cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-16, 17:09:

Not really. It has to be fast enough to translate the USB protocol to serial.

if that was directed at my reply, then No. That can be done with a microchip microcontroller.
No need whatsoever to throw a whole raspberry pi with USB, HDMI, camera connector etc at it.

if not
then...

Grzyb wrote on 2021-10-16, 16:22:

For mice only... https://github.com/mborjesson/USB-Mouse-to-Serial https://www.versalent.biz/usbm232.htm […]
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ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-15, 13:25:

Serial-to-USB

For mice only...
https://github.com/mborjesson/USB-Mouse-to-Serial
https://www.versalent.biz/usbm232.htm

Interesting. Don't know why, but always thought that USB t0 PS2 + PS2 to Serial adapters should be enough for a mouse 🙄

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 18:14:

Don't know why, but always thought that USB t0 PS2 + PS2 to Serial adapters should be enough for a mouse 🙄

Must be careful with such things...
Those common PS/2 mouse <-> COM port adapters only work if the mouse is designed for both PS/2 and COM ports, notably it must support the 12 V of the RS-232 - otherwise, damage is possible.
I don't know about USB mouse <-> PS/2 port adapters.

Grzyb wrote on 2021-10-16, 19:03:

Must be careful with such things... Those common PS/2 mouse <-> COM port adapters only work if the mouse is designed for both PS […]
Show full quote

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 18:14:

Don't know why, but always thought that USB t0 PS2 + PS2 to Serial adapters should be enough for a mouse 🙄

Must be careful with such things...
Those common PS/2 mouse <-> COM port adapters only work if the mouse is designed for both PS/2 and COM ports, notably it must support the 12 V of the RS-232 - otherwise, damage is possible.
I don't know about USB mouse <-> PS/2 port adapters.

Good to know. Thanks!

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-15, 20:16:

If it has an ISA bus, accessible in some way, then you could add a USB connector for storage devices using the CH375 chip. Although it will be abysmally slow. 😀

You could use a CH376 and bitbang SPI over the parallel port, or design a card with a couple shift registers to convert the parallel to SPI. Bitbang maybe wouldn't be faster than the UART interface on the CH376 though. I'm not positive if there's enough independently controllable pins on an LPT port to just use a (bidirectional) LPT port for the CH375/6's parallel interface but there could be.

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 14:58:

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-16, 04:59:

The HP200LX seems to have a PCMCIA slot, so it might be possible to install an USB PCMCIA card. Together with matching drivers ( […]
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The HP200LX seems to have a PCMCIA slot, so it might be possible to install an USB PCMCIA card.
Together with matching drivers (PCMCIA card services or PC Card services etc) it might run on the 200LX.

That being said, it's not too easy to find something on the web.
Google nolonger obeys the quotation marks the way it used to, so searching explicitly for "USB 1.0" or "USB 1.1" cards shows results for newer USB controllers for Cardbus, too.
(I used "usb 1.1 pcmcia 16-bit")

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/ques … ard-16bits/8695

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=75688

As Bondi has mentioned above, those are CardBus PC Cards and they are not compatible with HP 200LX PCMCIA slot.

Though there were some interesting Japanese CF to USB adaptors (see attached) but those were intended to work with PDAs and Windows and were intended to be used with Mass Storage Devices only.

No, not all of them. And especially not the one I was talking about.
For the sake of mutual respect, please do at least bother to read the datasheet I linked to, it explicitly mentions 16-Bit PCMCIA - not CardBus. 😀

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-16, 19:42:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 14:58:

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-16, 04:59:

The HP200LX seems to have a PCMCIA slot, so it might be possible to install an USB PCMCIA card. Together with matching drivers ( […]
Show full quote

The HP200LX seems to have a PCMCIA slot, so it might be possible to install an USB PCMCIA card.
Together with matching drivers (PCMCIA card services or PC Card services etc) it might run on the 200LX.

That being said, it's not too easy to find something on the web.
Google nolonger obeys the quotation marks the way it used to, so searching explicitly for "USB 1.0" or "USB 1.1" cards shows results for newer USB controllers for Cardbus, too.
(I used "usb 1.1 pcmcia 16-bit")

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/ques … ard-16bits/8695

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=75688

As Bondi has mentioned above, those are CardBus PC Cards and they are not compatible with HP 200LX PCMCIA slot.

Though there were some interesting Japanese CF to USB adaptors (see attached) but those were intended to work with PDAs and Windows and were intended to be used with Mass Storage Devices only.

No, not all of them. And especially not the one I was talking about.
For the sake of mutual respect, please do at least bother to read the datasheet I linked to, it explicitly mentions 16-Bit PCMCIA - not CardBus. 😀

For the sake of mutual respect have to admit that you're right, datasheet explicitly mentions 16-Bit PCMCIA , not CardBus. Though this datasheet looks like a description of unicorn - plenty of interesting information but nobody have ever seen one. 🙂

Grzyb wrote on 2021-10-16, 19:03:

Must be careful with such things... Those common PS/2 mouse <-> COM port adapters only work if the mouse is designed for both PS […]
Show full quote

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 18:14:

Don't know why, but always thought that USB t0 PS2 + PS2 to Serial adapters should be enough for a mouse 🙄

Must be careful with such things...
Those common PS/2 mouse <-> COM port adapters only work if the mouse is designed for both PS/2 and COM ports, notably it must support the 12 V of the RS-232 - otherwise, damage is possible.
I don't know about USB mouse <-> PS/2 port adapters.

For those passive USB to PS/2 adapters, the mouse has to support PS/2 as well. Same for keyboards.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-16, 17:22:

if that was directed at my reply, then No. That can be done with a microchip microcontroller. No need whatsoever to throw a who […]
Show full quote

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-16, 17:09:

Not really. It has to be fast enough to translate the USB protocol to serial.

if that was directed at my reply, then No. That can be done with a microchip microcontroller.
No need whatsoever to throw a whole raspberry pi with USB, HDMI, camera connector etc at it.

if not
then...

If I remember correctly, the Pi solution is really configurable. Would that be possible with a microcontroller?

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-16, 21:56:

If I remember correctly, the Pi solution is really configurable. Would that be possible with a microcontroller?

It's still overkill for that tiny function. highly configurable or not.

and yes it's possible with a microcontroller, depending on what function you want to configure it to do.
The Raspberry pi is a whole computer for crying out loud. just add monitor and keyboard& mouse.

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:02:

It's still overkill for that tiny function. highly configurable or not. […]
Show full quote

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-16, 21:56:

If I remember correctly, the Pi solution is really configurable. Would that be possible with a microcontroller?

It's still overkill for that tiny function. highly configurable or not.

and yes it's possible with a microcontroller, depending on what function you want to configure it to do.
The Raspberry pi is a whole computer for crying out loud. just add monitor and keyboard& mouse.

As long as it fits an adapter size and acts like an adapter, I hereby name it "an adapter". 🙂

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:57:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:02:

It's still overkill for that tiny function. highly configurable or not.

and yes it's possible with a microcontroller, depending on what function you want to configure it to do.
The Raspberry pi is a whole computer for crying out loud. just add monitor and keyboard& mouse.

As long as it fits an adapter size and acts like an adapter, I hereby name it "an adapter". 🙂

Sure, it can adapt your whole old computer into a tiny package 🤣

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-17, 08:18:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:57:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-16, 22:02:

It's still overkill for that tiny function. highly configurable or not.

and yes it's possible with a microcontroller, depending on what function you want to configure it to do.
The Raspberry pi is a whole computer for crying out loud. just add monitor and keyboard& mouse.

As long as it fits an adapter size and acts like an adapter, I hereby name it "an adapter". 🙂

Sure, it can adapt your whole old computer into a tiny package 🤣

Well, it is a long time tradition actually, there was a well known Commodore 1541 Floppy Drive which also actually was a standalone computer. 🙂

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:11:

Well, it is a long time tradition actually, there was a well known Commodore 1541 Floppy Drive which also actually was a standalone computer. 🙂

Do you have a link to that ?

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-16, 11:18:

According to the Amiga folks, there was that CFU950 chip for 16-Bit PCMCIA, but actual cards using it became very rare. 🙁 […]
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According to the Amiga folks, there was that CFU950 chip for 16-Bit PCMCIA,
but actual cards using it became very rare. 🙁

https://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pd … XCFU950_07.html

Maybe using Compact Flash cards is an alternative.
They are kind of pin compatible to PCMCIA, but shorter/smaller?
Well, there are CF-PCMCIA adapters

Back in time, I had a WLAN (WiFi) CF card for my HP Jornada PDA.
It was in the early 2000s, I vaguely remember. When people used 802.11b and WEP64 or WEP128 encryption still.

That's interesting. Are there any evidences that the card with this chip was actually released?
And does this also mean that there were Amiga laptops? I'm not much into Amiga, but have a feeing that they are as rare as the USB PCMCIA card for it. 😀

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:22:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:11:

Well, it is a long time tradition actually, there was a well known Commodore 1541 Floppy Drive which also actually was a standalone computer. 🙂

Do you have a link to that ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1541

This thing has its own CPU, RAM, ROM and even DOS 🙂

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-17, 10:00:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:22:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:11:

Well, it is a long time tradition actually, there was a well known Commodore 1541 Floppy Drive which also actually was a standalone computer. 🙂

Do you have a link to that ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1541

This thing has its own CPU, RAM, ROM and even DOS 🙂

If you guys ever trying to get one, please consider the 1541C or the 1570/1571.
The original VC1541 doesn't have got a light barrier to detect track 0.
It will stupidly move 40 tracks against the wall during power-on, formatting etc.
Like an idiot that's banging his/her head against the wall.
This can lead to misaligned heads easily.

The 1541-C fixed the issue with a light barrier (photo diode+LED) and an updated DOS.
Unfortunately, the "sense pin" was attached to some chip that had been utilized by the C64 community for their floppy speeders.

That's why the fix was undone on 1541-ii again, sadly.
The later 157x series has a light barrier again, but uses another DOS and mechanism for sensing.
It will work with speeders, too. And it has a fixed IEC serial interface (it's broken multiple times on 1541+C64).
If the C64 is modified slightly (one dataline altered), it can take advantage of it, I vaguely remember.
However, it might then loose datasette support, not sure.

Here are two pictures of two 1541-C models.
Important is the style of the front label.
The label on the back does merely say "1541", not 1541-C sadly.

Source: https://c64-online.com/?page_id=65

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-17, 10:55:

If you guys ever trying to get one, please consider the 1541C or the 1570/1571. The original VC1541 doesn't have got a light bar […]
Show full quote

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2021-10-17, 10:00:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-10-17, 09:22:

Do you have a link to that ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1541

This thing has its own CPU, RAM, ROM and even DOS 🙂

If you guys ever trying to get one, please consider the 1541C or the 1570/1571.
The original VC1541 doesn't have got a light barrier to detect track 0.
It will stupidly move 40 tracks against the wall during power-on, formatting etc.
Like an idiot that's banging his/her head against the wall.
This can lead to misaligned heads easily.

The 1541-C fixed the issue with a light barrier (photo diode+LED) and an updated DOS.
Unfortunately, the "sense pin" was attached to some chip that had been utilized by the C64 community for their floppy speeders.

That's why the fix was undone on 1541-ii again, sadly.
The later 157x series has a light barrier again, but uses another DOS and mechanism for sensing.
It will work with speeders, too. And it has a fixed IEC serial interface (it's broken multiple times on 1541+C64).
If the C64 is modified slightly (one dataline altered), it can take advantage of it, I vaguely remember.
However, it might then loose datasette support, not sure.

Here are two pictures of two 1541-C models.
Important is the style of the front label.
The label on the back does merely say "1541", not 1541-C sadly.

1541-c-b.jpg
1541-c.jpg
Source: https://c64-online.com/?page_id=65

Well, Commodore is a whole standalone galaxy of many different models and peripheral devices. The first computer I was exposed to was a 286 IBM PC AT clone with EGA graphics, so after that all the other computers looked like no more than a toy.

Recently I was thinking of adding to a collection some Commodore classic model ... Maybe Commodore 64 or its portable brother Commodore 64SX or maybe Commodore 128 (CP/M 3.0 inside!!!) but after discovering that then you'll have to buy in addition a bunch of different addons and devices I've dropped that idea.