MP880 bottom contacts

Pop quiz.

Since there is no docking station for the 880 what are the 12 circular gold contacts on the bottom for? Has anyone torn down an 880 and figured out where these contacts connect?

Dunno; good question. (Hope I'm not being graded for my answer - or lack thereof.) My MP800 has 'em too.

I wrote and asked NEC the same questions as they are on all of the Mobilepros. I was told they are used during bench-checking by the service technicians. The connector connects to some diagnostic equipment which also supplies power through the contacts.

Rich

Interesting, used for diagnostics. I wonder what pins allow flashing a new rom image? j/k but you never know. The MP rom boards could be write-once flash. (I know, I know drop it for now.)

I also see catches on the bottom for attaching to the diagnostic tool. I'd like a boo at that tool and see just what it does.

Are there any magic keys to put the mp series into diagnostic mode? IIRC I could do that with my 690 and run some pretty neat tests.

i'd like to know that too

HP is nice, even the 360LX has the same (a little more rudimentary) diag tool... of course J720/J728 has the most sophisticated diag tool among the HP hpc's
(beware you need a slightly different method to access it on the J72x, if you're used to 680/690. the S key needs to be pressed a little later on the J72x than on the J680. )