Messages

1

C1000/3x00 Hardware / C3000 Microdrive Replaced With A Cf Card

« on: February 15, 2008, 11:48:51 am »

Does anyone have any ideas on this? I just swapped in a 16gb A-Data CF card and got this error. I cringe at the idea of toying with those ribbon cables again.

Did those of you who did this successfully format the card before installing? Are we missing something important?

#cardctl ident

product info: "", "", ""
manfid: 0x004f, 0x0000
function: 4 (fixed disk)

If anyone knows of a kernel that will detect this card properly, that would be awesome.

I think I'll take a crack at doing it myself.

2

C1000/3x00 Hardware / I Broke The Charging System On My C3000

« on: February 15, 2008, 07:01:58 am »

IT'S ALIVE!  

I was wrong! It does still charge batteries. This is really hard for me to explain because there were too many variables.

I definitely did something to my Z that it didn't really like. At one point I was watching the GPE battery monitor while connecting and disconnecting the power. When I connected it, the charge indicator would rise a bit, but it never said the AC was connected.

At one point the charge light would not come on at all. Since it did this right after my experimental ride, I took it as a grave sign that I had borked it good. However, in RETROVISION (which is a bit like retrospect but with a 1950s feel) it was probably just lack of contact with my cheap imitation battery, because after I opened the Z up and closed it again, the charge light came on (coincidence). However, the Z still wouldn't turn on, even after leaving it charging for more than an hour. I can't explain that. Even a totally dead battery gets enough charge to boot the Z after 15 seconds, no? I don't mean one straight from the factory, I mean one that you just drained with the Z.

Thoroughly downhearted, I started searching for an external battery charger. Then I went to heat up some soup. When I came back, the Z was ON and displaying the login screen. Battery charge indicator said it was charging and at 50%. I hadn't even pressed the ON switch (for at least 10 minutes). I cannot explain that, but that is what happened.

What I learned from this ordeal:

1) Undervoltage and rippling voltage do not seem to damage the Zaurus in any serious way, though it did produce some results which confuse me
2) When pretending to be an EE, it's probably a good idea to consult a real one and to be more patient than I was
3) When in doubt, go heat up some soup and come back in a bit and everything will be fine (YMMV on that)

I'm so happy! Not only is my Z undamaged, but my bike-powered USB hub works, and just needs some smoothing capacitors or something to work with the Z. Tuesday I'm leaving for a long bike tour in Europe. With some luck I will have this working properly before then. The idea is to power my Zaurus, my iPod, a bluetooth GPS, and AAA rechargeable batteries with the bike. Huzzah!

3

C1000/3x00 Hardware / I Broke The Charging System On My C3000

« on: February 15, 2008, 04:23:25 am »

Um, I found the external battery charger. It wasn't hiding, I just had a typo in my search.

4

C1000/3x00 Hardware / I Broke The Charging System On My C3000

« on: February 15, 2008, 04:12:15 am »

Hi all

Well, my Z doesn't charge it's battery anymore.   It's my fault; I was experimenting with an alternative power source for the Z (a USB hub powered by a nice bicycle generator) and failed to exercise the sort of caution that something as beautiful (and pricey) as a c3000 deserves.

I compared my experimental power source with the power adapter that came with my USB hub using a volt meter. I am certain that I got the polarity and voltage correct. The rest is speculation on my part, I am not an EE and I was experimenting way outside my expertise as a programmer and a cyclist.

I hooked up the alternator's output (the frequency of this AC varies with the speed of the bicycle wheel and goes very low, maybe 10hz) to a bridge rectifier. This rectified DCish voltage I fed into a switching DC-DC converter (DE-SW050) which outputs 5v and can take up to 30v input. That 5v is powering a USB hub. The DE-SW050 has two capacitors built in, but I guess they are too small to smooth out the ripples when the frequency is low (the datasheet claimed 2% ripple which shouldn't hurt anything). The blue LED in the USB hub flickers visibly, which should have given me pause for thought. I guess I didn't think carefully about what rippling voltage might do to something expecting smooth DC.

I observed that this setup charged my least expensive USB device (an iPod nano) successfully. Here's where I acted hastily out of excitement: I plugged in the Z and went for a ride. After that, the Z does not seem to charge batteries. The charge light comes on, but I left a dead one in there over night and the Z didn't turn on in the morning. That was stupid. Oh well, live and learn. At least the Z still works.  

Anyway, two questions:

First, I've read somewhere on this forum that there is such a thing as an external BL-08 charger but haven't been able to find one. Anyone know where I can get one in the USA?

Second, does anyone have any idea which part I might have damaged (possibly a regulator that I cooked with too much current) or where it is on the board? Or any thoughts at all from an EE? I'm pretty much stumped and I'll probably just have to settle for charging batteries externally.

I opened the Z up and looked around, particularly near the power-related stuff. I couldn't see any evidence of damage.

This forum has been very helpful. Thanks, everyone!

5

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Gps For Zaurus

« on: February 15, 2008, 02:46:00 am »

FWIW I have a Pharos Bluetooth iGPS working with my c3000. It worked out of the box once I figured out how to give it the so called "PIN".

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C1000/3x00 Hardware / C3200 Has Constrain On Battery?

« on: February 08, 2008, 04:27:05 pm »

Unbelievable! Works like a charm. Took about 3 minutes.

Thanks so much for this.

Now I'm going to do some battery life tests before and after replacing the microdrive with flash.

7

C1000/3x00 Hardware / Cheap "ea-bl08" 1700 Mah Lithium Polymer

« on: February 08, 2008, 04:11:26 pm »

Heads up:

I bought 2 cheap ($10) EA-BL08 batteries and they do not work in my SL-C3000 (it is supposed to be compatible).

Battery light blinks orange continuously (which is what it does when there is no battery in the compartment) and of course the Z doesn't turn on.

Yes, I left it charging over night.

Physically it looks the same as my EA-BL11 which came with my Z. It fits reasonably well and easily into the compartment.

But no power...

I got them from Gizmos2Go.com. I'll be asking them to replace these, we'll see if they have any that work.

Don't rely on these working.

8

C1000/3x00 General discussions / 32mb Ramfs On C3000

« on: January 29, 2008, 06:35:06 pm »

First, I apologize if there is a better forum for this question,   but I've googled this a bit and found little discussion on the topic.

I got a c3000 recently and put Angstrom on it. It creates a 32Mb ramfs on startup, just like my old 5500 did.  

I remember from my 5500 days that OZ would build a selection of kernels with different sized ramdisks.

I want the other half of my memory available. Will I need to build my own kernel for that? Is there a way to simply unmount that ramfs and free that memory?

Who out there has 64Mb available on his/her Z (with an EABI 2.6 kernel)?

Thanks for your help.

9

For Sale / Wanted / Free Bricked 5500

« on: January 29, 2008, 05:54:29 pm »

I damaged this 5500 by connecting the wrong polarity to it. From what I've come across googling that subject it sounds like it might be made to work again by replacing some component of the charging circuitry. If you have another way of charging the battery it might turn on and work (I have no way to test that). In its current condition the battery does not charge and the device doesn't turn on. Perhaps someone would like it for parts?

Anyway, I have a new c3000 and have no desire to tinker with my old 5500. Therefore I am offering it to anyone who might want to pay the shipping cost from Arizona. I don't have the original Sharp wall charger, or a working battery, or a stylus. The screen looks good though.

Blake