On Sun, 2 May 1999, Francois wrote:
> I have an LK-3000 and am in need of information.
> When I took the thingy appart to replace the NiCads I noticed that there was
> absolutly nothing in terms of CPU, RAM or ROM inside, only logic for the
> display and keypad. From this I deducted that the smarts must be inside of
> the module wich I didn't take apart since the label is placed on top of the
> screws.
> Does anyone has information as to what modules were availabe, any hardware
> architecture information, any general information.
Many modules were made for it. There are the general purpose modules,
like the Calulator, and I think there was a Computer module but I'm not
certain (if there was then I don't have one but I want one). Of course
its primary goal in life was to be a language translator, and I happen to
have English-Spanish, English-Italian, English-Polish, English-Arabic, and
probably a couple others that I forgot (I have one unit with the Arabic
alphabet above the keys :)
I have one carthridge that was already popped open, so I looked inside and
found nothing extraordinary. Looks like a TI microcontroller of some sort
and a ROM or two. But yes, the smarts are definitely in the modules. The
actual handheld unit is really just a dumb terminal.
I believe the Nixdorf LK-3000 is the first (uh-oh, there's that
word again) handheld computer device, first introduced in 1978 or 1979.
The NiCad batteries shouldn't need replacing. If you just stick it in a
charger for a day then they should come back alive. The one I played with
hadn't been on in probably a decade or two and it came up after I left it
charging for a while. I used a 6V, 200ma power supply, center positive.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun May 02 1999 - 12:30:19 BST