VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- Modem springboard fat and inconvenient... (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=5339)

The pictures are really deceptive.

I was expecting something like one of those Xircom realport cards, a little fatter than the regular springboard with a little hump for the modem plug. What I got is fatter than the visor itself! You can't even attach the clip-on cover when the modem is in place, and you certainly can't carry the module in the visor, or carry the module by itself casually in your pocket... this unit is clearly part of a learning process and, unlike the Visor or the Eye Module, it's not going to win any awards.

I'm keeping it, but I'm going to have work upgrade me to the 6pack when it comes out, just so I can have something that's always ready.

That's the price of being able to have a battery-powered modem.

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James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.Hromadka.com

There are smaller batteries. For that matter the high voltage part of the modem circuit can be run off line power (there's plenty: phone lines are designed to power fat dumb analog phones with mechanical relays making and breaking the contact!), so the modem itself runs off the Visor batteries without having a huge impact on them.

I think this is the price I pay for needing the modem this early in the design cycle, before someone's designed a modem card for the Visor rather than just modifying an existing PCMCIA modem design.

I'm not saying I don't understand the tradeoffs, I'm just trying to provide information that people are likely to miss if they just go by the pictures online.

The pictures I see when I look at the Handspring web pages look pretty representative of the module. The RJ-45 plug is fairly prominent in the middle of the top side of the module. The overhang of the module (which shows up at the bottom of the picture) should also give you an idea of the size of the module. I was not suprised by the size of the module. (I carry it around in a pocket of my case when it's not in the Visor... usually the Backup module stays in the Visor).

Although I do have to remove the Visor from my EB case to insert the modem, I consider that a small inconvienence compared to lugging around a laptop. I use the modem both to access my two e-mail account and as a telnet terminal to do simple system maintenance on an emergency basis when I'm on the road.

I'd rather have 2 AAA batterys that I can find in Joe's Stop and Go shop to replace than some esoteric high powered Lithium battery I can't find when I'm on the road...

...just my 2c