Careful, if your unicorn herd is sufficiently large, you'll need to reprogram the picogus to also provide LIM EMS4.0 functions to handle queries!

Kek

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-04-03, 06:51:

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-04-03, 06:24:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-04-03, 04:28:

If someone made one of these in a NUC style form factor

Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee

Thanks. I had forgotten about that one after seeing it years ago on LGR. I think that's something I'd need to build myself, which would rule it out. I've never built something like that.

From my aspect, WeCee is too expensive, just the SoC is over US$200.

There are still many affordable PC-104 industry PC board available on the market, and can used to buiid a complete computer without building PCB/soldering
Here is some videos from Hustoj on Bilibili for PC-104 :
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV13V4y1f7hZ/
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12b411f7TW/
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV15M4y1s7ZW/

Actually Zhblue designed an interface board to reduce cabling, however just with some cable the system works too.

Hustoj/Zhblue on Bilibili and RetroTester on Youtube is same person. Here is his Github:
https://github.com/zhblue

Mine appears to have a defective battery or charger; no amount of charging (even leaving it overnight) results in it keeping any charge or being able to power on the laptop for even a split second; as soon as I remove the 12V cable the laptop powers off.

Anyone know what the two voltage readouts on the FN+F5 status screen mean? Mine says: 4961mV 0644mV Battery CHG

Other than that I'm very happy with it, the improvements to the LCD are a big win. Even Win95 feels quite zippy. Anyone know how to make Win95 use 800x480 ? (apparently the native res of the LCD?)

Andys31337 wrote on 2024-04-17, 05:41:

Mine appears to have a defective battery or charger; no amount of charging (even leaving it overnight) results in it keeping any charge or being able to power on the laptop for even a split second; as soon as I remove the 12V cable the laptop powers off.

Anyone know what the two voltage readouts on the FN+F5 status screen mean? Mine says: 4961mV 0644mV Battery CHG

Other than that I'm very happy with it, the improvements to the LCD are a big win. Even Win95 feels quite zippy. Anyone know how to make Win95 use 800x480 ? (apparently the native res of the LCD?)

I have the same problem with mine. I reached out to the seller on AliExpress and they are going to be shipping me a new battery.

Otherwise it does seem to be a fairly standard sized battery, so it could probably be replaced on your own if you swap the connector over.

Mine appears to be having PS/2 issues. Anyone else getting unresponsive keyboard or locking on mouse connected boot?

Otherwise it may be working. Seems to charge okay. I need to dig up another mouse and do a fresh install.

Anyone figure out if there is any way to click and drag with the keyboard mouse setup? The system appears to only register one key at a time.

Unfortunately I have not spotted any cures for the aforementioned problems, many of the twitter and mastadon threads are updating with more info from people though so you could keep an eye on those.

There appears to be some weirdness from external mouse because CMOS setting sometimes clears and defaults to PS/2 turned off, so it has to be set back again.

Mine seems intent on sitting out the weekend in a warehouse 30 miles away... though it could stay there longer also, sat and stared at something sitting there a whole week once.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-20, 04:00:

Mine seems intent on sitting out the weekend in a warehouse 30 miles away... though it could stay there longer also, sat and stared at something sitting there a whole week once.

If it takes too long contact the shipper. I've had to have shippers give the repacker a hurry up a couple of times to get a shipment located and packaged up.

Yasssssss, it's here... package looks in good shape... however we were down to frost temps and my stoop doesn't see sun until later so I am letting it warm up an hour or so before getting into it to avoid condensation.

I am also a little annoyed at Canada Post doing it's usual "You won't know it's moving in your actual direction until it's delivered" thing of the past few years. The one time I managed to see an "out for delivery" notification before something was delivered, it was like 8AM one day to 8PM the following day before they dropped it, which is the other extreme of annoying.

So a bit more torture beyond letting it warm up, this Monday is kinda busy for me, I am not gonna be able to really get into it until tomorrow. Also seem to be having more time problems than usual, past week just got by me like the last afternoon of summer vacation, foom, I was intending to have another 386 machine set up to do some side by side.

EditL crap I don't even have my Compact Flash reader dug out and set up, I was telling myself it was a priority to backup the CF before I do ANYTHING.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:06:

EditL crap I don't even have my Compact Flash reader dug out and set up, I was telling myself it was a priority to backup the CF before I do ANYTHING.

I backed mine up before booting it the first time, if you need the image: https://archive.org/details/pocket-386-cf

Hello! I'm new.

That out of the way; I got one of these after owning a book 8088.

It's happily puttering along and I found a crusty old ps/2 mouse to use with it. Unfortunately the crust is not -my- crust and I'm trying not to think about that as I test it real quick. Gonna go find a bottle of cleaning vinegar in a few.

I'm decenty impressed although the lack of serial is a bit of a pain -- on the off-chance it might work I tried some bios options and passthrus and gender changes on a few different devices (serial tablet meant for cad work, a serial trackball, etc) and none are particularly pleased at being hammered through clearly incompatible parallel and ps/2 ports. ... But y'know, had to try when I saw the BIOS mention two serial ports. Doubt they're real ofc; I'm fairly certain this bios is just lifted off someone or something else haphazardly like the book 8088.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with it. I made sure to make an image of the vanilla cf card this time, too. (Unlike my book 8088, where I had to run to the seller with my tail tucked between my legs...)

I doubt I can help much more than others already have and/or can but if you'd like me to test anything, let me know.

Sunoo wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:30:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:06:

EditL crap I don't even have my Compact Flash reader dug out and set up, I was telling myself it was a priority to backup the CF before I do ANYTHING.

I backed mine up before booting it the first time, if you need the image: https://archive.org/details/pocket-386-cf

That... is very useful. Thanks!

I was scratching my head thinking of the best way to do a clean Win95 install on here to troubleshoot; the image'll save me the effort.

ascle wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:34:

I'm decenty impressed although the lack of serial is a bit of a pain -- on the off-chance it might work I tried some bios options and passthrus and gender changes on a few different devices (serial tablet meant for cad work, a serial trackball, etc) and none are particularly pleased at being hammered through clearly incompatible parallel and ps/2 ports. ... But y'know, had to try when I saw the BIOS mention two serial ports. Doubt they're real ofc; I'm fairly certain this bios is just lifted off someone or something else haphazardly like the book 8088.

You’ll need this if you want serial: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806586162010.html

Sunoo wrote on 2024-04-22, 17:04:

You’ll need this if you want serial: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806586162010.html

Ahhh... The physical pain I felt as I live on the complete opposite end of the planet (atlantic canada) which means it'll take eons in the mail. Ah well.

I appreciate the link!

Inhibit wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:37:

That... is very useful. Thanks!

I was scratching my head thinking of the best way to do a clean Win95 install on here to troubleshoot; the image'll save me the effort.

Glad I could help!

The way I ended up doing a clean install of mine (I switched it to Windows 3.11) was to mount the CF card as a drive in VMware, then used a floppy disk image to format the drive and do the install before moving the card back to the Pocket386.

Sunoo wrote on 2024-04-22, 17:24:

Inhibit wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:37:

That... is very useful. Thanks!

I was scratching my head thinking of the best way to do a clean Win95 install on here to troubleshoot; the image'll save me the effort.

Glad I could help!

The way I ended up doing a clean install of mine (I switched it to Windows 3.11) was to mount the CF card as a drive in VMware, then used a floppy disk image to format the drive and do the install before moving the card back to the Pocket386.

I just have a sacrifical usb drive (the 5$ cad one in the image i posted above) I use. Rufus happily barfs floppy images onto it which makes it usable since dos allows you to remap directories/drives as others so if I get an installer that complains about being on D:, I can just set A: to redirect to it.
The only time I use your method is when I need to format a new cf card or if I mess up an old one. X)

Opening! First impressions... packaging quality is a lot nicer than what seem to be prerelease versions there are photos of, smart black box inside the brown carton, individual white boxes inside that with the Pocket386 unit, the power adaptor, and the interface cables (Parallel and PS2/VGA). Pretty much what you'd expect from a retail, store shelved product in recent years, minus the glossy photo quality flashy outer cardboard sleeve which probably puts a buck or two on the price. It is just a little larger than I imagined, somehow it was about 7/8 scale in my head. Hoodie pocket fit check, pass, cargo pant pocket fit check, pass, that funny little pocket in the crown of a Tilley hat... not in a size 7 3/4.... maybe if you've got a really big head... yeah there are a number of lesser pockets it will not fit in, but I give it a pass on being "pocket" sized.

User guide is a paper version of the online one, doesn't waste paper telling you not to use it in the bath, poke yourself in the eye with the PSU, or let your toddler chew on it. Dunno if it's because I'm too blind or overwhelmed but don't see it mention what the charging light does, plugged it in, on red now, don't know whether to expect a state of off, green, flashing, or tartan.

Edit: Blue!

Sunoo wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:30:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-22, 16:06:

EditL crap I don't even have my Compact Flash reader dug out and set up, I was telling myself it was a priority to backup the CF before I do ANYTHING.

I backed mine up before booting it the first time, if you need the image: https://archive.org/details/pocket-386-cf

Thanks very much, am now hedged against disaster, but will try to compare against mine in case there are rolling revisions.

Alright, I've gotten the PS/2 breakout port working. I missed the part where the PS/2 port isn't enabled by default in the secret FN+F5 while-booted settings.

Also, I was doing something wrong when I tried to use the cursor keys as a mouse; I wasn't pressing the "M" key. Which apparently means "Menu" key now that I see the icon in the manual.

Now to start actually playing around with the laptop and trying out some software.

Inhibit wrote on 2024-04-22, 18:27:

Alright, I've gotten the PS/2 breakout port working. I missed the part where the PS/2 port isn't enabled by default in the secret FN+F5 while-booted settings.

Also, I was doing something wrong when I tried to use the cursor keys as a mouse; I wasn't pressing the "M" key. Which apparently means "Menu" key now that I see the icon in the manual.

Now to start actually playing around with the laptop and trying out some software.

Ah yeah, same hat — I didn't realize you had to enable it in the fn-combination settings at first either.
I'm curious what software you intend on trying so please let us know how it goes!

I has bootage, but trying not to do anything that writes the drive so just poking around a bit, ran Wolf3D on defaults, if anyone needs to know it's set up it WASD E for the doors and U for the bangbutton. Oddly the slash/questionmark key dies after I run MSD. Came back on a reboot. Had a stomach lurch at first boot on battery charger, since it was doing that 4800mV 454mV thing buuut it looked more sensible when I turned off, restarted on battery, so no sure of exact interpretation of that, might be target/remaining but when plugged in is giving charge volts over top of battery volts or something.