[NTLK] Newton USB Dongle

[David Arnold]

Hi Jeff,

I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully, so far) to source the JAE interconnect plugs and do a small run of adaptors.  I’ve got a MiniDIN8 prototype which works with the Interconnect dongle, but I was hoping to eliminate the need for the dongle.

Given I’ve been unable to get the Interconnect plugs as surplus, I considered getting a batch made.  But given there seems to be perhaps a market for about 50 such adaptors all up, the costs don’t work out.

I’ve got 5 Interconnect plugs (plus an un-potted Interconnect adaptor) that Newton Inc sent me while they existed, but otherwise I guess a MiniDIN8 would be the next best thing?




d

> On 6 Feb 2017, at 05:14, Jeff Sheldon <jeffsheldon at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I've had problems with the Prolific chipset in many applications. IMHO, it's a cheap product cloned the world over and the drivers aren't well maintained. FTDI is the way to go. 
> 
> Adriano is scrupulous. 11 years ago, he privately pushed me to provide details on adapters I was creating for the community to interface with iPod devices and a homebrew keyboard using the internal port. He even wanted me to store my progress on his personal storage space. When I resisted, he backed down and suggested I contact Daniel Padilla to help with the software side. After some back-and-forth, Daniel stopped responding. It seemed strange. Unexpectedly, Adriano and Daniel released new products based on the idea, though far less capable.  It watered down the idea and I shelved my Newton, then dropped off the list for some time, also hiving up on my 2100 PCB mapping project (for the sake of creating minimized designs).
> 
> If the community needs a USB solution, what would be the preference? Internal card with port, Interconnect to USB end, or RS422 to USB? Seems like the last--which people are talking about here--is the easiest and cheapest solution. All three are doable, though those JAE ports are hard to find. 
> 
> 
> -Jeff
> 
>> On Feb 5, 2017, at 06:47, Jake Bordens <jake at allaboutjake.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I recently purchased a FDTI serial cable for use in Mac OS Sierra and it worked without drivers.. I had a prolific-chipset cable but the driver was causing my machine to crash, so I decided to get the FDTI since it was more compatible, and apparently did not need drivers (though I do a lot of tinkering so its possible I had a driver installed for another device. 
>> 
>> I find it suspicious that it doesn’t show up as a USB device with a PID/VID in the profiler… that would indicate that it isn’t even showing up on the USB bus.  However silly, maybe try a different USB cable, sometimes cheap USB cables are charge-only. I’ve gotten bitten by that before.
>> 
>> Side note, I would like to acquire one of these “Adriano” dongles, if anyone has a stash of them and is willing to part with one. Would make development a little easier. My guess is that they are rare, and folks don’t want to part with them, and for that I’d understand.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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