Introduction and Info on my HP DOS Palmtop (100/200LX) YouTube Channel.

[radiance32]

Hi everyone,

I just found this website and forum and I just signed up
My name is Terrence Vergauwen, I'm currently living in New Zealand since 15 years,
after moving here from Belgium.

A few months ago I started a new YouTube channel called "HP Palmtop Tube",
here's a link to the Main channel page:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCVChzZ62a-c4MdJWyRwdCQ

My primary focus of the channel is the MS-DOS based palmtops from HP,
the 95LX, and particularly the 100LX and 200LX DOS based palmtops.

Instead of doing reviews etc... I make videos where I set up exotic hardware configurations,
operating systems and try to make these old, nostalgic machines do crazy things,
like adding a SCSI bus to a 200LX with 4 hard drives, a ZIP drive, CD-ROM drive and flatbed scanner, all at once,
or I've released part 1 of a 2 or 3 part series where I build a UNIX webserver on a 200LX by installing,
finetuning and connecting to my network a HP200LX running Minix 2.0.2

I also review games in my "Will it Play?" series, where I give scores in a chart, not about the actual game,
but about it's suitability or playing on the palmtop.

I also have a number of parallel port sounds cards like the OPL3LPT (Adlib compatible) and S2P (General MIDI synth, can emulate an MT-32 too),
that I connect to the palmtop and patch games and I've got a number of games from the end of the 80's and early 90's with those sound cards on the channel too,
as well as a 4 channel MOD player that plays quite decent quality music with a COVOX DAC on the parallel port.

My channel is only 3 months old, and I have a lot to learn about the art of YouTube video production,
and being slightly autistic and very nervous, I tend to sound somewhat disorganized, due to being nervous,
when narrating my videos, but, I'm getting better and better all the time.

I have a whole series of upcoming ideas for interesting videos where I do crazy things nobody were possible on such a small / slow machine,
so expect a lot of upcoming, educational and great videos about all kinds of HP DOS Palmtop uses, so if you subscribe and hit the bell icon,
you'll be alerted to those coming out.

I only have 140 subscribers at the time of writing this post, and am only getting a hundred or so views per video on average,
sometimes more , sometimes less, but I really need more viewers, subscribers, and people leaving likes and comments,
so the YouTube algorithm will create more impressions of my videos to new viewers and get more people to see my videos.

The viewers have all expressed that they find my videos, although it's for a small/niche audience, extremely good and interesting,
which fuels my motivation to make more videos

So check out my channel, there's about 2 dozen or so videos on it for you to watch already...

Thanks for your time!,
Cheers,
Terrence (aka Radiance)

 

[MeneerJansen]

Hi there Terrence,

I've recently acquired me a HP-95LX pocket computer/palmtop. Love it! However, getting the driver for a CompactFlash storage device on it via serial connection was hell (UART TTL voltages vs. RS232 serial voltages). But once you do: getting files on the 95LX to it is easy peasy via a CF card. If I'm not mistaken then the 100LX & 200LX have a driver on board for CF cards, don't they? So getting files on 'm is more easy.

Gonna take a look at your channel even though lots of stuff for the 100/200LX won't work on my 95LX. Do you know of the Facebook Group for these devices? Friendly helpful people there. Unfortunately Fb is completely unsuitable for serious information exchange, tutorials etc. Forums are far, far better.

I plan on posting a tutorial or my experiences with the 95LX here.

Beste regards,

Michel

 

[radiance32]

Hi there Terrence,

I've recently acquired me a HP-95LX pocket computer/palmtop. Love it! However, getting the driver for a CompactFlash storage device on it via serial connection was hell (UART TTL voltages vs. RS232 serial voltages). But once you do: getting files on the 95LX to it is easy peasy via a CF card. If I'm not mistaken then the 100LX & 200LX have a driver on board for CF cards, don't they? So getting files on 'm is more easy.

Gonna take a look at your channel even though lots of stuff for the 100/200LX won't work on my 95LX. Do you know of the Facebook Group for these devices? Friendly helpful people there. Unfortunately Fb is completely unsuitable for serious information exchange, tutorials etc. Forums are far, far better.

I plan on posting a tutorial or my experiences with the 95LX here.

Beste regards,

Michel

Hi,

I suggest creating an account on the HPC:Factor forums (just google it) and making a post in the DOS Palmtops forum, where there are others with HP 95LX'es...

Indeed the 100 and 200LX models can read CF cards in CF to PCMCIA card converters standard, however, only small cards by default,
depending on the brand, some cards up to 64MB or 128MB can work by default, but, for larger cards (up to 2GB which are difficult to find ones that work, only a few models/brands do) you need to load a driver in your config.sys called acecard3.sys (which you can download, just google for "download acecard3 hp 200LX"

I personally don't use 95LX machines as they are just too limited and incompatible, so on my youtube channel you will only see 100LX and 200LX (almost always 200LX) models being used,
as I try to make videos that make the 200LX do stuff people thought weren't possible, like connecting SCSI devices, running unix-line OS'es like Minix, and my upcoming video on hosting a modern website on a 200LX webserver!

Cheers,
Radiance

 

[MeneerJansen]

Hi,

I suggest creating an account on the HPC:Factor forums (just google it) and making a post in the DOS Palmtops forum, where there are others with HP 95LX'es...

I appear to already have an account there. Completely forgot about it, because I made the account ... over 12 years ago! Damn! That was for my HP Jornada 720 (still works). The PC hard disk with the password for the account crashed ... 12 years ago! I'm getting old.

Indeed the 100 and 200LX models can read CF cards in CF to PCMCIA card converters standard, however, only small cards by default,
depending on the brand, some cards up to 64MB or 128MB can work by default, but, for larger cards (up to 2GB which are difficult to find ones that work, only a few models/brands do) you need to load a driver in your config.sys called acecard3.sys (which you can download, just google for "download acecard3 hp 200LX"

I personally don't use 95LX machines as they are just too limited and incompatible, so on my youtube channel you will only see 100LX and 200LX (almost always 200LX) models being used,
as I try to make videos that make the 200LX do stuff people thought weren't possible, like connecting SCSI devices, running unix-line OS'es like Minix, and my upcoming video on hosting a modern website on a 200LX webserver!

Cheers,
Radiance

Thanks for the info.

 

[radiance32]

I appear to already have an account there. Completely forgot about it, because I made the account ... over 12 years ago! Damn! That was for my HP Jornada 720 (still works). The PC hard disk with the password for the account crashed ... 12 years ago! I'm getting old.

Thanks for the info.

No problem

I hope to see you on the HPC:Factor MS-DOS Palmtops forum

Cheers,
Terrence