eMate connection to Performa 5215CD

[Concorde1993]

Hello:

I recently acquired an eMate 300 on Craigslist for $30. The unit is basically brand-new (the original owner claimed he only used it once in university for a lecture, and stopped using it). All in all, the 300 is a pretty decent tablet computer (considering its age), and works perfectly with my Personal LaserWriter 300, and StyleWriter 1500 (unfortunately, none of my ImageWriter IIs respond when I try to print from the eMate).

Anyway, the owner unfortunately was unable to find the original boot CD for the eMate, which contains the Newton Tour, and some other software programs. Since I intend to use the eMate for note taking, and so forth, I naturally would like to backup my data onto my Performa, as opposed to simply printing out a document, and erasing the file.

I have tried connecting using AppleTalk through the eMate's serial port, however, the eMate states that the computer is not responding. The OS I currently have on the Performa is 8.1 (which is buggy as hell), although I do intend to upgrade it to 9.2.2 in the not-to-distant future.

Is the eMate 300 OS 8 compatible, or will I have to upgrade the Performa?

 

[macgreg]

G'day.

You should be able to connect your eMate to your Performa with software you can find here.

In particular have a look here. Have a dig around the site for lots of other cool stuff as well. Good luck!

 

[Concorde1993]

Hello:

I have tried to download the torrent on the UNNA site, however it is to bloody slow. I managed to get to 19% when downloading the torrent through Frostwire, but that's about it. I guess there are not enough seeders in order to complete the torrent.

 

[beachycove]

You do not need to d/l the whole archive via torrent, but only the Newton Connection Utilities package. As it is only a few MB in size, it should take only a minute or so. UNNA's links work in both ways, or they did last time I tried.

NCU works flawlessly under MacOS 7, 8, and 9, and even well enough in the Classic environment up to X.3 (assuming, for the latter, that you have either a localtalk bridge or an ethernet/ wireless card). Your eMate will share text and sketches with MS Office 6, 98 or 2001 very, very well, as well as with MacWrite Pro, Word 5.1, and of course with ClarisWorks. It is not especially happy sharing with AppleWorks 6.

Sharing data with Excel from the spreadsheet module is more of a fiddle; I would suggest Office 98 tops, which is probably as much as any sane person would want to run on a 5215, anyway.

 

[Concorde1993]

Hi Beachycove:

I downloaded the Newton utility connection package, however I cannot have the install material expanded with Stuffit on my MBP. There is also a PDF manual, which I would assume explains how to install the connection package. For some reason, Adobe reader will not open the file, as it states it is corrupt (I tried opening it with Word 2004 & TextEdit, but nothing appears).

When you downloaded the NCU, did you simply drag the contents to floppies? I have intentions of doing that, but if the files are corrupt (this is Snow Leopard doing the talking here), the last thing I want to do is inflict damage to the contents on my Performa. Is there any other site (besides UNNA) which offers the NCU package?

 

[beachycove]

Probably due to missing resource forks, which are typically lost in OSX. There is no need to resort to floppies.

You are prone to have two problems these days with downloaded Newton software. The first is getting a Newton to recognize the .pkg files (for which Steve Weyer's utility is a real gem); the second is getting the software to decompress and be recognized as a Newton file on your main computer. OSX is a real PITA here, because it too uses .PKG files, and thus treats your Newton programs as if they are for OSX. They are not.

Possible solutions to the second problem include:

1. Decompressing the .sit or .zip archive on your Performa, using Stuffit Expander or similar. As long as you are working with the compressed archive, you are often successful using this method.

2. Alternatively, you can do the download on the Performa, and decompress there as in #1. The Performa will not introduce the problems that downloading on an OSX machine usually will, and it will be plenty fast for these purposes. The files are not large, and often they are tiny.

3. Try changing the file type using a standard file translation utility.

I find that, in general, downloads done on a machine running MacOS work much better than downloads of software intended for MacOS (or Newton) but done in OSX. Problems with the latter affect perhaps half or more of the files downloaded.

 

[Concorde1993]

Just a quick question- what is the maximum amount of memory that can be on a PC card that the eMate can read, and understand? Is it 64MB? I intend on utilizing the PCMCIA slot on my eMate to transfer Newton files to an HP PC with the slot (none of my other Macs have one built-in).

That Utility Connection CD is impossible to find. :'(

 

[macgreg]

How are you going to get a HP PC to read data from the flash card?

 

[Concorde1993]

How are you going to get a HP PC to read data from the flash card?

The HP comes with its own CompactFlash card slot, so it would only be a matter of transferring the card from the Newton to the PC. Also, from what I have read, the Newton OS is compatible with Windows. Naturally, I would have used a Mac, but I do not know of any Mac that had a PC card slot built-in (The MBPs use to have an ExpressCard slot, but I think that's a different breed of card altogether).

A program like WordPerfect or WordPad should work.

 

[Nathan]

If you are going to use a Compact Flash card, you will want the Kallisys ATA driver for the eMate (http://www.kallisys.com/). You can connect the newton to a PC serial port (db-9) if you have a proper (special for Newton eMate?) Mac serial a.k.a. Localtalk (din- 8) to PC serial (db-9) cable. Check here: http://www.nsbasic.com/newton/info/technotes/cable.html for a schematic to make one. Not sure about the compatibility of programs eMate <---> PC wise, it'll depend on what the connection utility supports.

 

[Concorde1993]

If you are going to use a Compact Flash card, you will want the Kallisys ATA driver for the eMate (http://www.kallisys.com/). You can connect the newton to a PC serial port (db-9) if you have a proper (special for Newton eMate?) Mac serial a.k.a. Localtalk (din- 8) to PC serial (db-9) cable. Check here: http://www.nsbasic.com/newton/info/technotes/cable.html for a schematic to make one. Not sure about the compatibility of programs eMate <---> PC wise, it'll depend on what the connection utility supports.

I have only owned my Newton for a couple of months now, so the results of any experimentation beyond printing a document to my LW300 & SW1500 will be interesting. I do have a din-8 to db-9 cord, however it no longer works (I tried hooking up my ImageWriter II to the HP PC using the C-Itoh 8510 driver, but it would not print out a document). I have been trying to look for a replacement, but so far no success (I have gone to the Source, Best Buy, Staples, etc.). I will take a look at the link you provided.

According to Apple, Newton Works is 100% compatible with the Windows operating system. I have yet to confirm that, however.

 

[beachycove]

I do not have these bootstrapping problems because I mostly deal with older hardware when networking (or should that be "newtworking"?) my Newtons. I am surprised that your eMate does not connect straightforwardly to your Performa, and wonder whether diagnosing and curing this problem would not be a better solution than turning to ATA drivers and cards. The software packages are so small that you really don't need a large PCMCIA-based drive. The usual arrangement is simplicity itself, though there may be an extension required to get the serial port to work properly with Newton OS 2.1 ("Apple Serial Tool," maybe - but this is just from memory).

I am not far away, and I have used Newtons more or less daily since around 1997, so I have accumulated a fair bit of the lore and of the gear. I also have multiple spare machines from the past (IIci, IIsi, P6290, P580, Q650, LCIII, LC475, G3s - and that's only some of them) available for beer money should you want to take a drive down the road one Saturday and return with one. I also have spare logic boards for your 5215, should there be a problem with the port/ should you not have the space for a new machine.

Any of these can be set up to network with your eMate in no time. I have all the software, and in fact I should have the serial cable you want, around the basement here somewhere.

If what you are looking for is a note-taking machine, what I can tell you is that NewtonWorks works really well with Office '98 and '01 as well as with Word 6 and 5.1. It is happiest with the Word 6+ format — or with ClarisWorks, obviously. Spreadsheet synching is more problematic.

 

[Concorde1993]

I do not have these bootstrapping problems because I mostly deal with older hardware when networking (or should that be "newtworking"?) my Newtons. I am surprised that your eMate does not connect straightforwardly to your Performa, and wonder whether diagnosing and curing this problem would not be a better solution than turning to ATA drivers and cards.

Well, according to the eMate 300 manual, the host computer requires certain software to realize that the eMate is there. One would figure OS 8.1 would have that feature preinstalled, but clearly that is not the case, and I already made mention of that back in September when I started this thread.

My main reason for using the eMate would be for note-taking during lectures. It has phenomenal battery life, and it would save some space on my MBP. Since my only option is printing a document, it is pointless using the 300 as I cannot save my lecture notes (thus the reason for inquiring about PC cards).

Whereabouts are you in Ontario? Send me a PM, and we'll set a time to meet.

 

[Concorde1993]

Anyway, I received a good copy of the Newton Utilities Connectivity program, and now the 300 & the 5215 are communicating.

Thanks to everyone for their help, especially to Beachycove, who forwarded the program.

I have included some pics to demonstrate that the program is working to specs.