Been gifted a 360LX

Hi all,

I've been gifted an old HP 360LX, working perfectly! I really don't know much about the platform but wondered what interesting things you can do with these still? It's got WinCE 2.0 in the ROM and Pocket version of Word, Excel etc. which I'm guessing are permanent and not on the 512mb CF card?

I notice there's a real PCMCIA type II which could be interesting? Are there any reasonably priced ethernet or wifi cards that are supported in Win CE 2.0 out there? Guessing anything with a decent NE2000 compatibility mode should have some degree of support?

If anyone has any ideas of recommendations for "must do" updates or interesting apps I'd love to know. Seems a shame to waste an interesting little device! I'm never played with WinCE back in the day so would like to see what sort of things it could do that were outside of the traditional PDA sort of things.

Also, sadly it didn't come with a charger / power block. Any recommendations for a generic unit that works are most welcome! I'm in the UK so something easily obtainable here would be great

Yes, the OS is ROM based, on the chip under the space bar. The CF card is just an optional data partition.

For hardware "anything" is generally a stretch when it comes to CE. Your best best is to match something up that is on the HCL with the ebay links in the HCL: https://www.hpcfactor.com/hcl/
For any compatible non-NE2000 cards, we usually have the drivers in the HCL.

Any updates can be found via H/PC:Update in the support section.

Power wise, you just need a generic universal DC adapter. . Just ensure that the polarity is correct for the device (positive on centre if I recall) and that it is adjustable to 5v. Don't leave it set to 12v and wind up pumping 12v down to it! Alternately just run it from AA's.

As for apps, you can find them in the SCL: https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/

I'll leave it to others to offer some app ideas.

Handheld PCs are perfect writing machines, and as many say, are distraction free.
There are some interesting games, but since people have different tastes, I suggest you try a couple and see which ones you like.

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2021-09-12 12:39 PM

Thanks for the heads up, all! Got a CF-SD adapter so can try out some software and see what takes my fancy