Panasonic Portable

[Ken Wiebe]

Looking for a manual for Panasonic KX-D4911 portable data terminal.

Nice rig, can't find manual anyplace though...

[Richard]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Ken Wiebe <gv.k...@gmail.com> spake the secret code
<daa2eb91-3878-4bda...@googlegroups.com> thusly:

>Looking for a manual for Panasonic KX-D4911 portable data terminal.
>
>Nice rig, can't find manual anyplace though...

So far I've only come across them on ebay. This is everything I know:

<https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Panasonic>

What information are you looking for? As a portable thermal printing
terminal, it's not likely to have any fancy ESC codes or anything
other than basic vertical tab or form feed handling. DB-25 connector
is almost certainly a standard RS-232C style signalling and pinout.
--
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[Scott Dorsey]

In article <q8j18i$q8t$3...@news.xmission.com>, Richard <> wrote:
>What information are you looking for? As a portable thermal printing
>terminal, it's not likely to have any fancy ESC codes or anything
>other than basic vertical tab or form feed handling. DB-25 connector
>is almost certainly a standard RS-232C style signalling and pinout.

What is the chance that it's a direct copy of the TI Silentwriter?
Panasonic was doing that sort of thing way back then.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Ken Wiebe]

On Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 8:21:38 AM UTC-7, Ken Wiebe wrote:
> Looking for a manual for Panasonic KX-D4911 portable data terminal.
>
> Nice rig, can't find manual anyplace though...

I would like to see the specs on the modem, for one thing.

And while I think I have figured out how to set the serial port comm parameters, I want to make sure I didn't miss something.

There's a switch on the back that I don't know what it does. It's labeled 'in' and 'out'.

It's just nice to have a manual so you have a complete description of operations. Tweakers gotta tweak.

Also it is not a copy of the TI Silent.

Thanks

[Richard]

[Please do not mail me a copy of your followup]

Ken Wiebe <gv.k...@gmail.com> spake the secret code

<6ca36624-f7de-4407...@googlegroups.com> thusly:

>On Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 8:21:38 AM UTC-7, Ken Wiebe wrote:
>> Looking for a manual for Panasonic KX-D4911 portable data terminal.
>>
>> Nice rig, can't find manual anyplace though...
>
>I would like to see the specs on the modem, for one thing.

Probably whatever Bell standard was related to 300 baud modems. Bell
103 modem? <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_103_modem>

>And while I think I have figured out how to set the serial port comm
>parameters, I want to make sure I didn't miss something.

Almost certainly 300 or 110 baud, 7 data bits, 1 stop bit. Unsure
about the parity, but no parity was common. If it's anything other
than no parity, they usually have a DIP switch or something to set
even, odd, or none for parity.

>There's a switch on the back that I don't know what it does. It's
>labeled 'in' and 'out'.

Heh heh. Nice. Now that I look at this pic of the 4910, I can barely
make out that switch on the bottom right.
<https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/images/2/28/Panasonic_KX-4910D_182794738418-3.jpg>

Does yours have those round plastic bumpouts like in that picture?
Are those connections or just something to hold screws? Looks like
screws, but I didn't take the picture.

It looks like there is some text molded into the plastic just above the
switch in the pic of the 4910; does yours have that too? If so, what
does it say?

>It's just nice to have a manual so you have a complete description of
>operations. Tweakers gotta tweak.

Yep.

>Also it is not a copy of the TI Silent.

Yeah, I'm not aware of anyone that directly copied the TI Silent 700
series terminals. However, I've never opened up any of my Computer
Devices terminals to see if they have identical circuitry. Honestly,
the circuitry in these portable thermal printing terminals is not that
elaborate because they don't have much, if any, smarts. This is
before modems were integrated onto ICs, so there will be a discrete
modem circuit, power supply, keyboard matrix scan logic, print head
control, motor control and some small amount of communication
buffering and special function decode (e.g. BS, LF, CR, HT, VT, FF
handling). I haven't dug into the Silent 700 schematics, but I'm
betting there isn't a microprocessor for the earliest of models.

You'd be surprised how fancy a terminal can get without a
microprocessor and just a state machine. The Beehive B100 does all
kinds of fancy ESC sequences[1] with no microprocessor, just a state
machine. The Operator's Manual[2] lays out the flow chart for the
state machine.

[1] <https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/CodeChart:Beehive_B100>
[2] <http://manx-docs.org/details.php/74,18504>

[AB]

On Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 11:21:38 AM UTC-4, Ken Wiebe wrote:
> Looking for a manual for Panasonic KX-D4911 portable data terminal.
>
> Nice rig, can't find manual anyplace though...

Hi Ken - I don't have a manual but I have a Quick Reference Card for a D4910D which I assume is similar. Unfortunately there is no way for me to post an image here, if you want I can email you.

It's a pretty easy-to-use machine - I've had my ones running pretty easily
cheers
Andy

[Ken Wiebe]

Email would be great - thanks, Andy! Send to:

"panasonic" (at symbol) networkguy.me

Ken