PPP to Wifi module in a Newton (and maybe others?)

[Bunsen]

Listing this under Hacks rather than Newton, because it seems like it would be usable on a lot of older machines:

Giving Wifi To An Apple Newton - Hackaday
 

[Jake] has the king of the Newtons – a MessagePad 2100. There’s a hidden port in this machine for a modem card, but Apple never made one. / [Jake] thought it would be possible to build a modern WiFi card for the Newton. He succeeded, opening the door to modern networking apps /

The critical piece of hardware for this build isn’t an ESP8266 or other common WiFi module. Instead, a WiReach module from ConnectOne was used for the built-in PPP server. This allows legacy hardware to use standard AT modem commands to access a WiFi network. It’s a very interesting module; there is a lot of hardware out there that speaks PPP natively, and a module like this could be a drop-in replacement for a modem.

{bolding mine}

The module itself is called the Nano WiREACH SMT OB G2. It has some other interesting features, like DHCP, optional external antenna, USB Device and Host, and an Ethernet port (with switching/routing), and FCC type approval. 

Highlights of the spec page:
 

Hardware Description:

• 
  Size: 37.0 x 20.0 x 2.5 mm
• Core CPU: 32-bit RISC ARM7TDMI at 48MHz
• Power Consumption:
  Transmit – 350mA
• Receive – 130mA

[*]Connection: 44 SMT pads
[*]Host Interface: Serial, SPI, USB Device
[*]Cellular Modem Interface: USB Host
[*]10/100 BaseT LAN Interface: RMII (w/ext. PHY)

Performance Specifications:

• Host Data Rates:
  UART: Up to 3Mbps
• SPI: Up to 12Mbps
• USB 1.1: Up to 6Mbps

Internet Protocols:

• 
  ARP, ICMP, IP, UDP, TCP, DHCP, DNS, NTP, SMTP, POP3, MIME, HTTP, FTP and TELNET
• Security protocols: SSL3/TLS1, HTTPS, FTPS, RSA, AES-128/256, 3DES, RC-4, SHA-1, MD-5, WPA/WPA2
• Protocols accelerated in hardware: AES, 3DES and SHA

Application Program Interface:

• 
  AT+i protocol for Internet Controller mode
• SerialNET mode for transparent serial data-to-Internet bridging
• LAN-WiFi transparent bridging
• PPP operation mode for Modem-WiFi conversion
• LANWiFi; WiFiCellular; LANCellular Routing

Having USB Host onboard suggests some interesting uses, depending on how locked-down the firmware is.

Seeing what I can find out about price and availability now.

 

[ScutBoy]

Hmmm - this gets my mind churning...

 

[Elfen]

In the crazy days of handhelds palm devices, I remember the HP device using CF (or CF like) cards for various expansion, mostly for RAM/Flash RAM, but I remember one card was for 801.11 wifi

The Newtons use, I'm not even sure - CF or PCMCIA? If there is some compatibility to the HP Device, the least one would need is to get or write up a driver for the wifi card.

I have an eMate 300 (still new in the box though the box is beaten up) and have barely touched it. Just checked to see if it still operates, and it does. And it comes with two PCMCIA looking cards for FlashRAM Memory, I think they are 8MB and 16MB - I need to open the box and look at it to be sure. But I do remember the cards being PCMCIA - like.

 

[rsolberg]

Very interesting idea for vintage devices with little expansion possibility. I use an Orinico Silver PCMCIA card in my MP2100 for WiFi. The eMate is also 16-bit PCMCIA. (not 32-bit Cardbus)

This is potentially adaptable into an external module that plugs into a serial port. Hello everything old!

 

[Bunsen]

The Newtons use, I'm not even sure - CF or PCMCIA?

Newtons and eMates use PCMCIA.  There are a number of Wifi cards known to work with Newton drivers.

That really wasn't the point of posting this.

Very interesting idea for vintage devices with little expansion possibility. / This is potentially adaptable into an external module that plugs into a serial port. Hello everything old!

This was the point of posting this.  Internal or external - anywhere there's a UART available.

 

[ScutBoy]

Newtons use PCMCIA - pretty sure 16 bit only. As stated above, Orinoco Silver or compatible cards work for WiFi, etc.