Messages

16

General Discussion / Z Is Dead, Wrong Polarity Ii

« on: February 03, 2005, 11:25:46 pm »

Several people have accidently fried their Z with reverse polarity.  From what I gathered in other threads, it only affects the charging circuits (external power port).  You can still use your Z, but will have to use an external battery charger.  I don't know the exact items fried, but a search should turn up the cost of having Sharp fix it as I have seen that here several times.  I do not know of anyone that has successfully fixed this by themselves.

Good Luck.  I would be willing to buy the Z with the dead charging circuits for a project where the Z would be hard wired through the battery compartment to an external power source, but I can not pay what even a damaged Z is worth.  I can only offer $50   so it would probably not be worth it to sell it to me.  If on the other hand, you are interested, send me a PM.  (This is for a aprs radio project.)

V-Man

17

Angstrom & OpenZaurus / Why Open Zaurus?

« on: January 24, 2005, 10:49:26 pm »

As I see it, the benefits of the OZ rom over the Sharp rom is the flexibility to set it up any way you wish.  Also since development is still continuing on OZ, it is the only upgrade path open since Sharp abandoned us.  I would be using OZ except that it is missing one vital element that I require.  If that ever gets fixed (I am not a programmer or developer), I will switch to OZ in a heartbeat.  I am still praying that the developers can get linux running on my iPaq 2210.

I think that some others that use OZ on a daily basis and are more familiar with it can give you more details than I can.  I only check on it occasionally to see if the ability to switch WiFi network settings has been completed.  I have to connect to three different networks on a daily basis and can not give up this functionality so have unfortuneately been unable to switch to OZ.

V-Man

18

Security and Networking / Mac Addressing Question

« on: January 21, 2005, 11:25:44 pm »

I use MAC address filtering with my LinkSys AP/Router.  You only need to add the MAC addresses of the computers that are allowed to connect to your AP/Router.

V-Man

19

Accessories / Battey Extender Advice

« on: January 21, 2005, 11:22:21 pm »

I have no experience with that seller (in fact I have only bought one item on e-bay).  Things to do with a battery extender:
1.  Check your polarity (reversing the polarity will destroy the Z's charging circuit)
2.  Check the voltage output.  4 NiMh cells will have a voltage of approximately 5.34V when not under a load.  The Z asks for 5V.  The difference should not damage the Z's circuitry.  I have been using homemade battery boxes for several years.

The batteries you are asking about should work fine.  PM me if you want any additional information and I'll try to help.  I have a bit of knowledge gained through experimentation, asking dumb questions, ham radio apps, and scouring the internet.  I can supply quite a few details that you will probably never need to know, but I like answering questions.

V-Man

20

Security and Networking / Help! Wifi Not Working!

« on: January 21, 2005, 11:15:59 pm »

I have the same card and a SL5500 Z.  If you are still having problems connecting, PM me and I'll try to help you with it.  I am using a Linksys AP/Router without difficulty.  I also have a iPaq 2210, two laptops (both WinXP), one WinXP desktop, and one linux desktop hooked up to it.  For security purposes, I use MAC address filtering.  I also use dhcp for obtaining the ip addresses.  Let me know if I can help.

V-Man

21

For Sale / Wanted / What's It Worth?

« on: January 04, 2005, 11:15:51 pm »

I got mine at the $15.00 price  .  Unfortuneately, that is about all it's worth.  The pictures are very low quality (about like a low end camera phone).  I use it for quick pics of minor traffic accidents, field interviews, and mug shots.  The only really good thing about it is, that I always have it with me (in my briefcase).  I think you should be able to get $20-$50 if you are lucky.  Good Luck

22

General Discussion / Z Is Dead, Wrong Polrity

« on: December 12, 2004, 07:56:13 am »

Unfortuneately, many people (from my reading on the board) have reversed the polarity of their external power supplies.  This will kill the charging circuit!!    The only fix I know of is to send the Z to Sharp.  I don't believe that they will fix it as a warranty item either since it was "user error" from their point of view.  This really sucks.  When I build electronic circuit, I always design them for the lowest common denominator, this includes a reverse polarity protection circuit.  The earlier post about size, cost, etc is the current design philosophy for consumer electronics.  They look at it this way:  If it breaks, it is a "sale" for them since you must either replace it or repair it.  This is like the 80's and 90's models from GM where they were designed to be easily stolen.  Every car/truck that was stolen was a "sale" for GM since the owner had to replace it.  The only reason GM changed their designs to something more difficult to steal, was that a very large police group was going to give a public press release saying don't buy GM vehicles since they WILL be stolen.  Gotta love modern corporate thinking  

V-Man

23

General Discussion / Rotation For Cl-5500

« on: December 04, 2004, 12:31:57 pm »

Did you actually mean "SL"5500?  If so and you still can't get the packages, I can email them to you.  PM me and I'll get them to you.

I am using the SL5500 with ROM 3.10 and rotation works perfectly (have to restart QTopia to get rotation, and then restart to quit rotation).  It seems a bit slow on restart, but after rotating, speed seems to be the same while using various apps.

V-Man

24

Accessories / Which Sd Card?

« on: December 04, 2004, 12:28:41 pm »

I have a 5500, so your mileage may vary. . .

That said, I have had good luck with Lexar, PNY, and some other SD cards.  In fact the only SD cards that have ever crapped out were the SanDisk cards.  From what I have read here, nearly everyone's experience has been similiar.  STAY AWAY FROM SANDISK SD CARDS!!  I personally prefer Lexar.

Good Luck and welcome to the Zaurus family.

25

5x00 Hardware / Custom battery pack

« on: December 01, 2004, 05:35:09 pm »

Work's being a pain right now (first time assigned to day shift in 11 years).  I will provide a link to some schematics over the weekend.  Sorry for the delay.

26

Accessories / Will 4.5v Adapter Kill Z?

« on: November 29, 2004, 05:04:19 pm »

Your specs match an adaptor that I was using for over a year before I made my new one.  I had no problems with it.  I have a 5500, not a 760 though.

27

Software / Wifi Monitor Applet

« on: November 29, 2004, 05:02:18 pm »

I am definitely interested.  I think the Netgear card I use is a prism2 chipset.

28

General Discussion / Cf Card Size?

« on: November 29, 2004, 04:56:19 pm »

The more the better, especially if you are putting music or videos on it.  Videos are quite large.  I have a 256M that is dedicated solely to music files.  I have 512 and 1G cards on my Christmas list.

V-Man

29

General Discussion / Charge Battery In Car?

« on: November 29, 2004, 04:48:42 pm »

I have heard of various electronic devices being destroyed by low quality car chargers when starting a vehicle.  I have never seen this happen or actually talked to anyone that it happened to. . .
That said, I don't want to be the one to experience it first hand.  A car's electrical system is not set up to deliver a stable voltage to sensitive electronics.  I disconnect everything not hard wired before starting my truck.  I just don't want to risk it.  My chargers were home made using 7805 regulator chips and capacitors to supposedly stop problems like this from happening, but. . .

My ham radio is wired direct to the battery, my gps is fed off of that connection.  Other than that, all plugs are pulled before starting (usually they're just not plugged in until the truck is started).

30

5x00 Hardware / Custom battery pack

« on: November 29, 2004, 04:42:10 pm »

oops