Re: [pc110] Free PC110 parts, FS docking station

Alan Cox (alan nospam at diamondage.cymru.net)
Tue, 3 Jun 1997 09:14:39 +0100 (BST)

> I used a 3a before the 110, and I can't touch type on either. do you
> have really small fingers? My hands are pretty small, but my fingers
> aren't skinny enough to dream of touch typing on the 110. I could sort
> of use three fingers on each hand with the 3a.

I suspect its far too many years programming things like the ZX Spectrum,
and I do have fairly skinny hands.

> both the twiddler and the GPS want the serial port. I guess I'll have

Is the twiddler happy not plugged into the serial port (ie not being a
mouse)

> to get a PCMCIA serial card or a DB9 - IRDA convertor or something.
> Any thoughts on how hard it would be to fake a serial port with the
> parallel port?

It depends what speed you want to talk and what you want to do. Firstly
you can't do IrDA and serial at the same time on a PC110 - there are two
UARTS and one is part of the modem chip, the other switchable.

As to parallel port serial, at 1200 baud its merely a right pain in the
backside. I'd be inclined to build something a bit more substantial with
proper buffers as well as the required voltage shifters. Perhaps a PIC and
a MAX232 with some of the PIC I/O lines wired to be the parallel port link.
At that point writing a serial driver for the PIC over parallel isnt very
hard.

Second unrelated news item: The slightly larger than PC110 Toshiba Libretto
will be getting an official US/EU product version and launch later this
year according to one computer magazine.