Re: Zaurus VGA-out options

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH) Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

There are few vga solutions for the PDA. I spent
several months playing with them as you can see if you
go back through the archives of the mailing list. To
jumpstart the conversation, there are only 2 pcmcia
VGA cards ever made as far as I know. The HP VGA-Out
(i think its HP5212A) and the Colorgraphix Voyager VGA
card. 

Both cards have Kdrive drivers under xorg. I don't
think the code has been touched since it was xfree86.
The HP VGA-Out card driver works very well. You can
get a  signal out it. i forget colordepth. i
think its 16 but might only be 8. The Colorgraphix
pcmcia card driver has many issues. There are what
look like dead pixels all over the screen when you
fire up X. As you open up windows, the dead pixels
move around. Also the colors are very weird. From what
I understand there are 2 versions of the colorgraphics
card denoted by the color of the sticker on the card(i
cant find it now but this is somewhere in the list
archives of arm-linux.kook.)

The biggest problem with the vgaout card is it has the
VGA connector directly on the card which makes it
HUGE.  I was trying to use it in a dual pcmcia sleeve
for the compaq and i couldnt connect the dongle of my
usb card when the HP VGA-out was in use. The
colorgraphix card has a dongle connector but the
driver doesn't work well enough. 

As far as compact flash cards, the only card is the 
colorgraphix cf vga. i haven't played with this card.
In all my research, I've never run across anyone
talking about getting it working. I do not know how
similar it is to the pcmcia version of the card.

I have been looking for along time an ARM PDA with
host usb and VGA out that can run linux. Obviously,
this is everything needed to turn a PDA into a useable
wearable computer. The closest PDA that fits this bill
hardware wise is the Toshiba e series PDAs.
http://www.mnementh.co.uk/eseries/
but the linux port is doesn't have required support
yet.

--- Bryan Hurley <> wrote:

> I hear if you use an adapter, you can use the HP VGA
> out PCMCIA card
> on the SL5500 Zaurus.. It might require more power
> but I think it
> works. I have both but not the adapter at the
> moment.
> 
> -Bryan Hurley
> 
> On 7/12/05, Craig M. Armstrong
> <> wrote:
> > Off the top of my head, I think they are the C3000
> and C3100 or
> > something like that. IIRC those have 4GB
> microdrives, there is a model
> > that is largely the same w/o the drive.
> > 
> > http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/
> > 
> > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 19:34:13 -0500, "DLP"
> <> said:
> > > Which Zaurus are we talking about though?
> > >
> > > I find it sad there is no linux compatible
> VGA-out cards with
> > > opensource drivers yet. Perhaps there are? In
> any case, I don't think
> > > it would be impossible to get the necessary
> information from reverse
> > > engineering techniques and the unlikely response
> regarding that
> > > information from a manufacturer... has an
> argument been made for
> > > disclosing driver-related information to
> opensource developers? Such
> > > an argument could be used to inform the
> manufacturer :-)
> > >
> > > If a driver does not exist, let's write one; if
> the argument for
> > > obtaining the necessary information does not
> exist, let's write one.
> > >
> > > Is there a project to support VGA-out compact
> flash cards under linux?
> > >
> > > Cheers.
> > >
> > > On 7/11/05, Craig M. Armstrong
> <> wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 08:28:06 -0700 (PDT),
> "Jobe Bittman"
> > > > <> said:
> > > > > Paul-
> > > > >
> > > > > How do you give a Zaurus VGA-Out? I didn't
> know this
> > > > > was possible.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > Jobe
> > > >
> > > > >From what I know, there is an available CF
> card with VGA out. But it's
> > > > not for general VGA out, it just works with
> one presentation program. If
> > > > there is a way to get the main display out
> using VGA tht would be really
> > > > cool.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Craig
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > http://www.fastmail.fm - Faster than the
> air-speed velocity of an
> > > >                           unladen european
> swallow
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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