RC2021/10 Final post

Well, I ended up having a very busy October (baby is due November 1st!), so I didnt get much done for RetroChallenge. I kept looking for a Zaurus I/O connector or serial cable on eBay, but did not have any luck. That said, I feel good that I helped organize my first RetroChallenge event, and I think it was a great success with 44 entries! I also did some programming on Google Suite to set up some infrastructure for the event. So, all in all a good month, despite the lack of retro computing!

Stylus Fix

Well, with virtually no hope of getting a serial cable for my Zaurus, I moved on to some other bits that the Z needs. Really soon after I bought this thing, I managed to drop the stylus and break the tip off. I tried super glue in the past but it would not hold for very long. When I pulled it out of the box, it saw that I had wrapped electrical tape wrapped around (all gross and sticky after 5+ years) it and could not fit in the handy stylus holder built into the body of the Zaurus. Oh, the indignity! First I had to get the broken threaded base out of the body of the stylus. Since it had broken off flush with the body, I could not grip it. I had to use a small file to cut a channel in the plastic to fit a flat head screwdriver. Then I was able to unscrew it from the metal.

I have had good luck lately using ABS glue on all sorts of automotive plastic, so I thought this guy would be a good candidate.

After applying some of the ABS cement (typically used for septic pipes), it was clear that the plastic was getting gooey and would make a nice chemical bond. I put the stylus in a framing square to keep it straight, and I now have a nice usable stylus for my useless Zaurus!

Not much progress, but it's something!

Early Roadblock

About the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500

Before I begin with details on my project, here is some background on the Sharp Zaurus, as it was relatively unique, but quickly got lost in a sea of newly released PDAs during the early 2000s. It was unusual in that it ran a linux kernel from the factory and gained a cult following with techie types and hackers. Some promotional material:

See the PDF Version of this brochure

Getting the Zaurus running

Getting my Zaurus working again was a simple task. I thought for sure that it would need a new battery, but after charging it for a few hours today, it seems to be running and holding a charge. It did not work at first, but I took out the battery to take a look at it, and it started right up once I put the battery back in. I forgot that removing the battery resets it to the factory flash image. I don't know how long the battery will stay charged, but it seems like enough to get this project working.

Starting my Project

Unfortunately, finding a cable to fit my Zaurus IO port is proving to be quite difficult. I recall buying a cheap usb charging cable for it back when I bought it with the intent of making an RS232 adapter. Now, I can't find the cable and I am pretty sure I tossed it out a few years ago when I sorted through my boxes of USB cords. I thought I found the cable for sale online and proceeded to impulse-buy $50 worth of Zaurus accessories, but two weeks later I still don't have a response to my emails or a package from them.

It was a mistake to think this online store had
cornered the market in new old stock Zaurus accessories

I see many online stores with the official Sharp CE-170TS RS232 cable on sale for about $5.00 (unreasonably cheap), but those sites look even less legitimate than the store I bought from and all seem related to the same scam/owner. There are some cables on auctions.yahoo.co.jp that look like they would work, but I have never bid on there, would probably need a broker, and I have no idea how long it would take to arrive. I can't even find just the connector for sale by its part number. So, I am kind of stuck.

If I can't find a solution to this problem very soon, I am going to have to move on to other projects. I welcome any suggestions for finding this cable or connector.