Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Treo Chargers

I am taking pre-orders for Treo chargers at
visorsolutions.com.

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Is this too much?

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Price lowered!

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

Lousy website

Your product may be fine, but I would be surprised if you get any orders. Showing the product on a quilt is unprofessional -- who can see it? Cutting the price moments after you post your original offer also suggests desperation. There is a noticable lack of details:

How long will the Treo run on 4 AAs?

How long does it last with the phone on?

There are reports that the Sprint automobile charger yields fatal resets when an email comes in; I had this experience with an external power pack. Does your charger suffer from this problem?

Have you ever been in business before?

Is there any reason for a buyer to think that you won't keep the money and send nothing, or send a dysfunctional jumble of plastic parts?

Are you associated with "the" Gadget Guru of www.gadgetguru.com fame?

Good luck, but I won't be ordering.

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

Re: Lousy website

Ha Preston.

You are a bit harsh man! GadgetGuru is a long time member of Visorcentral/TreoCentral. He sold battery chargers for the Visor series before and people liked what he had to offer. There are people out there that has good ideas but do not know how to create a professional site (or do not want to pay to make one). TaleStuff.com sells quality and useful products..but there site used to be "unprofessional" before they changed to their current design.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Preston
Your product may be fine, but I would be surprised if you get any orders. Showing the product on a quilt is unprofessional -- who can see it? Cutting the price moments after you post your original offer also suggests desperation. There is a noticable lack of details:

How long will the Treo run on 4 AAs?

How long does it last with the phone on?

There are reports that the Sprint automobile charger yields fatal resets when an email comes in; I had this experience with an external power pack. Does your charger suffer from this problem?

Have you ever been in business before?

Is there any reason for a buyer to think that you won't keep the money and send nothing, or send a dysfunctional jumble of plastic parts?

Are you associated with "the" Gadget Guru of www.gadgetguru.com fame?

Good luck, but I won't be ordering.

---

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

That's fine. I have been selling chargers for over a year for the
Visors. My vendor finally released the Treo hotsync connectors to
third party developers. I am taking pre-orders, so I decided to
lower my price since people will have to wait about a week. I
still have not had any orders for the Treo line. The Visor line is
still selling fine. If the Treo is not going to be a big seller, I just
will not sell it. I think a lot of people lost interest in Handspring
when they announced they were abandoning the Visor line.
I know the Treo is selling, hence the TreoCentral site.

The pictures are of the Visor line since it looks the same except
for the connector.

As for the site, it's my site and I like it. If you read thru the site,
you will see that this is a one person operation. I am an
electronics tech by trade, not a web site designer. If you want to
pay more for accessories because the site you use paid $1200
dollars for the site design and $150 a month for the hosting and
e-commerce setup, go ahead.

I offer quality products, great customer service (so I have been
told), and a reasonable price. Those of you that have purchased
from TechCenterLabs after I came on the scene may have noticed
that their prices dropped. I think it was from the buzz about my
site.

I am not associated with GadgetGuru.com.

Thank you yardie for coming to my defense. It is much appreciated
to see that people do respect what I'm doing here.

Rick

...gotta change that avatar. Totalled that bike on July 4th.

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

More

A testimony by yardie is valuable -- a lot of Treo owners are not former visor owners and won't know of your reputation at visor central. Why don't you include a link on your site to people who say good things about you? Encourage customers like yardie to post here, too.

I'm sorry for the harsh tone but your site is a good example of a "where not to buy" site (see http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/glblalrt.htm)-- there are many scammers on the web.

Moreover, half of my complaints concerned technical issues -- what will this actually accomplish? -- and a good reputation doesn't speak to those.

Finally, one more thought. Instant power has the nice attribute of using one cord and permitting AC, DC and external battery charging, by substituting the end module. This makes travel easier. Given that you are designing these yourself, you could make awesome travel chargers.

Last edited by Preston on 09-01-2002 at 07:29 PM

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

interested but

GadgetGuru,

I am interested in your offering..but I would like to see what it looks like before I make my purchase. Also it would be nice to have some product specs on the site. How much charge u can get from the batteries etc.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

I'll let you know how it worked on my Prism. The input voltage
and current are the same for the Treo, Prism and Pro according
to Handspring's technical documents. I would let my Prism run
down to 3.8v and a BattPlug would fully recharge it about 4
times with alkaline batteries (4 AA) or 3 times with NiMH. The
AAA models would give 2-3 recharges.

As far as any problems go, I use the wiring diagram that
Handspring supplies in their tech docs.

I will refund or replace, at customer's request, any defective part.

As far as Instant Power, again, I am a one person company.
I don't have the resources or buying power to purchase in the
quantity to be able to compete price-wise with larger companies,
so I just stick to these. I will offer the TreoPowerPlug if the
jack fits. That will allow you to use the AC charger in hotel rooms.
The car chargers require stepping down the 14.4v to approx. 7v
or less for the input to the charging circuit. That means more
components, time and cost. I just can't make them for less than
$20 in the quantities that I would use.

Rick

I'll e-mail both of you for discounts to try which ever you want.
If you like it, write a good review for my site. If you don't like it,
send it back for a full refund (minus your shipping cost to me).

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

Testing

OK, I've ordered one. I'll post here what I find out.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Parts are scheduled to arrive on Monday. I will try to get the
chargers made up Monday night. I have to leave at 5am Tuesday
morning to go out of town 'til Friday. If I can't get them built,
they will be shipped on Monday the 16th.

Rick

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

Problems

I took the VisorSolutions challenge. The device arrived today. Fit and finish is good -- the device seems well-made. Unfortunately, it won't plug into a Treo.

The exact problem is that the inside of the connector appears to be upsidedown relative to the Treo (using the markings UP on the connector). However, that is not the only problem, because even if inverted, it still won't plug in -- the spacing isn't adequate either.

As a reminder, I was asked to try this because I had criticized it. Depressing to have it fail.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Sorry to hear that. Since I don't have a Treo, I can't test them.
Send it back for a refund. I guess I'll send these back to the
mfr and try to get my money back. Thanks for the info.

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

Try a store

You might try plugging one in a store like Best Buy. It looks to me like the Treo connector is just an inverted version of the Visor, if your device will plug into a Visor. (I don't have a visor to test.) Too bad, your device does seem well made although changing the batteries involves a screw that I had to search on the floor for twice -- once putting them in, once taking them out -- in spite of the use of a magnetic screwdriver. I suspect I would lose the screw permanently after a few changes of batteries, and then just put a rubber band around it.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

If you want, I'll try to fix it for you. It sounds like the connector
is upside down in the plug. I can swap it and send it back to you
if you prefer.

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

OK if you can test

That is what it looks like. However, I depend on my Treo and don't want to be the first tester. If you will find a way to test it, I'm happy to have the fixed version.

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

Treo Charger Works

Gadgetguru's charger came and it works fine. I used it to charge up my 270 and it worked at least as well as Instant Power's chargers. The advantage of Gadgetguru's is that you don't need a proprietary $10 fuel cell and airport security won't worry about them. The advantage of Instant Power's is that you can use the same cord for AC, 12 volt, and battery power, minimizing what you need to carry. For an emergency charger, though, Gadgetguru's is useful.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Thanks. I'm glad I got the bugs worked out with your help. Now
I can be confident in what I'm selling. Hope you continue to use
it.

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Austin
Posts: 13

I use this a lot

I want to add that I have wound up using this product a lot more than I expected. When I travel, I often want a backup power supply for the airplane, and gadgetguru's device is very small and easy to replace the batteries (although, now that I can't travel with a swiss army knife, I wish I could replace the batteries without a phillips screwdriver.

Still, the major message is that this thing is much more useful than I expected, primarily because I empty the batteries pretty frequently and often don't want to use a plug-in charger which would eliminate my mobility.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Arlington, TX
Posts: 334

Too bad the Treo doesn't come with a stylus that has the
phillips screwdriver in it like the Visors. That screwdriver was
great for changing the batteries in the BattPlug, and tightening
loose screws on glasses.

Rick

__________________
Rick

www.visorsolutions.com