[NTLK] Connection woes!

Boyer Jason jasonandrewboyer at gmail.com
Sun Nov 22 02:39:48 EST 2009


I'm frustrated.

Thanks to the help of several members, I got my shiny new serial interconnect, an 8 pin serial cable, a Keyspan 28X usb to serial dongle, and a 20 MB flash card, all tools to connect my new MP2100.  Couple that with two computer options, a Lombard PB with 9.2.2 and a Macbook Pro with 10.6.

Attempt 1: Lombard PB with Keyspan to serial connection and Newton Connection Utilities.  Installed the Keyspan drivers from their website and plugged in the dongle.  The provided utility claims drivers are found, but the device never is, despite a device with a gibberish ID string that appears when I do plug it in.  In addition, OS 9 always identifies an unknown USB device when I do plug it in, and offers to search for drivers.  It never finds anything.  This is as far as I can get, NCU never sees the Newton, despite repeated connection attempts through Dock using every combination I can find.

Attempt 2: Plugged the flash drive into the Lombard in hopes of manually transferring some packages.  OS 9 sees it as a PCMCIA device in Finder and refuses to let me see the contents or put any files on it.  Finder claims that it isn't a storage device.  Doh!  Seems to work fine on the Newton, however.

Attempt 3: Macbook Pro with Newton Connection 1.2 software and cable setup.  Keyspan OS X drivers appeared to install much more successfully here, although the dongle appears as three different modem ports in Network Connections.  I gave each a configuration named "Newton", but wasn't sure what else to specify as normal modem designations didn't seem to apply.  Again, following the connection instructions in Newton Connection manual, and trying to connect via Newton Dock using all sorts of combinations, I can't get anybody to talk.

Argh!  I have just about every possible way to connect the Newton to a Mac at my disposal, and I can't get the darn things to talk!  Does anyone have advice or experience with any of the above examples?

Cheers,
Jason





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