This page contains information about a possible computer interface to my FT-2000, an upgrade from the DMU-2000

The following computer is a Wyse Rx0L thin client. A think client has minimal hardware and relies on a server to boot to an operating system. They also may contain a minimal operating system and download all applications from the server. The processing power is the same but the need for large disk drives are eliminated.

Below are pictures of the computer and a PDF of it's specifications.

Technical specifications

The specifications indicate that 2 gig is max memory and 5 gig is max solid state disk but this is the max they deliver, in fact you can use up to 4 gigs of memory and as large a DOM, solid state disk on module .  This unit is 9.75 x 8.5 x 2 inches and consumes 14.1 watts. This unit has 64 bit architecture and I have loaded it with XP and Windows 7.  As you can see above I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Free is so much better than worrying about Microsoft licensing. Besides cost, Linux, in my case Ubuntu, runs with far less hardware than the bloated Windows products.

There was a very interesting article in April 2014 QST called a Tiny Python Panadapter on page 33. This article contains a lot of information that could be used to create a really good interface for the FT-2000 and other Yaesu radios that us the TRX interface. I was looking at a inexpensive computers on eBay and I bought this Wyse thin client Rx0L for $30. This unit had 1 meg of memory a 2 gig Flash disk, 2 serial ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 100/1000 Ethernet, Wireless, audio and a 1.5 gig processor. These units have no fan and are totally silent. They also have 2 DVI ports, one of which has VGA capabilities with an adapter. This seems like a good combination to use with the Python Panadapter. I copied the article for future use, I cannot make it available due to copyrights.

On another page I also describe my new WEB server using a Wyse R90Le thin client computer. I have two more PDFs of interest:

Wyse R Class Rx0L computer
Wyse R Class computers

This last PDF describes the entire R class line.

One last thing for now, I installed XP & Windows 7 on this computer but it took a little effort. Both Windows installed and ran but only used the default drivers. For Windows 7 I needed the Video & network drivers & for XT I needed audio, video, SMBUS & NIC. They both ran without these drivers but it made everything work better. When I loaded Ubuntu everything worked correctly, bo extra drivers needed.

There are any number of inexpensive thin client computers on eBay, HP , Dell to name a couple. By-the-way Dell markets the Wyse thin client as their thin client.

Dell / Wyse WikiPediA link

Go to this link for a discussion of Ubuntu personal Desktop OS.

I have never done a line of programming under Linux but I have done a lot of programming in the Microsoft world in the early days with assembly language, C , Fortran, Basic and Pascal. Prior to that I programmed under CP/M and MP/M but when designing a WEB page I need help. I use Front Page because that what I learned on and it has a lot of capability. You can program on a pure WYSIWYG screen , a split screen showing the coding, a pure code screen and finally a preview screen.. There are other alternatives which are fairly good Kompozer & Bluefish. Kompozer has WYSIWYG, Bluefish does not but they both have HTML editing features that aid in code writing. The best part of these programs, they are free and supported on the internet, more so for Bluefish than Kompozer. If you are flush with money Dreamweaver is probably the Cadillac but $300 is a bit much and it is not available on a Linux / Ubuntu operating system. Kompozer is available on Windows, Mac & Linux. I also own many of the Coffee Cup products most of which I do not use.