----- Original Message -----
From: michael brown <n5qmg@AMSAT.ORG>
> > have you thought about trying the iOpener
> > it's a netappliance that used to sell for $100....(REALLY cheap)
> > thinking they would get money from being your ISP (wrong!)
> > then people hacked it into a Linux Box
>
> Found some, they look pretty neat.  Allot of nice stuff for under $100.00.
> Looks like some real fun.  Too bad it needs 19 volts though, that makes it
> tough(er) to put in a car.

Got one last year (before they changed the EULA and pricing); pretty cool,
but a bit slow.  Still trying to get my usb ethernet to work under a small
distro of linux.  I've toyed with the idea of making it into a "portable"
o'scope.

The 19v input isn't the real problem for a car mp3 system...  The screen
probably won't stand up to thermal cycling in that environment.  And the
sound quality isn't all that hot; even picking the signals directly off the
board.

You'd be better off hacking an old socket 7 MB and running and extended temp
LCD + controls out to your dash.



> I did, pretty neat!  I am wondering what the issue is about having a
"glued
> in" bios chip.  It sounds like you don't need to do anything to the bios
to
> make the thing work as a simple pc.  Here is a link I found on e-bay:
> http://neartowntech.com/kittman/iopener/

When they found users not using them as they intended they modified the
subsequent bios releases to inhibit adding additional hardware and
reconfiguring the iopener.  People got around this by reflashing the bios to
the older version.  Netpliance started gluing the flash in the socket, so
newer iopeners often ended up with cracked sockets when removing, requiring
soldering a new surface mount socket in its place (provided you didn't pull
up board traces.)  On the whole it's a bit much work for something that is
really only marginal hardware anyway.

It might make a good indoor mp3 player if you used an external USB sound
driver...

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