Category: Garage Sale
Hi all,
I have a few (3) PC Weasel cards for sale.
These were originally intended to be used by system administrators who wanted a way of administrating low level parts of a system remotely, but the main reason why we as blind people can benefit from them is because they can give us access to the bios and some other operating systems that we can boot to.
The card has a serial connector and a ps2 connector. You view the output of the machine with the card installed in it via the serial and connect the ps2 to the ps2 on the board with a supplied cable; this allows you to send keyboard commands to the machine remotely as long as you use a null modem cable as opposed to a standard serial cable.
With this card you will be able to:
Read any output before the bootloder
Read post code errors
Enter the bios and perform tasks
Read the Windows f8 menu but nothing after this
Boot to cd's like GRML or anything else that will accept a GPU that runs in text mode; quite a few command line cd's or those that use very basic graphics should work
Some things to bear in mind before buying:
You will need a spare PCI slot and will need to feel comfortable installing and removing cards inside computers.
The card is designed to work when it is the only GPU in the system. If you have a dedicated GPU then you can just remove it; if you have onboard then most boards are smart enough to switch output to the weasel but this does vary
The card will only work with programs that can output in text mode; examples of programs that don't do this include Windows in safe mode, Ubuntu and the Windows installer but you'll be able to tell if you've booted into the installer once the card stops working
Some newer motherboards use UEFI; this is incompatible with the Weasel along with some fairly rare bioses that switch the GPU to graphical mode
We're using the card for something that it wasn't really intended to do, so the usability isn't as good as when you navigate a GUI with a screen reader
You'll be using something like Putty to view the output, so your mileage will partially depend on how well your screen reader works with programs like this
What's in the box:
1x PC Weasel PCI card
1x RS232 to Ethernet adaptor
1x ps2 to ps2 cable
If you don't want to use the Weasel over Ethernet you'll need a serial cable / null modem cable, potentially combined with a USB to serial adaptor if your computer doesn't have a serial port. If you use a standard serial cable you have to use the keyboard on the Weasel machine to control it but if you have a null modem cable, you can enter commands into something like Putty and control it completely remotely.
Condition is used but fully functional; price is £99 for one with free UK shipping. I can post abroad if you don't mind paying the postage; I will work with you to find the cheapest way to get you the card since I know things like this are sometimes subject to import taxes.
If you are interested or have any questions feel free to reply here or through pm; if there’s a specific program that you want tested and it's acquirable then I'm more than happy to see if it will work or not before you buy.
Cheers,
Ben.
I can't afford this, but am intrigued by the concept. It reminds me of the Speaqualizer, which I've always wished could have been updated to work with other card slots. . Will this work under DOS? I'm guessing no, since it doesn't have a built-in synthesizer, but am curious.
Hi,
I think you're missunderstanding the device. The Weasel is to a certain extent os independent; if the os you're wanting to use can support a graphics card that works in text mode then it will be usable, so at a guess, I'd say that dos is quite likely to work. It doesn't have a synth because it's not a blind device; the weasel would be installed in machine a and you view the output of it on machine b which will have some form of screen reader installed.
I've been trying this on a few more boards with onboard video; in every case they've been smart enough to switch to the weasel so this probably won't be an issue.
Cheers,
Ben.
Not quite understand what the ps/2 cable is for? if you use a null modem cable and/or the ethernet to rs32 adapter, can you control the weasle machine with a remote machine's keyboard? or do you have to connect the ps/2 cable to the remote machine's keyboard port?
Hi,
Assuming machine a is the one with the weasel installed in it - E.G. the machine you want to view the bios of and machine b has a screen reader on it:
Connecting via a standard serial cable either directly from machine a to machine b or using a usb adaptor on machine b without the ps2 cable would mean that you would have to use the keyboard connected to machine a to control it; once you press a key the window gets redrawn on machine b.
Connecting via a null modem cable either directly from machine a to machine b or using a usb adaptor on machine b in conjunction with the ps2 cable - E.G. machine a doesn't have a keyboard connected to it - just the cable that goes from the ps2 port to the weasel, you will be able to send keystrokes using machine b's keyboard to machine a.
To be honest, in our case, the remote keystrokes feature is a bit pointless. When ever I've used the weasel, machine b has been a laptop with a usb serial adaptor and a program like Putty or Hyper Terminal. I then have a keyboard on my lap that is connected to machine a and when I type on it the output of machine b changes accordingly. Sending keystrokes remotely does work - I've tested it, but if all you want it for is to read the screen it's not really needed.
Hope this has cleard some things up.
Cheers.
If I use this is my only GPU, will I still be able to use windows 3.1 with jaws for windows 2.0? or will windows crash because its a text only display card?