VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- How To / Troubleshooting (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=2)
-- A few Questions (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=1756)

Will leaving my Visor in the USB cradle shorten the battery life? Does anyone know how the Handspring cases hold the visor in place and if you have one how about a picture. (not the slip case)

Thanks
Carl

Leaving your Visor in its cradle will drain your batteries due to it waiting for a signal from your PC.

Carl,
I don't have a picture of the cover available but how it works is this: Imagine a very elongated letter C. At the bottom is a wide lip with two rounded pins. These hook into two recessed holes in the bottom of the Visor, just alongside the hotsync port. At the top is another wide lip with a latch that catches in a slot at the top of the Visor. Basically you set the case at the bottom, then snap the cover in place with the lip at the top. It fits very snugly and provides excellent protection for the screen, buttons, and hotsync port. You do need two hands to remove it unless the Visor is sitting on a table or some other surface. Let me know if this description helps. You can see some pictures of the cover if you look at the main visorcentral page at the bottom. There should be a link to Visor Pictures.

Mark

I'm not completely sure, but I think 150pilot is wrong. I don't think leaving it in the cradle draws on the battery. First, the signal to hotsynch comes either from the Visor (or Palm), or the cradle (pushing the button on the cradle) not from the computer. Second, putting the Visor into the cradle does NOT cause it to wake up, so I don't see how it would "know" to monitor for a signal.

What I imagine is that pushing the cradle button closes a circuit that tells the Visor to wake up...the Visor is not using processor cycles to monitor for this, any more than it is monitoring for the On/Off switch.

--- edits start here ----
Now I think I'm wrong and 150pilot is right. Seems like a dumb design, but see:
http://www.conklinsystems.com/pilot/drainfix.shtml

[This message has been edited by huski (edited 11-22-1999).]

I read the URL about the power drain on the PalmPilot.... but...

That hack/fix/explanation was in reference to an older PalmPilot SERIAL cradle. Can anyone confirm whether the problem exists on the Handspring USB cradle? Also, even with the serial cradle from Handspring, it has a different type of HotSync connector than the old PalmPilot -- so conceivably the problem might not exist?

Some confirmation either way would be great. You can't take the above URL as absolute because of the changes Handspring made to the HotSync connector.

------------------
______________________
William

[This message has been edited by 150pilot (edited 11-28-1999).]

wrp,

I agree that the battery drain could be different between the HS cradle and the Palms...I have to admit that I was stunned that it could even be true for the serial Palm.

I emailed HS tech support on this but haven't received an answer yet. I'll post when it comes in.