I-Appliance BBS The Official Source for Internet Appliance Upgrades and Mods BBS Main List | Sign In | Sign Up | Search | Help | Linux-Hacker.net Reply to Thread | Printer |

Home / Other I-Appliances / WebPal Is Webpal hackable or not?

Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) JayTal Like subject said... Is Webpal hackable or not? As far as I know, Arm 7500fe is supported by NetBSD and possible by Linux. Has anyone successfully installed any OS on this machine? codeman? iCommunic8? ASPguy? anyone? 05-28-2000 10:22:56

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) iCommunic8 I didn't get a chance to muck with it this last weekend (had to get the drywall up for the new computer room). Will post back when I get a chance to muck with it some ... 05-30-2000 09:50:32

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) ASPguy my order is about to arrive. We'll know then. 05-30-2000 23:54:12

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) iCommunic8 I've created a eGroups forum for discussing this box ... http://www.egroup.com/group/WebPal If/when codeman/hardware1 sets up an area in here, may migrate back ... I just don't want to polute the iOpener areas any longer. 05-31-2000 11:41:57

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) iCommunic8 To answer this question ... I believe it is definately hackable ... the thing boots from a flash SIMM, so at the worst, the flash SIMM could be pulled, written, and reinstalled. obviously I'm still hoping a simpler solution is possible ... like access the flash SIMM and/or bios from the ARM dev kit (via parport for example). 06-01-2000 09:54:24

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) CheeseWiz Just got my WebPals today (only 2, I'm not greedy) This thing is relatively heavy! Built like a tank!!! Took the thing apart, took a very quick look, before putting it back together to try out. Looks like the motherboard and modem card are connected to a ISA backplane (I could be wrong). Maybe the Motherboard can be plugged into a PC to be programmed? Also right next to the floppy connector, J10 and J11 seems to be solder holes for Serial Port Headers, and the SMC chip in the area is a Multi-IO chip, maybe just the header is not soldered on, and the board does not look like it is missing any SMT resistors. The smart card reader (writer ?), might be interesting to mess around with. Also the keyboard is maybe by Sejin, same as WebSurfer's and Virgin's keyboard, but it is lacking the pointing device. I tried using the WebSurfer and Virgin keyboard, no dice. Opened up the WebPal Keyboard, no jumpers or dip switches to change frequency or coding sequence. The Websurfer keyboard seems to be missing the dip switches, so probably won't work the WebPal. Virgin's keyboard has the dip switches in the battery compartment, but as I tried to move it, one if the sliders broke off, so I didn't bother going any further. Also the mouse pad pointer thing on remote seems to work pretty well. 06-01-2000 21:07:52

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) redwood ok, got it working on my Big tv, :) now, can I logon with any free isp? that would be a first step.... like to do more with this as you engineers rip it apart.... 06-02-2000 18:31:16

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) Phillerup Hmm guess interest has died, figures, I just got mine :) Any further developments at all? 06-05-2000 11:46:17

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) NoSleep Just a quick look at the Cirrus Logic chip specs states that it is equivalent to a x486 100 MHZ processor. For the hack to be useful, it would have to be performed with a lightweight OS ( embedded Linux, WinCE) which would be targetted for this platform...not an easy hack. 06-05-2000 11:58:14

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) Deep+Penguin I got mine, too. I haven't had any time to do more than open it up and look around. I'm hoping that one of the people who used to work on it will cough up some info, or else this thing is just a PPP surfing box. I don't mind kernel hacking, but without a memory map, I don't see how you can point the drivers at the I/O devices. It's not magic, but in the case of an Intel box, the I/O comes at standard addresses. Take the GG2 Bus+ for the Amiga as a counter example: it adapts ISA cards into the MC68000 address space, but it does so at whatever 2Mb block of memory the OS gives it at startup. The drivers are all written to ask the OS *where* the ISA bus gets mapped to; it's not a fixed address. I'm not saying that the WebPal does this, but I am saying that without more information you can't assume you know where the I/O lives. Application notes from similar products would be very handy in determining what a default design looks like. I imagine that the WebPal wasn't made to be too clever. If information is not forthcoming, I plan to stick a serial card in place of the modem and connect this thing back to my Linux server as a PPP "terminal". Deep Penguin 06-06-2000 07:58:25

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) NoSleep The Cirrus Logic chip is a PC on a chip. I took a quick look at the Web page. There's extensive information on the web site. It's sort of a neat chip. Looks like something that would be put into a PDA. www.cirrus.com Look up part number: CL-PS7500FE The development board looks like the WebPal except some features are missing on the WebPal. The COM port which is used to program development is missing. 06-06-2000 10:08:01

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) tanker There is allot of info at that link! This was interesting: http://www.cirrus.com/press/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5 Good to see that the basic product is still being developed. Also I saw at cirrus.com that Solaris may be a possible OS?????(and free!) I dont know jack about it, maybe someone here knows more? This link talks about more OS's: http://www.cirrus.com/press/news/index.cfm?NewsID=104 Throwing meat (info) to the dogs here. :) 06-06-2000 17:54:04

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) pretender I noticed that the infrared reciever on the front of the WebPal has the same number of connectors to the MoBo as my i-opener's ps2 plug. I'm going to try to wire the infrared reciever onto a ps2 cord in order to plug it onto my iopener. Does anyone know immediately why this might not work? 06-07-2000 01:18:14

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) Milo+Bloom I believe the WebPal is based on the Teknema web appliance platform. ftp.teknema.com seems to be gone (Teknema was snatched up by Ravisent), but ftp to www.teknema.com anonymously; cd pub/newcom/ispkit; there's a zip file there containing code loads for NTSC/PAL DIAL/ETHERNET based WebPals. Check out /pub. There's a bunch of stuff in there that might be of help if we can sort through it. - Milo 06-07-2000 19:30:33

Webpal is weak. (modified 0 times) ASPguy Okay, so i was the first few to purchase this webpal device. Sadly, after opening the tank apart, what i see was a weak basic board. doesn't even compare to the websurfer. plus with the specs on the small memory and ram or whatever, it makes it even worse. I knew there must have been something wrong about this device when the remote AA batteries were leaking acid, and how basic the casing and board construction of the webpal was. So as soon as i opened it, i then made a call to the warehouse to get them if they'll give to me a refund. i just simply told them that i couldn't modify the device as i wanted to from the bbs. they were okay with it since i had other purchases. anyhow.. if anyone has better experiences or found good uses for these webpals, please let us know. Hate to cap on the device, but it is majorly basic and weak. 06-14-2000 21:15:43

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) iCommunic8 yup ... is "basic", is "weak", but I'm treating mine as a cheap experimenters board. It may take a while of piss around hacking to get something, but I'm looking at it as a challenge to make it into something useful. RAM and 16 bit ethernet cards for this beast is essentially free (just ask some friends for old parts. The ethernet 'updater' is available from the teknema site (http://www.teknema.com/easy/newcom/) so my next experiment will be to get an ethernet version going. 06-15-2000 19:02:52

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) Uugh Other than it's original purpose, what other uses are there for the WebPal? I thought of some here: 1. Doorstop. 2. Bookend. 3. Placemat for I-Opener. Seriously, to recoup my cost are there any parts worth salvaging? I think the SanDisk is worth something. It's probably an IDE interface sitting on a DIMM socket. The infrared keyboard is doubtful. It looks like it doesn't get decoded into a standard keyboard/mouse signal until it's inside the processor. The modem is worth about $4 on the open market. 06-29-2000 09:12:27

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) R A I D E R You can always sell it on eBay. Incredible as it may seem, one WebPal has already been bid up to $107.50 (ends in 3 hours). Whoever is bidding that high must not know how to use the search function to see all the WebPals for sale and that $107.50 is way too much to pay. Whatever. 06-29-2000 16:34:53

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) CheeseWiz Anyone get an ethernet card working in this beast yet? 06-29-2000 17:06:05

RE:Is Webpal hackable or not? (modified 0 times) Uuugh For it's time, it works fairly well as a set top box; but right now with the 33.6K modem, it's dated. The lack of SSL support ( I can't see paying $50 for the update so I can surf at 33.6K ) is a real drawback. Teknema advertises a development kit; but, it's not available. I wrote Cirrus Logic to see if they could donate a development kit to members of this board for cheap. No reply :(...The key to hacking this thing is the software. ...Though not quite as satisfying as the SCovery, WebSurfer, I-Opener, this is truly a hack. Anyone who can hack this should be considered HackMaster! 07-01-2000 09:45:50

Reply to Thread | Printer | All times are PST Powered by UltraBoard v1.62

I-Appliance BBS General - NEWS, Breaking NEWS - linux-hacker.net BBS on CD Questions - User Groups in Your Town - E-Bay, Yahoo Auction LINKS ONLY (MODERATED) - Jokes & Humor - usdtv box I-Opener Areas - I-Opener General Posts - I-Opener Technical Stuff - I-Opener Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) WebSurfer Areas - WebSurfer General Posts - WebSurfer Technical Stuff - WebSurfer Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) Other I-Appliances - Virgin Webplayer - WebPal - MailStation - 3Com Audrey - ThinkNIC / Oracle NIC - Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad - Philips/AOL-TV - ACER NT-150 STB - MSN Companion - Compaq IA - Emachines IA - IBM NetVista IA - Intel dot.station - MSNTV2 Network Computers - Fujitsu-Siemens Scovery Linux Net Computers - GallantWeb Server Consoles - Dreamcast - xbox hacking Web Pads - Epods One General Post - Panasonic CF-01 - Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 - Cybiko Thin Clients - Thin Clients DigitalVideoRecorders - DTV Recorders, Replay, TiVo, Etc... - Tivo Hacks Linux - Midori Linux General Board - ITX MotherBoards Single Board Computers - Earth Computers mARMalade Elite Member Area MISC Areas - The Swap Meet WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY TRANSACTION HERE AND NO COMMERCIAL POST PERIOD !!! - Wireless Net - Cameras - Robotics - Routers/Gateways - Mattel JuiceBox