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Palm V - of any use?

tingo

tingo

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I have an old Palm V with cradle (serial), running Palm OS Software 3.3. I don't even know if it is considered vintage.
The Palm V doesn't even have wireless, and I don't need a PDA.
Is there anything else worthwhile I can use it for?
 
Hm. That's actually a relevant (not sure vintage but interesting) question. I'm kinda interested what folks have come up with too. Googling around I see a few things depending on the hardware it does have (IR = universal remote control). If you have the ethernet enabled cradle a lot of folks hack those back to a serial connection and use it for a SLIP server for vintage machines (that have a SLIP application) to get on the net over ethernet.

http://www.digitalnomads.com/2008/09/23/giving-old-pdas-a-new-life has a few interesting things listed. It looks like folks MAY even have hacked the displays with some linux code (not sure how far that mileage goes for different versions) but that'd be cool since I can go to goodwill and get a handfull of PDAs for $3-5 a pop if they were useful for something (assuming they work). I grab one once and a while when I'm bored.. still not sure why lol they just seem like they're cheap enough they should serve some purpose.

They be sweet little dos/bbs emulators if someone hacked an emulator for them. Actually that'd be completely awesome. Host a bbs on a palm.

I suppose I probably just missed one of the obvious ideas as well. How about a portable handheld terminal? Here's another site with a collection of apps (hopefully their links are active but at least these apps are out there somewhere) http://rumkin.com/software/palm/

lol! Wow I read someone did this but didn't think it'd really be out there. This would be sweet too.. hack it with *nix http://palm-linux.sourceforge.net/ (probably a better site out there, just a quick google search).

Hm.. now it's making ME actually want to whip a few out and see what I can do.

- John
 
These palms are really nifty but... I have the same problem, how to USE them. They have serial (I have a couple of handspring Visors that have serial and USB) so I'd like to use them for something, too.

Just to toss some ideas out there:

Atari ST serial drive
Remote control for TV/VCR/DVD (already done)
emulator machine for 8-bit games
terminal emulator
USB drive (Like a flash drive)

Just a few ideas. Most the software doesn't exist for it, and the Palm V would be a good contender for most of this stuff.
 
Here's a thought that just occurred to me - what about a simple system status monitor for your 24x7 file server box at home to show load average, number of users, new mail notification, etc?

Or one of those widgets that change their display based on other things - current weather and forecast? Your stocks tanking? Some of these ideas might take some custom SW, depending on how pretty you want it to be.

FYI, I used to run Frotz on one of mine - that's an Infocom adventure game emulator.

I hadn't thought about this much before, and I have a few color backlit ones, too.
 
Loads of Little "PCs" for Cheap!

Loads of Little "PCs" for Cheap!

I too have wondered what all those old Palm Pilots\Visors|Clies and such could be good for.They are still in abundant supply and mostly Dirt Cheap!Sorta like the time of the "Great Dumping",not so long ago.....
They are more limited than a PC,but if the C64 is still able to stay alive and be useful,then why not these things as well?
I am sure there are some creative minds here that could figure something out.(Wish I was one of them,sigh)
cgrape2
 
I see it's from 1999 so it's still recent history, but it could be collectible in 10-20 years. I'd hang on to it. :)

How difficult is it to do something with the PalmOS, or can something else run on that Motorola CPU? The HP palmtops were way cool because they were intended to be DOS machines but this one...? However, specs of 16MHz and 2MB storage is excellent, so it looks enticing. You could build it into the front of a computer case for an interesting secondary display. Glue it on your front door for visitors to leave messages when you're out. I guess it's usefulness is going to come down to what kind of IO it's got or you can hack.
 
Something else I would love to see is the USB on some of the newer ones (thinking again of my Handspring Visors) is the use of that USB connection for, say, my nifty new USB atari 2600 joystick! Heck yeah, have a 800xl/8-bit emulator on it and play it with the closest-to-right controller around.

Everyone knows about these joysticks, right??
 
Wow, you know that seems like it would be totally feasible turning it into a joystick. I mean you're talking serial protocol and serial commands I think.. ok well it sounds simple although the only joysticks I've built were contact based (c64). But if you think about that.. a universal joystick kit and touch screen? Could be used on anything from an atari, c64 (with a modded cable) to a ps3.

Some of those links I posted before have several programming languages posted. There's a Palm SDK that was released for free which I think was a basic like language kit (I may have a book on it somewhere) but in those links it looked like there was C and a bunch of other stuff.

The specs on the device aren't bad, I mean linux can be slow on anything but still small version installs out there seem doable and those specs you'd think would be able to pull off some pretty sweet stuff still.

Any decent programmers who have some free time here should hack around with some. I need to check out Goodwill and probably buy an extra docking station or two (wish I could find ethernet ones but those are still harder to find and probably getting hacked). Then I can see if I can get a few of my systems charged and working.

They really do seem like an ideal platform to hack. For $5 a flat touch screen lcd seems like it should be usable.
 
That was YOUR thought, not mine, and it's a good one! I wish I could take credit for it-- use your old USB/Serial PDA as a controller for almost ANY game console! I'm shocked nobody has thought of it before, really.

It has the capability to use tyhat connection full time, not just for up/downloads and syncing. The only thing I can think of atm is that little robot project that used a Palm to control it. Very cool but for a limiterd audience.

As a joystick/controller it would be pretty cool. I'm going to pass this along to others.
 
I've done a lot with my Palm V's and Vx over the years. Of course nothing I did was as elaborate as what is mentioned above. I have keyboards for them so I can actually type into them. I upgraded the Os so you could write on the screen and save quick notes. I installed Ereader and read novels on them to include Stephen King's "The Stand". The battery life far excedes that of the newer ones with a color screen and is easier to read. It's been a while since I used mine, but I do remember whenever I'd think of a new use for mine, I'd google it and find a freeware program to do it.
 
I know there is a program for Palm the emulates the TPDD for Tandy model T laptops. You can find it on the Bitchin100 site probably.
 
Palm V of any use

Palm V of any use

Why are there not any Palm OS Games listed on the Mobile Games list. Is that platform restricted for educated persons? Palm OS is truly a mobile platform and there are some quite complex games. Are the games so well written that one can not cheat? Or are those that play those games so intelligent that a cheat is not required to win?

Just curious,
David
 
There are a lot of neat games for the old Palms. If you like RPGs the Kyle's Quest engine is a cool start. Also, to see what even a b/w Palm can do graphics wise there's Solskia , Mobli Basylonia, and Dragons Bane 2.

BTW you might have to find Solskia 1.0, version 2 is updated for more powerful XScale based Palms.
 
Palm V of any use

Palm V of any use

What do you use besides Kaspersky for your security?
 
@last hopes, I don't think that has much to do with the topic at hand.

There's a pretty neat little shareware remote control program I stumbled across, quite a few. Batteries are all out of one of my Visors that has it, so I can't name the program :(

Also found an RPG that is shareware and since nobody SELLS it anymore I can never save a game on it. It's on the dead one, too, so I can't name it either. Maddening!
 
lol.. I was all hyped up from the thread back then and grabbed a few but couldn't find chargers for them :-( I'm lazy anyway so I doubt anything too cool would have come out of it yet but I'm still intrigued at what can be done with these as they're close to e-waste at this point but still seem powerful enough to do neat tricks or if anything be an interesting portable diagnostic tool.
 
Funny, I see accessories all over the place for them, most of them are on sale cheap. What do you have, and if I run across the right things I'll see if I can pick them up.
 
I don't do anything with the old palm stuff, but I have a friend who collects them, tinkers with them, etc. I'll talk to him and see if he is still seeking parts and pieces, direct him to the forum here :)

On a somewhat related note...they made me give up my Razr at work and go to a BB Storm. I'm not impressed by it so far.
 
Also found an RPG that is shareware and since nobody SELLS it anymore I can never save a game on it. It's on the dead one, too, so I can't name it either. Maddening!
Click to expand...

That might be Solskia. Were the graphics pretty impressive for a Palm?

Also, the older Kyles Quest version is freeware now I think. It was modular and could take different games files sort of like Doom with its .Wads .
 
Just checked, it's on the Visor and it's called Kyle's Quest. I'll look around and see if I can find the freeware version, but I really don't mind paying, it's pretty fun.

The graphics are pretty nice to be what it is. iirc the V was b&w (not sure, not here in front of me) but it could also do grey shades, so I remember playing Bomb Canada (A South Park inspired game) and it had pretty decent graphics.

A friend of mine knows MUCH more about programming than I do, and is more familiar with how Palms can be programmed so I might get him to do something neat for it. What I would love to see is Sega blast processing programmed in (LOL).
 
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