Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax (Apr 16, 2005)

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  1. From: JP Lester Apr 16, 2005
  2. From: "Neil Morrison" Apr 16, 2005
  3. From: "apple2ebeige" Apr 16, 2005
  4. From: "Neil Morrison" Apr 16, 2005
  5. From: "John R. Hogerhuis" Apr 16, 2005
  6. From: "apple2ebeige" Apr 17, 2005
  7. From: "John R. Hogerhuis" Apr 17, 2005
  8. From: "Cyrano Jones" Apr 17, 2005
  9. From: "apple2ebeige" Apr 17, 2005
  10. From: "John R. Hogerhuis" Apr 17, 2005
  11. From: "Neil Morrison" Apr 17, 2005
  12. From: "John R. Hogerhuis" Apr 17, 2005
  13. From: "Cyrano Jones" Apr 17, 2005
  14. From: "John R. Hogerhuis" Apr 17, 2005
  15. From: "apple2ebeige" Apr 17, 2005
  16. From: "Neil Morrison" Apr 17, 2005


Subject: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Apr 16, 2005

The LCD says "Mailstation 120"; on the back "MIVO 200 DET2".

None of the keyboard tricks I'm reading about seem to work.

Pressing SHIFT+FUNCTION+T and powering on doesn't do anything.

Am I doing something wrong?

Is there a FAQ?

Is there a "better" (more hackable) model to look for?

Thanks.

-Dave


1: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: JP Lester <japes_98@...>

Apr 16, 2005

I'm a newb also and just bought this same MS120. Mine
is blueish, and from what I've been reading these
unfortunately don't appear to be hackable.

-jp


2: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Neil Morrison" <neilsmorr@...>

Apr 16, 2005

From: "JP Lester" <japes_98@...>


The very best ones are the Mivo 100 with the Yahoo! function in the Menu.

See (URL)298 - note the
Yahoo! second from the right.

NM


3: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Apr 16, 2005


Bummer.

Can these be used with mailbug?

Do *any* of the key sequences work?

FWIW, I ran back to the store and also nabbed an MS150 (Earthlink). Seems to suffer
the same problems.

Thanks.

-Dave


4: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Neil Morrison" <neilsmorr@...>

Apr 16, 2005

From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

to suffer

I believe that Earthlink 'locked' them to prevent changing ISPs. Until we
can dump and/or alter the ROM we are stuck.

NM


5: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>

Apr 16, 2005

My guess is that the 150 will work with Mailbug, the remote debugger
soon (CJ has verified that it doesn't work yet, but the reflash protocol
is the same... that's good luck).

So once that is all working, you could conceivably load whatever
software you want on it including a hacked version of the software (or
an older rev might do what you need too).

Are you planning to use it just for email, or for something else?



6: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Apr 17, 2005


I think the MS would make the coolest little Forth machine, kind of a Jupiter Ace 2005.

-Dave


7: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>

Apr 17, 2005

On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 16:00 +0000, apple2ebeige wrote:


I agree! I've made similar noises here but done nothing about it (too
many projects).

How about porting Z80 CamelForth to the ms?

I'm guessing it's one or two weekends of work, and then the MS is
stand-alone programmable, we could even put the editor and assembler in
ROM along with the Forth core.



8: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Cyrano Jones" <cyranojones_lalp@...>

Apr 17, 2005


Does CamelForth need a file system underneath it?

CJ


9: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Apr 17, 2005


I don't think so. Here's a good page:

(URL)

There's a reference to a Z180 port that is standalone.

-Dave


10: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>

Apr 17, 2005

On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 17:17 +0000, Cyrano Jones wrote:

No. The kernel gets flashed to ROM, then you interface with it over the
parallel port, (we'd need some kind of terminal program that talks over
parallel port on the DOS side) creating new definitions as you play.

In fact, traditionally Forth implements a "BLOCKS" wordset where
whatever storage you've got is divided into 64 X 16 blocks. So in a way,
classic Forth comes with its own file system approach that could be
used. I'm sure someone has done something to make a BLOCKS wordset that
works well with industrial flash chips (i.e. tries not to rewrite the
same blocks all the time).

Intro information on Forth:

(URL)
(URL)(I helped to create the PDF)

(Note these cover older vintages of Forth, so many words are different,
but the core ideas are the same).



11: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Neil Morrison" <neilsmorr@...>

Apr 17, 2005

From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Jupiter Ace 2005.

My hope is to turn it into a 'Super' Radio Shack Model 100 laptop. BTW,
looking on the Earthlink site it looks like they are not selling the Mivo
anymore. If they opened it up they could get more than $9 for them!

Neil


12: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>

Apr 17, 2005

On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 12:46 -0700, Neil Morrison wrote:


The thought has occurred to me... how are we going to do that without
battery backed RAM? I guess when we power down, we could write the RAM
image to flash. That's if the "power" button is pressed. But what if we
get a hard power failure... (no batteries, and DC adapter is pulled out,
or batteries die) I'm guessing there wouldn't be enough time to write it
out.



13: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Cyrano Jones" <cyranojones_lalp@...>

Apr 17, 2005


The ms RAM stays powered from the batteries when the power
is switched off via the power button. Would that be enough?

(It doesn't seem like too much of a hardship to keep batteries
in it if you need battery-backed RAM! :-)

CJ


14: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "John R. Hogerhuis" <jhoger@...>

Apr 17, 2005

On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 01:09 +0000, Cyrano Jones wrote:

Ah, didn't realize that. I figured it stored all files on flash, so why
would it battery back the RAM?

Anyway that's good news (to me).


Yes I suppose that's true. But the Model 100 has a nicad soldered to the
motherboard. It almost never gets used, spending most of its time fully
charged off either the battery or the wall cube. So if you leave an M100
on the shelf, the main batteries will die. But months later you turn the
thing on and all your files are still there!

Unlike say the Cambridge Z88, which doesn't have a battery backup but
just a capacitor similar to the way a Palm Pilot works. It's hard to get
the batteries changed in the short period of time you have from the
warning, especially if you're using rechargeables.

On an M100 you have a very long time before the memory will die even
with a warning and dead main batteries.



15: Subject: Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

Apr 17, 2005


OK, if I unsolder the TSOP part (29F080?), can somebody read it out? In the photos section
there's a picture of an adaptor(?)

Thanks.

-Dave


16: Subject: Re: [mailstation] Re: Newbie: MS120 From OfficeMax

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From: "Neil Morrison" <neilsmorr@...>

Apr 17, 2005

It takes considerable skill to desolder these without zapping them. But you
can read them while still in the unit.

Neil

From: "apple2ebeige" <apple2ebeige@...>

the photos section