Old PDA Hardware

December 4, 2005 8:40 PM

I have an old (first generation?) Handspring Visor that I'd like to use as a portable writing device. Will I be able to find the hardware to do this? Images of device here.

What I need is

1. A way to get words/files off the device and onto my G4/OS X box (I lost the dock a long time ago)

2. A portable keyboard that I can hookup and type into.

Any old hardware fetishists have any advice on places to look or what hardware, specifically, I should be looking for?

posted by alana to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

• Replacement Hotsync cables for Handspring Visor
• Palm Desktop for Mac OS X (free download; works with the Visor)
• SnapNType keyboard for Visor
posted by Rothko at 8:46 PM on December 4, 2005

Response by poster: The PDA is something like 5 or 6 years old, is the standard dock they're selling these days going to cut it? (I had assumed not and my internet searching proved inconclusive. If so that's muy bueno)
posted by alana at 10:42 PM on December 4, 2005

Probably not. My Handspring Edge came out the same time as the Visor and the connector is different. Handspring models have moved on since the Visor and Edge.
posted by Rothko at 10:53 PM on December 4, 2005

I have a Visor Deluxe that I was considering resurrecting, and checking out eBay suggested that a dock was going to cost a substantial part of the price of a cheap zire.
If you can get a cheap keyboard though then maybe it's worth it.

I'm not sure about the keyboard Rothko links to - looks very small. Grafitti must be almost as fast. Something that folds up might be better.
posted by OldMansHands at 11:52 PM on December 4, 2005

The local Goodwill has had a pair of NIB Serial Visor docking cradles in it's case for $10/ea for quite a while now. Want me to pick you up one?
posted by Orb2069 at 12:15 AM on December 5, 2005

Response by poster: Serial isn't going to cut it since I'm in Mac land (but thanks for the offer).
posted by alana at 12:40 AM on December 5, 2005

Does the Visor have an IR port? I think it does.

I have a Palm IIIxe I still use - mainly for playing Dopewars when trying to kill time, or reading free Gutenburg project etexts - and I sync it solely via serial-over-IR on a FIR/IRDA port. It's a whole lot less annoying than using the cabled dock. Just point it at your Palm Desktop-enabled and FIR-Serial enabled comp and click the hotsync button onscreen on the Palm.

In OS X/Mac-land you should be able to get a 3rd party FIR/IRDA USB dongle for very cheap and emulate serial in software. If not you could easily build one if you can read a schematic and can work a soldering iron. Both the FIR/IRDA and USB standards and protocols are quite old hat by now.

As a writing device a Palm/Handspring device with a keyboard is pretty handy and portable. I have one of those fancy-fragile folding keyboards and have used it successfully as a portable text editor. The keyboard, however, sucks up a lot of battery life. A lot.
posted by loquacious at 1:03 AM on December 5, 2005

Hrm, actually, now that I think about it: I think that the Visor model may have that proprietary expansion slot instead of the IRDA port.

They do make FIR/IRDA dongles for the serial edge connectors of Palm devices, and probably some for the old Visor connector as well. A palm one would work for the Visor if you wangled it and made an adapter with the proper pinout orders.

Also, they do make reliable USB-to-Serial adapters. I've seen plenty of Mac-only shops that use them for legacy hardware like input devices or color checkers.
posted by loquacious at 1:07 AM on December 5, 2005

I have an IR based keyboard that *should* work just fine with your Visor. Made by Targus, I think. If you're interested, let me know (email on my user page) and I'll try to track it down. If it'll work, you can have it for the postage.
posted by aladfar at 1:09 AM on December 5, 2005

I still use a Visor Pro (similar to yours, but with more memory and built-in rechargeable battery). I keep it because of the module bay, for which I have a Magellan GPS unit. Last time I looked, you could still get hotsync cradles, so if Rothko's desktop-software link is good, you should have no problem using it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:32 AM on December 5, 2005

Check the clearance rack at your big-box office supply stores [officemax/depot, staples] and maybe even Franklin Covey -- seems like I always used to see Visor gear there even fairly recently!
posted by britain at 6:04 AM on December 5, 2005

I believe that Palm bought Handspring and continued the Visor name for a while. Don't know if there are compatibility issues between Handspring Visor and Palm Visor.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:30 AM on December 5, 2005

I have a color Visor syncing up to OS X 10.3.9 -- some tips:

For some reason the NotePad conduit stopped working, but there is a workaround called NoteTaker -- syncs files in the Notes database directly to text files on your hard drive. This might be better for your purposes.

Palm desktop 4.1 might not work for you -- 4.0 works OK though (crashes on exit however). Or use the OS9 version of Palm Desktop if you want AvantGo. (STILL no OS X AvantGo conduit).

I've got a smallish keyboard addon unit -- but the connection was very susceptible to jostling and disconnecting itself. An IR keyboard would probably work more consistently.

The cradles for the black&white Visor and the color are different - the case on the color has a contour on the back that requires it to use its own cradle.

I no longer use Palm Desktop for anything except installing files and programs -- you can make it sync very nicely to iCal and Address Book instead of the Palm app.
posted by omnidrew at 8:46 AM on December 5, 2005