[NTLK] eMate 300 Memory Upgrade

[Scott Ticknor]

I guess I won the lottery. My first and only eMate is absolutely pristine. It came with its original box, cables, registration cards, manuals, etc.. and it came with the chip already installed :-) I got it for next to nothing, too. (Yes I did the hinges).

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ST

> On Apr 4, 2018, at 11:48 PM, Greg Goodwin <drclu at swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> Really glad I got the upgrade card when I did.  
> 
> Doctor Clu
> 
> 
>> On Apr 4, 2018, at 9:30 PM, Randy Glenn <randy.glenn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Also, does anyone have the eMate diagnostic PC card? That will probably be
>> useful for testing whatever card we wind up with.
>> 
>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 10:29 PM, Randy Glenn <randy.glenn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> A larger part might work. From the research I was doing yesterday, the RAM
>>> chips used in the eMate card have 12 row address bits and 8 column address
>>> bits, with the lower 8 row bits sharing pins with the column bits. Two
>>> strobe signals are used to indicate whether the address present is a row or
>>> column address. A part with 12 or more row bits and 8 or more column bits
>>> might work - the problem with an exact replacement is that the 1Mx16 chips
>>> I found still being sold, all use 10 row and 10 column address bits. I
>>> don't think the eMate will be able to see all of that memory.
>>> 
>>> If you have a schematic in that ZIP file that you're willing to share, I
>>> can start checking into alternatives.
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 7:02 PM, NewtonTalk <newtontalk at pda-soft.de> wrote:
>>> 
>>>>> Duplicating the layout is probably not a huge problem these days - it's
>>>> locating compatible RAM and Flash memory. I don't think that stuff has
>>>> been
>>>> made in about a decade and a half.
>>>> 
>>>> Folks, hold your horses for a while. As I recently mentioned on the list,
>>>> I've bought everything David had left from his SER001 and his eMate
>>>> upgrade
>>>> board projects.
>>>> 
>>>> David also kindly mailed me a zip file that, as far as I can judge it,
>>>> contains everything I'd need for having new PCBs made. I can't open most
>>>> of
>>>> these files, but that's not surprising since I do not have any PCB
>>>> software
>>>> on my computer yet. But there are folders named Gerber, Plot, PCB etc. So
>>>> I'm inclined to think that as to having new boards made, I already have
>>>> what
>>>> is required.
>>>> 
>>>> You probably can't believe this, but my life has been so busy recently
>>>> that
>>>> David's box has been sitting on my desk for weeks. So I don't know yet
>>>> what's in there. I think David mentioned unpopulated boards. I could use
>>>> those to rig up a 2nd edition prototype. The eMate memory upgrade
>>>> basically
>>>> consists of three memory chips. You can buy memory chips today. Most
>>>> likely
>>>> not those needed for the board, but so what. The chips you CAN buy will
>>>> provide much more memory than the original chips and have more pins.
>>>> However, as long as voltage, current and timing are similar, which they
>>>> very
>>>> often are, all it depends on is the pinout. You can easily turn a 16MB RAM
>>>> into a 4MB RAM by bending two address pins up and wiring them to ground.
>>>> The
>>>> eMate wouldn't know it's working with a chip whose memory size we just
>>>> shrunk (Honey, I shrunk the chips...).
>>>> 
>>>> Once everything works, we can adjust the data files I have from David and
>>>> have new boards made.
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers
>>>> 
>>>> Frank
>>>> 
>>>> -- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 
>>>> http://newtontalk.net/
>>>> http://twitter.com/newtontalk
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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