EEVblog #287 - Handifax 1000 Teardown

[8086]

MFW the back was removed to expose the bodginess



Dave, are you going to try and capture the "instructional video" for us? 

[MBY]

I noticed that when Dave tries to turn it on he hasn't closed the battery hatch. It's visible when he flips the Hanifax 1000 around. Maybe the unit works, but the microswitch needs to be closed by the battery cover?

[PeterG]

I actually owned one of these. The unit will not power up unless the battery cover is closed.
It was a great novelty to own one. There were not many hand held fax machines around at the time....

Regards

[T4P]

I think back in the day the QC guy was probably



 

[8086]

I think back in the day the QC guy was probably



 

I suspect it was more like



 

[T4P]

I think back in the day the QC guy was probably



 

I suspect it was more like



 

Or even


 

[G7PSK]

It also may not work without the coin cell backup battery, I have a radio like that unless the memory backup battery is in it wont turn on.

[Simon Weel]

I'm curious as what processor this thing uses. Can you remove the black blob with something like thinner or acetone?

Simon

[T4P]

It's a glob top so you can't see anything

[8086]

The die may be marked in some way - need a pretty good microscope to see though

[croyleje]

i cant believe that handifax board ive done better work on my kitchen table lol its nice to know that standards are so low

[tesla500]

If you got a dump of the ROMs you could probably figure out from the machine code what architecture it runs.

[amspire]

i cant believe that handifax board ive done better work on my kitchen table lol its nice to know that standards are so low

That fix may have been done by the importer, when he discovered that to sell his 10,000 imported fax units, he needed better isolation on the phone line connection  to meet the Austel requirements. The original design may have not bothered with any isolation, as the unit is floating anyway  - you are not touching any metal parts.

The geniuses at Austel in Australia probably said you need isolation regardless to electrically isolate your electrically isolated fax/pda unit. It wouldn't surprise me.

Richard.

[SeanB]

I would guess it uses a Z80 core with integrated peripherals - lower power than any x86 at the time, and pre ARM. Probably made by Sharp, as they did do a version of their Z80 core for copiers, and these had a pretty big number of IO pins, and bank switching built in.

As to the isolation board, probably a telco who wanted to keep any competition away, by having a near impossible to do spec for other equipment, while their own had a much more relaxed spec.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Wow. I thought -I- was a bodgy bastard.

Dave, that was truly horrific. I hope you have been successful in disinfecting your lab.

Any idea what street price in 1995?

[PeterG]

If memory serves i paid $70 at Dick Smith or maybe JB HiFi ...........they were clearing them out the day i spotted them.

Regards

[Bored@Work]

As to the isolation board, probably a telco who wanted to keep any competition away, by having a near impossible to do spec for other equipment,

At that time every self-respecting, government owned or government associated telco in "developed" countries had such requirements. Many even not allowing anything but their own equipment (manufactured by others under telco/government contract) connected to the phone network and only to be connected to the network by telco/government employees. The main exception being the US.

while their own had a much more relaxed spec.

No, there was no point in doing this if cost is not an issue, pissing tax payer's money away was fine for telcos. And if your technical standards have lawlike status you don't weaken your own position by not sticking to your own laws. You change them if they no longer work for you.

[EEVblog]

Any idea what street price in 1995?

No idea, sorry.

Dave.

[Stephen Hill]

All this talk of vintage PDA's is making me want to buy the PDA I owned when I was a teenager... the Psion Siena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Siena



What other PDA devices have people owned over the years?

[EEVblog]

What other PDA devices have people owned over the years?

I have Psion 5
The slide out keyboard was just brilliant. I wrote a lot of my book on that.

Dave.

[8086]

What other PDA devices have people owned over the years?

I had an apple newton - bought it for £5 with a huge box of virtually all accessories from some idiot at a boot sale

Pretty good device though the handwriting recognition was pretty awful - "eat up martha", anyone?

Unfortunately my mum threw it out a few years ago 

[baljemmett]

All this talk of vintage PDA's is making me want to buy the PDA I owned when I was a teenager... the Psion Siena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Siena

Ah, a lovely machine; I finally had to retire mine last year, as the keyboard started acting up again (it was already on its second or third) and nobody seems to work on them any longer.  Somewhere I have a 3c someone gave me, although its case was doing the sticky-goop thing and it's a lot bulkier than the Siena; maybe I'll just stick with the phone.  (Symbian, of course, but for how much longer I can't say.)

Always like the look of the 5 or the 7 -- the latter was seriously tasty but more like a modern-day netbook in size, not much use for sticking in the jacket pocket!

[G7PSK]

I have just sold an HP iPaq HX211 pda on ebay virtually unused in its box with all its bits and pieces including a seperate wifi card it dated from about 2000 or 2001 I bought it for my wife but she never used it or wanted it for that matter. Ran windows mobile crap os.

[T4P]

It was terrible but let's face it, that was the only Mobile OS other then Palm back then

[croyleje]

you know you can still pick up brand new palms online for something like 5-10 usd i played around with using them as an interface on a few projects its a cheap fun project just make sure you get that crazy interface cable or you can use the charge dock they called it a hot link i think.

[Sionyn]

anybody know what that horrible rubber stuff is
here another example of outdated pda

[NiHaoMike]

PDAs are still around today - they just made them bigger and called them tablets.

[Stephen Hill]

I wrote a lot of my book on that.

This Book? http://www.artofinternetdating.com/

[G7PSK]

anybody know what that horrible rubber stuff is

Rubberized polypropylene or some other plastic.

[McMonster]

PDAs are still around today - they just made them bigger and called them tablets.

Some special models fitted with barcode scanners, better case and some other stuff are still used for logistics, in supermarkets, large shops etc.

[Zad]

Slightly more recent, but the Nokia 9000i Communicator was a superb piece of work. The direct forerunner of today's smartphones. It even had it's own fax line built in and transmitted / received faxes "properly". It also had a separate data number, with apps like Telnet that enabled you connect directly to things like router config pages. Sadly, the battery only lasted 20 hours or so on a full charge, even when new.

[rr100]

Sadly, the battery only lasted 20 hours or so on a full charge, even when new.

I guess nothing changed with today's smartphones, isn't it?

[SeanB]

I think Dave needs to see the one thing i have in my office...... A Sony Umatic recorder. The original video recorder, 40 kg of steel and rubber. Scary thing is I can still get spares for it, at a ruinous price admittedly, but they are still around. Most of the tapes for it though have been scrapped though, might still be one or two that I missed in throwing them out.

Much better video and audio quality than any consumer recorder, I used these to make dubbing master tapes onto SVHS tapes for duplication. Still got the nice Panasonic recorder, SVHS, stereo, handles all VHS standards including digital audio ( needs an external big digital box to do so that I do not have, but it handles the rest) and assorted tape types and recording speeds. As a duplicator it handled Macrovision with no problems, perfect copy every time, complete with the Macrovision copy protection copied faithfully onto the blank tape. Still have the computer I used to replace the very poor original duplication controller. When you have a computer attached there are many things that software can do easily that are hard to do with a system consisting of cascaded 555 timers ( with time intervals in minutes as well, so you know how repeatable it was not) that would not work well on humid days, and which often would break down.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I think Dave needs to see the one thing i have in my office...... A Sony Umatic recorder. The original video recorder, 40 kg of steel and rubber. Scary thing is I can still get spares for it, at a ruinous price admittedly, but they are still around. Most of the tapes for it though have been scrapped though, might still be one or two that I missed in throwing them out.

Much better video and audio quality than any consumer recorder, I used these to make dubbing master tapes onto SVHS tapes for duplication. Still got the nice Panasonic recorder, SVHS, stereo, handles all VHS standards including digital audio ( needs an external big digital box to do so that I do not have, but it handles the rest) and assorted tape types and recording speeds. As a duplicator it handled Macrovision with no problems, perfect copy every time, complete with the Macrovision copy protection copied faithfully onto the blank tape. Still have the computer I used to replace the very poor original duplication controller. When you have a computer attached there are many things that software can do easily that are hard to do with a system consisting of cascaded 555 timers ( with time intervals in minutes as well, so you know how repeatable it was not) that would not work well on humid days, and which often would break down.

Some time ago when this forum was getting off the ground, someone here was posting videos of a (dutch?) guy servicing those giant video recorders that were in use in the 70's/80's. Too many adjustments.

Please post pics of your machine.

[SeanB]

Ok, when I get the time and haul it down off the top shelf.

[TheWelly888]

I have only just watched this video for the first time - how did I miss such a classic teardown when it first came out ( and I DO subscribe! )

"Bodged the bodge" 

Portable fax machine but it did not appear to have any way of scanning a page! I had a fax application on my Acorn Archimedes and one had to generate one's own fax and need the machine one to receive one through the modem - poo!

No one uses fax anymore - even my workplace abandoned the fax machine thanks to email pdf attachments!

[EEVblog]

I think Dave needs to see the one thing i have in my office...... A Sony Umatic recorder. The original video recorder, 40 kg of steel and rubber. Scary thing is I can still get spares for it, at a ruinous price admittedly, but they are still around. Most of the tapes for it though have been scrapped though, might still be one or two that I missed in throwing them out.

I've been trying to score an old school VHS or beta video camera on ebay to teardown. Missed a big professional betamax rack recorder that would have been nice to teardown.

Dave.

[SeanB]

I would post it to you, but the thing is over 40kg of steel.......................

As it is I am sending a parcel to AUS on Monday, debating sea or air. Will see at customs just how much the difference is.