From: Jim Witte (jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us)
Date: Thu Sep 09 2004 - 15:18:54 PDT
> The best option is to figure out a replacement for the NIC connector
> on the MP side.
I've thought the port the Cassiopeia uses would work - it has a few
more pins, and is about the right size. I don't know if it's made
anymore though. The real problem is figuring out how to get the NIC
out and the new port in. The port itself is surface-mounted, so
removing it and putting in a new one would require a "hot air reflow"
setup (so I'm told by Dr. Newton). Does anyone here other than PCBMan
have SMT experience? And this would basically be a "hand job" (please,
no puns..), as there's already plenty of stuff on the Newton's PCB
> the port door. I thought though that the Mac HDI-30 (SCSI) could be
> used but after getting a set saw that the sheer size would be
The smaller SCSI used on the powerbooks might, or the ADC. But I
doubt the first is produced anymore, and neither is produced outside of
Apple (though I'm sure Apple outsources the ADC connector production.
> the full number of connectors for the internal connector that the
> SER-001 currently attaches to then this would be a possible solution.
Except that I don't think the internal connector carries audio
in/out. I think it just carries both serial port lines and power,
although I could be wrong - I've got the specs somewhere on this disk.
I think the best bet to get audio in/out would be to tap into the
microphone/speaker lines directly - they're accessible, and with a bit
of volume attenuation circuitry, should work with line in/out (line is
weaker than speaker/microphone if I recall correctly, which I probably
don't..) Now, I don't know about the quality.
Another possibility that would avoid having to replace the NIC port
and messing with reflow equipment, though a lot more dangerous and
maybe not possible, would be to drill holes (vias) in the board itself
that intersect the appropriate traces from the port. Somehow I think
putting in a new port would be easier than that.
There's a slight possibility that the traces of of the audio in/out
lines could be traced back to whatever they're source is on the board
(assuming they don't go in the *middle* of that 4-6 layer board), and
that small wires could be attached there. Again, I think replacing the
port would be easier.
> Does anyone know about a PlainTalk Jack and Mic? It seems that
The mic's jack had three separate contact points - plus, minus, and
power (+5VDC probably). The mic itself used a condenser element the
small cylindrical units used in phones), which requires a voltage to
run (as opposed to a magnetic coil mic, which will generate it's own
voltage (basically the reverse of how a speaker works). The mic also
contained the circuitry to run the condenser and I assume amplify the
signal as well.
> Except that the USB connector you mention does not by far provide the
> required number of pins , it is probably a good idea.
Does anyone know exactly how small you can get serial-USB interface
circuitry? The Keyspan is huge, but it supports two ports, so has to
have some collision management circuitry in there. For just a
one-serial-one-USB solution, might there even be a single chip that
incorporates a UART, USB Controller, and whatever logic and small
amount of memory is required on one piece of silicon?
Jim
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