Good buddy, good junk = good conquest

[ClassicHasClass]

Visiting my buddy this weekend, who is cleaning out his closet. Among the closet goodies that I will be giving a good home two: two eMates, intact, one with a 4MB flash card; and their "sync" station, a 266MHz Wallstreet PDQ with a zip and CD-ROM. Needs a little TLC and a new battery, but works great!

 

It's a good weekend.

[30pin]

The emates and the PDQ powerbook are both good finds. Having them working together is great ! I am working at getting my PDQ to see my Emate. No luck so far. I was hoping to use the ira ports to transfer files. How does your setup sync. ? My PDQ is running O.S.9.0.4.

[ClassicHasClass]

Haven't gotten it rigged yet, but I think it's just the regular Newton sync software. I wanted to get the memory bumped up first.

[beachycove]

NCU, despite what the software says in the various palettes that open up in NewtonOS, does not work via IRDA. I think it may have been a planned system update that never happened. The IRDA problem, as I recall, is complicated by the fact that there are different IRDA standards, apparently, in different PowerBooks and Mac desktops/towers (e.g., PowerBook 190, Pismo, LC630, Performa 6400), but the bottom line is that it's not going to work. There is a patch for the Newton's IRDA, but it does not enable IRDA synching. What the point of the patch was I have never been able to make out; the write-up in in Attic Geek. I have actually tried it as a fix for the IRDA problem — thinking that IRDA would be the most elegant solution of all — and it was a waste of time.

 

The real options for networking between the eMate and the Wallstreet begin with a serial (Mac printer) cable, followed by localtalk/PhoneNet cabling. It would also be possible to use an ethernet PCMCIA for the eMate, or a couple of compatible wireless PCMCIA cards, and do it that way; or, if you wanted to work with a machine in OSX, there are also Bluetooth solutions and open source versions of NCU for OSX. And then there's the modem option; most PCMCIA modems will work in a Newton, and I believe that connection by modem even works under Apple Remote Access, so there is something to be said for this option.

 

Most of this I have never tried, with the exception of Wireless PCMCIA (which I have use to connect via Appletalk with a Pismo running 9.2), so I can't vouch for the robustness of, say, the Bluetooth option. Personally, I use and would advise you to go with the serial cable or with PhoneNet, which means among other things that you will have a continuing use for the Wallstreet.

[30pin]

I have been tinkering with both my units. The PDQ is now running O.S.9.2 . I upped the ram from 128mb to 256mb. Feels faster and smoother. I downloaded Classilla !

 

The emate had a quick change of batteries as the originals were dead. The cell swap went well and everything fit back in. The hinges need to be fixed asap. Looks like I will scrap trying to use the irda ports. I will check for a serial cable in a day or so when I get back to the city.

 

I want to use the emate on the road and sync. to the powerbook when home.

[ChristTrekker]

Wow, very nice. I've never even seen a Newton in person, much less an eMate.

 

A company posted free old PCs/Macs on CL this morning, but by the time I got over there all the scrappers had already loaded everything up. The only Mac I saw was a IIcx.

[Nathan]

I can vouch for IrDA working between an iMac G3 and an eMate 300, at least for package sending. It's not particularly flexible, but you can use IrDA Package Installer (http://jerome.vernet.pagesperso-orange.fr/Softs/IrDAPack.sit) by Jerome Vernet if you only want send packages to the Newton. You also need the IrDA Tool extension, which is a bit of pain to find again if you lose it. This only works under Mac OS 9 though. I can't say if it'll work on a powerbook, but it might be worth a try. Keep in mind that it needs a nice direct line without interference or wobble to get a clean transfer. It's not going to be incredibly easy and it's a bit of a pain. With some early versions of Mac OS X you can supposedly use NewtSync/nSync -- whichever it's actual name is -- (http://thenowhereman.com/hacks/newton/)

 

You can also check out these sites:

 

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/kieran.miller/newton/irda.html

http://communicrossings.com/html/newton/sloup.htm

http://www.archive.org/details/tucows_32991_EETransfer

 

 

On another point, what's really odd is this: NewtVNC (http://communicrossings.com/html/newton/vnc.htm)

and no it doesn't work terribly well, at least not with an eMate (too little memory for most cases it seems, even with the 4mb upgrade). I've tried it with different settings using my eMate with a wavelan wireless card.

[Nathan]

On that topic, maybe someone should bug that guy and find out whether his program works is adaptable.