In the following pages, I have tried to summarize many of the documented and
undocumented features of the Zoomer.
Please keep in mind that many of these features may result in data loss so
use them at your own risk. There is no warranty as to the accuracy or
completeness of this work. Please notify the author at the address below
regarding corrections or additions to this FAQ.
Special thanks to Palm Computing and Casio for allowing me to include their
tech notes in the FAQ.
Chris De Herrrera
ChrisD16@AOL.COM
All product names, logos, trademarks or registered trademarks are property of
their respected owners.
Note: There are two versions of this FAQ, ascii, and notebook. The ascii
version is just an export of the notebook version. I recommend that users get
the notebook version when possible.
Casio Z-7000, Tandy Z-PDA, AST Gridpad 2390
The Casio Z-7000, XL7000, Tandy Z-PDA and AST Gridpad 2390 are all the same
machine, the Zoomer.
The machine was engineered by Casio, Palm Computing, Datalight and Geoworks.
Casio designed the hardware and ROM BIOS. Datalight provided it's ROM-DOS
v3.31. Palm Computing provided most of the applications that run on the
Zoomer as well as the handwriting recognition. Geoworks provided Geoworks
v2.0 and also provides development software for the Zoomer in it's SDK.
Hats off to all for a job well done!
Remember, all accesories for the Zoomer are interchangeable!
Support Numbers:
AST Research - [800] 727-1278
Casio - [800] 435-7732
Tandy - [817] 878-6875
Repair:
Ast - Call [800] 727-1278 for a return authorization number. Ship,insured
to:
AST Research, Inc.
1001 NE Loop 820, Doc #7
Ft. Worth, TX 76131
Casio - Send unit insured with a letter explaining the problem.
Casio Repair Center
570 Mount Plesant Avenue
Dover, NJ 07801
Accessories - AST
The following acesories are available from AST dealers:
G44-1422 AC Adapter
G44-1424 Replacement Stylus - 2
G44-1410 1.8 mb SunDisk flash card
G44-1412 2.6 mb SunDisk flash card
G44-1414 5.2 mb SunDisk flash card
G44-1426 Leather Slip Case
G44-1425 Deluxe Ballpoint Stylus
G44-1434 PCMCIA Modem
G44-1442 External Pocket Modem w/serial cable
G44-1437 PalmConnect Software w/Serial Cable
G44-1436 Penright! Software Development Upgrade Kit
G44-1440 Business Pak - includes:
Leather Slip Case
Deluxe Ballpoint Stylus
PalmConnect software
AC Adapter
G44-1441 Communications Pak - includes:
Serial Printer Cable
Deluxe Ballpoint Stylus
PalmConnect software
PCMCIA Modem
AC Adapter
Accessories - Casio
The following accessories are available from Casio resellers:
AD-B60080 $49.95 AC Power Adapter
SB-82 $59.95 Modem Cable 18" DB25
Lifetime Warranty - Enhance Cable Technology [800] 343-2425
SB-92 PC Cable
XC-100 $329.95 1.8mb Memory Card
XP-1 $5.95 Replacement Stylus
XP-3 Deluxe Pen.
Z-125 $129.95 Palm Connect
Z-225 $39.95 Leather Case
1 year warranty - Baker Products [800] 395-4378
Z-325 $69.95 Modem Cable, Leather Case and Deluxe Pen
Accessories - Geoworks
The following accessories are available from Geoworks (800-824-4558, ext
450):
Quick Shuffle Card $34.95 + s&h $6.95 - 5 Games (Black Jack, Poker, Match
Pairs and Hearts)
Geoworks Ensemble - PC Version of Geoworks, includes some applications that
will run on the Zoomer ie: tetris and text editor. Also, it provides file
linking to the Zoomer.
Geo Publish - a shareware version of Ensemble (fewer applications). Includes
file linking to the Zoomer.
Geoworks SDK CDRom $99.00 - Required for development of Geoworks applications
for PCs and the Zoomer. The SDK requires Borland C3.1 or 4.0. The SDK akso
includes a Zoomer simulator.
Note: The Zip and Zing cards are not available.
Accessories - Palm Computing
Palm Computing provides the following accessories for the Zoomer:
Palm Connect - File transfer software and PC applications (same as Zoomer)
$129.95
Palm Uitilities - Tools that make the Zoomer more efficient. Import to your
Notebook, merge 2 Notebook or Address books together, etc. $39.95
Graffiti - Replacement handwriting recognition software (fast and accurate)
$79.95
They also offer serial cables and other accessories.
To order the above accessories, call (800) 881-PALM.
Accessories - Resellers
COMPUTER DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE [800] 474-4CDW:
Apple Newton 1mb SRAM card $42.86
GLOBAL PRODUCTS: [800] 633-0633
Resells Casio Accessories
OFFICECDEPOT:
The following accesories are available at your local Ofice Depot:
Palm Connect - $119.00
StarterKit - 49.00 includes serial cable, mont blanc stylus, and leather
case.
PCMCIA modem - $189.00
MAC ZONE:
Apple Newton 1mb SRAM card - $42.99
$3.00 next day shipping
PDA DIRECT:
The following accessories are available from PDA Direct:
Form Factor #25001 $99.95
PalmConnect #25002 $104.95
Palm Uitilities #25003 $29.95
Graffiti #25004 $74.95
Call (800) 279-4PDA ext. 112.
See the Accessories - Palm Computing for more information.
Accessories - Tandy
The folllowin accessories are available from Tandy for the Zoomer:
16-2018 AC Adapter $19.99
25-3101 Serial Cable - Null Modem ( to 9 pin) $24.99
25-3103 Replacement Stylus (2 per pack) $7.99
25-3104 Deluxe Ball Point Pen Stylus $5.99
25-3105 Pocket Modem Zoom 2400 $99.99
25-3106 Serial Cable (to 25 pin) $19.99
25-3107 1.8mb Sundisk Flashdisk $249.99
25-3108 Leather Slip Case $24.99
25-3109 PalmConnect PC Software $119.99
25-3110 Intellilink for Windows (requires additional cable) $99.99
25-3111 Motorola NewsCard $249.99
25-3112 AMT 2400 BPS Modem $249.9
25-3113 Serial to Parallel Adapter $89.99
25-3120 2.6mb SunDisk FlashDisk $309.99
25-3121 5.2mb SunDisk FlashDisk $439.99
25-3122 10.6mb SunDisk FlashDisk $639.99
25-3123 20.9mb SunDisk FlashDisk $1199.99
Note: The infrared interface for the PC serial port was never available
(25-3102)
Call (800) THE-SHACK to order any of the above accessories.
Accessories - Miscellaneous
The following accesories are available:
Motorola EMBARC Newscard
$249.99 Call(800) EMBARC4
Intuit Pocket Quicken Back-Up Software $19.95 Call Intuit (415) 852-9696
WriteRight screen covers - prevents scratches of the screen $11.95 for 4 Call
The Concept Kitchen (415) 929-1002
PCMCIA Cards - H Co. [800] 726-2477
Interpreted Zoomer Language (IZL) - A programming language for the Zoomer,
similar to basic. IZL v1.0 $45.00 + 3.00 s&h (PA residents add 6% sales tax)
to:
Feras Information Technologies
315 Delaware Avenue
Lansdale, PA 19446
For questions regarding IZL, e-mail:
jferas@netaxs.com
Handwriting Recognition
The following information is courtesy of Palm Computing, developer of the
handwriting recognition (PalmPrint) for the Zoomer.
Verticle lines should be verticle, horizontal lines should be horizontal,
straight lines should be straight, and curved lines shouldn't be squiggly!
Words to write by!
Try the writing grid of the keyboard as a training tool. It will show you
what it "thinks" the letter looks like, and helps you form the letters
consistently.
Don't write too slowly, try to write at a normal speed. Hesitation will cause
the handwiting recognizer to try to process what you've written before you're
ready.
Consciously write each individual character instead of words. Try spelling
each word silently in your head while you write until your pace and letter
formation deliver successful recognition.
Serifs on 'l' and 'g' will help eliminate ambiguities with '1'/'I' and 's',
respectively.
If the dot over an 'i' or a 'j' is to the left of vertical, you will get
weird results. The dot will either be taken as a period or will be grouped
with the previous character. For example, if the previous character is an
'l', you may get a result of 'il', when 'li' was intended.
PalmPrint is designed to accommodate post-dotting and crossing, but if you're
having trouble try to dot the 'i' and cross the 't' when you write them, as
opposed to going back and dotting and crossing at the end of the word.
Make the downstroke of an 'r' without curves, to eliminate confusion with a
'v'. Better yet, make your 'r' with a single, curved upstroke, leaving out
the vertical downstroke. This may seem odd at first.
Put a slash through 'Z' and 'z' to distinguish it from a '2'. Slashed 'z'
is currently slightly biased towards an upper case 'Z'.
To guarantee zero, as opposed to 'O', slash it.
Writing 't' and 'h' too close (experiment!) together will yield an 'A'. It
is further aggravated by the vertical stroke of the 't' or the 'h' being
slanted.
Avoid gaps and overlaps between strokes of letters. Disjoint 'B' will be
'13', and disjoint 'R' will be '12'.
'e' is often interpreted as '2'. Make the horizontal line, then the 'c', all
as one stroke.
'4' is often interpreted as 'k', 'y' or 'x'.
'k', 'y' and 'x' are often interpreted as '4'. Form these letters more
carefully. See the manual and try the writing grid.
To write a space, draw an underline and then draw right over it.
Left-handers: Be careful to keep letters vertical. Draw horizontal strokes
from right to left. Form letters, particularly 'b' and 'd', in single
strokes if possible.
When writing multiple lines, the highest stroke of a line must be lower than
the lowest stroke of the line above. Overlaps can cause erroneous results.
Asterisks work a lot better if you use the stroke order and direction document
ed in the manual.
Use the keyboard to insert stubborn punctuation.
Handwriting Recognition Stroke Limit
When entering text using handwriting recognition, there is a maximum of 60
strokes buffered by the recognizer. This means that you can only write about
5-10 words in ink (depending on how many strokes you use per letter) before
allowing the handwriting recognizer convert the ink to text. Any strokes
made over the 60-stroke limit will be discarded. This doesn't imply any
limit to the number of words total in a particular page, title, etc., simply
how much you can write before allowing the recognizer to process it.
Marking Text
The folkowing information was provided by Palm Computing.
Marking Text:
Second-click - marks the word where the cursor is.
Third-click - marks the segment or entire line
Fourth-click - marks current paragraph
Fifth-click - marks the entire text on the page, even if it is not shown.
You can also use the stylus to select text by dragging the stylus down and/or
across the text you want to select. Remembervto wait a second after putting
the stylus on the screen, otherwise, you will be using the handwriting
recognition.
After you have marked text, you can copy it by using the sketch tools (camera
icon).
Zoomer Application Limits
The following Zoomer application limits are provided courtesy of Palm
Computing:
Adderess Book:
Max # of entries: limited only by ram
Max # of address books: limited only by disk space.
Max capacity per field: 30k or about 170 (US)/130 (Int'l) lines.
Max # of records: Limited only bybram.
Calculator / Form Calculator:
Precision:.13 significant digits either side of the decimal point.
Calculator Max digits displayed: 12 significant digits
Form Calculator Digits dispkayed <= 15, varies per form.
Date Book:
Dates in the range of 1/1/1900 to 12/31/2050.
Earliest Alarm: 99 days prior to event
Max repeat of event: 999 or "forever"
Max to do list: No limit but display is limited to 30k or 1000 points of ink.
Notebook:
Max # of pages: 600
Max # of Notebooks: only limited by disk space
1Level of indentation/grouping
Max capacity per page: 30k or about 170 (US)/130 (Int'l) lines of text plus
4000 points of ink.
ROM Application Bugs
DATEBOOK ANOMALY WARNING
In the Date Book Application:
If you go from the sketch page of an event to a 6-month, month, or week
view, the Page menu will show the Page-Send/-Receive choices inappropriately
active. Any attempt to do a Page-Send or Receive will apply to the most
recently visited Sketch page, but will leave machine in an unstable state,
with data-loss crash possible.
Do not attempt to do Page-Send or -Receive from these views.
If you crash from this state or another unstable state, you must do a Soft
reset per the instructions in your User Guide. You should NOT lose any data.
Note: There have been problems reported regarding repeating alarms extending
to a new year. Until further notice, do not set alarms to extend past the
end of each year. Reported behavior includes redundantly repeating alarms
and difficulty in purging information from the Datebook.
CLOCK RESET SURPRISE
There is a bug in the World Clock which may manifest itself in the Zoomer
crashes under certain circumstances.
If the "destination" is set to a time zone other than your home time zone,
AND the system clock is set to "destination", AND the machine is re-booted
for any reason, upon restart, the system clock will be set to the
"destination" time zone. That is, the time that was originally the time at
the destination becomes the system clock time AND the "home" time. This is
due to the fact that the World Clock settings are saved in a State file which
is erased each time the system is rebooted. This will be changed in future
designs of the World Clock.
Workaround1: To fix this condition, you must first set the desired "home"
city in the World Clock, then tap the Launcher and choose Utilities>Time and
Date. Change time and date to correct the system clock.
Workaround2: After you set the World Clock correctly, switch to another
application. Go into the File Manager and locate the state file for the
World Clock in B:[INTERNAL]\GEOWORKS\PRIVDATA\STATE.
Copy the file "wclock app (transparent)" to B:\[INTERNAL] or some other
backup area, eg. a PCMCIA card. Then, whenever you Reset your PDA, copy this
file back into the the ...STATE folder. When you next open the World Clock
it will have the saved settings.
Applications that Work
The following applications work on the Zoomer:
Geoworks:
ALARM.GEO - Alarm, doen't wake up the Zoomer.
BTTLRFT.GEO - Game - Battle Raft
CLOCK.GEO - Displays Time
CMPIT.GEO - Compress It text file compressor
FF.GEO - File Finder
GEOGO.GEO - Game - Like Oki
IZL.GEO - IZL Program Interpreter
MAZE.GEO - Game - Maze Runner v1.0.6
MINES.GEO - Game - Mine Sweeper
MG_HELPV.GEO - MG's Help Viewer
PIANO.GEO - a Piano
PREF4PAC.ZIP - A set of preferences
TETRIS.GEO - Tetris provided w/Ensemble
TXTRDR.GEO - TextReader v1.1
TOWERS .GEO - Game - Towers of Hanoi
UUCODER.GEO - A uuencoder for E-Mail
ZCOMLITE.GEO - Terminal Program v1.1 (no emulation or x,y,zmodem)
DOS:
PKUNZIPJR.COM - Pkunzip file unzipper
DIET.EXE - File Compressor - no real gain since all file get uncompressed by
the file manager.
Stacker - Works great to double the amount of disk space available. Recommend
ed for use only on PCMCIA cards.
Debug.com - only older versions.
sysinfo.exe - Norton advanced utilities v4.5
Applications that Don't Work
The following applications do not work on the Zoomer:
Geoworks:
File Peeper
PERF.GEO - Geoworks Performance Monitor
DOS:
*** Any Application that REQUIRES input from the keyboard.
FTP/BBS Sites, Mail Lists, Newsgroups
The following FTP sites have Zoomer files on them:
ftp.biostat.washington.edu - /pub/zoomer
ftp.netcom.com - /pub/palm
arginine.umdnj.edu - /pub/geos
tech-ftp.geoworks.com
Here's a BBS that has Zoomer files:
The CyperPort (408) 227-1635, 14.4k bps
Let me know if you know of other FTP or BBS sites that have Zoomer files on
them.
Zoomer Mailing List:
To subscribe send a mail message to:
listserv@grot.starconn.com
with the following commands in the message body:
subscribe zoomer-list firstname lastname
quit
Replace firstname and lastname with your real name.
To unsubscibe send a mail message to:
listserv@grot.starconn.com
with the following command in the message body:
unsubscribe
quit
Newsgroups:
comp.os.geos - Geoworks software questions.
comp.sys.palmtops - Palm based PC systems
comp.sys.handhelds - handheld calculators & PCs
comp.sys.pen - pen based PCs.
Mosaic Access:
http://www.eit.com/mailinglists/zoomer/zoomer
PCMCIA Usage Notes
The following information is courtesy of Palm Computing.
PCMCIA CARD WARNINGS
1. There are two kinds: SRAM and Flash. SRAM cards -- These cards are
self-powered, and should cause no additional draw of power from the PDA. Flas
h cards -- These cards do require power to read and write information, and
measurements have been made which indicate that some cards use relatively
high amounts of energy while a file is being written to them. This could
cause what seems to be a sudden low battery condition which is not
immediately detected by the power manager, but may cause problems in writing
files to the flash card. Flash cards may cause the PDA's power to switch off
automatically when available battery power drops below a certain level.
Power may switch off before the low-battery power message appears on the
display. This is done to protect the contents of the PDA. Some uses of
PCMCIA cards may cause the power of the PDA's batteries to run down
relatively quickly.
Crashed boot sectors have been reported on some PCMCIA memory cards due to
undetected low battery conditions. Some PCMCIA cards may draw power faster
than the power detector recognizes. Use of the PCMCIA card in a low-battery
state has caused corruption of the PCMCIA boot sector in SOME cases. There
are very few reported cases of this. SunDisk, maker of this type of card,
has said that only a small number of these cards were distributed by them
which were subject to this problem.
Symptoms: Your Zoomer suddenly shuts down without warning, provocation, or
expected timeout.
You must replace the main batteries in the Zoomer PRIOR to powering up again!
Corrupted boot sectors have been successfully recoverable.
In the unlikely event you are using a SunDisk flash memory card and
experience the problem of an unrecognizable card, contact a Casio or Tandy
service center, or call SunDisk Technical Support (408-562-3400) for
assistance.
2. PCMCIA memory cards must be treated cautiously to avoid loss of data.
Just as you would not remove a hard drive or floppy while running an
application, you must give the Zoomer the opportunity to close cached or open
applications before removing the card.
If you are only using your PCMCIA memory card as a file backup there are no
special considerations. You may insert or remove the card at any time.
If you open data files on the PCMCIA card from a application, please observe
the following:
- Turn on your Zoomer BEFORE inserting or removing the card.
- If you insert the card before turning on the Zoomer the file structure on
it may not be recognized. The Zoomer will automatically scan the card at
time of insertion.
- To remove the card: Turn on Zoomer. Unseat the card and immediately
re-seat it in the slot. Observe the warnings. You will be prompted to close
the open and cached applications prior to removing the card. This process
may take 30 seconds or more. When complete, you will see an alert box
telling you that you may remove the card safely.
Failure to remove cards in this manner may cause unrecoverable loss of data,
mostly due to corruption of the file headers.
Other Considerations:
- If you have a data file which will not open by double-tapping, try opening
the application first, then Switch Document to the desired data file.
-After creating a mirrored directory structure on the PCMCIA card, toggle the
PCMCIA Lock switch in order for GEOS to merge the drives/directories
together. Example: Create C:\GEOWORKS\WORLD\GAMES and copy a file into it.
It will not show up on the File Manager until after toggling the Lock
switch.
- Do NOT create copies of the same data file in parallel file structures on
both the PCMCIA card and the internal drive. For example: If you create a
\GEOWORKS\DOCUMENT structure on your PCMCIA card, then COPY your "Favorite
Restaurants" Notebook to it, then delete one of them. There have been 1 or 2
cases of both copies getting deleted (though we have NOT reproduced it
here.). It works fine to copy files to ANOTHER directory, say \BACKUP or to
use a different structure on the memory card.
- In the File Manager, Filenames with underlines indicates that the
file is located on another drive.
PCMCIA MEMORY NOTE
File structure on the PCMCIA flash memory card can affect performance.
You may build parallel folder structures on your PCMCIA card, for example
C:\GEOWORKS\WORLD\Main
in order to be able to see/launch executable programs from the PCMCIA card
in the Launcher Main menu. This makes it easy to put new applications on
your PDA without worrying about how much space is available on your B: drive,
or to have to go into the file manager and open your programs on the C: drive
each time you want to launch them.
The cost of this, however, is that the operating system will search the C:
drive structure first every time an application is launched. This slows
launching a noticeable amount, varying with the amount stored on the PCMCIA
card.
PCMCIA cards which are only used for storage, and do not have a parallel file
structure to the one on the PDA are NOT automatically accessed, and so do not
cause any delay in operations.
!! Warning: If you are launching an application which uses program
libraries on the PCMCIA memory card, removing the memory card while the
program is running may cause your PDA to crash.
Generally, for best performance, keep programs and libraries on the
B:[internal] drive, and use your C: card for data files and backup.
PCMCIA Cards
All PCMCIA cards for the Zoomer are 5 volt and 8 bit in ATA fat format. The
Zoomer does not support ffs (Microsoft Flash File Service). The following
cards work with the Zoomer:
SRAM Cards:
Apple Newton 1mb SRAM p/n 649-0013A
Simple Technologies 1mb SRAM
Flash Cards:
All Sundisk SDP-5 volt flash cards. Sundisk (800) 535-2943
Maxtor MobileMax flash cards (2,4,8,12,16 and 20mb) Maxtor (800 462-9867
AST:
G44-1410 1.8mb SunDisk flash card
G44-1412 2.6mb SunDisk flash card
G44-1415 5.2mb SunDisk flash card
HP 128 RAM card
Modems:
AMT Starcard 2400 modem
AMT Starcard 14.4k modem (714) 375-0306
Pagers:
Motorola EMBARC Newscard
Remember, SRAM cards require a separate battery to power the card. It must
be replaced periodically or you lose the data.\(about once a year). Most
cards will work for about 10 minutes or longer without a battery.
Also, SRAM is faster than Flash.
The following cards do NOT work with the Zoomer:
Megahertz 14.4 gold modem
Megahertz XJack 14400
Apple Newton Flash cards (1 and 2mb)
AOL Tips
America Online is provided with the Zoomer. This version is limited to
2400bps by AOL even though 9600 is show under setup.
To delete your screen alias, delete B:\GEOWORKS\PRIVDATA\AOL\USERDB.VM. This
wil require you to setup AOL again.
AOL provides limited access to Zoomers:
PDA, Mail, Stock Quotes, News, and Support.
Save money, compose mail off-line and then call in and send it.
There is a limit of 8k for each mail message or text screen. Downloaded
files are limited only to available disk space.
You can use uucoder.geo to create uuencoded files for E-mail. Just keep in
mind that they are still limited to 8k.
Penright
Penright is available for the Zoomer! Penright is another operaing system for
the Zoomer by AT&T. Many verticle market applications are designed with
Penright.
Penright comes installed on a Sundisk ram card. It allows easy switching
from Geoworks to Penright and vice versa.
Custom applications can be provided for vertical markets by purchasing the
Penright! PRO SDK and the AST GRIDPAD 2390 SDK. To order, call (510) 249-690
0.
Call Penright! Corp at (800) 736-3616 for details.
Zoomer Drives and Files
The Zoomer contains the following drives:
A: - ROM boot drive.
B: - RAM storage drive (350k) Alternate boot disk if you have CONFIG.SYS, AUT
OEXEC.BAT and COMMAND.COM.
C: - RAM PCMCIA storage card.
SYS: - ROM Geoworks applications - Only accessible while in Geoworks. Only
visible when using the Zoomer File Manager.
Boot Sequence:
1. If B: has CONFIG.SYS, the system will attempt to boot on B: Remember, you
must have AUTOEXEC.BAT and COMMAND.COM in order to complete the boot. If you
boot from B:, add SHELL=A:\COMMAND.COM /P to your config.sys to save 23k!
WARNING - If you do not have the above files on B:, the system is
unrecoverable and you must do a hard boot.
2. Boot from A:
Note: By booting from drive B: you can customize your CONFIG.SYS or
AUTOEXEC.BAT. An example is the installation of Stacker or the Enhanced
Zoomer
Geoworks Directory Merge:
1. The SYS: and C: directories and files are accessible to Geoworks when
they occupy the same directory structure. Only \GEOWORKS and its
subdirectories are overlaid.
2. The precedence order is B: ,C:,SYS:. Where B: files are always seen.
In File Manager all files that are underlined are on other drives (SYS: or
C:).
The following devices are availabke under dos:
CON: - Displays text on the screen.
Note: no com ports or lpt ports are defined.