WP2-01.THD (c)1989 Golden Triangle, Inc. (c)1989 Wilson Van Alst =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Scott Andersen To: Mike Nugent Nuge: finally got a WP-2. Looks great. By the way: all WP-2 owners - DO NOT PRESS CONTROL-F2-DEL as it will DESTROY ALL FILES AND RESET THE MACHINE. I don't think that it is in the manual. I found it by accident. Good thing I was backed up. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Pat McClurg To: Scott Andersen I've ordered one from a Texas-based Tandy mail order retailer. They quoted me a price of $252, almost a hundred bucks off retail. The 32K internal RAM expansion wasn't available, so the company suggested I buy it locally. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Stan Wong To: Pat McClurg What "Texas-based" mailer order company did you get yours from? =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Pat McClurg To: Stan Wong National Computer Warehouse (or is it Supply), 377 Plaza, Grandbury, TX. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Fred Pattison To: Stan Wong I bought a WP-2 yesterday and spent a very frystrating day trying to get it to do what I need to do. At first I was really excited about the size, weight, and built in spell checker and thesaurus. I plugged it into my Hayes Smartmodem 1200 and started to upload some test messages. Problems: 1. Extraneous blanks transmitted. I tried several different line lengths, margin settings, CR's at the end of lines, etc. no luck. 2. With longer messages for some reason it would transmit about half the message and then go flooey ??? 3. Big drawback = when you set up a new document with "layout" ie margins, tabs, etc. then go work on another document and come back to the first, it does not "remember the original layout and defaults to 10 left margin and 65 char lines. A pain. This machine has some real potential but I don't have time to be a pioneer with this one. I'm taking it back today and springing for the new Zenith MinisPort. I gotta have something I can rely on. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Fred Pattison Fred, Your experiences seem to confirm what I've heard from another source: that the WP-2's telcom software is below acceptable standards. If this is true, it's very discouraging. With no reliable way to transfer files to and from another computer, the WP-2 will miss a major segment of the market: people with desktops who want a portable writing companion as part of their existing system. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Stan Wong To: Fred Pattison Fred, That's disappointing to hear. I'm still considering springing the bucks for one anyway. I'll just sit tight for a bit longer to see what the reaction on this sig is. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Carmen Paone To: Stan Wong Stan, I don;t have an external modem, and so I haven't tried Telecom, yet. But I am pleased with the rest of the WP-2. It's DOS is much like POWER-DISK and the dictionary and thesarus function are invaluable. It is disappointing that Telcom has some bugs. But, perhaps, Fred didn't get the hang of sending. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Fred Pattison To: Carmen Paone I wish someone else would verify my sending problems. I haven't taken the WP-2 back for a refund yet although I did go out and buy a Zenith MinisPort. To restate the problems I had: Hooked to a plain vanilla Hayes Smartmodem 1200. Set WP-2 at 1200 baud, transmission was at 300 baud. Short messages sent unwanted spaces and CRs. Longer messages, went flooey in the middle, garbage on the screen, never got to the /POST line, had to take over and post manually. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Jim Bay To: Fred Pattison Fred -- I think your problems may have something to do with the "convert to ASCII" function, but I'm not sure. I just spent 1/2 an hour trying to upload some stuff from my WP-2 into the FILES area to serve as back-up. Couldn't get it to work in ASCII mode (very much same kind of problems you report) then switched to xmodem & it was A.O.K. [wva note: this 'success' was later found to be less than 100%. see below:] =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Jim Bay Your message implies that the WP-2 has a built-in Xmodem capability. True? =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Stan Wong To: Wilson Van Alst Van, The WP-2 does have built in Xmodem-CRC capability built in. I haven't tried it though. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: Stan Wong Thanks for that word on WP-2's Xmodem feature. That adds a certain "seriousness" to the machine's telcom capability. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Stan Wong To: Wilson Van Alst The telecommunication features of the WP-2 appear to be quite extensive. It's odd that they didn't incorporate a modem to make use of those features. Especially since they include a dialer program, auto-logon capability and stuff like that. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Jim Bay To: Wilson Van Alst van: It does have an x-modem built in, but I haven't yet gotten it to work (earlier report of success was pre-mature, I'm afraid). Jim =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Jim Samuel To: All I used to have a M100 that I used solely for writing while I was on the road. Then, I made the mistake of selling it and buying a MS-DOS laptop (a Tandy 1400, which I like a lot but it's no match for the M100 while traveling). Lately I've been thinking of getting another M100/102, but recently saw the new Tandy WP2 in the catalog. At $299 it looks like a good deal, but I'm wondering about a few things. 1. How hard are file transfers to an MS-DOS desktop computer? What does it take to make the transfers? Is the text sent to the MSDOS machine in ASCII form? 2. Is the base model good enough for writing? What is the storage capacity? Can you save files to disk or cassetee tape? 3. Does anyone here have any experience with the WP2, good or bad. I've senn the comments here about modem problems and that doesn't really concern me a whole lot since I doubt I'll us the modem on the road. I want a small, light, cheap machine that is good for writing and will let me transfer files to an MS-DOS computer. Is this it? =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Fred Pattison To: Jim Samuel I tried transfering files to my desk top using the same setup I use with my Mod-100, FLTIBM. No luck what so ever. I did not try other com programs and I'm not sure of my cable set up asd the WP-2 uses a 9 pin RS232 as compared with the 25 pin Mod-100, although I did have an adapter. Storage is about 22K with another 32K for 50 bucks. It's a slick little, very light weight machine and I'm sure we'll get the bugs out on this SIG in a few weeks/months. They are said to be available from maverick R S mail order shops for around $250. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: john judis To: Jim Samuel I have had no trouble whatsoever transferring files from my new wp-2 to an AT. I got the 9-pin adapter with the machine, and I send the files with Telecom and receive them with Procomm. The only hitch is that you have to convert the files to ASCII format, and then put another file on screen before transmitting. /EXIT =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: john judis Wonder if you've played around with different Baud rates? I've heard that things get messy at anything over 1200 bps, but have no way to confirm that. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: john judis To: Wilson Van Alst I send at 2400 baud. =+=+=+=+=+= Fm: Wilson Van Alst To: john judis Thanks for the note on Baud rate with the WP-2. If 2400 bps is working reliably, that's encouraging news -- compared with what I was hearing from some other folks. Starting message #: 188839 Starting date: 16-Oct-89 11:44:53 Participants: Scott Andersen 72167,142 Pat McClurg 73240,2533 Stan Wong 70346,1267 Fred Pattison 70106,73 Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 Carmen Paone 72677,42 Jim Bay 70711,174 Jim Samuel 73207,3352 john judis 71237,511