[Graymalkin]

I just got my newton in the mail I won off eBay last week. It runs great and is in fine condition but it didn't come with any extras. I have the MessagePad and a stylus and that is it. I've found some Newton sites recently with software tools and whatnot on them but my real problem now is hardware.

I have a MessagePad 2000.

My first question is the most important so far what sort of power adapter can I get to plug my Newton in with. There's a Fry's and plenty of Radio Shacks in driving distance so I can get just about any sized and spec'd DC adapter. I'll try to find this out myself but any help would be appriciated. I also have the Ni-MH power pack so now I need to know what I need to use regularly sized batteries in the Newton. Do I need an adapter pack or something to lock the batteries into the slot?

Next is connectivity, I have a G3 Powerbook with an IR port but no serial port. I was intending to use my IR port as a serial device. Can I make the conection without the special Newton software or will I have to find that someplace?

Once I get that working I was wondering about storage and expansion. Are Newton's compatible with the Compact Flash adapters to use the type 3 CF cards in type 2 slots? This would save me a bit of money if I could use CF cards as storage. Is there a list of modems and Ethernet cards that are compatible with NOS? Maybe a particular chipset or something?

Any help would be much appriciated.

[SupahCoolX]

I don't have the answers myself, but you can find info on card specs, power needs, various ways of connecting to your Mac, and much more on the great Newton FAQ. This FAQ is mirrored on www.thisoldnewt.net among other places.

[sine -''-..-]

great to hear you got a newt.

the ir port can not be used to transfer unless you have some software on your newt first... i think xport does it but i dont know, never tried. so you will need to use a mac with a serial port.

a note about power adaptors, its worth getting a genuine newton adaptor, they should not be too expensive on ebay now, and they are smaller and the exact ratings for the newt.

now as for the compact flash card issue... this has been an issue for a long time. as newton uses linear type flash cards, anything ata cant be used. all flash cards these days are ata. but. Paul Guyot the best developer ever, has made an ata driver for newton, and it is in its late bata stages. you can find it at www.kallisys.com along with some other software he makes.

oh yea, if you didnt know yet, you can get wavelan card drivers for newton... 802.11. whee.

[shatten22]

Go to

www.newtontalk.net

and sign onto the list. It will answer every single question you have. If your answer isn't already in the archives (pretty unlikely) ask away and you will receive the wisdom of one of the largest PDA communities in existance.

Best. Tech-Support. Ever.

-shatten22

[Graymalkin]

Great, thanks for the further responses. I've made some progress on my Newton which might be interesting.

For the power supply I picked up a Radio Shack variable voltage adapter. Setting the adapter to 6V and using the Adaptaplug C plug seems to work very well so far. It fully charged my battery last night. It will do until I decide it is worth hunting down an original Bewton adapter.

Transfering data between my Newton and Powerbook was a bit of a problem at first. The Newton Connection Kit I found doesn't work with your infrared port and neither does the NCU. After a bit of hunting I found a program called Newton DIL Tester which is written in RealBASIC. So far it has worked pretty well. I was able to install a couple packages without too much trouble.

I'm on the hunt right now for a compatible network PC Card so I can just use AppleTalk rather than deal with IR. I'm hoping I can find one of the TDK modem/ethernet cards as it would be the most useful.

I have also signed up for the NewtonTalk mailing list which I'm sure is going to be quite informative. Thanks for the suggestions.