Repairs / Fixes - hermocom

Charging / battery capacity

2010-08-11T10:51:07+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

The charging circuit of the HP 100LX and 200LX provides 100mA for 6 hours, then it switches to trickle charging mode which only submits enough current for the batteries not to lose their charge again by self-discharging.

That means, the default mechanism is only capable to submit 600mAh of charge to rechargeable batteries.

In order to make sure modern rechargeables with capacities much beyond 600mAh are fully recharged, you can use a software program which modifies the charging mechanism. The current cannot be made higher via software, but the charging time can be extended.

Modern 2800mAh batteries need in theory 28 hours with 100mA in order to be charged fully when they were completely empty. This is quite a lot of time.

In order to allow for a longer charging time, you have several options:

Disconnect and reconnect the palmtop after less than 6 hours manually. This resets the charging circuit and begins a new period of 6 hours for charging. However, this is quite inconvenient (but could be automated using a timer).
If you have a palmtop with a Times2Tech doublespeed upgrade, make sure you have the latest Times2Tech doublespeed driver spd31.exe on your palmtop. Download it from here.
The command line switch /N for spd31.exe sets constant full-rate chariging with no timeout.
The command line switch /N- does the same, but starts off with batteries not charging.
The driver comes with the utility CHRG.COM which allows to enable / disable charging.

Please note that this driver should only be used if you have an original Times2Tech Doublespeed upgrade, not one of the other options provided by other companies (e.g. the 32MHz doublespeed upgrade by hermocom).
With another or no doublespeed upgrade, use this option:

Use a stand-alone tool which replaces / manipulates the built-in charging mechanism. You get a list of such tools here.

Always keep in mind, that the palmtop recharges with 100mA. This lets you determine the time the palmtop should stay on AC power for the batteries to be fully charged (capacity in mAh / 100mA = charging hours) Use this calculation result for configuring the charging duration of the tool of your choice.

If you do it like I did, configuring the tool to charge infinitely with 100mA to make sure it always charges, if you connect the Palmtop to AC power, you must make sure that you do not forget the Palmtop on AC for too long. My usage pattern was to connect the Palmtop each night to AC and always(!) disconnect it in the morning, then using it for many hours over the day.

Even if the batteries are overcharged a bit, it does not do any harm. The batteries may fail a bit earlier, maybe not after three years but already after two years, but they don't cost much, so rather choose a convenient and power-safe setup than one which has the risk of data loss or an inoperable palmtop due to empty main batteries.

Also, to be even safer, you could simply always carry a pair of (non-rechargeable, because rechargeable batteries always have quite high self-discharging rates, except those called "Sanyo eneloop") with you for replacement. Make sure, however, to not let the palmtop recharge them when in use! Above mentioned software tools may enable charging even if you disable it in the HP's setup application. So if you have set up one of these tools, use non-rechargable batteries only without the AC adapter connected!

Recommendation:

Recently (2012/2013) more and more palmtop users recommend Sanyo "eneloop" cells for the palmtop, as they have a very low self-discharging rate.

Connectivity Pack for HPLX emulation on other (mini) PCs

2010-05-08T20:03:33+00:00

Connectivity Pack ("CPack"), the way to emulate a HP 200LX on any PC, runs on almost any DOS-capable computer with at least a 386 processor, also under DOS emulations or DOS on PC emulations.

For example, you can run CPack on

Windows PCs and UMPCs such as the Viliv N5 or UMID M1 in a command window (should work on 32bit systems) or under DOS emulators such as DOSBox (works also on 64bit systems)
on Windows CE based devices using PocketDOS
the Linux-driven Pandora Palmtop using DOSBox for Pandora
even on Android systems, such as Tablets or Smartphones, using e.g. DOSBox Turbo
on iOS devices (iPad, iPod, iPhone) you can use DOSPad, but this software requires a jailbreak
on the Mac using DOSBox
on your Linux PC at home using DOSBox

In addition to a DOS environment, CPack needs an INT5F Palmtop graphics emulator. One is already supplied with CPack, called CG.COM. It is automatically called from inside the app200.bat batch file that launches CPack. You may experiment with different Palmtop graphics emulators, to get different - maybe better - results. CG.COM is sufficient for larger screens, but since the CPack main screen is compressed to only half the size of the real screen using CG.COM, on smaller screens CG.COM is not ideal. You may replace CG.COM by

Palrun by Stefan Peichl
INT5fh by Harry Konstas
PalmPC
On Windows PCs or UMPCs, you may try PocketDOS (use the Windows evaluation version: direct download link). This replaces not only CG.COM, but also DOSBox. PocketDOS was a DOS emulation program for Windows CE devices, that already had HP Palmtop graphics emulation built-in.

The following photos show how CPack looks on different systems:

CG.COM

This is with CPack's own "CG.COM" Palmtop graphics emulator, with CPack running on a UMID M1 UMPC (Windows) and on the Pandora (Linux with DOSBox):

{gallery}/articles/hplx_cpack/cg.com{/gallery}

Current problem:

"Squashed" image: Only about half of the height of the M1's screen is actually used for the interesting contents. While this may be acceptable on a large PC screen, it makes CPack almost unusable on a very small screen.

PALRUN

And this is with Palrun (command line arguments: -c for the white background and -c -n for the black background):

{gallery}articles/hplx_cpack/palrun{/gallery}

Current problems:

Slow vertical line-by-line scrolling: Under DOSBox using Palrun, scrolling with arrow keys is terribly slow when scrolling beyond the last screen line. Without DOSBox, i.e. in cmd.exe, it's faster but still very noticeable and maybe annoying
Some screen refresh problems: Hour glass leaves a black box in the middle of the screen after it disappeared
Missing text cursor: When editing, you don't know where the cursor is

Other palmtop graphics emulators work even worse than Palrun. Tested: PALMPC (crashes DOSBox, CPack not executable also under cmd.exe), and INT5F (very slow operation, started programs under program manager are instantly closed again).

PocketDOS

Ed from the HPLX mailing list had the idea to use PocketDOS instead of any other INT5F graphics emulator. PocketDOS actually is DOS emulation software for Windows CE based pocket PCs. However, there is also an evaluation version for Windows (XP, Vista, 7...)
And indeed, it works. All problems mentioned above are solved. PocketDOS even allows you to control the F keys with the pointer device (mouse or Stylus on the M1), tapping / clicking on the F key labels. This is really nice. (Is this normal in CPack?).
Operation is very fast and smooth under PocketDOS and everything seems to work fine.

However, there are a few new display problems. See the pictures:

{gallery}articles/hplx_cpack/pocketdos{/gallery} Current problems:

Some menu items are "greyed out" (not readable) but seem to be functional
All edit forms of the database-based PIMs are messed. The field borders are somewhat slightly diagonal and disturb the look of the forms.

How to install this setup:
You need ActiveSync by Microsoft in order to make PocketDOS work under Windows XP (PocketDOS probably needs some libraries of ActiveSync). So install ActiveSync, e.g. version 4.5. Afterwards, install "PocketDOS for Windows" from http://www.pocketdos.com/download.htm

Entirely remove or comment out the CG.COM references from app200.bat in the CPack setup.

After starting PocketDOS and reading the 15-seconds nag screen, you can directly go to the CPack directory and start CPack using app200.bat. Then you can maximize the PocketDOS window to have almost fullscreen display. If you now use the menu item "View" / "Cycle Display Zoom Mode" twice, you have a nice 200LX-like display on the UMID M1.
Try tapping/clicking the F key labels. :-)

Ideas for optimization are welcome!

EMI problems with the HP palmtops

2009-10-14T13:36:51+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

(EMI = Electromagnetic Interference: Communication problems when the HP Palmtop cannot communicate via InfraRed anymore when a mobile phone is near, e.g. in setups where the Palmtop should use a mobile phone via IrDA for Internet access.
Contents of this page:

NEWS:

I have bought a used 700LX to study how HP solved the EMI problem there (since the 700LX is designed to work with a GSM phone on top, it must be somehow shielded against the EMI, and tests with ring.com and a seperate GSM phone so the dehaviour of the 200LX and 700LX regarding EMI coulr directly be compared, showed that indeed the 700LX is only disturbed marginally by a mobile phone). The results can be viewed on the separate 700LX page: Click here!

Introduction:

The problem appeared, when the first people wanted to use their HP 100/200 LX to connect to the Internet using the IrDA interface of a mobile phone in the summer of 1999. It is nice to have the ability to simply put the palmtop upon a table, put the cellular phone besides it, and surf the web, download email etc.
Actually it should be possible without problems, because the palmtop has got an IR port, and more and more cellular phones also have an IrDA port which looks to a PC just as a standard modem. The ´internet suite´ WWW/LX by D&A Software is the only software which is able to speak the IrDA protocol over the palmtop´s IR port. Actually the IR port of the palmtop speaks the "HPSIR" protocol which cannot be handled by modern mobile phones. So you have to use WWW/LX if you want to go online via IR.
But you will run into the following problem: The connection is either terribly slow, or it isn´t possible at all to get a working connection.

The people who ran into that problem first were Andreas Garzotto (programmer of WWW/LX), Stefan Peichl and I, Daniel Hertrich. Later Mark Willis, Joeseph Buford and Jerome V. Healy joined us to help. With time I got many requests for help regarding that subject, but a real solution isn´t found yet!

The problem is caused by the following:

Everytime we want to establish a connection to the internet with the mobile phone via infra red (IrDA-protocol by WWW/LX), the palmtop receives strange disturbance signals. These signals are caused by voltages induced by the electromagnetic field surrounding the antenna of the mobile phone.

Actually these signals must have a frequency of 900MHz, 1800MHz or 1900MHz (GSM, PCS), depending on the frequency of the cellular network. But these modulation frequencies are pulsed with a frequency of about 1,6 kHz (maybe that´s only true in my case - I don´t know if the pulsing frequency differs between cellular networks!).
And these pulsing is probably the frequency which causes the problems.
I don´t think that the very high frequency of 1-2GHz causes problems. because this frequency is so high that it cannot be decoded by the decoder hardware of the palmtop (and even is not shown by a normal oscilloscope) - see the pictures below!
But the 1,6 kHz signal is shown and decoded! And it is decoded into many, many characters that prevent the IrDA protocol from working properly.
The signal that actually comes through the photo diode has a pulse frequency of around 10 kHz (depending on the character that was sent by the sending device).

If you would like to test these interference by yourself, you can use Stefan´s software ´RING.COM´. It displays every character received by the IR receiver circuit (also the induced signals) and every character causes a click in the speaker. And the average of ingoing characters per second is measured. So you can see how bad these interferences are in your case. Maybe send as a reference a vcard over IR from your telephone. That will not disturb the IR port, but only the actual IrDA data will be arrive in RING.COM (because the antenna pf the phone doesn´t send anything). Then establish some kind of radio connection (i.e. do a call) and place the phone near the palmtop. You´ll see and hear the disturbances arriving in RING.COM!
You can download RING.COM with documentation here.

Another experience is that with Siemens phones (S25, S35i), the disturbances are so bad, that most of the times a connection isn´t even possible, but with Nokia phones (8810, 7110, 6210...) you get a connection in most cases. You have to find the ideal distance between palmtop and phone in order to suppress most of the disturbances but keep the IR link working. For Siemens phones, this distance is about 15-20cm, for Nokia phones you can place the phone with a much bigger distance from the palmtop. About 50cm should still be possible. Several people worked out little tricks: For example with the Siemens phones (probably also with others) it helps if you take the phone in your right hand during the internet connection: touch the display with your palm, lay your fingers arund the upper edge of the phone and touch the cak of the phone (where the antenna connection is) with your third and fourth finger. That seems to bundle the emitted electromagnetic disturbances in a way that it doesn´t reach the palmtop anymore.

But of course we want to find a durable working solution!
First I thought, the right solution would be to build a high pass filter into the circuit of the IR Receiver to filter out all high GSM frequencies.

I thought we should replace the component no 7 (see picture below) by a properly dimensioned high pass filter. I tried this. But without any luck! :-(
I tried to replace component no 7 with different capacitors of values 150 pF up to 330 pF (My calculations showed that 220pF is the right value to drop 1,6kHz signals by approximately 15dB and leave the 10kHz sinals untouched. With a filter of 1st grade, a higher attenuation of the 1,6 kHz signal is not possible -- the filter of 1st grade is built by the inserted capacitor and the resistor to ground (no 12 and 13) with a value of 100kOhm + 6.81kOhm = 106,81 kOhm).

Before I did these tests I thought that the GHz-frequencies directly caused the problems and inserted several low pass filters into the receiver circuit. None of them worked)

One solution that already works in some palmtops is to connect pin 2 of the photo diode (the right one, if you watch the diagram below) to ground. It´s not such an elegant solution, because it drains extremely much power and we don´t know if it can hurt the circuit. And it doesn´t work in every machine. About every third machine we tested that ´low cost solution´ in wasn´t affected by the EMI anymore. The other machines couldn´t at all use the IR port anymore. We don´t know why. But Stefan used this solution for about half a year successfully and his palmtop survived it.

Drawings (schematics and board layout)

The circuit board layout with component numbers (description of the components below):

The components of the IR receiver circuit:

PD: the photo diode
1:    R = 21,5 k
2:    R = 21,5 k
3:    Transistor KST 5179 or 2N 5179 by Samsung (pins see below) (Data sheet (PDF, 50kB) downloadable here!)
4:    Transistor KST 5179 or 2N 5179 by Samsung (pins see below) (Data sheet downloadable above (=part #3)!)
5:    C = xx xF (value unknown)
6:    R = 215 R
7:    C = 0,01uF (marking "KA4")
8:    C = ´685´
9:    C = ´105´
10: R = 10 k
11: R = 21,5 k
12: R = 6,81 k
13: R = 100 k
14: IC ´TLC372C´ by TI description here (HTML with llink to PDF data sheet)

The pins B,C and E of the Transistors 3 and 4 are placed this way:

------
B O    |
|    |
|    O C
|    |
E O    |
------

The circuit diagram of the IR receiver (self-explored by Joeseph Buford and me):

My measurements

I made the measurements under the following conditions: An opened 100LX lying on the table, the Siemens S25´s IR port and the 100LX´s IR port are facing each other with a distance of about 3 cm.

You can see the arrangement here (on this picture the S25 is a little bit more away from the 100LX than 3 cm):

The following picture shows my measurements of the signal voltage of an IR-received character (measured at pin 3 of the 372 chip no. 14) without any interference.

Horizontally, one division is 0.2ms, so the frequency of the pulses is approx. 10 kHz
Vertically, one division is 2 V, so the peaks are approx. +/- 1V

The following picture shows my measurements of the voltage induced by the S25´s electromagnetic field:

with the same scalings of both axes as the picture above.
The signal has got a frequency of about 1.6 kHz (period cycle is abt. 0.6 ms).

If you would like and/or feel able to help, ideas are greatly appreciated by: Andreas Garzotto, Stefan Peichl, Mark Willis, Joseph Buford, Jerome V. Healy, me and many, many other users of the HP 200LX!
Please email me! I´ll forward your idea to the others.
Thanks to all who help(ed) us and to all who will help!

HP OmniGo 100 / 120 - Technical Information

2009-10-14T12:54:14+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

Contents of this page:

Introduction

The HP OmniGo 100 is a totally different kind of palmtop than the 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and even the OmniGo 700LX: It is GUI based, can be controlled by pen input or keyboard, but it lacks that great versatility of the other models, because it cannot be run in a real DOS mode. There is software which lets you run some DOS programs on the OG100, but this is very limited. The normal operation mode of the OG100 is GEOS, with its Graffitti handwriting recognition, which works surprisingly well.

This is describing text from http://www.thocp.net/hardware/hp_omnigo100.htm:

The HP OmniGo 100 handheld organizer includes a host of financial- and business-productivity functions designed to eliminate the need for multiple reference tools. In addition to incorporating the industry-standard HP 12C financial calculator, the new product´s personal information-management features include the following:

pen-navigation and keyboard-input capabilities - to accommodate user-interface preference;
a jotter application - to allow customers to capture information on the go and organize it later;
a Graffiti handwriting system - for easy-to-learn handwriting recognition; drawing capabilities - to enable the user to scribble quick notes and design maps and pictures;
HP financial-analysis tools and spreadsheet capabilities - for computing cash flow and loan payments, currency conversions, business calculations, percentages and margins;
a notepad feature - to input notes and organize thoughts via keyboard and pen entry;
appointment, address and telephone books - to give users a central repository for access to important personal appointments, activities and contact information;
database capabilities - for personalized list management; and
worldtime feature - for locating cities around the world and obtaining current time and city information.

I have not heard of any hardware upgrades which are available for the OmniGo 100/120.

Pictures

These are pictures of the internals of the OmniGo 100:

Usage of PCMCIA SRAM / Flash / CF storage cards

Although all documentations and FAQs say that the OmniGo 100 does only work with SRAM cards, and not with Flash or Compact Flash, I had success using a Sandisk 192MB Compact Flash card with my Omnigo 100. It worked instantly without any problem. If you want to put new programs for the OG100 on a card so that they can directly be used, you should let GEOS first prepare the card. Then you can put *.GEO files from the program packages into the \geoworks\world directory, put the card into the OG100, reboot the OG100, and the programs are available from the main menu screen.

Interesting external links

http://nenya.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~gergic/ogo_page/omnigo.html

http://www.mgroeber.de/omnigo.htm
http://www.salbrook.woodwind.org/ogo
http://www.scc.net/~jonco/omnigo
http://www.ulrich-cordes.de/omnigo/german/omnigo.htm

HP Palmtop 1000CX - Technical information

2009-10-14T12:12:56+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

Introduction:

The HP 1000CX palmtop is basically identical to the well-known 200LX model, except for its lack of most of the ROM software, except MS-DOS 5.0, some device drivers and Laplink software. Another difference is that the 1000CX has the beautiful old black case color which was used also for the 100LX. The 200LX's case is more greenish.

One more minor difference is that the keyboard is missing the "Blue keys", which start the built-in application on the 200LX. Instead, these keys act as the SHIFTed values of the corresponding keys on the 200LX, i.e. exclamation mark, at sign, hash, dollar, caret, Amper´s And and braces.

There are 1MB and 2MB models of the 1000CX available.

The hardware of the 1000CX is almost identical to the hardware of the 200LX, so 200LX-compatible upgrades can be applied to the 1000CX as well.

Pictures

Here are the pictures, which show the differences to the 200LX. More pictures aren´t necessary, because otherwise the 1000CX is identical to the 200LX. You see the free space where the 200LX board has an additional IC. This is one of the two ROM ICs, which is missing on the 1000CX board.

HP Palmtop 95LX - Technical information

2009-10-14T10:47:40+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

Contents of this page:

Introduction

The HP 95LX was the first MS-DOS-based palmtop PC by Hewlett Packard and has been introduced in April 1991. Project name at HP was "Jaguar".

The 95LX has MS-DOS 3.3 in ROM, along with powerful PIM applications. Hardware is based on a NEC V20 CPU (CMOS version) running at 5.37 MHz. There are 512kB and 1MB RAM models available, graphics adapter is an MDA, not CGA as the newer HP Palmtops have, with 16 x 40 characters and 128 x 240 pixels.

Pictures

The pictures show the mainboard of a 95LX with 512 kB RAM. The IC with "© 1990-HP" is the ROM, you can also see the NEC V20 CPU, the Intel chip which probably includes bus controller etc., and the RAM chip next to the ROM. Note that there is room for one more RAM chip, please see next section for info about a memory upgrade!

The next picture shows the memory configuration of the 1 MB version of the 95LX:

RAM upgrade

If your 95LX doesn´t say "1 MB" in the upper right corner of the screen edge, it is a 512kB unit or it has been upgraded to 1MB RAM by a third party. In order to definitely know how much RAM it really has, either open it and look for the RAM chips (compare to the pictures above), or go into Filer, press Menu, Dos (or System, language dependent) and execute the command chkdsk. If the total amount of disk space (which includes the ROM contents!) is reported as 922624 bytes, you have a 1MB unit. If it is reported as 777216 bytes, you have 512 kB.

There is only one upgrade which can be applied to a 95LX with 512kB: You can solder in another 512kB RAM chip to upgrade the unit to 1 MB of RAM. The required RAM chip should cost not more than 10-15 US$. Since this is a quite old kind of RAM chips, it may be hard to get such a RAM chip.

Arne Christensen described how to do it.
Read his instructions here!

Arne writes that you do not need to move the ROM chip from the middle to the top position, but that you can solder the new RAM chip at the top position, which is not the factory-default for 1MB 95LXs (see pictures above).

Backlight upgrade

There is no backlight upgrade available for the 95LX. It may be possible to adapt the backlight upgrade for the 100LX / 200LX / 1000CX to work with the 95LX, but nobody has done this yet. Please report, if you did it!

Storage cards (SRAM, ATA flash, Compact Flash)

Actually, the 95LX was designed to work only with SRAM cards for storage, these cards are available in capacities up to 4 MB (or are there even 8MB SRAM cards?), and they are fairly expensive. The 95LX can handle up to 2 MB without any problem, for larger SRAM cards, you may need the acecard driver. SRAM cards need a battery to keep their data, some cards use a lithium coin battery, some have an internal rechargeable battery, which is charged by the device they are used in.

The PCMCIA interface of the 95LX follows the standard PCMCIA 1.0 (don´t confuse that with the PCMCIA type, the slot of the 95LX is PCMCIA type II, i.e. you can use cards with a thickness of 3,3mm or 5mm), thus it is designed to work only with "memory mode" PCMCIA cards. No "device mode" cards, such as modems or many flash cards, are recognized (There is one exception: NewMedia designed a PCMCIA modem for the 95LX). SRAM cards are memory-mode cards, but Flash cards, no matter if full-size ATA cards or Compact Flash cards, are generally device mode cards, but some better ones can also be used in memory mode, and those are the cards which work in the 95LX. However, these cards require a special driver (sundrv.zip). The highest capacity the 95LX can handle is 32MB, since the MS-DOS 3.3 in ROM only handles partitions up to 32MB.

The original "Sundrv" driver is made by Sundisk (which is now Sandisk), and thus only works with Sandisk or Sundisk flash cards. The link above also points to a modified version of that driver, which doesn't check for the card manufacturer anymore, so it will also work with other cards, but still only with cards which support that memory mode, of course.

There is one more problem with using flash cards in the 95LX: SRAM cards always need a power supply to keep their data, and as long as they are inserted into the 95LX, they get their power from the palmtop, so the battery of the card lasts longer. So the 95LX is designed to always supply power to the card which is inserted, no matter which type of card. Thus it permanently supplies power to flash cards, too. But flash cards need way much more power from the 95LX than SRAM cards, and the 95LX, thinking it is an SRAM card which needs the power, supplies power even during it is switched off.

Leaving the 95LX switched off with a flash card inserted will deplete the batteries within days or even hours! So always pull out the flash card if you don´t use the 95LX!

Christian Felique tried a hardware hack to solve this problem, and it was successful. He writes:

The PCMCIA interface has three voltage lines: Vcc, Vpp1 and Vpp2. Vcc is always powered, Vpp only when reading from or writing to the memory card. If you cut the Vcc line, the power problem with Flahs cards is solved. However, it may be that you cannot use SRAM cards anymore.

Another problem with Flash cards is that they need much power for read/write operations, which can make the screen flicker during such operations. This is not dangerous, but it can be annoying.

Some things to take care of

never

REMCOM

HP Palmtop OmniGo 700LX - Technical information

2009-10-14T11:09:50+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

Contents of this page:

Introduction

The OmniGo 700LX (OG700LX) is an enhancement of the very famous 200LX Palmtop. Compared to the HP 200LX, the 700LX has following enhancements:

A second PCMCIA slot in which a Nokia Data Card is mounted. The slot is internal (in the bottom of the 700LX), and it is wired in a non-standard way, so you cannot replace the Nokia Data Card by a flash card. A flash card is not recognized in that slot.
A Nokia phone dock on the top of the screen. A Nokia 2110, PT11 or compatible phones can be mounted there. In combination with the built-in Nokia Data Card you can use the phone for SMS and fax transmission and for mobile Internet access. Fax and SMS software is built into the ROM of the 700LX and accessable from the Application Manager. The other software in ROM seems to be identical to the 200LX ROM software.
The Infrared port of the 700LX is shielded and another circuit is used. This is probably HP´s solution for the EMI problem, which is relevant if you want to use an IrDA phone with the HP 200LX. Since the 700LX directly works with a GSM phone on top, it should be resistent against EMI, which was not necessary for the 200LX when it was produced.
The mainboard of the 700LX contains some additional components, like three LEDs which indicate GSM communication, battery charging and alarms, some "manual" correctionsC of the circuit, which have not been applied to the motherboard layout (maybe mine is an early model; would be interesting if newer 700LXs also have these manual corrections! Mine is an SG60... model, i.e. from 1996.
The AC adapter jack is different from that of the 200LX, because it is designed for use with the Nokia phone charger instead of the HP AC adapter. Also 12 V, but apperently not as relieble, because HP increased the size of the coil between the jack and the motherboard dramatically!
The case is totally different, and apperently designed by Nokia and not by HP. It is much larger that the one of the 200LX, due to the additional functionalty and components. And it contains much more wasted room than the 200LX. It could have been designed more compact, in my opinion.

Pictures

First, here is the shielded IR port. The IR transceiver which is used looks like the HP HSDL1001, but I am not sure. Thus the IR receiver electronics which was used on the 200LX motherboard (and acted as a GSM antenna there, hence the EMI problem) is unnecessary. In addition, HP applied a metal shield:

Here are a few motherboard details. First the motherboard itself:

Some of the manual circuit corrections:

The used memory chips (ROM and RAM):

The AC adapter jack and the large coil:

The LEDs:

The second PCMCIA port on the motherboard (black) and the two cable connectors for the display and for the GSM phone (white):

The Nokia Data Card and how it is mounted via the white L-shaped male-male connector on the second PCMCIA port (here without the case part which actually separates the motherboard from the PCMCIA card):

This is the case part which is between the data card and the motherboard. Looks a bit like the bottom shell of the 200LX, but it is not the bottom of the 700LX. Do you see the rectangular hole? It is for this white L-shaped PCMCIA connector...

Here you see the bottom of the keyboard with attached motherboard and connected display and phone cables:

Now we put the case part with the rectangular hole onto the motherboard. The huge coil takes place in the round hole in the bottom right corner, and you see the second PCMCIA port through the rectangular hole:

The L-shaped white PCMCIA connector makes it possible to connect the Nokia Data Card:

The interesting thing is that the outlet of the Nokia Data Card, where normally the phone is conneced, is not used here. The connection to the phone must somehow be established back through the PCMCIA port. There are obviously some non-used PCMCIA lines which are used here for that purpose.

Now the actual case bottom is mounted to cover the Data Card and the coil:

And this is the complete 700LX:

There is one interesting thing to note: From what I have found out, all 700LXs manufactured before 1996, abt. 20th or 30th week, have an engraved world map in the lower left corner of the keyboard case, all after that date don´t have that decoration. When I first saw it, I thought, that some solvent or glue destroyed the surface of the case, but when I took a second look, I could see it was a world map! Probably I was not the only one who thought this and therefore returned the unit to HP claiming that it was bad, so they stopped to engrave the world map on later models. The picture below shows that world map:

The second PCMCIA slot

That second internal slot, which you can see on the pictures above, is usually occupied by the Nokia Datacard. But it would be nice if it was possible to use that slot also for other PCMCIA cards. It should be possible to use other I/O cards, since at least the I/O contacts of the PCMCIA connector must be present in this custom slot, but is it also possible to somehow use a flash card as an "internal hard drive"?

Anyone who knows something about this or who made tests, please report!

RAM and speed upgrades

No RAM upgrades are available for the OmniGo 700LX. The speed upgrades, e.g. the Times2Tech Doublespeed upgrade, should work in the 700LX.

HP Palmtop related Internet resources

2009-10-10T16:45:41+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

There are some other very valuable Internet ressources related to the HP Palmtops:

HP200LX.net (the former "www.palmtop.net") with lots of software for HP palmtops in the S.U.P.E.R. archive
The HPLX Mailing list, a still active community of HP Palmtop users. On the mailing list you can ask questions, get help, and contribute to the community.
200LX.net - Michel Bel's shop for used HP palmtops and replacement parts
The Palmtop Paper / Thaddeus Computing offer HP palmtops, accessories, repair and upgrades. And they host the archives of the Palmtop Paper magazine, which holds lots of information, software and hardware reviews and articles of HP Palmtop users.
Rundel Datentechnik
Backlight4You, the source for do-it-yourself backlight upgrade / repair kits

HP Palmtop Story Contest - My Contribution

2009-10-13T08:13:31+00:00

Archived 2013-12-08
This page has been archived and some links may not work correctly anymore. No updates of this page will be done anymore.

Back in 2005, there was a contest of personal HP Palmtop stories on the HPLX mailing list. Here is my contribution to that contest:

LX story contest
Contribution by Daniel Hertrich
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

Once upon a time, my brother bought himself an HP 100LX 1MB for his studies (he studied mathematics and then worked as a scientific assistant at the university, now he is a professor of mathematics and works at the university of Vienna: http://www.dmg.tuwien.ac.at/hertrich-jeromin/). That was in about 1995, when I was 18 and my brother was 30 years old.

When he brought that device for the first time when visiting me, I was quite amazed about what he could do with it. He had a version of Derive running on it, and he used to write his papers in LaTeX, later in TeX, so he had syntax checkers for LaTeX and even a full version of Plain TeX on the palmtop. I considered him to be a power user then, and I started to begin to also want such a device. The power of DOS and the good keyboard made me consider what I could do with the machine.
In 1995, I would never have guessed what was really possible with the 200LX later...

It was in Summer 1997 when I finished school and started to study electrical engineering, when I finally decided to buy a HP 200LX. I went to a local HP seller, "Ariston" in Berlin Schoeneberg. They showed me the different available versions of the 200LX platform, including the 700LX, but the people there didn't seem to accept that I seriously wanted to buy such a device. They seemed to think I rather needed a gameboy or whatever.
After some discussions and consideration, I decided to buy the 4MB 200LX. The 700LX was too bulky for my taste, and the lower memory models were not capable to hold enough software. Flash cards were very expensive then (they offered me a 5MB HP flash card for almost 1000 DM or so, which equals about 500 EURO). I didn't know about any RAM upgrades at this time. If I had known, I'd never have bought a 4MB LX, but a 1MB or 2MB one, since every upgrade applied later would mean to sacrifice the expensive 2MB extra RAM in the 4MB machine anyway.

I paid 1200 DM (600 EURO) for the device, put it into the bag on my bike and drove home with a big smile on my face. It was my first PDA / handheld computer. Before, I only owned such a database-like device with a bad keyboard and a small 16x4 character display (but already with the clamshell form factor, only slightly smaller than the LX). I always wished to be able to enter long text and process it in many ways, which was not possible with that device.

Well, now comes the part that probably everyone of you knows. Unpacking the palmtop, eager to see it in action, putting in batteries, booting, entering personal information, exploring the application manager, trying the built-in apps. Later I began to load additional software on the device and examined the palmtop's limits (no VGA, no protected mode...).

Normally, I take apart every device I buy, just to see how it looks inside and to get a feeling how to handle it better, and to make full use of it. But for some reason I didn't dare to open the 200LX. I had a deep respect for it from the beginning.

But my brother visited us from time to time, and once he brought his 100LX, which was broken. He asked if we could have a look inside, to see what's wrong. So we opened his 100LX. It was a challenge. But we opened it successfully and then first wondered how small the mainboard is. We found the reason for the problem and fixed it. It was a minor mechanical problem, if I recall correctly.

So I was prepared...:

In 1998, I bought a double speed crystal from Tom Rundel. I sat down at my desk, took some hours of time for the surgery and began. My fingers were trembling. But finally I did it, successfully. Now my palmtop ran at the incredible speed of 16 MHz!

Oh, I should mention: This was my third 200LX already. I returned the first machine due to a software failure, and the second unit I got in return also showed that failure, so I returned it once more. The unit I had then was one with a serial number SG8..., so it was very new (manufactured in 1998) and had a great keyboard and hinge feeling.
BTW: The failure I returned the unit twice for is reproducible on all German machines. I don't remember the exact details, but it was somewhere in the setup application ("Konfig" on German machines). When you enter it, press F5 and look at the graph at the bottom, which shows the memory splitting between disk and RAM, the right value shows either "S stem=xxx" or " stem=xxx". I considered this to be a problem which could lead to serious errors, e.g. a ROM or RAM failure, so I returned it. But seeing the third unit also having the problem I gave up and accepted it ;-).

Shortly after I upgraded the SG8 unit, I bought another one (used) and upgraded it, too, to have one for daily work. The new SG8 machine was my backup machine since then, and it still is.

That must have been the time when I subscribed to the HPLX mailing list. This was certainly the greatest virtual community I have ever joined. I have received so much support with my questions, people there were so enthusiastic about the interest which we had in common. And last but not least: The majority of people on the list were, and still are, simply unbeatably kind.
How many times did the pun appear on the list: Al Kind, the maintainer of the list, and the kindness of him, or of the members. Although a coincidence, it was worth mentioning from time to time!

I have met some members by now: I met Stefan Peichl in Berlin, Helmuth Günther in Neufahrn near Munich. I met Don Chow, Mark Willis and Rod Clapper in Vancouver BC. And I met Peter Eberl, them aintainer of the new HPLX mailing list, in Munich. I almost met Stephan Luettjohann, developer of the first version of LxTeX and of the palmtop serial port thrmometer, in Duesseldorf. And I met John Thorsell in Berlin, at the Technical University where I studied. I think he was or is also a list member.
I hope I did not forget anyone here.

But (blush) I did not yet make it to one of Tom Rundel's palmtop meetings in Waiblingen. Too bad! But I will attend one some day! I will also meet Andreas Garzotto some day, whom I have not met in person yet (only email and phone so far). I will meet Gaby Burghardt soon in Munich. And maybe I will meet some other list members as well. Who knows. I have received a lot of invitations from list members into a lot of different places on earth. And I have saved these invitations in a special email folder. So when I ever have the time to travel, I'll contact those people and maybe meet up with them!

After joining the HPLX mailing list and reading about all the possiblities to use the LX, I loaded tons of interesting software onto it, from scientific programs (Derive, PalmtopCircuit, PSpice, calculators) over Andreas Garzotto's freeware programs (PE, PIM) to commercial programs I bought, e.g. PalmtopCircuit, WWW/LX, Mindmap/LX (yes, I paid for it in the first place! ;-)...
In fact, I spent more money for palmtop software than I have ever spent for software for my desktop PCs!
And with time I tried hundreds of freely available programs from the Internet. My setup grew and grew. Many of you could see how my setup grew from my notes on my home page and on the HPLX mailing list. It grew until March of this year, so I had a quite perfect (for my needs) portable computer system, which could serve me well in most situations.

The palmtop hobby became a passion, so I looked for more activities I could do. David Sargeant and Ian Butler looked for a new maintainer for the S.U.P.E.R. archive, the "Simply Unbeatable Palmtop Essentials Reporitory". So I became the new maintainer. I updated the archive with new software and new program versions for some years, until now. S.U.P.E.R. is now hosted and maintained by Peter Eberl. I was also involved in the process of moving the HPLX mailing list to a new home, when Al Kind got a new job and could not maintain the list anymore at the university of Conneticut.
I should also mention Mitchell Hamm at this point, who hosted and maintained a lot of these ressources for a long time and who owned the www.palmtop.net domain.

I also developed some hardware and software additions. For example the LED light, which could be plugged into the serial port of the LX and enlightened the screen and keyboard. I sold about 30-40 of these lights back in 1998-1999 (see http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/ledlight). By the way: Shortly after I have published the instructions for building the LED light, the first LED lights for laptops, pluggable into the USB port, became available. Too bad I did not claim a patent for the construction and idea!
I developed many small tools in C or as DOS batch files which were quite handy on the palmtop (see http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/download). My most important own works in the software area were probably LxTeX 2e, LXRTF and the PDB2X conversion tools. Later of course the additions and bugfixes I coded for Andreas Garzotto's programs (see below).

In the meantime I bought two 32MB upgrades from Tom Rundel to upgrade my main and backup unit, so I now had two almost identical units with doublespeed and 32MB. In case one fails, I could simply pop in my flash card into the backup machine, load the backup created automatically last night, and continue my work right away. I would have lost only the work of the current day. In fact, I almost never lost any data. If I had to use the backup machine, it was because I wanted the feeling of a like-new palmtop for a while, or when I wanted to clean my main unit or similar things.
I also bought more used units from ebay sellers for my research works, so my LX collection grew to over 10 units (Now, I have one of each kind: 95LX, 100LX, 1000CX, OG700LX, OG120. And still 4 200LXs.) I began to do some trade with palmtops, buying them, repairing and/or upgrading them and reselling them on ebay or via the HPLX mailing list.

Then came the backlight project.
Being not entirely satisfied with the LED light solution I had developed, because it was one more part to carry around, and folding it up was not quite possible without damaging it over time, I began to look for more professional solutions. This was about the time when Thaddeus Computing started their backlight project, based on experiments by David Sargeant, John Musielewicz and others.

I was eagerly awaiting their announcement about availability of the backlight upgrade, but at the same time I was aware that it would be too expensive for me, so I'd probably never let my machine upgrade by them. Finally Thaddeus announced that the backlight upgrade would never be available. I discussed a lot with the involved people about the actual problems leading to that decision and finally started my own research. Hal and his colleagues at Thaddeus sent me a lot of their materials they used for their experiments (thanks a lot for that support!) and provided a lot of valuable information.
After about one year of research (2002-2003) and much support of Thaddeus, Tom Rundel and others (who mainly provided broken screens I could experiment with), and of Stefan Peichl, who wrote the great software driver for backlight control, I found a solution which is a compromise between feasibility and quality.

About at the same time, I stumbled across a web page of a guy called Stefan Kaechele, who offered backlight upgrades for some devices, and the website stated "A HP 200LX backlight upgrade is planned". I immediately contacted him and we shared our experiences. Outcome: He provided the hardware for the upgrade, which he had optimized over some years (combination of EL foil and driver circuit), and I provided the method for the upgrade. The materials I used for my prototypes worked quite well, but they had two disadvantages: I had to assemble the driver circuit by hand (takes a lot of time), he had a ready-made circuit board. And my solution needed about 7 times the power of an unmodified LX. His solution needs only twice the power when installed. His solution had one disadvantage, though: The light was not as bright as mine. But at the end this turned out to be good, because in total darkness, my solution would be too bright.

We marketed the solution. At first, his technician provided the upgrade service. But he didn't know the HP palmtop architecture enough to be able to provide reliable service. He had many problems with almost-defective palmtops or upgraded machines. So in 2004, I took over upgrade service, and now I offer the entire backlight upgrade service and buy the parts from Stefan Kaechele.

This was a very interesting project for me, which I learned a lot from, especially in the field of international cooperation, data exchange and trade.

I established many more contacts to other people and also some people contacted me because they read about me and my hobby on my homepage, and that way I was able to find some more sources for upgrade and accessory parts. For example I found a source for 4MB upgrade boards, which cost less than the T2T boards (but also have some disadvantages compared to the T2T ones), recently I found a source for 16 and 32MB upgrade boards in Japan, which may lead to a long-term supply of these boards (too bad we didn't get in touch some years ago, when demand was much higher!).

Another important mile stone in my 200LX "career" was when Andreas Garzotto announced that he would stop developing the D&A Software products. We were searching for a successor, asked on the mailing list for interested and skilled people and finally choose two or three candidates, none of which really continued the work. Finally I said to Andreas "I would like to try it myself". So Andreas gave me the sources of some of the D&A programs and I began to read the code and slowly - very slowly - began to understand his interesting but very straight-forward programming style. Not being a software developer, I had serious difficulties with these software projects. I had almost no experience with C. But I am a learning by doing type of person, so I got used to the source code by reading it and consulting some books for reference, and finally was able to apply some feature requests and bug fixes. That way I released new versions of PE, PIM, MM/LX, TT/LX and Post/LX. Also a project which I have learned a lot from. Not only could I collect programming skills by enhancing the programs I used daily for my own needs. But I also learned what it means to organize processes, to coordinate and delegate actions etc, which I also learned in the hardware projects a lot, but in the software projects these things are very different.
The people which supported me most in that project were certainly Andreas Garzotto and Avi Meshar and all the people on the D&A Beta-Testers Mailing list: Tony Hutchins, Martin Bergvill, Helmuth Günther, Daniel Legendre, Fred Kaufmann, Gary Spiers...

And now - well, I have saved a little surprise for you for the end of the story - now I am in the process of founding a little business to offer all the experiences and services "officially" to you. I'll do this not as my main job, but in my spare time, for several reasons:
1. I have a family to feed so I still need the safe job
2. it is for now "only" a hobby turned into a job, which will not suffice for feeding a family (maybe later, when I offer more services and have more experiences, especially with other kinds of PDAs, too)
3. Most of my customers are you - people I know well and respect, so I have to consider my prices well, because I do not want to "milk" you, but the prices still need to justify my activities. It is still more a passion than a business. Slowly turning into a business, though.

The address of my little business is http://www.hermocom.com. Not much online yet, but it is growing. Criticism appreciated! The pages should be HV- and Lynx-friendly ;-)

So the HP palmtop was finally a tool not only for my daily life, but also for my future. I have invested a LOT of time tweaking it, developing for it etc. And I assume I have learned much more with these activities, than I would have learned if I had spent the time for home work for my studies or with watching TV or playing computer games. By the way: I had a lot of games on my LX for all the years 1997-2005, but I almost never played one. I always had to do more important things, such as developing software, maintaining databases or finding a solution to a specific problem. Sometimes I even developed software while driving home from work in the car. The LX sat near me on the passenger seat and everytime a traffic light went red, I took it, modified some code, and started the compiler.
Now I have a family, so I cannot do this anymore, because Alina needs his daddy for some time to come.

For some months now, my 200LX is sitting in the drawer, almost unused. Most of you know the reason: I have moved to a new platform, the Sharp Zaurus PDA. The model SL-C3000 is a device which was for me the best replacement for a 200LX. Driven by Linux, still in clamshell format, and with almost all the flexibility the 200LX also had, but with more modern and powerful technology, in hardware and software. But this does not mean that I don't have anything to do with the LX anymore. I'm still reading and sometimes writing to the HPLX list, I use my LX for reference if the Zaurus does not do the job (my LX setup grew for 8 years, the Zaurus setup is only 8 months old, so I cannot expect that it is already as powerful as my LX setup). And I still repair and upgrade quite some LXs. I'll probably also cooperate with Michel Bel, who initiateed this LX story contest and who could make me happy with his spare parts supply, and so I will help him earning money with his risky and brave deal with Brazilian palmtops. I will try to continue cooperation with the Japanese manufacturer of the memory upgrade boards (16 and 32 MB) as long as possible.

Hal Goldstein, I know I owe you something for all your support, so I'm constantly trying not to compete with you too much. And I think the small amount of jobs I do (compared to the amount of repairs and upgrades you probably do) will not do any serious harm to your business. If it ever does, please let me know and we will find a solution!

I am not satisfied at all with any device on the mobile computer market today. Not even with the Zaurus. When the LX was on the market, it was near to being perfect (because it had only minor shortcomings compared to "normal" PCs, being a normal 186 PC with only less RAM and colors and speed). But imagine a PDA-sized Pentium 2GHz 512MB RAM 60GB hard disk 1024x768 TFT, 1200x1600 VGA-out and video (TV) output 5.1 surround sound 3D graphics accellerated computer with some weeks of battery life. That would be about an equivalent to the HPLX nowadays I think. But why isn't it on the market already? No interest? I don't think so. Techonology not available? Well, maybe some problems with the battery, but otherwise it would be possible.
Even the most expensive and most feature-rich available devices have their serious shortcomings (see the OQO's battery life and operating temperature for example). So with hermocom I'd like to find individual solutions, eliminating as many of the shortcomings as possible for the individual needs. And maybe some day I'll even participate in the development of "the perfect mobile computer". The 200LX is the best experience I could have made in order to reach this goal.

That was my LX story.

Now I am especially looking forward to read the stories of the prominent people here. Avi, your story please! Stefan Peichl! I will also ask Andreas Garzotto to post his story. Extremely interesting would be the story of Everett Kaser, who participated in the HPLX mailing list for a short time (he co-developed the palmtop at HP). I will ask him, too. Helmuth Günther! Stanley Dobrowski! Harry Konstas! Gilles Kohl! Hal Goldstein! There are so many. And all the people who left the list before I joined - I am sure there are very interesting stories, too. So if you know someone who left the list but could have an interesting story to tell, please contact him or her!

Thank you!
daniel

HP Palmtops - My Service

2009-10-11T12:49:41+00:00

Interesting links:

Looking for a successor for the HP Palmtop? Have a look at the OpenPandora and Pyra Linux Palmtops!
If you need repairs, upgrades and spare parts: Please contact Michel Bel (Netherlands, Europe) or Thaddeus Computing (USA).
Join the community: There is still (or again, after a pause) the HPLX mailing list, where still a lot of helpful people are around. Me included (as of 2019/2020)
If you need software for your Palmtop, browse the S.U.P.E.R. palmtop software archive. In case the main link does not work, try this mirror: http://mizj.com/

My service:

hermocom was one of the last few supporters worldwide for the MS-DOS-based Palmtop PCs made in the 1990s by Hewlett Packard.

These are the HP Palmtop PC models 95LX, 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and the OmniGo 700LX.
I can mainly help with the 100LX, 200LX and 1000CX models. The other ones you can ask me about, too, but I am not too experienced with them.

Although "hermocom" does not exist anymore, I am still here, if you have a question.
Have a look into my HP Palmtop knowledge base, a collection of articles about various topics, which may answer some of your questions already, or give you new ideas in order to find solutions.
Software packages and drivers in the HP Palmtop Software download area.
Please contact Michel Bel (Netherlands, Europe) or Thaddeus Computing (USA) for repairs, upgrades and spare parts.

Until 2014 I also offered:

Repair service (worldwide)
RAM upgrades
Speed upgrades
Backlight upgrade kit
Spare parts, accessories and special offers

Since my interests have moved on to new topics (e.g. photography), I don't have the time anymore to care much about he HP Palmtops. But I still appreciate them as probably the best ultramobile computers, that have been available by now. :)

Repairs / Fixes - hermocom

Charging / battery capacity

Connectivity Pack for HPLX emulation on other (mini) PCs

CG.COM

PALRUN

PocketDOS

EMI problems with the HP palmtops

NEWS:

Introduction:

Drawings (schematics and board layout)

My measurements

HP OmniGo 100 / 120 - Technical Information

Introduction

Pictures

Usage of PCMCIA SRAM / Flash / CF storage cards

Interesting external links

HP Palmtop 1000CX - Technical information

Introduction:

Pictures

HP Palmtop 95LX - Technical information

Introduction

Pictures

RAM upgrade

Backlight upgrade

Storage cards (SRAM, ATA flash, Compact Flash)

Some things to take care of

HP Palmtop OmniGo 700LX - Technical information

Introduction

Pictures

The second PCMCIA slot

RAM and speed upgrades

HP Palmtop related Internet resources

HP Palmtop Story Contest - My Contribution

LX story contest Contribution by Daniel Hertrich Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

HP Palmtops - My Service

Interesting links:

My service:

LX story contest
Contribution by Daniel Hertrich
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005