Stephanie's Other MP2x00 Hardware Hacks
This page will contain some other hacks that I have come up with. I'll add to it as I find other ways to risk the life of my MP2100.
Disclaimer and Warning: The information provided below is provided for entertainment purposes. By attempting any modifications to your Newton or eMate you will definately void any remaining warranty you might have, and could destroy your Newton or eMate completely. I am in no way liable or responsible for your actions or how you use the information below, nor am I liable or responsible for any unexpected or undesired results arising from the modifications described on this page. Soldering experience with Surface Mount components is required for some hacks. This is definately not for beginners. You have been warned.
The MP2x00 Blinky Light
My name is Stephanie....and I have a problem. I like flashing lights. Back in the days when I had a Visor, one of the first things I did was install a blinky-light into it. Click here to see my Visor mods. Now I've been using my MP2100 and my eMate for about a year, and at long last, I am putting the blinky-lights in. Here's the process for my MP2100.
I should warn you, that the following procedure involves taking a dremel to a working, functional MP2100, and making a hole in the case for a LED to stick out. Some of you may find the following images shocking. Younger viewers, or those disturbed by graphic images, are advised to look away.
Electronically speaking, this mod is simple like the eMate one. You just have to put a LED in parallel with the serial-port's TX-data line. In practice though, it is more difficult. The eMate, being made of transluscent plastic, did not require any holes, and had gobs of empty space. The MP2100 is very tight, and opaque, so not only did a space have to be found / made for the LED, it had to have a hole so it would be visible.
Here is where I positioned the LED. It is just to the side of the IR cover, along the side of the MP2100's casing. After making a hole with a Dremel tool, I positioned the LED and then fixed it in place with epoxy. Once the epoxy was set, I soldered the negative lead of the LED to the metal shielding around the IR circuitry, which is at ground. I then bent the positive lead of the LED back and out of the way, and soldered a small hook-up wire to it.
The other end of the hook-up wire, is soldered to the TX line at it's source, on the LTC1323 chip on the MP2100's motherboard. This is a very delicate spot, the pin-spacing is incredibly tight. I couldn't find any other points on this side of the mother board though, where the TX signal was available. It is very easy to make a solder-bridge here, and because of this one point, I'd rate this a 'difficult' mod.
The LED I used is a blue super-bright 5mm LED. It draws 20 ma at 3.6 volts. You should be able to use any 3.6 or 5 volt LED here I think. This will put a small extra drain on the battery, but shouldn't be much.
So there it is. My MP2100 is illuminated! Now, whenever the serial port is active, the LED is turned on. This does not seem to negatively effect the serial port, I have been able to connect to NCU and NTK Inspector, done backups and installed software through the serial port with this modification in place. As always though, your mileage may vary.
Of course, having a LED is one thing. Making it work, is another. As-is, you can enjoy blinky-light action whenever you use the serial port. That is, docking, or if you use an external modem or use the serial port for other things.
Here is a small 'test' program that you can use, to make the light go on and off. Whoopeee! Just click the image to download.
Don't worry, I have some much neater stuff in mind. Now that the blinky light is possible, and I know how to control it, it's just a matter of time...
System Patches: Blowing 'em Away.
I purchased my MP2100 used; when I got it, it had the latest system patch installed already. The MP2100 had OS 2.1 patch 717260. In most cases this would be considered a good thing. System patches provide useful features and fixes that were missing or lacking in the original product.
Being a tinkerer though, I got curious to see what my Newton devices were like, without their patches. How they would function, and so forth. But how? If there was ever some software from Apple to allow patches to be removed, it never got out to the public, as far as I could tell. You can't erase a patch by a brain-wipe reset. It's in a protected part of Flash memory that is not erased during a brain wipe. Finaly, I came across a note somewhere that you could force a Newton with OS 2.1 to dump a system patch, by replacing the ROM board with another one.
Warning: When I tried this I did not know how dangerous it was and therefore didn't think twice about trying it. Now that you have read this warning and realize the dangers, Murphy dictates that you are in a lot more dangerous position than I was. Sorry, maybe I shouldn't have warned you. On the other hand, I have since learned of at least 2 MP2x00's that have died by the following process, and was told there are more which have succumbed to this.
First, I removed the power, battery, stylus & PCMCIA cards, opened it up, and removed the ROM card. Then I installed the ROM card from my eMate and tried powering it up. It did not start up, which is probably not surprising. Then I replaced its original ROM card and plugged in AC power. After a second or two, it chimed and started up fine. It displayed a warning that the internal Flash RAM had been erased because a different ROM board had been installed. Mission accomplished, the MP2100 was now patch-less. I put it back together and away I went.
The un-patched MP2100 now runs OS 2.1 version 717006. It runs fine, I have not found any trouble with it, and am keeping it this way until I find a reason to change. One noticable difference is the Frames Heap: version 717006 only allocates 250K of DRAM to Frames Heap, which is what you would have with an MP2000. An MP2100 should have 500K of Frames Heap. This is the 'heap' displayed on Avi's Backdrop, HeapShow, etc. However, the MP2100 still recognizes that it has 4000K of DRAM installed (4020K actually). And HeapShow does indicate the total memory is higher. I think the extra DRAM is being used for something other than Frames Heap, and responce is still great. So as I said, I'm leaving it as 717006 until a good reason to re-patch it comes along.