The Pocket 386 is the latest tiny retro PC to be available from China, joining the Book8086 and the Hand 386. I have read that the Hand 386 was discontinued due to part shortages.
The unit is small, but calling it something that fits in a pocket is stretching it.
Specifications
The Pocket 386 IBM PC Compatible Handheld Computer
- 386 SX (40MHz) embedded in an Ali M6117
- 8MB DRAM, 639k conventional, 7168k extended. 24k used by apps conventional, 64k in DOS HIGH memory, 615K conventional memory free.
- Replaceable VGA Card ( CL-GD542X / TVGA9000 / CHIPS F655xx ) (Mine has the Trident 8900C VESA VGA 1K video RAM according to the bundled Oldskool Benchmark Suite)
- Seamless Online Switching between 4:3 and 16:9 display ratios. (640x480 / 800x480) (Fn F4)
- CF Card (IDE Mode) Storage (2GB typical)
- USB Controller (CH375B) for USB Flash storage devices only
- OPL3 (Yamaha YMF262-M) Sound Card, speaker and 3.5mm line out jack
- Built-in Mouse using arrow keys
- OSD/SOSD LCD Control (Fn F4)
- 4000 mAh Lithium Battery
- 12V DC Input (1.5 amp supply provided)
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External Interfaces:
- Serial RS-232 (using a MAX211 chip to get RS-232 levels using an internal daughter card and external dongle)
- Centronics Parallel (printer)
- Card with VGA, PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors
- ISA bus connection (card sold separately)
- ISA/GPIO connection (no daughtercard is apparently available, documentation below for pinout and in datasheet) - advanced
There is no provision for a coprocessor. The only internally replaceable item besides battery and storage is the serial card which uses a plug to access the ISA bus.
Storage
The Compact Flash card may be removed on the left side of the base. Mine is 2GB and is a Kingston unit that is worn and has a 2009 date sticker. Backing the card up on receipt and routinely would be a good idea.
The manufacturer recommends using the program Ghost (Norton Ghost?) to backup and restore disk images. I had to ask for the Windows 95 software for this machine from DZT's store and I was sent RAR images of Ghost and the Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 disk images and the Ghost program was with that. Instructions on use are in the terse User's Guide. If you order on a store other than DZT on AliExpress, the files may not be available.
Like its brethren, the device has expansion ports using a ribbon cable and a daughterboard. Daughterboards come bundled with the package I bought and include Parallel (Centronics) with DB-25 female connector (IBM "standard"), serial with a DB-9 connector (IBM "standard") and a card with VGA (Tight DB-15 standard) coupled with two PS/2 ports for external mouse and keyboard.
The External ISA Bus Expansion Capability (sold separately)
The ISA Bus Expansion Card is sold separately. It takes 12 volts (not supplied) at unknown amperage. The ISA slots are not keyed so it is possible to accidentally put a card in backwards. This Vogons thread shows the correct orientation. A video review is not kind and the follow-on video.
The power supply required by the expansion bus, per the seller (note this is not supplied or sold by the store):
Computer Power
The power supply is external and is 12v, 1.5 amps. On ordering, one can select from, US, AUS, or EU plugs.
The internal battery is rated at 4000 mAh.
A small red LED near the right front corner of the keyboard turns red when charging, blue when charged.
If you use the ISA8-EXP-01 ISA Bus expansion card, that also requires 12 volts. See above for more.
While the mechanism to use the arrow keys as a mouse helps, for example in Windows, the implementation is not easy to use.
The mouse click and drag is not possible with the keypad mouse emulation according to users and my own testing. This makes full use of Windows difficult.
Serious mouse users would likely be better off using a PS/2 mouse connected via the VGA-PS/2 dongle. Press the red Fn key then F5 to get the "Super On-Screen Display (SOSD) pop up on screen, select Fn and 5 (not F5) to toggle the mouse to External.
If you chose to use the external PS/2 mouse port, you need to enable it and disable the keypad mouse emulation. See screen below.
To access Red Function keystrokes, the Fn button is used:
Per the screen above:
- Amplifier on/off Fn + 3 (mutes the speaker, audio only on 3.5mm port)
- Adlib OPL3 sound emulation on/off Fn + O
- Parallel printer port enable Fn + P
- VGA output on/off Fn + 1
- Mouse internal / external Fn + 5 (a system reboot is needed to take effect), internal and PS/2 cannot be active at the same time. Mouse dragging appears to not be supported with the keyboard mouse.
- Keyboard / Mouse toggle functionality - use the Menu key to the right of the spacebar (blue circle)
Software
The unit comes with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The total space used on the CF card is 168Mb.
Bundled Applications
Besides MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the following is on the compact flash "Hard Drive" (note on the CF card that came with my unit in July 2024):
- Turbo C (TC)
- Turbo BASIC (TB)
- TWAY V3.2 braphical menu bar TSR (TW) - Chinese
- TEST\Topbench - The Oldskool Benchmark Suite - score: 76
- UCDOS 98 - apparently a Chinese DOS program
- Foxbase
- HDCOPY
- PCBASIC
- Windows 3.11 install files (WIN311)
- 3D 3D graphics test program
- GAME - directory of games
- DOOM
- Duck
- DUNE 2
- FFC
- HISTORIK
- LAC
- PAL
- RAPTOR
- SBVGM
- SEA2
- TYRIAN
- WAR
- WOLF3D
- WAR2
Windows 95
The hardware specifications meet and slightly exceed the requirements for Windows 95. This does not mean users will have an excellent experience with Windows 95. The vendor I bought my unit from provided a software image in Norton Ghost format for the Windows 95 image. The images and Ghost were sent in RAR format. I used WinRAR to get the files but I have not put them on the Pocket 386. Check the thread on vcfed.org for software links.
BIOS
- Per Boot: AMI BIOS 7/15/1995
- To get into BIOS at boot: Press and hold the Delete key
Resources
The following resources are available online as of the time this Note was written:
8086cpu.com:
- Main Page
- 8086 Store on AliExpress
- User's Guide (PDF version 1.0)
- Schematic (PDF version 1.2)
- ISA Expansion Card and Cable
AliExpress:
- DZT's Store - where this line usually shows up first.
- ISA Expansion card and cable
Third party sites:
- Thread on Vogons - Pocket 386, the brother of Hand386 and Book8088, the story so far
- Thread from Foone - Mastodon
- Thread from Vintage Computer Federation (VCF)
Hacking:
- Reverse engineered LCD OSD/S-OSD control protocol
- RTC problem: the fix is to remove R38 next to the M6117D. The schematics say this component shouldn't be installed (NC), but they installed it anyway!
Resources:
Hardware:
- Datasheet for the Ali M6117 CPU chip
- POST codes for the Ali M6117
This page (Getting Started with the Pocket 386) was last updated on November 04, 2024.