Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!bbn!bbn.com!tluteran From: tluteran@bbn.com (Thomas Luteran) Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops Subject: Seiko RC1000 Wrist Terminal (+ watch) Keywords: wrist terminal watch organizer Message-ID: <54152@bbn.COM> Date: 27 Mar 90 20:47:35 GMT References: Sender: news@bbn.COM Reply-To: tluteran@spca.bbn.com (Thomas Luteran) Distribution: na Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 114 In article blk@mitre.org (Brian L. Kahn) writes: ... >Fun Magazine, that Computer Shopper. Anyone out there own the bizarre >"wrist PC"? Looks like fun for $30! > Brian, YES, I've got one! It's pretty neat! I was thinking about getting a Portfolio, Wizard or BOSS to help me keep track of alarms, but I saw this for 1/10th the price and figured I'd give it a try first, for kicks. It includes a nice program on the IBM PC that lets you compose your "pages" - the watch can store 80 "pages" of 2 lines x 12 characters each (I think it has about 2KB of memory!). It comes with a simple cable has a DB-25 male connector on one end and a special connector on the other end that is easily snapped around the watch, making contact with the metallic watch back (ground, pin 7) and a small metallic spring-loaded button contact (receive, pin 2 (i think!)) on the left side of the watch. _____________________ / SEIKO \ [===] -- "chicklet"-style rubber | _______________ | buttons _| / \ | # -- indicates the single daily / | | # 90 03/27 P | | alarm is set RS-232 > | | | TUE 01:54 12 | | receive \_| \_______________/ | TIME button returns to time display connection | | LOCK button allows setting times or |WRIST TERMINAL RC1000| downloading of data to watch | | ALARM selects daily alarm display | TIME LOCK ALARM | | [===] [===] [===] | | | SELECT and SET buttons are used | [=^=] [===] [=v=] | to scroll through page groups or |SELECT TERMINAL SET | to set time or alarm displays \_____________________/ TERMINAL is used to select a group There are five types of pages: - label pages - memo pages (straight text, like phone numbers) - world time pages - scheduled alarm pages - weekly alarm pages. Text that you enter is upper-case only, and not all non-alphanumeric characters are allowed (I don't remember which right now). You can keep groups of memo pages separated by using one page at the beginning of the group as a label page. The world time page allows you to enter some text in the first line and a numeric time zone in the second line. Then, whenever you display that page, it gives you the line of text on the first line and the time in that zone on the second line. The main reason I need something like this is to remind me of important dates/activities BEFORE they happen. That's what the alarm pages are for. They both allow you to enter text on the first line, and the second line is used to enter the date at which the alarm will sound and the page will be displayed, until any button is pressed or it times out. The scheduled alarms pages are for one-time events, say my wife's birthday or our anniversary, although they could also be used as annual events since you can't put in the year. The weekly alarm pages allow you to set the day of the week and the time at which the alarm should go off (take the garbage out on Wednesday morning!). One thing I'd like to have in addition or instead of the weekly alarm is a weekday daily alarm to remind me of things I have to do every weekday, like get up or leave work in time to get train. Less important would be a weekend daily alarm for setting a different time to get up in the morning (although with kids, it's really not that different! ;-) ). I can use the weekly alarm pages to approximate these situations, by using a separate page with the same reminder for each day of the week, but this will use up 5 weekly pages for each weekday alarm and 2 weekly pages for each weekend alarm. Once you 've set up your pages on the PC you download to the watch by putting it into receive mode (TERMINAL, then LOCK buttons). The PC program lets you store your pages for recall and editing later on. Downloading takes just a few seconds. Alas, I haven't yet had time to hook the PC up to a terminal to see what they are using for a protocol so that I can write some C code for my system at work to allow me to update my watch there - but I expect to get to it soon! It's got to be pretty simple since it is only one-way communication, from PC to watch only - probably some control characters, followed by delays. I'll keep you posted! I don't think we should hold our breath waiting for someone to write an X server for it, though! The watch is a little bigger than a simple Casio digital watch that I've been wearing for the last five or so years. It has a light. It is not as easy to read as the Casio, but it's display is made up of dots (pixels) not bar elements, as in most digital watches, so that's understandable. It also has an hourly chime that can be toggled on or off. The SEIKO RC-1000 watch has been around for about 4-6 years old - I think it was just too far ahead of it's time! They were bought up as salvage by UnderWare, and I think they've been sitting around for a long time, so you may need a new battery ($2.00 at Radio Shack). One caveat: The first watch I got from UnderWare exhibited a problem with the display elements (pixels) getting scrambled occasionally, maybe a refresh problem? I replaced the battery, since the light was very low, but this did not solve the problem. I called UnderWare and they sent a replacement that has been working fine for the last five days. Underware was prompt and courteous - my only additional cost was to ship the defective watch back (~ $4.00?). It's a neat watch - don't let this stop you from getting one and experimenting! Dick Tracey, Beware!!! Tom Luteran BBN Software Products Corporation Cambridge, MA