NC100: SRAM cards and backup battery

[scruss]

I recently got an NC 100, and it's far nicer than it really deserves to be. I think I prefer it to the Z88!

I do have a couple of questions, though:

• SRAM cards: are these completely unobtainium, or has someone released a re-engineered thing that does the same job for less money? They're the same cards that Apple Newtons used, yes?
• Lithium backup battery: my one basically doesn't. I can put a new battery in, and it's hit or miss if it'll remember any settings at all. Is this a known problem? Any suggested troubleshooting, please?

I don't think my device has been damaged by old battery goo, so battery contacts seem good.

thanks!

[pelrun]

https://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm inexplicably still has cards for US$15 after decades of selling them but they're nearly all gone.

The centre tab of the battery connector might have flattened out and isn't putting any pressure on the cell. Bend it up a bit.

[scruss]

Wow, thanks! They really do appear to have some left!

[Bryce]

If they don't have any SRAM cards left, I'm pretty sure I still have a few of them here somewhere. I just need to motivate myself enough to go looking...

Bryce.

[xesrjb]

https://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm inexplicably still has cards for US$15 after decades of selling them but they're nearly all gone.

The centre tab of the battery connector might have flattened out and isn't putting any pressure on the cell. Bend it up a bit.

Service was perfect, shop is recommended...

xesrjb 

[robcfg]

If they don't have any SRAM cards left, I'm pretty sure I still have a few of them here somewhere. I just need to motivate myself enough to go looking...

Bryce.

I wouldn't say no to one of them should you go looking for them 

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Hmm, can these SRAM cards also be used on the NC200?

[pelrun]

Yes, all the NC series devices have the same pcmcia card support. @hjalfi wrote a flash card driver for his cpmish on the nc200, but the standard rom software still only understands 1MB of SRAM.

[scruss]

I just confirmed (and ordered) from Jeff Koda at Best Electronics that they still have a very few left. You pretty much have to call them twice to order anything, but he's super friendly when he actually answers the phone

[jimmyd]

Has anyone had any luck reading and writing to these RAM cards from a modern(ish) computer?

[scruss]

I used to have a serial SRAM card reader that dumped the whole contents (or wrote the whole contents), but I haven't seen one in a while

[JohnElliott]

Has anyone had any luck reading and writing to these RAM cards from a modern(ish) computer?

At one time my desktop PC had a PCI PCMCIA adapter fitted, and as I recall that could make SRAM cards visible as devices under Linux. These days a PC with a PCI slot probably counts as a 'tweener rather than a modern computer though.

[pelrun]

Easiest path is an older laptop; pcmcia slots were extremely common at one point.

I've also built a usb reader but it's also waiting on me to finish the software for it

[jimmyd]

Easiest path is an older laptop

I do actually have an older laptop and at some point I tried to use it to read a card, but could not figure it out.
At the time, I had installed linux on the laptop and I seem to remember something about mtools that would not compile or similar.

Would you happen to know of a guide or other resource that  could help me to actually read/write to a card?

[scruss]

I just confirmed (and ordered) from Jeff Koda at Best Electronics that they still have a very few left. You pretty much have to call them twice to order anything, but he's super friendly when he actually answers the phone

I just got two very clean Apple Newton branded 1 MB SRAM cards from Best Electronics. The first one I tried had good battery voltage, which is good as I don't have an easy source of CR2320 (larger and thinner than the more common CR2032) handy.