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AML's M7100 Wireless Linux Terminal

Issue 125

From Issue #125
September 2004

Sep 01, 2004  By Tony Steidler-D...
 in
In its own way, the device opens new inroads for Linux to the infrastructure of commerce, the business back end that's a critical tool for management in commerce on any scale.
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Re: AML's M7100 Wireless Linux Terminal

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 09/03/2004 - 02:00.

I've used this device and found it fit very nicely in my hand. It's size is mostly contributable to it's massive battery. In fact in my testing, the battery lasted for three days of continuous use (as compared to about 3 hours with the "Palm Pilot" type devices).

I simply used OpenSSH to secure the deficencies in the 802.11b network with no problems. By the way there is a "Function Lock" feature that allows single keystroke function keys.

In my experience most warehouse applications still require some sort of terminal emulation. Even when using the newer Microsoft based devices, most of the time they are simply running a telnet application (Windows seems like a total waste of memory and power).

Telnet on Windows CE Terminals?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/06/2004 - 02:00.

While this is generally possible, it's a waste of resources to do that, as you write.
I know a company that uses WinCE devices as Citrix clients; other companies develop .net-compact-framework applications for such devices.

I demo'd the M7100 at SCALE2X...

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/02/2004 - 02:00.

My slides and demo code are at
kegel.com/linux/embed.
The demo was fun; it tied together a UPC database on the web
with the M7100. I built my own compiler using crosstool
rather than using any of the software that came with the M7100.

too big

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/02/2004 - 02:00.

I know a lot of devices like this one, since my work focuses in warehouse logistics. Mobile terminals of that size were up-to-date 5 years ago, but have been replaced by smaller, more ergonomically terminals yet. Telnet and VT100 emulation have been the de-facto standard for such devices until recently, when the new generation (windows ce-powered) took place. From a security point of view, the transmitted data is so uninterestings that none of our customers care about that - they care more about the weakness of WEP which generally grants an attacker access to the network, no matter which protocol the mobil terminal speak. IMO this device is too late and offers little advantages compared to the older (DOS based) competing products, while it lacks some features of the newer (WinCE based) competitors.

one more complaint

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/02/2004 - 02:00.

judging from the pictures, it looks this device has no function keys (F1, F2...) but the user has to press the "Func" key + the numeric key. Since function keys are the natural way to control an application on such a device, I consider it a major drawback if the user has to press more than one key for that.

Re: one more complaint

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 02:00.

Function keys can be "locked" on by pressing , then the number keys become function keys.

Re: one more complaint

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/16/2004 - 02:00.

But users need number keys often, too. The tree major input devices of such applications are: barcode scanning, function keys and numeric keys. Cursor keys are less necessary (if the application is stream-lined), letter keys are very rarely needed (mostly for configuration).

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