How to turn an old PDA into a semi-portable, somewhat-usable PC
By Marc Perton 
posted Apr 20th 2005 5:03AM
posted Apr 20th 2005 5:03AM
What do you get when you combine an old Toshiba e400 PDA with a
USB hub, a keyboard, an old cellphone and whatever other hardware you have lying around? From the looks of it, Sergey
Suvorov at hpc.ru got an Internet-enabled, media-capable, keyboard-driven PDA (at least that's what we gleaned from
Babelfish's translation). Sure, as Sergey points out, it's not going to replace your laptop (or "noutbuku," as
Babelfish puts it). But if you've got the gear lying around, it beats tossing it in a landfill.
[Thanks, Dmitry]
Well there will always be people who like to built their own car from spare parts. However these cars won't have much value to the general public. Same goes to this thing. Good if people are bored, but except of that ?
Your comments: I'm impressed they managed to get this working, an old PDA handling all those USB devices.
Certainly imaginitive, but I am suspicious, I would like to see an english version, not just a word for word translation
I'd like to know how he got usb out of a pocketpc. Anyone done this?
Certain pocket PCs have a USB host controller. Toshiba's have an extra adapter that you can purchase. I have one for my e355.
or you could just buy a Treo 650.
After the world ends, we'll see stuff like this crop up all over. This guy is ahead of his time. My tech question is this: What is the old cellphone for? It should be useless if it doesn't subscribe to any service.
I wonder if the old cell phone actually is receiving service or is just proof of concept ? I've got 2 or 3 old phones lying around that I could integrate into something like that, but they would only dial 911.
That said, I think it's pretty cool. He can throw it in the car and have a little busy box wherever he goes at no extra cost.
But, I slightly agree with 'nojetlag', this thing probably does not have very wide usability, nor will it be worth much to anyone else. But isn't that true of most peoples hobbies ?
An impressive bit of kludging. Wonder how long it took...
I kinda see this. First off, its only $10 for me to add an extra line of service to my cingular phone, so if one really used it alot, it may be worth it to use and old phone and just the $10 family talk line.
I don't have bluetooth with my current stuff, so basically to get online with my iPaq, I have to sit at a table, line up the IR ports, and then type with the stylus.
I wouldn't personally do this because my whole idea is to surf and do AIM with stuff anytime with stuff I carry in my pocket anyway (PDA and day-to-day phone) but in some ways I see how this could be useful. I also don't mind using graffiti.
Now I just need to suddenly have $500 spending money so I can get a treo, which of course uses the mini keyboard my big ape fingers can't deal with, or better yet the Siemens Pocket PC phone :)
Hmmm, if only my keyboard was wireless and I had 20 dollars more to buy an infrared adapter for my PC...
Yeah, this is pretty cool. But I was thinking; you can buy the addon module for the e400/e800 series, it includes a usb and a vga port. So you could link this up to a monitor, no wait, you can't have the screen being fed through the vga port all the time can you?
Still, it would be quite cool to turn it into a full size desktop pc.
Hi there! I'm Sergey Suvorov, a.k.a. Thing or ?????. Glad to see how popular become my device :)) Special for english-speaking users i opened new discussion topic on my forum, where i will answer on all your questions. Also there you can find another device photos. Welcome at http://4pda.net.ru/forum/posts.php?action=show&id_theme=6&id_subject=96