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- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- Cell Phone Module (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=7608)

Cell Phone design

I also would want a 1/8 inch mini headset jack in order to use the CellPhone module that is compatible with normal headphones.

The option to use either the built-in Visor mic or a headset mic could be the best solution as I usually walk around with my normal set of headphones for my portable CD player anyway. My object is to carry around as little as possible. I don't own a cellphone right now, but have been considering one as a purchase for early next year. This Visor module one sounds intruiging.

I could use my normal stereo headphones to listen and use the Visor's mic to talk, or potentially have the option to plug in a full headset headphone with its own mic as well.

As for the fight of whether it is better to hold the Visor up to your head, or to use a headset, I live in NYC and also sometimes get creeped out by the occasional person talking to himself on the street corner. But I think this behavior will be much more accepted as more tumors are seen sticking out of long-time cellphone user's heads.

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Rocky

Re: Cell Phone design

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Originally posted by rockreid
I also would want a 1/8 inch mini headset jack in order to use the CellPhone module that is compatible with normal headphones.

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Re: Cell Phone design

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Originally posted by rockreid
I live in NYC and also sometimes get creeped out by the occasional person talking to himself on the street corner.

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Bret Snyder<BR>If you don't know where you're going,<BR>You'll probably end up somewhere else.

SIM switching

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Originally posted by Gameboy70

Can you switch (via SIM replacement) to a provider with a different type of network, e.g. a GSM-based provider to a CDMA-based one?

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Browsing this thread I did not notice much (any) mention of Sprint PCS voice/data service. I have had a sprint PCS phone for about a year, and as a cell phone it works pretty good. If a springboard was developed that could be used on the PCS network, it could also have the potential for wireless internet access as well. I use my cell phone as a wireless modem with my laptop right now, and it works OK... a little slow maybe, except you have to connect the phone to the laptop serial port using a special cable, which is kind of kludgy. Sierra wirless makes a stand-alone PCMCIA adapter for Sprint PCS networks that frees you from having to connect the whole mess up (it's really cute, too... (http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/510nb.html) Other threads describe how to connect the data-ready PCS phones to the visor, but once again it's a pain to screw around with the cables and adapters et al... but a handspring module that would allow your visor to do voice or data over the Sprint PCS network would be great.

Have you been able to successfully connect your Visor to your PSC phone?

PCS / GSM

The exact details of how to use a system like this will depend on the phone. For a lot of Nokia and Ericsson models, there is the TDK Global Pulse software, but that needs a serial cable, and I don't know if it will work with a serial adaptor for the Visor; certainly it doesn't understand the Visor's IR.

However, if you have a mobile phone with built in modem and infra-red (Nokia 8210, 7110, 8850, many recent Ericsson models and possibly the Motorola Timeports) then it's trivial.

I have IrLink on my Visor, and the network port redirected as IrDa. Modem prefs set up as standard for calling an analogue service, or with the init string AT+CBST=71,0,1 for calling ISDN data services. That string is certainly good for both Motorola and Nokia phone/modems, probably for others as well.

Nothing else needed; enable IR on the phone, fire up AvantGo and I'm away.

However, how much of this will work is going to depend on your phone and its capabilities. Remember that you may also need to ask the network to enable data services; for me, that means that I actually have three numbers on the one GSM phone - one voice, one fax and one data.

Given that at least one of the proposed modules - the GSM/GPS one - is from a European company, I would suspect things like this are likely to appear first for that market, mostly likely in a dual band GSM (900/1800) version. We are, after all, a much bigger market than the US where cellular comms are concerned.

If you're lucky, I guess someone may bring out a tri-band GSM to cope with the US networks that work to that standard.

Someone elsewhere mentioned that Handspring had licensed CDMA, so I guess there may be interest in producing a module for that type of network, but I'd put money on a GSM one appearing first.

[Edited by nwhitfield on 09-05-2000 at 01:05 PM]

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Originally posted by crewsr I have had a sprint PCS phone for about a year, and as a cell phone it works pretty good. If a springboard was developed that could be used on the PCS network, it could also have the potential for wireless internet access as well. I use my cell phone as a wireless modem with my laptop right now, and it works OK... a little slow maybe, except you have to connect the phone to the laptop serial port using a special cable, which is kind of kludgy. Sierra wirless makes a stand-alone PCMCIA adapter for Sprint PCS networks that frees you from having to connect the whole mess up (it's really cute, too... (http://www.sierrawireless.com/ProductsOrdering/510nb.html) Other threads describe how to connect the data-ready PCS phones to the visor, but once again it's a pain to screw around with the cables and adapters et al... but a handspring module that would allow your visor to do voice or data over the Sprint PCS network would be great.

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Re: Re: Cell Phone design

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Originally posted by Bret Snyder

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Originally posted by rockreid
I live in NYC and also sometimes get creeped out by the occasional person talking to himself on the street corner.

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With Cell Phones or without?

I would assume both.

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__________________
exit, pursued by a bear.

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Originally posted by Gameboy70
Since Handspring's licensed Qualcomm's CDMA technology, they'll probably use Sprint PCS (usually bundled with Qualcomm phones). I'm dumping my analog Nokia 5190 and getting a Qualcomm/Sprint PCS phone today with the idea that I'll have the service in place when the module becomes available at the end of the year as planned.

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Since Handspring's licensed Qualcomm's CDMA technology, they'll probably use Sprint PCS (usually bundled with Qualcomm phones)

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Originally posted by Gameboy70
Scalpel:

Can you switch (via SIM replacement) to a provider with a different type of network, e.g. a GSM-based provider to a CDMA-based one?

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__________________
"Scalpel"
Atomic Hyrax Games

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Originally posted by BEN I wouldn't be so sure that their going to use PCS with CDMA. If their going to use PCS they also have to license that technology too. I would stick either with the analoge phone or go with a network that is strickly CDMA (Verizon in the Northeast) until Handspring says anything else.

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Actually, more than three quarters of Qualcomm's phones do not work on the PCS network, but a strictly CDMA one. You might think that all Sprint PCS phones are made by Quallcomm, but infact most of them are Nokia's and Ericcons (sp?) that use CDMA technology licensed from Qualcomm. The slim Qualcomm is just the show phone that is always used in the commercials or ads.
BEN

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CDMA and PCS

The terms CDMA and PCS are quite different in meaning.

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access. It refers to the RF system used: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum. CDMA is less technical and easier to use in marketing.

PCS is really a marketing term so it means MANY different things. It usually refers to the enchanced services you get with any kind of digital cell phone technology: caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, paging, Internet access, etc... Such services can be applied to TDMA, CDMA, and GSM type digital cell phones anywhere. PCS orginally was meant to refer to cell phones that used the 1.8GHz frequency band. Again the phone could be 'PCS' if it was TDMA, CDMA, or GSM (a form of TDMA). Analog phones usually cannot implement these features.

What BEN said was missleading: There really is no such thing as a "PCS network". The cell phone network is either CDMA, TDMA/GSM, or analog (AMPS in the US or TACS in Europe). So saying that Qualcomm's phone don't work on "the PCS network" is incorrect. They work on the US standard CDMA network as defined by the IS-95a/b specs. Qualcomm just happens to own most of the CDMA technology.

Re: CDMA and PCS

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Originally posted by MPM

What BEN said was missleading: There really is no such thing as a "PCS network". The cell phone network is either CDMA, TDMA/GSM, or analog (AMPS in the US or TACS in Europe). So saying that Qualcomm's phone don't work on "the PCS network" is incorrect. They work on the US standard CDMA network as defined by the IS-95a/b specs.

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Qualcomm just happens to own most of the CDMA technology.

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I have connected my Visor to my Qualcom Touchpoint (Sprint PCS) phone, and works well enough for checking email, and maybe light www browsing. Here's how to do it without the Mark Space cable:

You will need the serial cradle, a 9-9 null modem adapter and the wireless connectivity cable. Try to find a null modem adapter that works as a female-male gender changer, or else you will need one of those, too. Using the null modem adapter / gender changer, connect the serial cradle to the wireless connectivity cable. What you will have is a cable with the cradle on one end, and a plug that fits into the bottom of the phone on the other.

Set the Visor's modem preferences like so:

Modem: Standard
Speed: 14,400 or 19,200
Speaker: Off
Flow Ctl: Off
Country: Other
String: AT&FX4

Plug the cable into the phone, and switch the phone on if isn't already. Make sure the Visor is OFF and put it in the cradle. You are ready to connect! You can also use a very similar setup to connect the Visor to a standard serial modem, just swap the wireless connectivity cable for a plain old serial cable connected to a plain old external modem. You may get a 'Serial Port already in use' type of error, but a soft reset of the Visor will take care of that (it does for me at least).

The Mark Space cable is currently not available, but according to the web site, it will be available as either a straight-through (for connecting to a PC), or crosswired to connect to a modem. The crosswired cable will eliminate the need for the null modem adapter. You will still have to plug the two cables (Mark Space & Wireless connectivity) together, which is still kludgy, but not as kludgy as having null modem adapters and gender changers thrown into the mix. What would be ideal is if Mark Space could make a cable with a Visor plug on one end and a cell phone plug on the other...

This setup works with the hardware I have specified. If you have some other brand of phone (Nokia, Motorolla etc..), then you are on your own!

Still, the best solution would be for a Sprint PCS CDMA Springboard with a little pop-up antenna and a headphone jack for voice...