Re: [NTLK] I have these IR dongles...

From: Jeremy Bond Shepherd (jbond_at_eskimo.com)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 20:45:38 EDT


At 06:35 PM 5/1/2002 -0400, you wrote:

>I have 2 (maybe 3) IR dongles made by HP.
>
>I THINK they are supposed to hook into a LaserJet 6P/MP or 5 P/MP, into
>the serial ports on them, to allow IR printing.
>
>I say think because that's how I found one of them (connected to the
>Serial port of a 6MP I bought), and that's the use I see for them on
>HP's website. But, the 6p/MP already HAS an IR port, so I don;t
>understand this.
>
>Is there any way to hook them up to a Macs serial port, and use them as
>IR interchanges for Newtons?

I bought something called a JetEye PC, which is supposed to let IR-equipped
laptops communicate with desktops via the serial port. It basically has a
PC serial connector on one side and an IR transciever on the other. Looks
nifty.

However, I never could quite get it working with the Newton (using
BackTalk). Win2000 sees the Newton and initiates file transfers (of small
text files), but they never successfully complete in either direction.

I tried plugging this into a Mac via a Mac-to-PC serial adapter and found
no apparent way to activate the IR stack on a serial port. You can specify
IR in a terminal emulator, etc (anything CTB-savvy IIRC), but unless your
machine has the IR hardware from the factory (such as a Powerbook or early
iMac), the OS won't send or receive data. I sniffed around unsuccessfully
for any kind of IR driver for Mac, and ultimately just gave up. Now it sits
on my desk at work attached to my PC and happily blinking, but never used
for anything.

So can your HP IR dongles be used for anything with a Newt? Heck if I know,
but my initial research on this topic didn't turn anything up. Maybe you'll
have better luck than me.

-Jeremy

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