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Reviving old tech with new tech: A $0.03 RISC-V microcontroller brings an Acer N30 PDA back to life

By December 20, 2024January 8th, 2025No Comments

The Acer N30 is a PDA released in 2004 that shipped with a 240 x 320 pixel resistive touchscreen display, a 266 MHz Samsung S3C2410 processor, and Windows Mobile 2003 software. It’s been out of production for nearly two decades, but could still be used as a mobile devices for taking notes, playing games, and other activities… if you can find one with a functional battery.

When one hardware hacker who goes by the first name Mark, recently purchased several units that came without a battery, they found that replacing the battery isn’t all that easy, because the battery controller was integrated in the battery itself. But after a fair amount of research and experimentation, Mark was able to emulate the battery controller and bring the Acer N30 back to life.

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