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Prism Battery Extender


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Herkimer
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Oklahoma City Ok.
Posts: 42

Well that will work if it is the best i can do i guess.....

10-29-2000 01:19 AM

MarkEagle
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:
Originally posted by tyler
How about "screwing up" a $20 hotsync cable?

Can you actually open the connector shell to gain access to the pins? I thought they were sealed (glue, ultrasonic weld, etc)...

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10-29-2000 01:57 AM

kenneth_here
Member

Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

Hand power generator

That hand power generator mentioned above would probabaly work. Here is another hand generator connected to a palm pilot. Pretty nifty actually. You need translation software to read the Japanese instructions but not to look at the pictures. http://homepage1.nifty.com/jl1bmw/temawasi/charger.htm

10-29-2000 01:24 AM

Herkimer
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Oklahoma City Ok.
Posts: 42

yes you can open them up with just 4 screws (2 hidden under rubber feet) and then they just pop open but watch close so you can see where the small parts fit back....

10-29-2000 04:37 AM

dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

Well, after a little more testing, I've found that the Prism gets very unhappy if the battery extender can't provide enough power to keep the charging circuit going. In testing with a AA battery pack, I found that when the voltage at the connector drops to around 4.8V, the Prism's charging LED stops flashing and just lights continuous (as though it thinks it's fully charged) even though it's battery level is still down around 70%.

To make matters worse, when I droped it in the charging cradle after that, it still wouldn't charge! Just a solid green light. Fortunately a soft-reset cleared the condition and the unit is now charging happily in the cradle. I figured this was worth mentioning so that those of you playing with alternate charging techniques won't experience that moment of "oops, I broke it panic" if you encounter this problem

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10-31-2000 03:43 PM

sawbvd
Member

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 9

Solar Panels

dkessler:

I found this site that supplies solar cells, panels, kits and even chargers for pocket PC's. Check it out.

http://www.siliconsolar.com/

Let us know if you think anything will work.

-Scott

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10-31-2000 05:08 PM

Herkimer
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Oklahoma City Ok.
Posts: 42

Hey guys check out InnoGear MiniJam PowerPack i think is is just what we have been looking for for $19.00

[Edited by Herkimer on 11-13-2000 at 11:01 AM]

11-04-2000 02:25 AM

Rob
Member

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: at work...
Posts: 736

quote:
Originally posted by Herkimer
Hey guys check out InnoGear MiniJam PowerPack i think is is just what we have been looking for for $19.00

I'm not so sure, Herkimer. From James' earlier review:

http://www.visorcentral.com/article.php3?id=55&pv=2

>Powering the MiniJam
>
> PowerPak Extended Playtime battery pack -- This small battery box holds 4 AA batteries
> and powers the MiniJam directly through the top DC jack of the MiniJam or the Visor cradle
> connector by using a modular cable that allows you to use either end....
> I asked if the PowerPak could be made to power the Visor alone, and unfortunately
> the Visor doesn't have the capability for this.

[Edited by Rob on 11-03-2000 at 09:52 PM]

11-04-2000 02:49 AM

JHromadka
VisorCentral Staff

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

I checked with InnoGear and the PowerPak may be able to charge the Prism. That would be great if it could.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

11-04-2000 07:22 PM

Herkimer
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Oklahoma City Ok.
Posts: 42

Yes it would. I just sent them an E-Mail my self and made the note that if it will work as a charger they may wish to put this in there ad to sell more power packs, so i will let you all know what they say.

11-04-2000 08:36 PM

ByronC
Member

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Oak Grove, Kentucky
Posts: 211

Full Charger

Hi All,
Maybe the "Full Charger" is what you are looking for?

http://www.extendcomputer.com/html/..._for_visor.html

Byron

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11-12-2000 05:17 PM

dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

Re: Full Charger

quote:
Originally posted by ByronC
Hi All,
Maybe the "Full Charger" is what you are looking for?

http://www.extendcomputer.com/html/..._for_visor.html

Full Charger won't work for the Prism ... the Prism's battery is not externally accessible. But the original goal was to find a way to keep the Prism running without a source of A/C power. For recharging off A/C, Handspring is already taking orders for a Prism travel charger.

By the way, for those who have built or are planning to build a Prism battery extender as described at the start of this thread, RadioShack part #276-1114 (available in stores) solves the diode dillema. That part can handle a full 2.5A and has less voltage drop than the 1N4001 spec'd in the original article. I wired mine up with connectors so that I can plug the diode in between the cable and the battery pack. When battery voltage drops too low to keep charging, I unplug it and plug the cable directly into the battery pack. I'm doing a test now to see just how much run time I can get out of four AA batteries - I'll post the results later this week.

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11-13-2000 12:51 PM

Slacker
Member

Registered: Mar 2000
Location:
Posts: 98

Ok dkessler, here's a challenge for you:

I need a serial cable that I can connect to my GPS that I can also connect a power supply to. My intent is to use it in my vehicle so that I can have unlimited GPS use even on long trips. The auto adapter is an easy Radio Shack buy but the connector that will accept a power input as well as provide serial connectivity is another story. Can you help?

I have a cable I made to connect to my GPS and I probably could add a power connector to it, but I am afraid I would screw it up. What pins would I need to connect the + and - leads to and what should my power adapter provide?

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12-06-2000 01:13 PM

Babylon5
Member

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA Interests: Women, Drums, Visors, Computers, Home Theater and any cool gadgets.
Posts: 138

Re: Re: Full Charger

quote:
Originally posted by dkessler
By the way, for those who have built or are planning to build a Prism battery extender as described at the start of this thread, RadioShack part #276-1114 (available in stores) solves the diode dillema. That part can handle a full 2.5A and has less voltage drop than the 1N4001 spec'd in the original article. I wired mine up with connectors so that I can plug the diode in between the cable and the battery pack. When battery voltage drops too low to keep charging, I unplug it and plug the cable directly into the battery pack. I'm doing a test now to see just how much run time I can get out of four AA batteries - I'll post the results later this week.
[/B]

Well it has been more than a week, what are the results

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12-06-2000 04:47 PM

dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

quote:
Originally posted by Slacker
Ok dkessler, here's a challenge for you:
I have a cable I made to connect to my GPS and I probably could add a power connector to it, but I am afraid I would screw it up. What pins would I need to connect the + and - leads to and what should my power adapter provide?

The "+" lead from your power supply needs to connect to pin #7 on the hotsync connector (that's the second from the left as you're looking at the front of the Visor). The "-" lead from your power supply would connect to ground which is pin #4 (fourth from the right) on the hotsync connector. Your power supply should provide between 5 and 6 volts DC at up to 2 amps.

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12-07-2000 02:27 PM

dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

Re: Re: Re: Full Charger

quote:
Originally posted by Babylon5
Well it has been more than a week, what are the results

Oops, I mentioned that in the Emergency Charger thread, but forgot to post it here.

With AA Energizer E^2 alkaline batteries, I was able to get an additional 4 hours of runtime out of my Prism. That's with the backlight averaging about 50%, a lot of keyboard use and hotsyncing and some intermittent CompactFlash use (which hits the batteries pretty hard). It basically doubled my Prism's battery life, so people who are easier on the battery could expect to see even better results.

One thing worth noting is that you will get more out of the AA batteries if you use the battery extender to "top off" frequently rather than recharging when the Prism's battery gets very low.

I'll try a "C" cell battery extender on my next trip to Europe in a couple months. I expect to get about 3 to 4 times the capacity of "AA" batteries. In any case, using the Battery Extender (or TCL's emergency charger for those less inclined to homebrew hardware) definitely brings back the convenience of being able to run off disposable batteries in situations where plugging in an A/C adapter just isn't possible.

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12-07-2000 02:50 PM

zelchenko
Member

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 117

minstrel s extender?

My Minstrel battery gets low long before my Prism. Anybody have plans on making an extender for the Minstrel? According to the Minstrel charger, it's preset for 5 volts, 2 amps.

12-07-2000 06:52 PM

dkessler
Member

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Plant City, FL
Posts: 385

Re: minstrel s extender?

quote:
Originally posted by zelchenko
My Minstrel battery gets low long before my Prism. Anybody have plans on making an extender for the Minstrel? According to the Minstrel charger, it's preset for 5 volts, 2 amps.

If the modem battery charges when the Prism is in the cradle then any of these Prism chargers should charge it as well. Although a 4 pack of AA batteries probably won't last long charging both devices, a charger using "C" or "D" cells would probably work quite well.

If it can't charge from the Prism cradle then the Minstrel developers really dropped the ball.

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12-07-2000 08:27 PM

zelchenko
Member

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 117

my guess is no

The Minstrel has a receptical on top where you plug in your charger, so I'm guessing it does not charge through the cradle, but I don't know for sure.

12-07-2000 08:33 PM