VOGONS


First post, by Hamby

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I just got an HP 200LX palmtop (came half a week early...)
I don't have a serial cable for it; it takes a special 10 pin plug at one end; standard RS232 at the other.
I have the pinout, and I read a suggestion of cutting up a 2.5 to 3.5 HD cable to make it.

Has anyone any experience with building a serial cable for the 200LX?

Anyone know a good source for parts for the project, now that Radio Shack is no more? (I thought about trying Element 14 online...)
Does anyone know what the 10 pin connector is called, if anything?
Could I maybe make the adapter from a 9 pin serial to motherboard cable?

Any info anyone can share I'd greatly appreciate. Thanks.

Reply 1 of 2, by lolo799

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Before I found some official cables I used a 4 pin audio cable for CD-ROM drives, 3 loose wires and a serial null-modem cable to connect my 200LX to another computer.
If you want to transfer files to a 200LX, using a Compact Flash PCMCIA adapter with a known supported card is easier, or a Sony Memory Stick PCMCIA adapter, those work too without the need for a driver to be loaded.

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 2 of 2, by Hamby

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Thanks for the advice and info...

I got a 10mb CF card working with the 200LX, and just got an 85mb pcmcia card that is now working with it.

At work they had a bunch of free flexible USB lights; I'm going to get one of those flat battery rechargers for phones to set under the 200lx and then I can use the light for dark situations.

I also just found a source for the 10 pin adapters for the serial port, so I'll probably be getting some of them to build an adapter.
What I'm wonder is if there's some way I could build a power adapter to connect to a USB phone battery recharger to the power adapter of the 200LX. Then I could recharge the batteries on the go like I do my phone.

Once I get the serial adapter built/working, I've got a serial - bluetooth adapter and a serial - wifi adapter I'm going to try it with.