Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Edgewater, MD
Posts: 41

This is starting to be not funny anymore. YY just told me that the module doesn't work on the Prism or on ANY Visor due to RF interference.

HS says it's not so.

I've called YY _4_ times now and it's like they just don't want to sell me a unit.

Should I be taking this personally? Has anyone else actually been able to purchase one of these?

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Jay
Building a Boat & a Dream
http://www.adventuregrrl.com

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Tech/Cust support NEVER knows ANYTHING!

I'm sure the rep's boss would like to know they don't want to sell you a unit, they sold me one.

Please be advised that tech support, customer 'service' and the like seldom know more than you do, and often know alot less. You are into the product, it is only their job. People are in training at YadaYada, and the nature of ego is thus: when you don't know something, never admit it, and if someone questions you, say they are wrong. It seems this is your case.

Maybe someone told the trainee/trainees that it would not support the Deluxe, and they extrapolated this to mean that it didn't support the Visor.

Remember, people are flawed. Sometimes they work in customer service.

__________________
Once in a while you get shown
the light....

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Hacienda Heights, Ca
Posts: 302

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jay
This is starting to be not funny anymore. YY just told me that the module doesn't work on the Prism or on ANY Visor due to RF interference.

---

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

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 49

Yadayada works fine on my prism!

Greetings,

Yadayada works fine on my Prism; I can't imagine why they told you that! I've been working with tech support all week and they never said a negative word. In fact, they've been able to solve many of my problems, and were VERY patient each & every time I called.

Who have you been dealing with at Yada? Darren, Mike & Janner were all great to me....

-m

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"Jazz is an art in which the risks
are great, the rewards subtle."
-Don Grolnick

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 8

YadaYada

I have had no problem whatsoever with their customer support. If they have not taken care of you by now just email me at [email protected] and I will make sure you are taken care of. I currently have a prism and the minstrel s.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

prism not working here...

We just got a Prism. Out of the box, we plugged in the Minstrel S. And it's still trying to connect...

I lay next to it, the optimized Deluxe unit and it connects.

I called Yadayada, and talk to a supervisor (ended up being the same sup. who sent us the eval unit) and initially they are pushing RF problems on the prism. After arguing a bit, he's pointing towards a faulty unit.

The Minstrel S is not ready for production. It's simple... The thing crashes left and right, even had hardware resets (thanks GOD to tha backup module !).

I cannot justify recommending the product within our company at all...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: NJ,US
Posts: 94

I have YY with a Prism, and it works fine. The ministel I
recieved, originally, didnt have any of the YY software
on it. Never had my Prism reset. The only problem was
that it was pointing at a bad DNS, which was quickly fixed.

Installed their update,
now I have to look at their YY splash screen, and it goes
into their launcher (I dont want to user their launcher).
Worse of all, I cant remove their software without it
reinstalling itself. Also my Prism now suffers from
reset from time to time. I dont think it is the minstrel,
I think it is the YY software.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I've had similar issues as the other folks and I have a Prism and YY.. After some hard lessons and some experimentation, I did find that if you have poor or intermittent reception it can lead to a lot (if not all) of the problems, at home, I am pretty far away and can't connect to the cell tower using the supplied "stub" antenna. I had to roll my own "super" replacement antenna, Palm OS doesn't like to loose network connections, it causes the unit to hang (it will recover if you wait), I think most folks pull the Minstrel out at this point and that's where the trouble begins. What ever you do, DON'T PULL THE MINSTREL OUT unless you gracefully turn the unit off and have switched back to the Application Launcher (Palm OS one not the Yada Yada one - another tip, disable the Yada Yada Launcher), if need be, do a soft reset, then run the "power switch" application to turn off the modem, also, very critical, don't forget to exit the power switch program!, or switch to a harmless program like the calculator before removing the Minstrel. Don't remove the modem with a "network" program still running (hanged or otherwise).. You are just asking for a hard reset.

If they won't sell you one on the phone, order it off the web and remove the well meaning, uninformed and inefficient humans from the loop.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

more on the prism

It seems it's a faulty unit...

The unit suffers the flickering problem other people saw. We tried SGs trick by adjusting the contrast, but it did not change.

Further, I tried to beam an application from the deluxe to the prism. It simply starts, and within seconds it fails. The deluxe sais it lost the connectivity. At the same time that was happening I noticed the flickering.

With respect to the modem, I can't get the thing to work at all. It tries to reconnect, even out in the open. (maybe the flickering is a power issue).

It's being exchanged with the mail order house we purchased it from. I tried via Handspring, but they first pushed us to go with the retail store for an exchange, and when I insisted that they do it, they said, 'yeah, we could set up an excha.... click' (hangup).

My .02... I think we are going to wait for Xircom's 802.11 and use it in-campus...

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

802.11=AirPort?

quote:

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Originally posted by suAve
My .02... I think we are going to wait for Xircom's 802.11 and use it in-campus...

---

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 62

I have a Prism with the Minstrel modem on YY and it works fine when I am in a spot where the signal is OK. Actually I have better luck when using anything else BUT YY browser.

YY said that the updated software is NOT ready for the Handspring products so use the first iteration of their software.

As far as removing the modem, just make sure that you have exited the communication application and are back to the desktop before removing the modem. If you get a screen message that says "Removing Minstrel S Modem" I think you can rest assured that everything is OK. This message is programmed in by YY so I do not think that it would show up at all if something bad was happening.

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Jeff Schaffer
[email protected]

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 61

Re: 802.11=AirPort?

quote:

---

Originally posted by critic


As I'm a networking idiot, maybe someone can help me. I thought I had read somewhere that Apple's AirPort wireless networking operated on the 802.11 standard. If this is the case, does that mean that Xircom's 802.11 module would be able to connect to an AirPort base station?

---

__________________
Once in a while you get shown
the light....

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Cascade, MD
Posts: 74

"YY said that the updated software is NOT ready for the Handspring products so use the first iteration of their software."

Is it possible to go back to the 1st iteration? I installed the newer one before they pulled it and it is really awful!

__________________
Life is not a dress rehearsal!

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

Funny thing is I have been using their short lived update without issues..

I agree with jschaff, Good reception is critical to problem free operation, the supplied "stub" antenna is only good if you are right on top of a cell tower. I use my own bigger antenna when at home or in the boonies. Don't use ANY Yada Yada software (it's pretty to look at but it's got the pox) it just crashes your visor, (i.e. Yada app launcher (mostly stable but hides certain applications like PQA's and is slow), Yada Browser (crashes at the drop of a hat)..), never pull the module out unless you are at the PALM OS launcher screen or some NON Network program (be careful of AOL IM, it somewhat still runs in the background!), (I also ALWAYS turn the modem power off before removal), I also changed the default settings for the modem to turn off when I turn off my visor.


By following the above rules I have been pretty crash free and happy..

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 85

quote:

---

Originally posted by wforde
Installed their update
Worse of all, I cant remove their software without it
reinstalling itself. Also my Prism now suffers from
reset from time to time. I dont think it is the minstrel,
I think it is the YY software.

---

__________________
...the patron saint of the easily amused...

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

quote:

---

Originally posted by dredhead
Can someone kindly figure out a way to delete these thisngs from the Minstrel memory? Or perhaps write a patch that causes the OS to not see these particular programs?

...waiting patiently for Deus ex Machina

---

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 7

Re: 802.11=AirPort?

quote:

---

Originally posted by critic


As I'm a networking idiot, maybe someone can help me. I thought I had read somewhere that Apple's AirPort wireless networking operated on the 802.11 standard. If this is the case, does that mean that Xircom's 802.11 module would be able to connect to an AirPort base station?

---

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 21

quote:

---

Originally posted by EricG
I've had similar issues as the other folks and I have a Prism and YY.. After some hard lessons and some experimentation, I did find that if you have poor or intermittent reception it can lead to a lot (if not all) of the problems, at home, I am pretty far away and can't connect to the cell tower using the supplied "stub" antenna. I had to roll my own "super" replacement antenna,

---

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 276

I think he meant the aluminum foil replacement... it's "super".

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what?<br>

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

My alternative antenna actually evolved from the foil idea

I don't really have any pictures.. I could make one, but it wouldn't make sense as it is now (it's all black)

I basically did the following:

1. bought a samsung 1900/1000 replacement cellphone antenna form Radio Shack.

2. I cut the antenna part to remove it from the threaded base part.. (you can ditch the antenna wire, you want the threaded base)

3. I scrounged around my apartment looking for a suitable longer and more rigid replacement "antenna" part for the samsung threaded base. I found that some BBQ skewers my wife picked up at the supermarket that was the right thickness to fit into the threaded base part of the samsung cellphone replacement antenna.


4. Before jamming the bbq skewer into the threaded samsung base part, I cut the bbq skewer to 5 1/2 inches and just placed it into the (empty) Minstrel S antenna socket (with the stub removed), yes it was VERY loose and would fall out if tipped, but I wanted to test the length of the trimmed bbq skewer to make sure it wasn't too long..

(This is very important, Obviously make sure you do not have the antenna you are making connected to the Minstrel S modem!! Don't thread it into the modem till you have completed step 5, Just incase you slip with the hammer or something.. you want to do this without the Minstrel S springboard around.. Build this at your own risk)

5. Once I found a size that worked well, I then (literally) jammed it into the samsung threaded base part, checked with a volt meter to make sure the new antenna part was in electrical contact with the threaded part (very important).. (was a really tight fit), use caution not to damage the threads on the threaded part when putting the new antenna in (I found a small bit of copper tubing that I sat the threaded base part into when tapping in the antenna), I had to actually use a hammer (but gently) to get the new antenna into the base part, it was that tight fitting.

6. After I put everything together, I screwed the new antenna into the Minstrel S.. After testing my new antenna for a few days (to make sure I didn't need to trim it further down), I then put a section of heat shrink tubing over the bare aluminum antenna part to protect it.. (and for cosmetic reasons)

My minstrel works like a charm now, and I don't EVER have to resort to using tin-foil again.

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Last edited by EricG on 03-01-2001 at 06:32 AM