Neat! I got an HP95LX when they came out. I used the serial port to connect to network components like routers. Other techs thought it was amazing, so they bought one too. Thanks for sharing
This was my 2nd computer when I was in 3rd grade, the 1st having been an (old by then) HP 150-II desktop. My uncle was working for HP and would regularly bring me to the "office", which was actually a bit of a factory floor where there had a bunch of THT pick-and-place machines. After the 95LX, the next one was a 200LX. This one I still own. It's a pretty awesome upgrade to the 95LX and you might want to get yourself one. Thank you so much for this video btw; a lot of people who see it will now get their devices out of their drawers ... I know I will! :)
The 200LX is definitely a step up, and I"ll be working on it soon. If you look at the short 'another goodie pile' yo can see I have 1-2 200LX's to play with (they're even in the background of this video at one point). I found the 200LX screen really hard to read - it's much higher resolution, but maybe my old eyes can't see teeny text as well! Thanks for the feedback and the great story!
My folks worked for Hewlett-Packard- the real Hewlett-Packard that made test equipment, not the garbage computer company that stole the name- and I remember my mom had one of those. I thought that it was the coolest thing ever.
I've been wanting to do something like this but with an old amber screen dumb terminal and and a raspberry pi zero 2W that I would mount inside of the terminal chassis for use with Usenet, Email, text BBS's, and of course SSH.
There was a design like this at VCF East a couple years ago. Took an old ASCII terminal and embedded a pi zero w in it. SO even though the terminal was just... a terminal, it had enough smarts in it to talk over the internet. Was a nice piece!
No need to bother with hand crimping a cable, the end of an old CD ROM audio cable works perfectly :D (Also since we are speaking of hardware hacking these: I have a HP48G hacked to 128kb RAM, it's four 32kb SRAM ICs on top of each other, hand soldiered, most legs just kinda flowed together and only a few legs are apart.)
I definitely want to experiment with the speed issues and see where the buffering is happening - if it really is just that the 95LX can't keep up with a 19,200 speed. Thanks for the feedback!
In principle that works, but has 2 drawbacks: 1. The NIC takes up the PCMCIA slot. Usually you want to put a CF or SRAM card there to have some disk storage. 2. Most NICs draw a lot of current, some up to the point that the palmtop will no longer function. Disclaimer: I have used that approach on an HP 200LX, not the 95LX.
You are not the first to mention this! The origins are when I built my first V20 based PC back in the 80s. There was no RUclips or video, so when I read the docs and articles in Byte magazine, it just said "NEC V20". Because I was active in the DEC community, it was natural to pronounce NEC the same way. It reminds me of the first time I heard someone say 'SQL' out loud. "what the heck is a sequel? Oh, you men ESS QUEUE ELLE. Got it." Thanks for the feedback!
Hahah! I've been saying NEC V20 (like 'neck vee twenty') since I built my first V20 PC in the 80s. Do you pronounce DEC "dee ee see"? Thanks for the feedback!
Neat! I got an HP95LX when they came out. I used the serial port to connect to network components like routers. Other techs thought it was amazing, so they bought one too. Thanks for sharing
That's really cool - it's amazing how many folks used those little things for serious network stuff!
Thanks for a wonderful RS-232 video for a lazy Saturday morning
Our pleasure!
This was my 2nd computer when I was in 3rd grade, the 1st having been an (old by then) HP 150-II desktop. My uncle was working for HP and would regularly bring me to the "office", which was actually a bit of a factory floor where there had a bunch of THT pick-and-place machines. After the 95LX, the next one was a 200LX. This one I still own. It's a pretty awesome upgrade to the 95LX and you might want to get yourself one. Thank you so much for this video btw; a lot of people who see it will now get their devices out of their drawers ... I know I will! :)
The 200LX is definitely a step up, and I"ll be working on it soon. If you look at the short 'another goodie pile' yo can see I have 1-2 200LX's to play with (they're even in the background of this video at one point).
I found the 200LX screen really hard to read - it's much higher resolution, but maybe my old eyes can't see teeny text as well!
Thanks for the feedback and the great story!
Nice video! This inspires me to replace the faulty 232 driver IC in mine
Someone else here commented they'd done this recently!
My folks worked for Hewlett-Packard- the real Hewlett-Packard that made test equipment, not the garbage computer company that stole the name- and I remember my mom had one of those. I thought that it was the coolest thing ever.
I used a similar (but different) setup to get my Tandy 100 online onto the Retro battlestations BBS.
I've been wanting to do something like this but with an old amber screen dumb terminal and and a raspberry pi zero 2W that I would mount inside of the terminal chassis for use with Usenet, Email, text BBS's, and of course SSH.
There was a design like this at VCF East a couple years ago. Took an old ASCII terminal and embedded a pi zero w in it. SO even though the terminal was just... a terminal, it had enough smarts in it to talk over the internet. Was a nice piece!
No need to bother with hand crimping a cable, the end of an old CD ROM audio cable works perfectly :D (Also since we are speaking of hardware hacking these: I have a HP48G hacked to 128kb RAM, it's four 32kb SRAM ICs on top of each other, hand soldiered, most legs just kinda flowed together and only a few legs are apart.)
Sure I could use a premade cable. But where's the fun in that? :) :). Thanks for watching!
@@vintageapparatus Heh, it's only one end which is premade, the other end is of course hand made :)
I own VisiCalc for my Atari 8-bit.
Slow your data rate down to 9600 baud. That should be slow enough for that processor to handle but still fast enough to be usable.
I definitely want to experiment with the speed issues and see where the buffering is happening - if it really is just that the 95LX can't keep up with a 19,200 speed. Thanks for the feedback!
how come you werent able to just use a pcmcia NIC? lack of drivers?
In principle that works, but has 2 drawbacks:
1. The NIC takes up the PCMCIA slot. Usually you want to put a CF or SRAM card there to have some disk storage.
2. Most NICs draw a lot of current, some up to the point that the palmtop will no longer function.
Disclaimer: I have used that approach on an HP 200LX, not the 95LX.
I think you mean NEC and not neck! NEC is pronounced like IBM. You say the letters, not the word.
You are not the first to mention this! The origins are when I built my first V20 based PC back in the 80s. There was no RUclips or video, so when I read the docs and articles in Byte magazine, it just said "NEC V20". Because I was active in the DEC community, it was natural to pronounce NEC the same way.
It reminds me of the first time I heard someone say 'SQL' out loud. "what the heck is a sequel? Oh, you men ESS QUEUE ELLE. Got it."
Thanks for the feedback!
It runs on a Neck? Do you mean NEC?? Sound out those letters my friend...
Hahah! I've been saying NEC V20 (like 'neck vee twenty') since I built my first V20 PC in the 80s. Do you pronounce DEC "dee ee see"?
Thanks for the feedback!
@@vintageapparatus That's funny. I do indeed spell out NEC, but say DEC as "deck." I wonder why that is 🙂