Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

I recently opened up my Visor Prism to take a curious peek. I see that the battery and "speaker" are connected with small "plugs" to the circuit board. The "speaker" is actually a small flat piezo noisemaker. I know the TRG has a REAL speaker that is louder and sounds MUCH better. Here are some questions for anyone in the know...

- Has anyone ever seen one of these speakers?
- Is it flat also?
- Would there be enough room in a Prism to fit one inside?
- Would the leads that feed signal to the piezo provide enough signal and power to drive a real speaker?

I thought about removing the piezo and drilling a small hole through the back of the case so the sound has a place to escape. Would this make any difference? I'd really like a REAL speaker like the TRG Pro on my Prism.

Last edited by Scottster on 04-22-2001 at 03:05 PM

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 380

If you install a 'real' speaker, you will not have any sound at all. You won't have anything to generate the audio output to the speaker. You could put in something to generate the buzz as an output to the speaker, but then you would just have a loud buzzer. If you put in real sound generation hardware, you would have to patch the OS to generate the proper (or at least appropriate) sounds.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 63

In a word, no. It's been tried repeatedly (not necessarily on the Prism) but on the III, the IIIx, and the Platinum I think (but I can't remember the link). The results were quite disappointing. The board/OS really isn't designed for a real speaker--just a piezzo buzzer as bradhaak pointed out. The closest thing of late is a headphone jack wired in which allowed the user to try headphones and a small walkman speaker. The link (in Japanese) may be found at http://www.fureai.or.jp/~mori-t/b01...j/prism_ej.html

Cheers,
-Stimp.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: The Matrix
Posts: 718

nice wish

It would be nice, but I don't think so. I have a great idea. Lets all write to Creative Labs to come out with a Sound Blaster Springboard module. Could you imagine the games!!! Oh well. nothings wrong with some wishful thinking.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

Damn shame. I hear from alot of people that the speaker in the TRG Pro sounds pretty good. Anyone have any thoughts on my hole drilling plan?

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

Are there no takers on my last question about drilling the hole in the back of the case to possibly increase the volume of the Prism's "speaker"?

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

I guess you could try it. I notice when I remove the SB cover it is slightly louder, but not much.

What does the TRG Pro have that other Palm OS devices don't? Obviously the speaker, but what did they do to get it to work?

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

According to a previous post, not only do they have a real speaker, there is additional code in the OS that supports sending audio signals to this speaker. It's common knowledge that the TRG Pro's OS is customized since it had to be modified to support Compact Flash cards natively.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 380

There is no way that I am going to recommend that anyone drill a hole in their case.

Even If I was going to do it myself I wouldn't mention it on this board because someone will undoubtedly take a drill press and make the hole without taking their PDA apart. Then they will then run the bit clear through the screen and out the other side. After discovering that they now have a dead Visor, this fine specimen of humanity will blame the posters on this thread for not telling them that drilling a hole through their screen (and the circuit boards underneath), was a bad idea.

Ok, I don't actually think that anyone hear is this stupid( I hope), but I am still very hesitant to make public recommendations to nontechnical people about modifying hardware whether or not I think that it could be beneficial.

Last edited by bradhaak on 04-19-2001 at 08:37 PM

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

StiMPy wrote:
"The closest thing of late is a headphone jack wired in which allowed the user to try headphones and a small walkman speaker. The link (in Japanese) may be found at http://www.fureai.or.jp/~mori-t/b01...j/prism_ej.html"

Sure, it looks pretty cool. Now if only I read Japanese to find out what it does and how to install if I chose...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 63

Bradhaak wrote:
"I am still very hesitant to make public recommendations to nontechnical people about modifying hardware whether or not I think that it could be beneficial"

Okay, reasonable enough. I'm actually pretty technically saavy. As I stated in my original post, I was quite comfortable when I took off the back cover of the Prism. Hey, I'd actually remove the piezo before drilling so I don't put a hole through it!!

No, really... send me a private reply and let me know what you think. I promise, no drill presses; no litigation; no stupidity. I'd use a small dremmel tool to make a hole or a small pattern of holes, each about the size of the reset pin hole. I'll then center the piezo back onto the inside of the cover so the "speaker" is centered right over the hole.

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posts: 63

Scottster:

It's probably a reasonable idea. In fact, I've got the back cover of my Prism off now...I just upgraded it to 16 mb. Sa-weet.

Anywhoo, enough about me...

I think the piezo might be a little harder to remove than you think. I have a feeling it may be glued/stuck down. It seems to move a little, but I can't quite see how it's anchored down. Be VERY careful that you don't rip the wires off.

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scottster
According to a previous post, not only do they have a real speaker, there is additional code in the OS that supports sending audio signals to this speaker.

---

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 118

Drilling your case

Just for sillys sake I went ahead and gave it a try. (Prism volume is Horrible, worse than my DLX).

Cut 7 holes in a little circular pattern (think phone mouthpiece on the old wall phones) and it makes a minor difference. I'm in a very noisy enviroment, and when I placed the unit down on a surface it was actually audible, whereas before it was not.

So, for people who don't mind hacking the hardware, its a possible (if limited) fix for a *well* known issue.

Cheers!

Tucson Sailors

Registered: Sep 2001
Location: toronto
Posts: 85

Ive done both mods....speaker and earphone jack , both work great, both have good output levels...,

I dunno how people are saying you wont be able to hear "real" sound without the piezo...With earphones, tealmovie, and a matchbook i am able to listen to some gquality sounding music off the prism.


As for the speaker mod..., just replace the existing one with one from a small plush toy or one of those singing birthday cards. they are the same sort of flat design speaker as the piezo in the prism just bigger and louder


get ready to void your waranty, ....but if you really mess it up send it back give HS 120$ and theyll send you a spanking new one for you to rip apart all over again weee!

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: By the toilet.
Posts: 174

How about drilling the Springboard cover?

Instead of drilling into the case itself, why not drill the holes on the Springboard cover (assuming you don't use Springbaords, of course.)

I can drill a few holes on the top of the cover, and a few more on the back. This way, the Visor will sound louder in almost any position, because drilling on the back case alone won't really make much difference if it's in a slipper case or has its back on a soft surface, right? If you drill holes on the top of the SB cover, you can get sound coming out from the top of the Visor without getting blocked by the slipper case. Besides, most people put the Visor bottom first into their pockets, so the sound can actually get thru the top cover and into their ears.

Or, a better way is to drill both on the back case and the SB cover to get better "surround" sound. =)

Perhaps should cut out a thin light sponge to put behind the holes to trap any dust or ants from going into the motherboard.

What do you think? Does drilling the SpringBoard cover void the warranty? I mean, it won't make much of a difference from leaving the SB cover off, right?


=====================

quote:

---

Originally posted by tucson_sailors
Just for sillys sake I went ahead and gave it a try. (Prism volume is Horrible, worse than my DLX).

Cut 7 holes in a little circular pattern (think phone mouthpiece on the old wall phones) and it makes a minor difference. I'm in a very noisy enviroment, and when I placed the unit down on a surface it was actually audible, whereas before it was not.

So, for people who don't mind hacking the hardware, its a possible (if limited) fix for a *well* known issue.

Cheers!

Tucson Sailors

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 1

Less risky solution?

Hi all... I love my Prism, but I hate how quiet the alarm is (heard this before?). There's no way I'm poking around in there with a soldering iron, so I'm wondering if any of you could suggest some other solution.

Is there a springboard module with a louder alarm? Will Handspring replace it or make it louder for me? Will some other company?

I called Handspring tech support, but the guy on the phone wanted to charge me $20 to "see if we can fix it over the phone" which was rather insulting. I figure that they should be able to put a louder alarm in since my friend's Treo is way louder than my Prism. But the guy on the phone gave me the runaround.

Thanks,
Chaz

Registered: Apr 2002
Location:
Posts: 24

quote:

---

Originally posted by StiMPy
Scottster:

It's probably a reasonable idea. In fact, I've got the back cover of my Prism off now...I just upgraded it to 16 mb. Sa-weet.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location:
Posts: 143

SoundBlaster Module?

What about the BeatPlus module, can it play system sounds and alarms yet? James' review in August 01 said that it was not possible then. Any upgrades?

http://www.handspring.com/products/...&cat=170012

Registered: Nov 2002
Location:
Posts: 23

Why rock your brain over the speaker? Just get a new PDA with a real speaker, for goodness sake!