On Wed, 3 May 2000, Brandon Macmillan wrote:
> spending $200 on a twiddler. That said, I own a p4 with a isa driver
> card. that said i'm thinking of building a wearable using this:
I have been down exactly the same road! (I also even have a P4
and ISA card)
> JUMPtec MOPSlcd6 low power Pentium 166MHz with LCD/VGA
Danger!
The MOPS LCD is a very nice catch - HOWEVER...
I have experimented with many desktop systems with the P4. I am
UNABLE to get it working with ANY OTHER VIDEO DEVICE PRESENT in a computer
besides a totally ancient video adapter.
So why is this relevant? Right here:
> JUMPtec MOPSlcd6 low power Pentium 166MHz with LCD/VGA
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have contacted tech support for the MOPS line and you cannot
disable the VGA adapter onboard (at least, not to the point where it looks
like it is not there). I have not tried it, but I expect this means the
P4 controller will NOT work in conjunction with it.
So, I bought the MOPS586 (slower, low power, no video onboard but
all other important I/O available - except it is limited to one SO-DIMM
mem socket, no USB).
Waiting for it to arrive (should be tomorrow) and already have an
ISA->PC/104 adapter for testing, and a used PC/104 video card in case I
need VGA in the future, or for testing!
YMMV. If you have different results or experiences, share!
> So my question three are:
>
> 1. Is this a good choice for my first wearable computer?
If you are comfy with building your own computers and stuff,
sure! (assembly required)
> 2. How can i use my p4 with this?
See my above comments..
> 3. If i decide to scrap the p4 (well, sell the p4) and make my own
> colour hmd out of a camcorder viewfinder and use it with the pocket
> vga to ntsc scan converter showen on the wearcomp6 faq, is this a
> better idea than a p4, as i can use windows, or x-windows for that
> matter?
There is an X server for the P4. Works pretty well, actually. I
even wrote a mini-howto.
> 4. (ok 4 questions i lied) how hard would it be to add wireless
> ethernet to this rig (it has onboard 10baseT)
Most wireless ethernet stuff is PCMCIA-based. You'd need to buy a
PCMCIA PC/104 carrier card. I saw one on ebay once for like 20$ but
missed it. New they are in the hundreds, it seems.
You may also get your hands on a radio modem. Not ethernet speed
but it is wireless connectivity.
> PS: other than linux console, what can i actualy acomplish with a p4?
X windows. Also keep in mind that 80x25 text is not really
available in display tech right now (this may be a factor for you).
Personally, I don't really like the P4 as it is bulky. But I plan
to use it only occasionally - the primary function of my wearable not
being general computing.
DonP
Midnight Engineer
www.anubis.ab.ca
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