I’m going to call this one a success.

There is an error in the hardware flow control circuit, but that’s due to an error in the N2 Platform documentation.  I’ll take responsibility because I should have more thoroughly prototyped (which I thought I had, …

Up till now, I have been following Ekhart’s template for enabling the serial signals: directly calling the ROM functions to toggle SerPortSel.  The only issue with this approach is that the OS also toggles these signals when a port is opened.  This means …

I can’t ever seem to get the flow control lines right.   The current prototype only works with flow control disabled.

The N2 Platform docs says that the Serial3 signals are”ModemNotCTS” and “ModemNotRTS”.  The WiReach docs also use inverted signals “nCTS” …

The Newton’s internal serial slot exposes 3 serial channels.   Serial 1 and Serial 3 are the most interesting, as they have a full set of signals and are selectable by the selection signals.

It works! (Sorta) I finally got all the parts together to assemble the project. I started by populating the 3.3v regualtor section of the board, just to make sure it works. It did, a nice stable 3.29v.

I then proceeded to blow up the regulator somehow. I …

Some updates on the project:

1. I was unhappy with the linear regulator’s heat performance, so I changed to a switching module.  This increased the number of passive components a bit.  I found a nice module from TI that has an integrated inductor, so the …

As a diversion, I tried to compiling an SSL library for the Newton.  I settled on CyaSSL, because it is designed for constrained devices.  For example, you can define macros that conditionally compile for devices that have NO_FILESYSTEM or NO_DEV_RANDOM. …

I have been triangulating on a final PCB design for an internal WiReach card.  I am not an EE, so the design is hobbiest-grade at best.  Here is the thinking behind some of what you see in the picture above:

1.  Board size is less than 5cm x 5cm in …

All of this work on the internal serial slot is in support of my WiFi module project.  The goal is to build an internal interface to a ConnectOne WiReach module.  I like this module for a few reasons:

1. It supports modern wireless networking, such as WPA2. …

I have posted the source to “Internal Serial Enabler” – a small newton app that allows you to view and control a few of the signals of the internal serial slot on the MessagePad 2×00: