...Japanese Page

At your own risk ! I can NOT advice you anything even if you have a trouble doing the same things described below.

It is a kind of experience. So you can use any information in this page, but I do NOT have any responsibility for that.

And, if you have any information about Newton hardware, Newton device drivers, please let me know. We cannot get hardware information unless we have a contract with Apple. But now, NewtonOS has been freezed, how can we get such information? I can do another hacking with your help !

Earphone Jack

　- OverView -

We are now able to use the sound input/output with our NewtonOS2.1. There is Recording stationary in the Newton device such as MP2x00. But it is difficult to use such functions in a quiet office. Think, you recorded conversations at a meeting, you have to make a report about that meeting. How do you hear the recordings? Get your Newton attached to your ear and playback?

No. We need a Earphone jack.

　- How to do this? -

It's so simple if you have a specific connector. Let us not use the RJ-11 area of the MP2x00 because we can use that area better way. I don't use the internal stylus-pen usually, always using stylus-ballpoint-pen. So stylus holder is not in use. OK, put my earphone jack there.

　- Things to do -

I did not make any holes nor cut anything. I used the internal speaker connector for earphone use. I could find the connector out from my junk-box (in other words, my toy-box) .

And excitingly, I also found the special connector. The same one as the MP2x00's internal, misterious, connector. Let's talk about this later :-)

Connecting wires was so simple. But how can I locate the connector? It must be strong enough in case of rough operation. Let's take a good look at the Stylus holder. The holder is made from two parts, the upper body and the inner part. These two parts make a deep hole, I mean pen holder, and the lower body makes a entrance of that hole. OK, I can use these shapes as they are. The lower body works as a stopper and the earphone connector cannot get out from the hole. The only thing I must consider was not to make earphone connector go inside. It was simple.

　- Pictures -

You must choose good connector, especially its size.

- Front view -

- With earphone -

- You can hear a voice-memo in a quiet office! -

I'm still working on this job and making the "Mic input" because the jack is for stereo use.

Misterious connector in MP2K

　- OverView -

I got a special connector, which you can see inside the MP2K. So let's hack inside the MP2K now.

　- How to do this? -

All I did was to watch the wires carefully on the mother board of MP2K and check connection of 2 points. There are good helps or advices in the web below.

http://www.concentric.net/~cmonica/newton/hacking.shtml

http://www.concentric.net/~cmonica/newton/MiniDin8.html

http://www.linear.com (Search "1323" at this site)

Inside the yellow circle, we can see two things. The right one is LTC1323CG, AppleTalk Transceiver. And the left one is our target connector. Yes, we can see the Newt :-)

　- Table -

I assume that the right bottom pin of the connector, shown in the picture, is #1.

Pin	Signal	Signal	Pin
32	GND [3,5,15,16,23]	?	16
31	GND [3,5,15,16,23]	?	15
30	GND [3,5,15,16,23]	?	14
29	GND [3,5,15,16,23]	?	13
28	?	?	12
27	?	Vcc (28)	11
26	?	PowerInPos4 [2,14]	10
25	?	?	9
24	?	SHDN (7)	8
23	?	RXDO (11)	7
22	Chan3NotDTR [12]	RXO (10)	6
21	ModemNotCTS [13]	/RXO (9)	5
20	ModemNotRTS3 [25]	/TXDEN (6)	4
19	Chan3Rxd3 [22]	TXI (5)	3
18	Chan3Txd3 [9]	TXD (4)	2
17	Chan3RI3 [24]	PortSel [10]	1

Where: (xx) means the pin number of LTC1323CG, [xx] means the pin number of interconnect port.

I could not figure out the '?' pins. I guess,

* 12...16pin: Audio signal

* 23...28pin: Another channel of LTC1323

There are many tiny resisters and capacitors near the misterious connector. They might be EMI filters for another channel. The schematic below show the LTC1323 usage (not "1323CG"). As you see, this chip needs EMI filters.

I guess "Audio signal" but what ground?

Nothing :-P But imagine that, it sounds fun !

I did get the PCMCIA slot off the mother board to search for the connections. But I lost the way because of the multi layer mother board.

Again, I have no responsibility for this research. This report MIGHT BE wrong. If you have any information about this, please let me know.

MP2K Docking station: Designing now

　- What I want -

I need a docking cradle like "Duo". How about this figure?

So simple (Ho-ho-ho) ! The connector, located upper position, can swing in order to catch the interconnect port. The interconnect port of MP2K can:

* Detect docking

* Supply power, get power source

* Serial connector, including keyboard

* Audio input/output in line level signal

This docking station uses three functions out of these five, and make a connection with macintosh.

Here is your desktop image.

* When you come back home, put your MP2K into the docking station and charging.

* Playback the sound of Recording stationary into Macintosh. Because of the sound signal, WinPC with soundbraster can get them too.

* Play sounds from Mac/WinPC into the Newton.

* There is a keyboard attached to the docking station, so you can use the keyboard as soon as you dock-in the Newton.

---

　- Hardwares -

Now, design the schematic of connectors.

A-ha ! It's so simple. Anybody can do such a job !

OK now, think something else. Audio output is line level signal, so bring this signal up to speaker drivable level. The docking station may have an internal speaker to playback loud.

The MP2K line out signal go into the left input pins of this schematic. We can use 8 ohm speaker, at the right of this schematic. The problem is power source. We can prepare 6.75-7.50 volts for MP2K to recharge, but this amplifire needs 8.0 volts for 1 watt, 12.0 volts for 2 watt output. So we need DC-DC converter for this.

"V-" goes to the GND level. You can get the datasheet from the web site below.

http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM380.pdf

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　- Software -

The Newton keyboard will be very useful with this docking station. When MP2K detect dock-in, I want him to recognize the keyboard automatically. I know resetting the Newton is the easist way, but I also want him to re-direct the audio input/output from/to Mac automatically.

As I described before, interconnect port has "docking detection". So we can make some program which intercepts dock-in/out detection and then re-direct the signals.

---

　- more -

The connector part of this docking station can work independently. It works as a head-set. Wanna try this on ?