PPP - Palm and me

The Palm(Pilot) and me

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I saw the PalmPilot first at a trade show in Germany in April 97, and it was love at first sight. Mainly the form factor, but also the easy graffiti input and the backlight caught my attention. Unfortunately I was never aware of the older models 1000 and 5000. In that days I used a clumsy Psion 3A. Sorry to say so, but at least in Germany the PR work for the Palm was really poor at that time! But after I saw it, I decided to get one right away, but it wasn't available in Germany. So I got my first PPPro finally on a travel in Singapore in June 1998.
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Back home, I checked the Internet for more infos and it was a pleasant surprise, how many good sites I found. But a real great moment was, when I realized the little thing runs on a 68K core *and* there are development tools available. Many years ago, I used to write 68K assembler programs for my good old Atari ST and I liked the processor alot. Later, as a self-employed hardware designer for industrial units, I even used the 68K for some of my own designs. Thinking back what my Atari was able to do with an 8 MHz driven 68K, I was dying to find out what the Palm with 16 MHz can do.
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I always loved the hardware work more than the firm-/software. I'd rather do a huge new layout than reading about a few hundred API calls ... So I had to find out more about the hardware. My test unit was basically permanently in pieces, I checked nearly all the components Palm used to construct the unit and soon I had at least a rough schematic of it (Please, don't ask for a copy - it's only a collection of handwritten sheets and most of it I never wrote down <g>). There is room for modifications, and I decided to share some of my (weird) ideas on Peter's Pilot Pages - someone outside there might even be interested :). I'm aware that messing around with the device is only a 'game' for very few users, but on the other hand: with that many Palm devices sold, there might be still enough Piloteers that aren't afraid of a soldering iron :-)
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I hope, I could make myself clear, what to expect from my site. I drive my own business, and there I have to take electronic development very serious. My professional customers just expect perfect results, so the Palm world is my personal compensation for my 'other' life. I just need that playground :). Since my 'real' life keeps me quite busy , it's needless to check my pages too often - there might be even months I'll have no time left to update them.
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Peter Strobel, Germany, Stein
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