not a tip sorry

[pdstreet]

sorry not a tip but what exactly is the black 'button' on the left side between the battery and the cf slot for ?

[andyahern]

Hi,
I don't have a black button - only a grey blanking plate. If this is what you're refering to, there has been much speculation about what Psion were going to include eg headphone jack etc, but as far as I know it came to nothing.
Cheers,
Andy

[diem]

Yeah, I think the original intention was to include a modem, but power requirements (or maybe space restrictions, or maybe deadlines!) meant that it never happened.

[donkeyontheedge]

Has anyone looked at the motherboard at this point to see if there is any circuitry/lack of circuitry/hint of what may have been?

I think a headphone socket would have been more useful than a modem as the PCMCIA takes care of modem & lan.

Just a thought!

John

[fladda]

Originally posted by donkeyontheedge
Has anyone looked at the motherboard at this point to see if there is any circuitry/lack of circuitry/hint of what may have been?


Answer is lack of circuitry. These is a pice if the PWB about 1inch square 'missing' around this point.

Ralph

[donkeyontheedge]

So how hard would it be to create a 1 inch circuit with a headphone socket on it and link it in to the psion audio circuitry?

I realise this would most likely be mono (unless there's a stereo chip hiding in there) but I think that would be a useful addition.

Not quite a pocket MP3 player mind you :rolleyes:

[cshandley]

Originally posted by donkeyontheedge
So how hard would it be to create a 1 inch circuit with a headphone socket on it and link it in to the psion audio circuitry?

I realise this would most likely be mono (unless there's a stereo chip hiding in there) but I think that would be a useful addition.

Not quite a pocket MP3 player mind you :rolleyes:

Hey, thats a great idea!

It would be very easy to directly wire a socket directly to the current little speaker (I think?), although sadly this has the problem that the speaker would still operate.

Possibly there may be a suitable socket that could act as a switch to disable the speaker when a headphone was plugged in?


I once removed my Sinclair Spectrum's little piezo-electric speaker & directly wired it to a headhphone socket, so I know that it should probably work.

[MikeW]

You should not have any problem obtaining a suitable socket that will disable the internal speaker I have one in my junk box, bought it at Maplin. There are a few of things you need to consider.


Need a socket with threaded collar so you can make a hole to fix it to the plastic case, need a mono socket or use a stereo socket & wire signal to left & right channel.

Need to route 1 of the existing speaker cables via the switch on the socket so speaker is disabled when headphones are connected.

Sockets come in different sizes, make sure you use one that matches the ear pieces.

Make sure the ear pieces match the impedance of the speaker, most speakers are low impedance, most cheap headphones are low impedance.

Hope this helps those who are brave enough to modify their netbook.