[NTLK] The piMate 300

[Iain Billington]

Now I’m super interested in how to drive the LCD from a Pi. 
I was planning on using a Teensy ++ for the keyboard matrix (and also slide potentiometers for the brightness and volume switches) but thinking it through, we could potentially just use the Pi itself to handle the keyboard matrix on its IO pins and maybe a shift register as there are a lot of lines. I’ve managed to get some flex connectors that match the eMate. The weird thing is that row ribbon and the column ribbons are upside down from each other, no big deal but it does take up a little more space. For the screen I have a dreamscreen 7” 12V HDMI display which is pretty close in dimensions but not quite tall enough. An e-ink display could be nice if it proves impossible to drive the actual eMate LCD and has the right aspect ratio. 

Iain 

> On 20/03/2021, at 6:49 AM, Michael Sheflin <sheflinm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm debating starting a project like this also.  I'd be curious for updates
> on how others are doing with this.  I concur with swapping out the screen.
> There's no real reason to keep the original screen and it'd ultimately be
> much easier to use a modern, replaceable component.
> 
> I'd just caution to measure twice and cut once; I previously tried this
> with a Powerbook 3400c and I am now the proud owner of parts of a Powerbook
> 3400c.
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 19, 2021, 1:45 PM Tim <eft37 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Iain-
>> I also am doing a PiMate 300, but was going to swap out the screen. Really
>> only keeping the keyboard.
>> Interested in your keyboard solution. I have some bookmarked info
>> somewhere and can chat offlist if needs be.
>> 
>> Mr.PCBman-
>> Welcome back. I'd been wondering what happened to you, as I fondly
>> remember buying an eMate memory card and something for my since sold mp2100
>> from you. Hope you're well.
>> 
>> Best,
>> Tim
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2021 22:42:42 -0400
>>> From: DXH <dxh at woh.rr.com>
>>> To: newtontalk at newtontalk.net
>>> Subject: Re: [NTLK] The piMate 300
>>> Message-ID: <9DA7CB1C-7EC4-445F-A159-B78FB56DD5D1 at woh.rr.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>>> 
>>> In answer to your question, yes, it is possible to drive an eMate or
>> Newton LCD from the Rpi.
>>> Caveat: you need to provide ~24V for lcd drive.
>>> 
>>> PCBman
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>> 
>>>> On Mar 16, 2021, at 7:28 PM, Iain Billington <iain at mosphere.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> ?Yikes!
>>>> Does anyone know if it?s possible to drive the eMate or a Newton LCD
>> display directly from a Raspberry Pi?
>>>> I?m pretty sure I could figure out how to conver the eMate keyboard
>> into a USB or Bluetooth HID decide.
>>>> It would be nice to have a note destructive ways to upgrade and revert
>> back if desired.
>>>> I?ve been thinking too about using the Pi or whatever modern history
>> device to do all the heavy lifting, using its WiFi and proxying requests to
>> the Newton browser as an image with this project:
>>>> https://github.com/tenox7/wrp
>>>> I think we may have talked about it before last year.
>>>> 
>>>> Iain
>>>> 
>>>>> On 17/03/2021, at 11:14 AM, Fritz Toch via NewtonTalk <
>> newtontalk at newtontalk.net> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> ?Yes, we can all agree that this is a travesty, but at the same time
>> it got me thinking about repurposing *actually* dead hardware and perhaps
>> running Einstein on it? https://deninet.com/creation/2020/12/06/pimate-300
>> <https://deninet.com/creation/2020/12/06/pimate-300>
>>>>> 
>>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://newtontalk.net
>>>>> http://twitter.com/newtontalk
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>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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