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Trying to reverse engineer a Palm IIIx--can't figure out the up/down buttons!!
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Trying to reverse engineer a Palm IIIx--can't figure out the up/down buttons!! Jim 03-16-2008
Posted by Jim on March 16, 2008, 7:20 pm
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 Hi,

Yeah, I know the Palm IIIx is kinda old, but...I want to overwrite the
OS (already have my own little piece of firmware in flash), and would
really like to make use of the up/down buttons. (I know the other 4
buttons are input to Port D, D0-D3).

I looked at all the gpio (parallel port) inputs and can't find any
handling those two buttons. I looked through the POSE source code and
saw reference to keyboard rows & columns, so I thought they were
multiplexing (banking) the 4 gpio lines. So, I inverted the output of
all the gpio output bits (using the small ROM debug monitor) and then
checked Port D. Nothing. I then saw in POSE a reference to HW ID
bits that may also be multiplexed. Geesh, that means finding two (or
more) combinations of gpio outputs and getting them in the right
combination--IF that's a correct assumption in the first place...

So, I decided to try a long shot and ask the internet community. Who
knows, I might get lucky and one of the developers will take pity on
me. :)

So, if anyone has any info on those two buttons and how the firmware
reads them, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks,


Jim

Posted by Jim Anderson on March 16, 2008, 8:15 pm
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 In article <758c2ea4-a8e3-4ad6-b986-9689ad91c2d9
@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, adirondackmtn@yahoo.com says...
> I want to overwrite the
> OS (already have my own little piece of firmware in flash)
>

I thought the IIIx had MASKED ROM and can not be flashed?

Maybe I'm thinking of the IIIxe, hard to remember 10-11 years ago
anymore.

Posted by RCC on March 17, 2008, 3:25 pm
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>In article <758c2ea4-a8e3-4ad6-b986-9689ad91c2d9
>@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, adirondackmtn@yahoo.com says...
>> I want to overwrite the
>> OS (already have my own little piece of firmware in flash)
>>
>
>I thought the IIIx had MASKED ROM and can not be flashed?
>
>Maybe I'm thinking of the IIIxe, hard to remember 10-11 years ago
>anymore.

IIIX and XE were flashable, the 2 Mb IIIE was not: I have one of each,
still working but not in regular use. The flip over/easy flip off
lid/sunshade is still the best solution for protecting the screen of a
mobile device ever.
--
Richard C

Posted by BillW50 on March 22, 2008, 5:37 am
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Jim Anderson typed on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:15:35 GMT:
> In article <758c2ea4-a8e3-4ad6-b986-9689ad91c2d9
> @e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, adirondackmtn@yahoo.com says...
>> I want to overwrite the
>> OS (already have my own little piece of firmware in flash)
>
> I thought the IIIx had MASKED ROM and can not be flashed?
>
> Maybe I'm thinking of the IIIxe, hard to remember 10-11 years ago
> anymore.

I still use my Palm IIIc daily. Still have my Palm IIIxe as a backup.
Even lugging around the folding keyboard, it sure beats lugging around
my laptop. ;-)

--
Bill


Posted by gene martinez on March 22, 2008, 6:02 pm
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>Jim Anderson typed on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:15:35 GMT:
>> In article <758c2ea4-a8e3-4ad6-b986-9689ad91c2d9
>> @e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, adirondackmtn@yahoo.com says...
>>> I want to overwrite the
>>> OS (already have my own little piece of firmware in flash)
>>
>> I thought the IIIx had MASKED ROM and can not be flashed?
>>
>> Maybe I'm thinking of the IIIxe, hard to remember 10-11 years ago
>> anymore.
>
>I still use my Palm IIIc daily. Still have my Palm IIIxe as a backup.
>Even lugging around the folding keyboard, it sure beats lugging around
>my laptop. ;-)
>
>--
>Bill

Your not the only one. I still have/use my Palm IIIxe. I haven't
needed a new one yet... :)


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