Stephanie's Visor Modifications Page - Serial Cradle

Update - January 2002

It's been about a year now since I first posted this page on the internet. Thank you to everyone who has written me about it. It has also been almost a year, since I stopped using the Handspring Visor. For the (about) 3 months that I used it, I loved it. To my mind, it was better than the Palm Pilot that spawned it. It's springboard module gave it expandibility, and that made it very powerful. However, late January / early February 2001, I started to get to know Apple's Newton. Since then, my Visor has been shelved, and now it's prime function is dust-gathering. I will keep this page posted, as I feel it still serves a useful function for people who own and wish to modify their Handspring Visors. I am also posting a FAQ to hopefully address most of your questions. I apologize if I am unable to respond to your emails in a reasonable amount of time, as my business is starting to take more and more of my time. Thanks again for your interest.

Please click here to Check the FAQ.

Serial Cradle

If you are using a serial cradle, it is still possible to set your Visor up in a similar way. Mods to the Visor itself are the same regardless of which cradle you use. As the serial interface does not provide us enough power to handle the recharging, the mod to the serial cradle is different and requires an extra part. To modify a serial cradle, you need to purchase from your local electronics shop, a 5 Volt DC power converter, that can provide 500 - 600 milli Amps. You will also need to make a small hole in the back of the cradle to allow the wire from the adaptor inside. Then simply solder the ground or negative contact of the adaptor's wire to ground on the serial board, and then solder the positive wire to the VDOCK pin on the serial cradle.

You might want to add a 10 or 20 ohm resistor in series with the positive wire from the adaptor, as a bit of a current limiter. As I do not use the serial cradle, I have not done this myself. Use this modification at your own risk. If you do it and it works, let me know.

If you have access to a volt-meter, here is how to test it safely. (You can use these steps to test the USB cradle set-up too)

1. When the mod is done to the cradle, and you have ensured that you have no solder-bridges or any obvious problems, plug it all in and check for the +5 volts at VDOCK.

2. With the mods to your Visor button-board, take your Visor completely apart (remove the main logic board and everything), then put only the button-board into the bottom-half of the plastic, and put only this into the cradle. Check the voltage at the battery terminals. It will be higher than 3volts.

3. Test the voltage of your batteries: Put them into the Visor (just with the button-board in the back-half plastic, nothing else). Brand-new rechargable alkelines should read about 1.5 volts each, so your initial voltage should be 3 volts for the pair. If it is lower than this, check the batteries outside the Visor to ensure they are strong. If they are, then you have something wired wrong in the button-board, or a short-circuit or solder bridge.

4. Put what you have so far back into the cradle, and check the voltage again. It should now be around 3.2 to 3.4 volts. If it is lower than this, there is a problem. If it is much higher than this, you may need to add a 3rd diode into the series on the button board.

5. If you have found the voltages to match what I have given (it need not be exact, but ought to be close) then you may assemble the Visor completely, drop it into the cradle and restore your data.

6. If you have some software on your Visor that gives you an accurate read on the voltage, run it while it's in the cradle, it should read the 3.2 to 3.4 volts.

7. Remember!!! This is at your own risk! I accept no responcibility for your Visor or cradle.