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AA/AAA battery devices recommendations?

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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-03-31 2:28 PM
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Hello everyone, haven't been on the forums for years probably but I still have and use my Windows CE 5.0 PNA somewhat frequently and I'm here to ask for some device recommendations.
Thanks to the whole expensive energy stuff going on I've been thinking about ideas to get devices that would be usable without needing to ever plug them in, to that purpose I came up with two good answers:

  • Using solar panels to let the sun produce the electricity.

  • Using a dynamo to produce the energy myself.


Now considering I'm an unemployed student I can't exactly afford building some huge solar panel grid that could power an entire house so the best I can do is buy one (or a few) of those solar panel chargers for AA/AAA rechargeable batteries or a solar panel powerbank (but those are way more expensive and hard to find plus I read it can take days to charge one up while it'd only provide enough power for my phone to run like 3 days on a full charge).
As for the dynamo option I actually have a few ideas for different implementations but no time to play around right now and the power output would be a problem there also.
So my next step was to look for devices actually powered by AA or AAA batteries and must say they're pretty hard to find and pretty expensive. That being said I managed to find a Psion Series 5 (or 5MX, seller wasn't sure) for relatively cheap (while also finding a Jornada 720 with missing keys for even cheaper and no idea about the battery state but it seems easier to re-cell than other stuff I did before) and after looking everywhere on the internet I'm coming here to ask for suggestions of other such devices I may try and find.
Here are a few things I'd want from such a device:

  • Battery lasting as long as possible so I don't need to charge often.

  • Possibility to write, compile and execute code straight on the device (preferably C being an option).

  • Apps for writing text, drawing (and editing) and (if such stuff even exists for any) making and editing music, preferably with the option to save/export in formats supported by modern apps also (nothing fancy, txt works for writing as an example).

  • Preferably a decent number of apps available.

  • Games and/or emulators for when bored.

  • Would be nice if they can run multiple/different OS but not a requirement.

  • Being able to relatively easily transfer stuff to a Linux/Windows/Android device.

  • I don't think this exists but something with FM radio support (or a plugin for it) would be nice.


I already looked around for enough time to say the dream device would be a Gecko EduBook but those aren't available anywhere and if they were I likely wouldn't afford it so I switched my view to stuff like DOS/Linux/EPOC/Windows CE/PalmOS devices, I'm not fussy about the OS or form factor, it can be laptop, palmtop, etc.
That said I'm first trying to find locally then in EU to avoid horrible shipping taxes which is...hard, barely any HP LX series device available here and too expensive both here and in EU for example.
So yeah, hope y'all can suggest me some devices and thanks in advance.
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Mjolnir Page Icon Posted 2022-04-01 10:39 AM
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This (old) thread has a fairly comprehensive list of AA/AAA devices: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=13300&po...
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-01 1:53 PM
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Nice! Thanks!
I don't know how I didn't manage to find that thread, I even searched here.
I actually found an affordable Palm M125 from that list, would prefer an Alphasmart Dana for Palm OS but I doubt I'll find any in EU, not to say affordable.

Here's some resources I found also:
https://gadgets.notjakob.com/DOSPALMTOP/list.html
https://gadgets.notjakob.com/database/

And I just found another set of devices that can run on batteries and (some models) have (some) additional software support: The Casio Pocket Viewer series, I found a (somewhat but not really) affordable PV-450X, anyone has an opinion on those?

Edited by Ranomez 2022-04-01 2:04 PM
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-04-01 4:40 PM
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For an aa-powered device, your wish list is a long one, and perhaps not every wish can be filled. In context of your power needs, you may only be looking at Psion or WinCE 2.0. Within those devices, I don't know of a paint program. In EPOC, you could script in OPL but that might not be of interest. I don't know about coding in CE 2.0, but I haven't heard of anything.

Word processing is great in ER5 and if you can find them, earlier versions of TextMaker work on CE 2.0. Both platforms have their share of apps/games, though the search for them may be complex, especially in ER5, given c:amie's great compendium of CE software here.

There are vague stabs at Linux on both said devices, but they're more proof-of-concept than functional.

For the Psion, PsiWin on the Win10 desktop still oddly works for Outlook synching (32-bit) and backup/restore, though not for file transfer. For file swapping, you need PsiWin for the conversion and Java Psion Link for the actual swap: https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20040&po...

Jake
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-01 8:01 PM
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Thanks!
The power requirement thingy is more a "would be nice if I change the batteries as rarely as possible" but I'll keep a few sets of batteries in chargers in the window anyway so as long as the devices don't die before another set is charged I'll be more than satisfied and not use the power hungry ones at night.
My idea is to collect a few different devices anyway so I can always have an option for any possible use case.
As for the available apps I guess I can code my own if I can program for the platform anyway, besides the drawing part isn't necessary in every device considering I'm looking at non touchscreen ones also like the HP OmniBooks and already have as a device I can use for many of those requirements a TI Nspire CAS where I wouldn't even try drawing if there was an app.
As for the coding thing... OPL will be ok but as far as I read some other languages like Python and Lua were also ported to EPOC and I read there's even some convoluted way to get a c compiler for it.
What's ER5?
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-04-01 11:34 PM
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ER5 is for the 5 Series, the last OS. ER3 was for earlier Psion models.

I did not know about C, etc running on Psion, so you might be in good shape there. Psion 5 Series is great, but kind of a muddy screen, even with backlight. Revo/Mako much clearer, but no backlight and problematic battery (sealed unit).

I have an Omnibook, a ton of fun, now that you can get them on-line with wifi.

Jake
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 8:50 AM
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Nice! I can't even find one anywhere (not even talking about locally or in EU, can't find one at all) but even if I did I probably couldn't even afford it so it's whatever I guess.

Sadly I didn't really find many devices I can afford actually... Or many devices at all, it's basically just the Psion, a Palm m125, a Handspring Visor Deluxe (Palm OS) and a Casio Pocket Viewer PV-S660 (PVOS), no DOS or (any kind of) Windows device at all or well... I found a few Atari Portfolios but that seems pretty useless without an expansion module cause of the way too limited storage space and I also found a Phillips Nino (Windows CE) a few days ago while searching but didn't know what it was and now can't find it again.

As for the Psion I'm sure I'll be ok with the display, I used the TI Nspire CAS to play GBA games even though it has a terrible refresh rate so...
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Richard Plume Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 3:10 PM
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 3:12 PM
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I have a question if anyone knows:
I also see a LG H-120s available locally which doesn't use AA but it's rechargeable battery is basically 2 AA's, then I saw this facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2567462835794.144335.15308...
And I don't understand something: Can I straight up put 2 AA's in there without rebuilding the pack?
Or if not how easy would it be to modify the unit so I no longer need to rebuild the pack and instead can just throw in 2 AA's?
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 4:37 PM
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Never mind, I looked at the photos and managed to understand most of the text, it can't use them as is, modifications would be required and it's probably a too time consuming project for me right now so I'll let that one go.
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 6:00 PM
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Thanks for the input, I don't know how I didn't see this one till now.
Good info to have anyway.

Edited by Ranomez 2022-04-02 6:00 PM
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-04-02 10:24 PM
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Richard Plume is the god here of black-and-white/aa-driven devices.

Jake
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-03 1:47 AM
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Nice, that's definitely useful knowledge and I bet it'll become even more valuable with time considering the whole electricity situation.

That said I have my own small contribution to the AA power device list, it's not any kind of portable computer but can still be useful: cheap retro emulation devices that runs on AA batteries, there's a retroarch port (on top of a relatively old Linux kernel) for the non-Android Leap Frog devices and if that's not what one desires (for example it'd be useful on a Leapster GX but not so much on a LeapPad) the default OS on them runs flash apps and games and is fairly easy to modify to inject your own.

Link for the retroarch port: https://github.com/mac2612/retroleap

Also as a side note: the fact that there's hacking communities for child oriented devices like the Leap Frog and VTech ones which actually managed to break their security for homebrew is both nice and worrying.
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Ranomez Page Icon Posted 2022-04-05 4:42 PM
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Found another palmtop with a proprietary OS that mainly fits my requirements: Siemens ic35. Sadly the pages for it are down nowadays but the way back machine helps so most apps can be still downloaded.
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-04-05 7:47 PM
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Wow, MMC's. Haven't thought about those since I last used a Nokia Communicator 9300.

Looks as if it'll sync with older 32-bit Outlook. As for getting it on-line, you could use a phone such as the Communicator, as long as service provider still supports 2G phones (Tmobile in US is getting rid of 3G in May; no word yet on 2G).

Jake
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