From: Victor Rehorst (victor_at_newtontalk.net)
Date: Mon May 31 2004 - 09:43:59 PDT
Hey y'all,
I had a great idea for an eMate hack - adding LEDs that would illuminate the
keyboard when the backlight is on. I made a page on the wiki to collect my
thoughts on this, and you can see it and add to it if you like here:
http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/index.php/eMateKeyboardIllumination
Unfortunately, I also ran into a bit of a snag with my eMate over the weekend.
I use a Compaq WL100 802.11b card in my MP2100. It was kicking around work so
it's sort of on long-term loan :) It's a Prism or Prism2 based card, so it's
compatible with Hirochi's driver. I had Paul add the card name to his "More
Wifi Cards" package and it works like a charm, 128bit WEP and all.
Since I got eMates, I resolved to use this card in my eMate. I often use my
2100 on the couch, especially for querying IMDB when the inevitable questions
"Wasn't X in Y movie?" and "What other shows was Z in?" come up.
But when I tried to insert it, I found that it just wouldn't go in. This
seemed rather strange, since the eMate and the 2100 are the same basic
platform with different form factors. After much thinking, yelling, and
examining my eMate, I found that:
-PCMCIA card slots can be slotted for either 5V cards only OR 5V and 3.3V cards
-My Compaq WL100 is slotted for 3.3V operation
-The card slots in the 2x00 are slotted for both voltages
-The card slots in the eMate are slottev for 5V *ONLY* - this is different
from the card slots in the 2x00
-The card slots in the eMate *should*be*the*same*as* the card slots in the 2x00
-I was very angry at the above two points.
Here's a photo of the inside of the card slot in my eMate, with the 5V only
notch circled:
http://www.chuma.org/crap/emate-slot/emate-slot-notch.jpg
And a photo of a flash card (top) and my WL100 card (bottom), showing the
difference in notch "width" that prevents a 3.3V card from being inserted into
a 5V only slot (blurry but it gets the point across):
http://www.chuma.org/crap/emate-slot/pc-card-notches.jpg
I confirmed with Paul Guyot that his eMate has the same 5V only type of PCMCIA
slot. He also said that his CompactFlash card is detected as a 3.3V card and
powered properly in his eMate. Since the eMate has the same OS, chipset, and
power system as the 2x00, there's no reason that it can't support 3.3V PCMCIA
cards. Yet Apple seems to have put the wrong kind of slot into it.
I'm kind of surprised that no one has run across this yet. To get around it,
I'm considering modifying the WL100 card, except it's not really mine so I
don't want to slip up and kill it. I could go and buy another card, of course...
-- Victor Rehorst - victor_at_newtontalk.net - chuma_at_chuma.org NewtonTalk list administrator - http://www.newtontalk.net Will the last person to leave the platform please turn off the backlight? -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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