Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ssbell!mcmi!unocss!dent
From: dent@unocss..unl.edu (dent)
Newsgroups: comp.terminals
Subject: Re: Portable terminals
Message-ID: <923@unocss..unl.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 89 01:26:13 GMT
References: <954@occrsh.ATT.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: U. of Nebraska at Omaha
Lines: 47

jdsb@occrsh.ATT.COM (John_Babcock) writes:
>     I would like to find some information about portable terminals.
>What we need is standard full duplex asynchronous ASCII terminals
>so our technicians can do troubleshooting on the second floor without
>lugging around a full size terminal.  We are looking for:
>
>- Something light enough to carry
>- Preferably battery powered
>- A Dumb terminal (i.e. not a PC with terminal emulation - These
>                   tend to disappear.)
>- Not too expensive
>- Reliable
>- If possible, an 80 char by 24 line screen
>- Possibly vt100 or AT&T 5425 emulation

I'm not sure how much this will help, but.. US West (the Telco for the Midwest
region) is now selling "Minitel" terminals made by Phillips.  They run about
$200 to $300 I /think/, and they're about 7" cube (possibly slightly larger).
They have a handle in the top very much like the Mac Plus case (in fact they
look like Mac Pluses with just Monitors, and slightly smaller).

They have VT-100 emulation built-in, as well as a 1200-baud modem, and a
nasty chicklet-keyboard, but if you're just looking for occaisional use, this
might not be such a bad thing (the keyboard slides into the terminal for
storage).  Oh, and they're monochrome only (yes, 80x24 :-).

The one drawback is: They're not battery powered.   I can only assume that
they are problably reliable; they're the same as the Minitel terminals
in wide-spread use in France.. but I really don't know for sure.  Oh --
another drawback: communication parameters are 7E1 only, not 8N1.  But most
things can life with that so...

I hope this information helps in some way... sorry that I can't be more 
specific about it!

Another thing you might consider is the Zenith "MiniSport" laptop (who
knows what "Bull-Kit" calls them now).  These are quite small, battery-powered,
MS-DOS in ROM, and tiny little 2" disks.  No hard drive, so perhaps these
wouldn't be as "stealable" as other computers you mentioned?  They can be
purchased with 1200-baud modems, and they have 80x24 (albeit W-I-D-E, like
the Tandy Model 200)...  I imagine that these would be a lot more rugged
than the minitels, if you're going to cary them around a lot; and the
keyboard is nicer -- although still a bit wierd. :-)

-/ Dave Caplinger /---------------------------------------------------------
 Microcomputer Specialist,   Campus Computing,   Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha
 mspecial@zeus.unl.edu       ...!uunet!unocss!dent          MSPECIAL@UNOMA1