[NTLK] Newt-comer blues

[Fritz Toch]

The deal with the well-cared for eMate has been placed on indefinite hold, but I was already bitten by the retro bug so I found an “as-is” eMate on eBay. It arrived on Friday. Batteries won’t hold a charge, no stylus or charger. I rigged up a power supply and got a chime but no video. Hinges were good and cable was intact. There is a line of solder connections, I presume for the display or the digitizer, running horizontally across the bottom of the screen assembly, that all appeared corroded or weak, so I simply placed some pressure on them with a nylon spudger and the display started working. Subsequent opening-and-closing of the lid has caused horizontal lines to disappear from the right half of the display, so I am heating up my soldering iron to do a little reflow-ing later today.
I did an incredibly poor job of recelling it but it works. The battery meter and charging meter are completely borked though, reporting either the battery is totally dead or fully charged.
The Newton Connection app from Newton Research is marvelous. I installed it and Einstein last week and have been familiarizing myself with it. It crashes when I try to import Calendar items though.
My ability to find a serial cable with the right gender is not so marvelous, but I have crafted a working cable involving shrink tubing and cursing.
This eMate is definitely missing the memory expansion board. The meaning of this hit me when I tried to install the NewtWorks updates and some fonts after installing NIE and the wifi support and ran out of memory. I will remove NIE and get the room I need for writing tools.
I know I said I wanted a “distraction free” device but if anyone has an eMate memory expansion module for sale please let me know...