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Zaurus SL-C1000 >

Notes on its hardware.

See also:

• Zaurus accessories

General notes ∞

• 124mm x 87mm x 25mm (4.9in x 3.4in x 1in) That’s width x depth x height
• 278g (0.61lbs)

• Black clamshell case which can be closed, open or can swivel to turn the machine into a tablet.

  • Grasp the display at the sides and not the top, to avoid breaking it.
  • The swivel mechanics are VERY robust, and an audible click can be heard and resistance is felt when the display is swivelled to its extremes.

• 416MHz PXA-270 Intel XScale (ARM architecture)

  • I don’t know if various automatic power-saving features are enabled.
  • Overclocking and underclocking are possible via software, but are not generally recommended for various reasons. When under/overclocking, the screen will flicker because its update is tied to the processor’s speed. The battery will be drained much faster when overclocking.. and there could be subtle heat issues.

• Full Speed USB (12 Mbit/s). USB host capability with a special cable – the one sold by iRiver for PMP models reportedly works.

  • The USB line doesn’t supply much power at all, which makes it incompatible with some devices which are not self-powered.

• 128 MB flash memory. 64MB / (root) and 64MB /home partitions.

  • Not all of it the partitions are usable by default, since it ships with software and the operating system in that flash space.
  • No internal microdrive. Use the CompactFlash (CF) or SecureDigital (SD) slots for a storage card or microdrive.
• Infrared (IR)

• CompactFlash (CF) card slot, types I & II, 3.3V

  • All the various features are possible. It can do Wifi, GPS, use HDDs, etc.
  • Comes with a fake CF insert to protect the slot. There is no closable “door” for the slot.

• Secure Digital card (SD) card slot. The older MultiMediaCard (MMC) cards can also be used.

  • I don’t know of any SD drivers, so to my knowledge, only storage cards will work.
  • Comes with a fake SD insert to protect the slot. There is no closable “door” for the slot.

• Display: Sharp CG Silicon. 3.7″ on the diagonal. 640×480 pixels, 65534 colours. Chip on glass TFT LCD Active-matrix liquid crystal display. Swivels to transform the device into a Tablet PC. It’s a touchscreen and there is handwriting recognition software. Backlit

  • It will use a 240×320 display mode for SL-5500 and SL-5600 software.
  • The pen is hidden on the right-hand side, and snaps in place very nicely.

• A proper QWERTY keyboard, with three keys being labelled in Japanese and some Japanese printing above the same three.

  • The first Japanese key is “Kana”.
  • FIXME – The second Japanese key is ?.
  • The two Japanese-only keys are “Control” and “Alt“. Yes, there are two Control keys.
    — The spare can be remapped.
  • TODO – The Shift key is “sticky”.
    — Press it once and let go and the next key is shifted. — I don’t see this in action though.. perhaps it hasn’t been configured in the other ROMs/distributions I’ve used. Try Keyhelper.
  • The curley braces ({ and }) are Fn-o and Fn-p
  • The keyboard is not backlit, but the screen is bright enough that the keyboard can be used in dim light.

• 3.5mm stereo jack plug.

  • It can either act as a stereo audio out or as a mono audio out and microphone in with something like a standard cellphone headset. You can also use an adapter for other headsets.

• Underside is a mono speaker. It can get quite loud, and the audio quality is fairly good, although it distorts in funny ways when you put it down or pick it up and handle it, as the sound reflects off of various surfaces from the underside.

  • I can play mp3s at a volume of 1 of 100 with my Shure SE210 Sound Isolating Earphones and there is NO hiss whatsoever. The most spectacular audio I’ve ever heard in my life.

• Operating temperature: 5-40°C

Power ∞

• EA-BL11 Rechargable Lithium-Ion Battery; 3.7V, 1800 mAh. There is also the EA-BL08 which is 1700 mAh.

  • AC adapter, external power supply: 240V converted to 3.2 DC. Consumes 3.2W
  • WARNING: There is no reverse polarity protection so be VERY careful if using a non-standard power supply.
  • On battery power, uptime is approximately 8 hours with the display set to low brightness.
  • When the battery is being charged, an LED at the top-left of the keyboard will illuminate.
  • It can be used while plugged into AC power and charging.
• The PSP USB Charging Cable is reported to work.

• USB recharging:

  • According to Sharp’s Japanese C1K/C3K faq, the USB mini-A/USB mini-b port doesn’t support powering the Zaurus. So you cannot plug the Zaurus into the USB port of a desktop and recharge it.
    — The current that can be supplied from USB is up to 500mA. Because more power is needed to charge the special lithium rechargable battery EA-BL11 (1800mA) used in the SL-C1000, it is not possible to charge it from the USB cable; use the AC adapter.

The Service port ∞

In the back is a Sharp Serviceport. It’s not a cover for an IO port.

Charging the SL-5×00 / SL-C7x0 / SL-C860 via the I/O port was done using the pins 1+2 / 15+16.

These pins are not connected in the SL-C1000/3000/3100.

So there’s no way to use the USB-charging cables or the serial cable with the power jack to charge a Zaurus of the SL-Cxx00 series.

Connected pins on the SL-Cxx00 series are: 3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,13 and 14. So only the serial / wakeup functions are supported on the new Zaurus.

Resources ∞

• C1000/3×00 Hardware forum