[Steph]

I got an 'ice' Visor deluxe a week ago, and I'm very happy with it. I've used a Palm about a year ago, then spend a few months with a win ce device, but I needed something with quick and easy iMac connectivity. Can't beat the USB connection right out of the box, and with the Backup springboard, even when I can't hotsync, I can still keep all data safe with one click. I love it!

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good sites that discuss Visor-specific hardware hacks or the sort, user-made springboards, etc? I've found lots of Palm hardware pages, but I guess Visor is still not 'big' enough for that kind of coverage.

I've already 'fixed' it to charge rechargables in the cradle, but there's lots of small bits of waste space just begging for mods.

Apologies if this question should have been in the modifications forum, but it's more PDA than Mac related.

Thanks!

--Stephanie

[huh?]

Check out
http://www.visorcentral.com

and
http://www.visorvillage.com

By the way, how did you modify your Visor to recharge batteries in the cradle?

[Scott_H]

Go search over at Slashdot for visor hacks. There's some Japanese pages that have many visor hacks.

[Steph]

Thanks for the urls!

I'm slowly setting up a web page of the hardware 'hacks' I have done. In brief though, the mod to the (USB) cradle is easy: Just connect the +5v wire from the USB cable, to pin 7 in the cradle. Pin 7 is designated by Handspring for this exact purpose: VDOCK = Docking cradle voltage. I don't know why they didn't hook it up. Within the visor, very very carefully I soldered two 1N914 diodes in series, from pin 7 of the cradle connector, to the + battery connector. With 2 rechargeable alkaline batteries in there, the OS reports 3.27v while in the cradle. Then after a day of heavy use (backlight, tale-light, alarms etc) it's sometimes down to 2.8v or so. Pop it in the cradle for an hour and it's full again. The only caveat with Rechargeable Alkalines that I have heard, is not to let them get very low or they won't recharge. The 'warning' voltage I heard was 2.7.

As an indicator I added a 5v white LED (my visor is Ice so it looks keen) which is lit while in the cradle, so I know it's charging. There was space right atop the backup capacitor, I soldered the (-) lead of the LED to ground at the capacitor, and the (+) lead through a 120 ohm resistor to the VDOCK pin.

Placement of the resistor and diodes and connecting wire is tight, but there is room to do it without cutting the plastic case, if you're careful. I have some pictures which will go into the web page.

When I have my visor hardware page up, i'll post the url.

--Stephanie

[THX1138]

I'd love to hear some more of your hacks, make sure to post a thread when you get your page up!

I've got an ice Visor also, and I've been wondering why HandSpring didn't include on cradle recharging, just like some Palm brand handhelds.

-THX

Oh, and isn't it a major bonehead for GoodTechnology to not have Mac support for their SpringBoard MP3 player? I bought my Visor versus a Palm because it's Mac out of the box, and I'm sure other Visor users did that also.

------------------
Just because Windows users vastly outnumber Mac users, numbers alone do not denote a higher form of life. Cøckroaches outnumber humans many times over, and no one says a cøckroach is better than a human.

[Steph]

I am going to try to get something onto the www this weekend... I have the pics ready, it's just a matter of putting it together on a page. Since I've been putting off doing some html work for my clients, I better do that before I do it for my hobbies.

I realized in my last post I neglected to mention one important thing; when modifying the cradle this way you have to plug it into a powered hub. It needs 500ma.

--Stephanie

[MrK]

THX1138--

RE: your sig file. I much prefer ****roaches. They don't eat as much as uninvited human guests and they don't talk as much either.

Also, there has yet to be a ****roach that puked on my rug during a party. Of course, ****roach puke, being, I suppose, small in volume, would be hard to spot...