--- Dave Ruske <dave_at_ruske.net> wrote:
> > > > Is there any chance of a revision to emulate the appearance of the
> > > > TIL311 displays when in "Elf" mode?
>
> I modified the "classic" ELF skin to use a TIL311 style display last night.
> I found a TIL311 data sheet so I'm pretty sure I've drawn the output
> accurately, though it lacks the "slant" of the original device.
The dots are what I was after.
> One thing the data sheet couldn't tell me is whether I colored the body of
> the device correctly. Not having a real one for reference, I used the color
> from Bill Richman's emulator as a reference and wound up choosing the darkest
> red in the Palm's 8-bit palette. Is this pretty close to correct?
I have a few of them and they are not all the same shade of red. One is
nearly orange. I suspect lack of QA in the plastics department.
> > With the renewed interest, I'll get back to editing the Elf II article
>
> Great! Let me know when the edits have been made and I'll change the
> description on the link!
Will do.
> Do you know if that article was the basis for the
> machines sold by Netronics and Quest Electronics?
It appears that the article is about the Netronics Elf II, as it suggests
using a double-sided PCB or wirewrapping your own. I always wanted to
build it, but I never found a source of the keyboard chip (74C923?)
> > BTW, I checked - I _do_ have a VIP 3301. What would you like to know
> > about it?
>
> I'm curious about what's in the ROM... if I were a user and plugged the
> VIP-3301 in, what would I see on the screen
Don't know yet. I figured out how to power it up last night, looking at the
innards (DIN-5 power plug, two grounds, two N.C., one going into the power
switch then off to a 7805 regulator)
Something I learned while looking up he 1869/1870, is that it may be color,
not B&W as I originally assumed. The chipset supports color; I have no idea
about the firmware.
> (I presume it was meant to be connected to a TV)?
TV (RCA jack) and/or presumably some other kind of monitor (DIN-5 with the
middle pin connected to the RCA jack via ECO-type wire on the back side of
the board).
> Tiny BASIC, perhaps, or maybe an OS prompt that would
> allow programs to be loaded from cassette? Or did this thing have a
> cartridge slot somewhere ala RCA's Studio II video game? What was the serial
> port meant for? A printer, perhaps?
No slots. There are a series of DIP switches along one edge for baud rate,
etc. The serial port is there because this is some kind of ASCII terminal.
-ethan
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Received on Thu Apr 12 2001 - 09:03:30 BST