Using a Pocket PC (iPAQ 2210)
For Mass Storage to Support Model 100/102/NEC
Just
thought I'd share some technical details/lessons learned. If anyone is
interested in using an iPAQ (Pocket PC) as a Model T mass storage system,
please let me know if you find the info below helpful, or if anything important
is missing.
Most of this information has
previously appeared on the Model 100 list, but I am trying to "add
value" by pulling it all together in one place.
Summary: TEENY + DeskLink +
PocketDOS + .BAT files + serial sync cable + plain adapter + Pocket PC = mass
storage solution. Total cost, assuming you already own a Pocket PC, is about
$45. Each piece is described below.
TEENY (client
software on Model T)
On the Model T, I am running TEENY.CO. If you have a Model 100 or 102, get
TEENY.EXE from http://www.club100.org/catalog.html#hotsetup
and run it on your PC to inject TEENY.CO into your Model 100/102. The
instructions are extremely clear, though you must read them carefully. Use the
CLEAR statement as instructed, and TEENY.CO should run like a champ.
If you have
a NEC PC-8201A or 8300, get TEENYN.BA (which I recommend renaming as TEENYN.DO)
from
http://www.web8201.com/Files/public/Utilities/TEENYN.BA.
Acknowledgment to John Hogerhuis and Gary Weber for passing me that link. Copy
TEENYN.DO to your NEC, load it with LOAD "TEENYN.DO" followed by SAVE
"TEENYN.BA" and RUN. This creates TEENY.CO, and then you need to use
a suitable CLEAR statement so that TEENY.CO will actually run. I am having good
results with CLEAR 256,61000 but your mileage may vary. After everything is
working correctly, you can delete TEENYN.DO and TEENYN.BA. There is no specific
documentation available for TEENYN, except for an e-mail message from Ron
Wiesen, the author of TEENY.
|
[posted by
permission] From: Ron
Wiesen Sent: Tue
8/10/2004 6:49 AM To: [Club
100 Listserv, info at http://club100.org/list.html] Subject:
Re: NEC version of TEENY (was: dlp) Hello
again Michael: TEENYN.CO
and TEENY.CO (M10x variant or M200 variant) are identical in size at 753 (6
for .CO file header + 747 for the image).
TEENYN.CO and TEENY.CO are
work-alike in usage. A Tandy laptop
fed TEENYN.CO would, as you said, not be
happy -- same is true for a NEC laptop fed TEENY.CO (M10x variant or M200
variant). TEENYN.BA
is a locating loader that creates an address-specific instance of TEENYN.CO. Where you declare to TEENYN.BA an End
address in the range from 61746 to
62335 for TEENYN.CO, then your use of CLEAR 256,61000 is acceptable. It sets the point of HIMEM to 61000. This may not be optimum in terms
of consumption. Assuming
no MAXRAM system is present in the NEC laptop and you need no reserved
region in HIMEM for other software, the absolute minimum consumption
is obtained where you declare an End address of 62335 and then use
MAXFILES=0:CLEAR0,61589:NEW. KILLing
all files but TEENYN.CO, you then have 27781
Free of which 27657 may be consumed by Loading files. Subsequently
replacing that particular instance of TEENYN.CO with a trigger file
(T61589.CO where 61589 represents its HIMEM requirement) boosts to 28527 Free
of which 28401 may be consumed by Loading files. See specifications
below [Monday, August 09, 2004 4:29 AM, NEC-variant of TEENY --
Was: dlp]. Specifications
of NEC-variant of TEENY.CO File size
of TEENYN.CO 753 (6 + 747) Highest
Top: 61589 len
747 (image) Exe: 61589 Largest
file transfer and transfer time at 19200 Baud: by conventional TEENYN.CO, file size 27657
in 19.5 seconds. Free = 124. by trigger file T61589.CO, file size 28401
in 20.0 seconds. Free = 126. Trigger
file usage is for experienced folks who are very careful, don't make mistakes,
and need maximum performance. It's
explained in the TEENY documentation
(TEENY.CO manual, 4th of 4 manuals) with respect to Tandy M10x/M200
laptops. With respect to the NEC
laptops, use the specifications above
along with general procedures cited in the TEENY documentation. Sure, I'm
the guy who puts TEENY in the public domain.
Thanks must also go to Rick
Hanson of Club 100 and Gary Weber of Web8201 -- without those guys there
would be no domain! -= Ron =- -----
Original Message ----- From:
"Hansen, Michael" To: [Club
100 Listserv, info at http://club100.org/list.html] Sent:
Monday, August 09, 2004 11:24 PM Subject:
RE: NEC version of TEENY (was: dlp) Ron, Thanks for
the info. Gary Weber's site calls the program TEENY, but I'm with you, it
makes sense to rename the NEC version as TEENYN to avoid confusion. (I haven't
tried, but my guess is that the Tandy machines would not be happy if they
were fed the wrong flavor of TEENY.) I'm using
CLEAR 256,61000 or something like that, and TEENYN seems to work OK on my
NEC. Thanks so much for contributing TEENY to the public domain--it's
a very useful utility. ..........Michael ________________________________ From: Ron
Wiesen Sent: Mon
8/9/2004 6:02 AM To: [Club
100 Listserv, info at http://club100.org/list.html] Subject:
Re: NEC version of TEENY (was: dlp) Hello
Michael: Yes,
documentation for TEENY is specific to only M10x and M200 laptops. There is
no documentation for the NEC-specific TEENYN.BA. Such TEENYN documentation
would have many differences from TEENY documentation. The most
striking difference regards "Identical" versus
"NORMALIZED" file names --
the NEC being especially more versatile in that regard. |
DeskLink (server
software on iPAQ)
DeskLink (from club100.org) comes together in the same archive that has TEENY.
Install DeskLink first on a desktop PC, and then copy DESKLINK.COM to the iPAQ
by your favorite method, such as ActiveSync or CompactFlash transfer. (The
location I used was My Device\Program Files\PocketDOS\DeskLink.dir, but the
location is not critical.)
PocketDOS (DOS
emulator software)
PocketDOS is shareware that I can recommend, $34.95 from www.pocketdos.com. It does a decent job of
emulating MS-DOS 6.22 on the iPAQ, the objective here being to support
DeskLink. Installation instructions are provided.
.BAT Files
Remember those .BAT files that we used to use in DOS, 15-20 years ago, in order
to automate tasks? They are very convenient, if not downright necessary, on a
PDA that has a cumbersome tiny stylus. I use a number of PATH-reachable batch
files (e.g., X.BAT to invoke EXITDOS, D.BAT to invoke DIR %1 /ON/P) so that the
things I frequently need to type do not require very many keystrokes.
Of course, my most-used batch file is DL.BAT, which invokes DeskLink. This is a 4-line batch file as follows:
SETCOM COM1: COM1:
C:
CD\ROOT
S:\DESKLINK.DIR\DESKLINK
1. The first line is the only tricky part and is necessary for compatibility reasons related to PocketDOS.
2,3. The next two lines make sure that the working directory is C:\ROOT, which is the working directory that DeskLink expects to use. (Note: If a CompactFlash card is installed in the iPAQ, PocketDOS automatically uses C:\ to refer to the CompactFlash card; otherwise, C:\ refers to My Device\iPAQ File Store, which is also convenient.)
4. The fourth line invokes DeskLink. (As mentioned above, the place where DeskLink is installed is not critical. Change this as needed. Incidentally, if you happen to use S:\, S:\ refers to the PocketDOS directory. This is distinct from B:\, which is the DOS boot location, i.e., the place where COMMAND.COM is located.)
Serial Sync Cable
An iPAQ serial sync cable, which I thought would be the trickiest part of the
whole system, proved to be no problem at all. The total cost, including
shipping from Hong Kong, was only $6.24 on eBay.
Plain Adapter
Between the 9-pin end of the serial sync cable and the 25-pin connector of the
Model T, you need a plain 9M-25M adapter. Or, equally well, you could use a
9M-25F adapter followed by a 25M-25M gender changer. The important thing to
remember is _not_ to use a null modem adapter.
Pocket PC
The PDA I used was an iPAQ 2210, but any Pocket PC that supports PocketDOS
should probably also work. The best feature of the iPAQ is that it reads and
writes CompactFlash cards.
WARNINGS
As long as you use your iPAQ only to save and retrieve your own documents and
BASIC files, there should be no problem, since the formats you will be saving
(namely, ASCII for .DO, tokenized for .BA) are the same as what you will be
loading. However, since TEENY treats any file with a .D? extension as a
document and any file with a .B? extension as being a tokenized BASIC file,
there is a potentially serious problem if you use TEENY to load/save files that
are not in the proper format, as is usually the case with .BA files that you
find on the Web.
As Rick Hanson recommends on club100.org, a .BA file that is really a document (i.e., in ASCII format) should be renamed to have a .DO extension on your PC. That way, when you load it into the Model T using TEENY, TEENY will treat it as a document. That is correct, since it really is a document. Both the Tandy and NEC machines then allow you to load it and convert it to a .BA file.
For example, suppose the name of the file is XBW.DO. On the Tandy or NEC, issue the command
LOAD "XBW.DO"
and wait. (For a large file, the wait can be quite long, while the Model T is chugging away and tokenizing.) Then issue the command
SAVE "XBW.BA"
(which has
no wait, since all the tokenizing has already occurred). You can now delete the
.DO file, since there is no further need for it. If you use TEENY to make a
backup copy of XBW.BA on the iPAQ, that is fine, since now the .BA extension
correctly describes the contents.
Although I have never (knock on wood) experienced this problem, I am told that storing document content in the region reserved for BASIC files, or vice versa, will eventually cause the Model T to cold-start. Obviously, this is not a desirable situation.
Epilogue
The system described above, despite the large number of components, is quite
easy to use now that it is installed. (Type DL on iPAQ, invoke TEENY on Model T,
and away you go.) Nevertheless, I am looking forward to John Hogerhuis'
forthcoming DLPilot. DLPilot will run on PalmOS machines and, since it removes
the need for a DOS emulator running DeskLink, will be conceptually simpler.
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Last updated: 11 Aug 2004