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Home / Other I-Appliances / MailStation Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem Has anybody been able to bypass the whole isp/phone company thing and directly connection a mailstation to their box???

Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile I'm looking at purchasing the mailstation as a portable coding box, but I don't want to have to deal with the phone company/isp to "sync" up my data. I'm sure most people are wishing I'd pass the crack I'm smoking, cause I must be halucinating from that last statement. Let me explain alittle. I want a portable coding box that 1) Isn't a full size laptop 2) Is cheap (Under $300) 3) Uses batteries that don't cost $100+ (preferably AA/AAA) 4) Has decent battery life (3+ hours on one set of batteries) 5) Is viewable in direct sunlight 6) Has a decent sized keyboard (I don't have to type with toothpicks) Basicly, I'm looking for a box that doesn't exist. I want to take it to the beach/park and tell the bossman that I'm still being productive and coding (yeah right)... But every once in awhile, I will be coding on this thing and I don't want to be balancing a palm w/ one of those flimsy keyboards in my lap. I like my laptops like my women - I want something I can "hold onto"... The mailstation might not have a very large screen, but it pretty much fits every other category. And at $30, I can't beat the price. But I don't want to have to deal with dialing into an ISP. I'd prefer to be able to do a direct serial/parallel connection my linux box to "sync" (send/receive mail). If that's not possible, I should be able to setup a modem->phone cord->modem connection and bypass the phone company. Anybody had any luck setting up a similar setup? And just as a side note, if any of you Überhackers out there can get vi onto this thing, I'll be the first in line to give you a big, wet kiss (or not if that's your preference...) Thanks, Glutious 05-23-2001 00:02:47

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile The mailstation has worked for me for things like taking notes, transcribing some tapes, writing notes on the fly. Going through an ISP has not been a hassel. I use the white version without a locked ISP, and its been easy enough insert the phone cords, press getmail, then pickup the mail on my desktop. Those same features, of cheap, small but decentky solid, batteries, etc, that you are looking for, is what has made it worthwhile for me. I leave one emessage machine in my car for times when I might be otherwise just waiting, or just in case. With a full laptop, because of the cost I wouldn't leave a spare in the car. I've never printed from the mailstation, but it has the printer port. If you are programmer capable it would seem possible to set up a null cable to a desktop, and print to the desktop. For me that route was more trouble than emailing my documents to myself. What type of coding are you talking about doing? Wouldn't you have to first need to get the machine using another software? If the machine could be made a linux box as , , , 05-23-2001 15:46:28

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile The reason I'd like to cut an ISP out of the picture is that I don't have access to a dial-up account right now - only broadband. I can signup for a Netzero/free isp, but it's be just as nice to be able to skip that entire step and directly sync the unit with a system. I've dug around and heard of people successfully bypassing the phone system and connecting a modem->phone cord->modem, but it required being able to issue direct commands to the modem (AT0, etc...). I could get a linux box to act as an ISP for this purposes, it's just the whole phone thing... I read in another post that justdeals.com has them for $30 - at that price, it's worth just getting to play around with. Glutious 05-23-2001 22:34:59

Printer Port but RS 422 (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile Maybe you can make heads or tails of this, Where one would attach the printer cable to on the mailstation (a standard DB25 looking thing) is described by CIDCO as a RS-422 port. One web page that describes connectors has this (http://www.hwb.acc.umu.se/co_RS422.html ) information about an RS-422 port, but its beyond my understanding. RS422 (At the DTE) (At the DCE) 37 PIN D-SUB MALE at the DTE (Computer). 37 PIN D-SUB FEMALE at the DCE (Modem). Pin Name Dir Description 1 GND Shield Ground 2 SRI Signal Rate Indicator 3 n/c - Spare 4 SD Send Data 5 ST Send Timing 6 RD Receive Data 7 RTS Request To Send 8 RR Receiver Ready 9 CTS Clear To Send 10 LL Local Loopback 11 DM Data Modem 12 TR Terminal Ready 13 RR Receiver Ready 14 RL Remote Loopback 15 IC Incoming Call 16 SF/SR Select Frequency/Select Rate 17 TT Terminal Timing 18 TM Test Mode 19 GND Ground 20 RC Receive Twister-Pair Common 21 GND Spare Twister-Pair Return 22 /SD Send Data TPR 23 GND Send Timing TPR 24 GND Receive Timing TPR 25 /RS Request To Send TPR 26 /RT Receive Timing TPR 27 /CS Clear To Send TPR 28 IS Terminal In Service 29 /DM Data Mode TPR 30 /TR Terminal Ready TPR 31 /RR Receiver TPR 32 SS Select Standby 33 SQ Signal Quality 34 NS New Signal 35 /TT Terminal Timing TPR 36 SB Standby Indicator 37 SC Send Twister Pair Common Some of the other threads have speculated that through this port, the mailstation flash memory is available. 05-23-2001 22:36:21

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile I don't even have a unit yet - I ordered one from justdeals yesterday and should hopefully get it sometime next week - so I can only comment so much. Now I'm really confused as to what kind of port this damn thing has. I got the impression from the CIDCO website it was a standard parallel port - http://www.mymailstation.com/support/mailstation_info.html Q: Does MailStation™ print e-mails? A: Yes. MailStation is parallel port compatible. Recommended compatible printers: HP648C HP Apollo P2250 But then when I was looking around on the mailstation website, it states on the Yahoo version features http://www.mymailstation.com/details.html Prints messages to standard printers (RS-422) The mailstation manual says on page 40 Using a parallel printer cable (IEEE-1284), connect your MailStation to a printer that supports MS-DOS printing. Now comparing the pinouts of an RS-422 (/http://www.hwb.acc.umu.se/co_RS422.html)to a parallel port (/http://www.hwb.acc.umu.se/co_ParallelPC.html), doesn't look like they're even remotely compatible, or could co-exist together. Now I've looked at both the HP648C and P2250 and both are just USB/Parallel, nothing is said about a serial interface. Ok, so I've been doing alittle more digging and this is what I've found. RS-422 is what Macs (not sure if new but definitely older) use instead of a parallel printer port. So even though the printer specs/manual say they're only USB and parallel, they DO support Macs, so they probably are RS-422 compliant. I found some products out there that allow RS-232 to RS-422 conversion, but they're all pricey (by my standards at least) /http://www.telebyteusa.com/catalog/products/63-2s.htm - $99 I can across this usenet post that might help as well. For a one time, home use solution, just take the RS-232 signal from the PC and connect it to the inverting RS-422 input through a 5K resistor. Put 2 parallel diodes between the two RS-422 inputs. Ground the non-inverting RS-422 input. The diodes keep the RS-422 from seeing more than 0.7V. The 5K resistor terminates the RS-232 properly. The RS-422 common mode voltage bounces around a bit, but it will work. PC RS-232 ---------^^^^^ ---- RS-422 Inverting IN output 5K | ^ V (2 diodes in paralllel, | | opposite polarity)X GND ------ RS-422 Non-invert IN Make of it what you will - but might be worth playing around with. I think I've got an old isa serial card sitting around. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I fried it, so I might give this a try. It's been awhile since I've pulled out my soldering iron and I need to get better at it - don't need my joints looking like I'm making lead bullets... :-p At that point, I don't know what I would do. I guess have my PC listen to the serial port as I power on the mailstation. As a side note, I found that uBid has Mailstation's VERY cheap - $9 right now. They have 2 versions - one with Caller ID (I take it the old one - starts at $29) and one that doesn't give much info, but starts at $9. The pictures for both look like the old white ones, but at $9 + $10 for shipping, I'm ordering one. I also came across some people comparing the Mailstation to a TRS-80 Model 100 - they do look VERY similar. The Model 100 has a 8x40 display and a decent sized keyboard. They're also pretty popular on ebay - going for $50+ right now... Glutious 05-24-2001 19:37:23

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) wildcard Profile As an experiment, I printed from the mailstation for the first time today, to Brother 1240 laser printer. Printed in a default Courier font. The machine provides a menu choice of email format or letter format. (letter format does not include the date, to, from.) Reviewing the threads you will notice that people have speculated that the way the machine is packaged, (to have a cut out of the box where the RS 232/ RS 422 port is) so that the manufacturer could flash changes without unpacking everything. I believe that they have integrated RS 422 functions into a printer port in order that changes can be flashed into the flash memory. Machines definitely have different are the default telephone number the machine dials to, according to planned local distribution. There may also be changes with the foreign versions. 05-25-2001 22:39:13

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Klinkyx Profile I've connected the port to an old dot matrix EPSON T-1000 (Similar to LX-810) It prints an ascii character kinda question mark or something like that, then a CR, and after these the message is printed normally. [[[--ICL--]]] 05-31-2001 10:36:35

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Klinkyx Profile Modem to modem suggestion. I'think a modem 2 modem connection can be made with a phone line simulator. It consists of a transformer and rectifier that supplies +22V DC for the talk position. With the aid of a switch a ring signal can be introduced by a 120V AC transformer. A dialtone signal of 500 Hz generated by a 555 can also be introduced trough a capacitor. The simulator has 2 RJ11 connectors and is used to test phones, and fax machines, I think two modems can communicate well with this stuff. I've found the circuit schematics in the colombian magazine "Electronica y Computadores Nº 71" [[[--ICL--]]] 05-31-2001 10:50:31

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) Glutious Profile Well, I received my Mailstation and I did what any responsible person would do; I open the box and then opened the cover! The first thing I noticed when looking at the serial/parallel port is that it seems like every single pin on the db25 is being pulled to a resistor. So I pulled out my handy-dandy multi-meter (you wouldn't believe how much dust was on this thing...) I was able to trace a few leads before the battery died (yes, it has been a REALLY long time since I've used it...) and it does appear that most of the pins are going to surface mount resistors on the PCB. I've been looking over the connector schematics at http://www.hwb.acc.umu.se/ and noticed that they have 2 RS-422 schematics; one for a "standard" RS-422 and then a Mac RS-422. Now these two don't seem to be completely compatible, let alone work with a DB25 connector for a printer. The "standard" RS-422 port uses 37 pins, but every reference I can find for RS-422 are for either the Mac's 8-pin Mini-DIN or a 4 wire terminal block(that's how I remember RS-422 from my "industrial" days...) So now my quest is to figure out what pins of the DB25 correspond to the 8pin DIN for a mac. Any additional pins are either fluff or "something else"... If the Mailstation is trying to emulate a Mac in printing, then either the rest are pulled to ground (doubtful) or are used for something else alittle more evil (can we say "proprietary wiring scheme"...) This weekend I'll try and get a new batttery for my multi-meter to do some tracing on the PCB and figure out what pins from the DB25 go to chips. If some non-standard pins go to the chip (other then pins that would be used in the 8-pin DIN configuration), then we might be beyond my skills... I've still got a logic probe, but I haven't used the damn thing in over 5 years, so I wouldn't remember where to start. From there, the best I can do is put a data-capture module on each of the pins and power-up/reset the unit and look for voltage changes/something else to try and figure out what pins make any noise at these events... Does anybody else have any advice on where to proceed from here? Glutious 06-01-2001 22:54:25

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) compbrain Profile You dont need ANY thing to do modem => modem if you have windows. If you search around on the internet, and look for a dreamcast to computer guide, it tells you how to set up a dial-up server in windows w/o a phoneline. I dont know if it will work with mailstation though... -compbrain 10-21-2001 17:59:41

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) qaz703 Profile Viking Electronics makes a phone line simulator box. http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/linesimulator/_frames/1b.html Unfortunantly, I have no idea how much it costs. 11-14-2001 10:18:08

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) qaz703 Profile Nevermind, at $200 it's too expensive. This might work: http://www.hotspot.freeserve.co.uk/HOTSPOT/TLS/_tlsim.htm It's a schematic for a telephone line simulator, all of the parts are available from Digi-Key. 11-15-2001 08:34:05

RE:Connect a mailstation through serial/parallel or modem->modem (modified 0 times) ZooT_aLLures Profile Ok, I've just managed to get my mailstation to connect via modem->unpowered phoneline->modem Using a simple ATA command on the PC(linux 1.3.4)on an OLD cruddy GRiD notebook all I got was trash on the PC's terminal screen.......but that seems to be a bit more than what's been acheived as of yet. incidently the mailstation reported that it was "logging in"....so there's hope yet Also in the config options of my particular(white) mailstation the very last option "ignore dial tone".....well I changed that setting to "yes" from the default "no" Maybe tomorrow I'll hook the mailstation up to a USR 56k non plug n' puke modem and see what's up 11-25-2001 22:07:30

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