Peter's Pilot Pages - Peter's Cassiopeia E-10 page

Peter's one and only WinCe page: The Cassiopeia E-10.

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First of all: NO! I won't sell my Palm for the E-10, nor do I want to start a kind of religious war of systems. I simply love 'toys', and a toy the E-10 definitely is! I'm also an engineer, so I had to have a look inside a WinCE machine and my computer store didn't allow me to take it apart without buying it ... chicken! And finally, as 'Mr. Battery', I had to know how bad a PSPC really does as a mobile pocket device. Only that much up front, I was prepared for the worst and I was pleasantly surprised ...
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UPDATE 11/06/98: Well, I used the E-10 for 2 month now - and I'm 100% back to my Palm III ! The reason: Despite the beautiful hardware of the E-10, it just has the wrong OS. Get me right, I'm not particulary against Microsoft - as it is good fashion nowadays - I just think that WinCE is too less adapted to the needs of a tiny palm device. Everything is just too complicated, takes too long and the screens are overloaded. The Palm electronic might lack alot of features the E-10 offers, but for the simple daily work, it's enough and much more convenient.
I'll leave this page online now since it's created, but I won't work on it anymore, nor will I work with the E-10. So please, don't ask me any WinCE question, most likely I won't have an answer :)

.First contact

.First operation

.The Active-sync Desktop

.JOT - the other Graffiti

.Power consumption

.Inside the E-10

.The end of the story - sh.t happens ...

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First contact - I bought my E-10G here in Germany with the German version of WinCE. It turned out to be a wise decision, since - unlike the Palm desktop - the desktop part of WinCE needs to be the same language as your desktop Windows. Another reason was, that in the moment the E-10 is bundled with some nice add-on software you probably also like to have in your own language. Beside other smaller add-ons, my E-10 came with a full version of Outlook98 - not bad. Outlook98 alone cost about 30% of the whole E-10 pack - at least here in Germany.
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Since this page is also a bit of a comparison Palm - E10, I will mention also small things that surprised me, knowing the Palm quite well. And one pleasant surprise was definitely the supplied screen protector, a specially designed, exactly fitting piece of transparent plastic, that has no sticky side, but reaches on the top and bottom a bit between screen and case and stays so perfectly in place. Applied in one minute and practically invisible. If I think back to the endless mailing list discussions about Scotch tapes and/or the price of WrightRights, I'd wish, 3Com would also add that 2 cent part to their basic supply :).
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The E-10 is basically exactly the same size and weight as a PalmPilot (note: older Professional), it fits even in the 3Com slim leather case (and there is no memory door where the velcro goes <g>). The screen size is also the same, though the E-10 comes with the PSPC typical 320x240 resolution and has an active 'Graffiti' area ... err ... JOT area :). It has also 4 application hard-buttons, that switch on the unit and start the app mapped to the key. 3 application buttons on the front, one on the left side, along with a quite nifty 'action button'. The action button is a kind of thumb wheel you can turn up and down, and you can press it. It's most usefull, when you use the E-10's sound recorder capabilities. To complete the outside of the E-10, there is a 5th button, a kind of ESC key above that action wheel and a headphone jack. That again might come handy in a loud environment, since the speaker on the back has only a diameter of about 1,7cm (3/4 inch) and so it's just producing enough volume for a quiet office. On top of the case is a LED, that can be programmed to flash when an alarm goes off ... nice gadget.
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The cradle of the E-10 is a 'typical' cradle, nothing special. The vertical support is removable, so the remaining part fits a bit nicer when you have to take it on the road, but it's overall a bit bigger. The cradle has an input for an external power supply, which is on the other hand, the only obvious way to power the Cassiopeia external. The unit itself does not have a seperate plug for power. Of course the cradle connector on the E-10, which feeds the power from the cradle could be used with a special cable and the right connector.
A little detail might be interesting: Unlike the Palm, the E-10 has obviously no RS-232 level drivers built-in, since they are located in the cradle. So a plain 'sync-cable' might never be available for the E-10, unless you don't squeeze the drivers in the plug or so.
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First operation - The E-10 comes with a little Lithium button cell for memory backup, so I inserted that first ... a mistake as I read *afterwards* in the manual :). It didn't harm nor did I have any strange effects but the manual says, you should insert the main batteries first, or the device might not start up. The manual also talks about 2 weeks of memory backup with the little cell in case the main batteries are empty or removed. Well, that's a definite point for the E-10.
The E-10 operates also on 2 AAAs, so I decided to start immediately with the NiMHs I use already for my Palms ... but the E-10 didn't power up. I checked the batteries again (you know that moment? OH NO, I inserted them the wrong way ... <g>) and found an interesting design flaw or an interesting way to prevent the use of rechargeables. The little knob on the positive side of normal batteries seems to be always (I checked different brands) smaller than the one of rechargeables. And that thicker knob doesn't fit through the plastic part of the battery holder to reach the contact. But I guess a few images could be helpful to explain that a bit better. What you see below, are some batteries and the knobs I'm talking about. And one of the two positive battery terminals, before and after I modified them. It's just a little matter of cutting a bit of plastic off, to give the larger knob of the NiMH's a bit more space to reach the metal spring. Now that's a big minus for the E-10!!!
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BTW, a very nice feature is the little slider at the memory door that locks it. To take of the battery door, you have to slide it to position 'Free', otherwise it's locked. But the nifty part is, freeing the battery door with that slider, also switches the E-10 off and keeps it off until the slider is back in 'Lock' position. That way a data loss during a battery change is very unlikely.
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Anyway, after I solved that little battery spring problem, I inserted the NiMHs, pressed the power button and .. TADA ... it worked. The screen of the E-10 is beautiful! Beeing used to the Palm screen, it looks like a CAD-monitor :) ... fine pitch, nice fonts and a good contrast that is software controlled, another big point for the E-10. I truly hate that contrast wheel on the Palm!
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The Active-Sync Desktop - Well, after tapping a bit around quite clueless, I decided to install the desktop software of WinCE. The setup takes 10 minutes, provided you have Outlook already installed, otherwise add another 10 minutes for Outlook. After the installation, which requires also a free COM port, you basically get a new folder called 'Mobile Devices'. There you find, explorer-like, the contents of the E-10 and some special buttons to syncronize and backup the E-10. Basically the WinCE Service is a mini network between the PC and the E-10. The moment the E-10 is in its cradle, it connects and stays connected in the background. Kind of convenient, but hard to control. On my PC for example I use a switch box for the COM port to use also other devices, but now the COM port is logically taken all the time by WinCE. There is a setting that should free the COM port, when the CE folder is closed, but that's not working flawless. After booting the PC, the COM port is not free. When I connect the E-10 once and then close down the connection, it works. Either a bug or I still have to discover any secrets :) ...
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On the other hand, transferring data from and to the E-10 is very easy, just drag and drop the files(s) from or to the mobile window. There is even automatic filtering when you transfer certain files. Like a Word doc is automatically converted to a NoteTaker file (and visa-verse), graphic files are converted to 2-bit-grayscale images etc. Other than that, the CE services are a pure sync app. All entries and changes are done in Outlook, which of course syncs perfectly with the E-10. The four main apps on the E-10, DoTo (Tasks), Calender, Address Book (Contacts) and NotePad (NoteTaker) are basically the pocket versions of Outlook. And there is the full e-mail part of Outlook available on the E-10 (though, no filters - big minus!).
The actual sync process is a piece-of-cake. On connect, it takes only a few seconds and all is uptodate. You can also choose to start the sync process manually, then the connection process just checks, whether the PC and the E-10 are in sync and you get a little warning symbol in the system tray if they're not. I'd say the whole sync process is easier and much faster than the one of the Palm Desktop. Additionally, the WinCE serivce can do a full backup of your mobile unit all in one file, I guess BackupBuddy wouldn't be a big hit on WinCE. But, as usual for MS software <g>, the WinCE services are taking over your PC quite deeply. Since I use a COM port switch to share COM1 among several units, I had constant trouble to free the COM port from the WinCE services when I wanted to use another application that accesses COM1. Much more hazzle than the easy shutdown of the hotsync manager.
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The manual says you can also use the IrDA port of the E-10 to establish the sync connection if your PC or notebook is equipped with IrDA too. I didn't try it yet, but I expect it to work. But you have to setup the desktop always first with a COM port and then you can modify the connection type.
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Frankly, I have to play a lot more to find out all possibilities. Only so far: There are alot of 'familiar', intuitive features if you are using Windows already on your PC. But there are also alot of restrictions in WinCE, compared to its 'big brother'. So don't take anything for granted.
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JOT - the other Graffiti - There were alot of discussions about JOT and Graffiti lately, since JOT is now also avaliable as a 3rd-party app for the Palm too. I thought it's worth an own chapter on that page. In short: I like JOT and I think I like it better than Graffiti. IMHO, it's more intuitive, with some more 'natural' strokes than Graffiti. The JOT input area looks exactly like the Graffiti area, you also have the left part for letters and some symbols and the right part for numbers. The greatest advantage of JOT on the E-10 is, that the input area is part of the active LCD. That means, you get an instant feedback of your stroke, it's like writing with a pen on paper. I always wondered how I should improve my Graffiti, as long as I couldn't see in the end what I did. Yep, I know of TealEcho and other 'helpers', but they're annoying me. No comaprison to the true active area right below the tip of your stylus! Another big advantage, though not related to JOT directly, is of course, that the JOT area can disappear to make room on the LCD for applications. You can set it to appear automatically again, when input is needed.
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JOT has a few very nice features, that could be implemented in Graffiti also. One detail for example is, that capital letters are simply entered, by drawing the letter a bit more to the right, actually exactly between the letter and the number area. I always hated that upstroke of Grafitti. Maybe that's also a 'German' thing :) ... in the German language, alot of words start with capitals also in mid of a sentence, as a thumb rule, all 'subjects'. Talking of the German language, the Umlauts are also solved much better in JOT. That's possible, since JOT allows more strokes to be 'not continunous', that is, you can lift the pen and finsh the character with a second stroke. A nice example is the 'i' ... you do basically the same down-stroke as in Graffiti first, but then you get a 'l'. Then just add the 'i'-dot and the 'l' becomes an 'i'. It works the same with Umlauts. To do an 'Umlaut U', just make a 'u' and add the two dots ... voila. Frankly, the Umlaut solution of Graffiti is the worst example of ignorance of international customers!
The speed of JOT seems to be great on the E-10, no delays with my speed so far (though, I'm for sure not the fastest with the stylus).
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Another nice helper is the 'auto-completion' utility. Whenever you have entered a few letters of a word (user configurable), a little field appears above the JOT area with a 'guessed' word. The guesses are not so bad, they are taken from a 14000 word dictionary and you can configure the strategy a bit, more long words, recent words etc. BTW, another reason to get the E-10 for your language. This suggestion utility learns while you write a text, so using the same words during a certain note brings up quite useful guesses.
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JOT comes with a very nice help function. You can choose any character and the help function draws the stroke(s) for it in the JOT-area with choosable speed. Though, no Giraffe app to learn JOT, that's a pity, seriously. I bought my first Palm in Singapore and on the way home on the flight, all I could do was playing Giraffe. In that time I found it a bit boring, but when we reached Germany, I was already quite familiar with Graffiti. Since then I think it's a great way to learn Graffiti.
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Oh yeah, last not least, there is a mode called CIC-JOT, I would call it 'Graffiti compatibility mode'. You can do each and every letter exactly like in Graffit then ... I really wonder how MS solved the copyright problems :).
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Power consumption - I heard alot of bad stories about the PSPC and their power consumption, so I needed to check it myself. Well, the E-10 can be bad, but doesn't have to ... :).
First fact is, that the power management of the PCPS's is very complex. The E-10 has much more states than just 'idle' or 'busy', at least when you look at the power consumption.
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Above you can see different actions of the E-10 and the Palm and their power consumption. Alread the first value is a big minus for the E-10, the stand-by current. Even if it's a small number in milliamps, relatively the E-10 consumes 233% more power when switched off than a Palm. That means practical, the E-10 empties a set of good Alkalines within 4-5 weeks whithout beeing switched on even once. For NiMH users its even worse, after 2 weeks the batteries are empty. Surprisingly low is the idle consumption, in fact the E-10 needs 18% less idle power than the Palm (that is, if it's only switched on, no input, sitting there showing information). Even a short tap, a button press or text input via JOT takes less power than on the Palm. On the other hand, the E-10 can use much more power, if it's fully busy (i.e. searching).
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In short: The processor of the E-10 is much faster than the Palm CPU. So if used fully, it can consume much more power. Also the rest of the electronic in the E-10 is more complex and needs more power when in use. But then again, the E-10 doesn't need all its power for certain tasks, while the Palm has to run full speed. In general, the battery life of the E-10 is hard to determine academically ... it depends too much on the use of the device.
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Oh, while doing these meassurements I found an interesting effect. I tested two different 'animated' games I could get a hold of, since I thought they need alot of processor power. Not quite right. Pipe Dream has a very nice screen and some animation, but still needs nearly not more power than the idle mode - well programmed. Then there is Space Invaders, which obviously ignores the power management totally and needs nearly 10 times the power! So how long your batteries last, is also a matter of coding and using the power management right. BTW, the animation values were taken with the well known Solitaire of Windows, which is a standard app on the E-10. When you finish a game successfully, there is a kind of 'bouncing cards' animation. For the Palm I took pocket life, though I knew the consumption already.
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But the true battery killer on the E-10 is the backlight. Unfortunately, since the backlight is a beauty. It's much brighter than the backlight of the Palm and the grayscale display of the E-10 is double the fun with the backlight. While the Palm backlight needs about 30mA, the E-10 light consumes 100mA! That is terrible much for AAAs. Assuming an additional consume of 50mA for the E-10 electronic, it means not more than theoretical 5-6 hours backlight operation with good Alkalines. Again, NiMH users get much less, maybe 2 hours ... but that has another annoying reason - the warning level of the E10. From Casio's point of view totally correct, the E-10 refuses to switch on the backlight, when the voltage is below 2.3V. Normal Alkalines suffer from a noticable voltage drop when the current raises. Additionally at 2.3V, a normal Alkaline is already pretty empty. So, to prevent a further voltage drop below 2V, the backlight won't operate below 2.3V. For rechargeables, the situation is totally different. I'd say, between 2.4 and 2.2V, NiMH's are delivering about 80% of their 'juice'. Rechargeables have also a lower impedance, that means, they can supply a higher current with a lower voltage drop. So, when a NiMH reaches 2.3V at a current of 100-150mA, it's probably not more empty than 50%. That's when the E-10 refuses already to operate the backlight. In case I start coding for the CE platform, a 'warning level hack' would be definitely the first app ...
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Inside the E-10 - I couldn't resist - I had to void my warranty ... but after the battery spring modification, my chances for warranty repair were little anyway :). As already mentioned, the E-10 is a much more complex piece of hardware than the Palm. Main reason is the more complex CPU, which needs a lot more peripherial 'help' than the DragonBall. Then there is the more complex power management. The external power supply (which is BTW recognized and displayed in the system tray automatically) and the Lithium backup need a lot more parts than the relative simple power supply of the Palm.
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On the images above you can see the complexity of the E-10 electronics. What's also obvious is the relativ solid case, with an extra frame for the LCD. I guess it pays, that Casio is already quite a time in the mobile device business. So far, I really couldn't find any flaw when it comes to the construction of the E-10.
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In the moment I have no more details about the chips used in the E-10. What I called 'Glue' on the mainboard image is a Casio custom chip. I think it integrates all the necessary functions the CPU doesn't have on board. The CPU is a NEC 4110, running at 40MHz (yes, basically there could be an 'Eco Hack' for the E-10 <g>). If you are interested in the data sheet of the CPU, visit NEC's processor page (pick the right link, it may be that the original 4110 is obsolete).
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There are a million things I didn't try yet. The E-10 has a dedicated modem port on the cradle connector, but I would like to know, whether it could be adapted to a normal modem. I still had to play alot with the IrDA port and my mobile phone which is also IrDA compliant. And finally I had to check out, how hard it is to write apps for WinCE ... you see, I'm far from 'knowing' the E-10 and it's possibilities.
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Hope you enjoyed my little overview, but please: Don't flood my mailbox with questions about the E-10 or WinCE !! I probably wouldn't have an answer for you, since I'm really no CE specialist and my work with the Palm keeps me busy enough. If you're looking for more infos about the available CE devices, WinCE itself or accessories a perfect location to start is
. Mike's Pocket PCs (formerly Mike's Palm-Sized PCs) .
That's basically the only link you need, on his site you find tons of other PSPC related links.
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A LAST UPDATE (March, 26th 1999): I won't review any of the newer E-series. I heard of the E-11, E-15 or whatever, but I won't review any of it. Sorry, WinCE is just not my business.
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The end of the story - It happened all quite quick and unexpected: I had the cradle sitting close to the edge of my desk (too close!) and the E-10 dipped over ... unfortunately the screen hit exactly a corner of my notebook powersupply sitting on the floor exactly in the right spot ...
It's strange, I didn't use the E-10 much lately, but when a 'toy' is destroyed in such a cruel way it breaks your heart anyway :).
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The E-10 is not the most recent CE-device, but I'll still look out for some screen replacement if the price is reasonable. After all, you still can dedicate such a unit to a certain task. Lately I thought about the use as a pure dictation device. With a 32MB CF-card and a reasonable recording quality, the E-10 beats every tape based unit. Much more recording time, better handling and last but not least, easy to archive in case you want to keep the one or the other sound bit. I'll see ...
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