 2032 batteries (I also have one of these, still in the box).

Speaking of Zork, that's one of the programs that's followed me across all the platforms I've ever used. I have all the Infocom files and use Z-machine interpreters on my current machines (Linux and Chromebook). Someday I'll finish all of them...

Rick
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Richard Plume Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 5:15 PM
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Jake - 2021-02-03 7:46 PM

My only complaint is that you say you're drawing from 40 years of professional experience, which can't be true since you're only 39-years-old. I looked it up, because I'm only 39, too

Jake



Yea, it's nice being 39...

Rick
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 5:27 PM
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Born the boss!
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2021-02-04 5:49 PM
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Sharp PC-3100 -- always wanted one of those. Just last month, one went for $673usd on ebay. That's a chunk of change.

Jake
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