[Tfug] Tiny "serial console" --- Re: tfug Digest, Vol 127, Issue 13

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Shanna,

On 2/17/2014 8:19 PM, shanna leonard wrote:
> Hmm, Maybe something like this for $50?

Ooo!  That looks interesting!  Of course, with a screen that short
(240 lines), any typeface ("font") would be pretty crappy (assuming
you want 24/25 lines of text) but that should still be acceptable
for the sort of things I'm targeting!

I wonder if I've still got an old Palm Pilot -- before they
supported USB (i.e., they had a serial interface that I could
probably hack a suitable connector onto)

> Also it looks like there are Dell D430's around for < $70 or so, 12"
>  screen.

Now you're getting big/bulky.

> On the other hand, if all I wanted was a terminal interface to a
> serial connection, This would be more fun. I think we have one
> somewhere stored at work:

<frown>  I had a genuine VT100 many years ago (I *still* have an ASR33
but it would be far too -- ahem -- "bulky" for the task at hand!).
But, it was *huge* and the keyboard was really poorly designed.
Especially the "audio feedback"  :<

> with a DB-9 to DB 25 cable, and a keyboard, you would be set forever,
> and no worries about whether your serial port was real or not.

Yup.  I had the VT100 precisely so I could interact with the
"standard" instead of the various (crappy) VT100 emulators
available at that time (each with minor deviations from a "true"
VT100... not "100% bug compatible"  :> )

> Course I guess its not so tiny. :(

Nor portable!

Thanks for the PDA pointer, though.  I think I may have an old
Jornada that is similar form factor...