HP OmniGo 100 / 120 - Technical Information

Contents of this page:

• Introduction
• Pictures
• Usage of PCMCIA SRAM / Flash / CF storage cards
• Interesting external links

Introduction

The HP OmniGo 100 is a totally different kind of palmtop than the 100LX, 200LX, 1000CX and even the OmniGo 700LX: It is GUI based, can be controlled by pen input or keyboard, but it lacks that great versatility of the other models, because it cannot be run in a real DOS mode. There is software which lets you run some DOS programs on the OG100, but this is very limited. The normal operation mode of the OG100 is GEOS, with its Graffitti handwriting recognition, which works surprisingly well.

This is describing text from http://www.thocp.net/hardware/hp_omnigo100.htm:

The HP OmniGo 100 handheld organizer includes a host of financial- and business-productivity functions designed to eliminate the need for multiple reference tools. In addition to incorporating the industry-standard HP 12C financial calculator, the new product´s personal information-management features include the following:

• pen-navigation and keyboard-input capabilities - to accommodate user-interface preference;
• a jotter application - to allow customers to capture information on the go and organize it later;
• a Graffiti handwriting system - for easy-to-learn handwriting recognition; drawing capabilities - to enable the user to scribble quick notes and design maps and pictures;
• HP financial-analysis tools and spreadsheet capabilities - for computing cash flow and loan payments, currency conversions, business calculations, percentages and margins;
• a notepad feature - to input notes and organize thoughts via keyboard and pen entry;
• appointment, address and telephone books - to give users a central repository for access to important personal appointments, activities and contact information;
• database capabilities - for personalized list management; and
• worldtime feature - for locating cities around the world and obtaining current time and city information.

I have not heard of any hardware upgrades which are available for the OmniGo 100/120.

Pictures

These are pictures of the internals of the OmniGo 100:

Usage of PCMCIA SRAM / Flash / CF storage cards

Although all documentations and FAQs say that the OmniGo 100 does only work with SRAM cards, and not with Flash or Compact Flash, I had success using a Sandisk 192MB Compact Flash card with my Omnigo 100. It worked instantly without any problem. If you want to put new programs for the OG100 on a card so that they can directly be used, you should let GEOS first prepare the card. Then you can put *.GEO files from the program packages into the \geoworks\world directory, put the card into the OG100, reboot the OG100, and the programs are available from the main menu screen.

Interesting external links

http://nenya.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~gergic/ogo_page/omnigo.html

http://www.mgroeber.de/omnigo.htm
http://www.salbrook.woodwind.org/ogo
http://www.scc.net/~jonco/omnigo
http://www.ulrich-cordes.de/omnigo/german/omnigo.htm