So, My Zire 71 up and died on me. It had been struggling along the past
while, what with losing its ability to take pictures, the touchscreen
going off axis, the joy button breaking.. the list goes on. A common
problem with this particular model was the internal Molex cable. All
the sliding open to take pictures eventually (by eventually, I mean
very quickly) would sever the poor thing.
This is the Molex cable I speak of: Click images to view the bigger version
Once severed, the device became unable to take pictures via the shutter
button (you can still use the select button), sing, hotsync via USB or
RS232 or even charge. This I found somewhat depressing. Not being able
to charge the internal non-replaceable battery was a big problem. In a
fit of rage I ripped the device apart.
This is what was left:
Now then. One day I was sitting around watching TV when my cousin Matt
came in and changed the channel. I thought to myself, "Oh I remember
the days where my palm had full control over any infrared device via
its built-in IR port.. I could piss him off so easily right now.."
And then it hit me. I'll ressurect the thing and make it into a
universal remote control!
Alright heres what I had to work with:
A Zire 71 mainboard, sans Molex cable. The screen was around somewhere,
so I could still use that. The camera was removed, because it didnt
work anymore. And finally, the battery is around somewhere as well. The
first thing I realized was I was going to have to solve the charging
problem. The idea came quickly after I had looked up the Palm Universal
Connector pinout at http://www.pinouts.ru/ (VERY handy site)
The cradle (my previous method of charging) supplied exactly 5 Volts of
DC current to the charge pin of the device.
Ummm.. why not get this current from a simple USB plug? Eliminate the
need for a cradle altogether. Sync and charge on one simple wire! How
exciting! I ripped apart the nearest USB cable in a fit of excitement:
Now, everyone knows that the USB cable has FOUR color-coded wires. It's
incredibly standard. Red(+5V) Black(GND) Green(USB D+) and White(USB
D-). I wanted to be absolutely sure, so once again I checked
pinouts.ru. Now I just need to find out where the pins on the Palm
Universal Connector meet the mainboard. I traced the lines on the molex
cable and came up with this:
There are only 4 pins we are concerned with. CHG, Ground, and the 2 USB
connections. They match with the USB cable perfectly! All I had to do
was line up the Molex cable and find out where the traces went on the
board, so I could solder the wires in right away. One problem: the 2
USB traces are incredibly small. It's not even worth connecting them,
as the Zire 71 runs the Palm OS 5.2.1. This means any software you want
to transfer can not only be sent through the IR port, but also executed
right from the SD/MMC storage! Just put the app on a card and you're
good to go! How convenient! So that leaves 2 connections, and I had
already figured out where to solder them:
So when you get that done, you'll have something like this:
Except maybe yours will be neater. I used my big-ass solder gun. That
doesn't matter though, because you will be covering it up with some
pretty red electrical tape! Some wrapped around to hold the heavy cable
down, and another piece to prevent shorts. This could potentially
damage any connected laptop... like my relatively new $1700 Toshiba
Satellite... ahem. Now turn the thing over:
Be sure to cut away the tape around the screen connector, like so:
And you can now re-attach the battery!
And tape it on so it doesn't fall off:
And attach the screen:
Since the battery was disconnected, you WILL lose all data that isnt
stored on a card. As soon as the battery is reconnected you will see
this screen, buggind you for info:
Get through that, then you will see the home screen, and more
importantly, the battery meter! YAY! As you can see here, it's not
quite full yet:
Plug in your newly attached USB cable and HOPEFULLY you will see it
begin to charge, like this:
No tricks, the device is actually charging!
Now secure the cable so your soldering job doesnt get ripped out and
you're all set. Now, I realize your portable handheld has a big-ass
cable sticking out of it permanantly, which isnt a problem for me. You
can use any length cable you want. A 1" cable with a female plug is a
good idea, but whatever you choose to do is your own. :)
Now all that's left to do is install NoviiRemote and start teaching it
codes! This will give you the ability to emulate just about ANY
infrared controller, for controlling TVs, VCRs, DVD players, and even
camcorders and air conditioners! Go nuts! Here's a screenshot of
NoviiRemote Classic running on my freakshow Zire:
Questions or comments may be left here or sent to stevediraddo [at]
hotmail [dot] com
UPDATE!
After a few weeks, this device is still working very nicely! I haven't
gotten around to fixing it in its old case yet, and good thing too,
because I'm going to try to solder the remaining USB lines, then
install an LCD-Screen emulator. It will then clip to my Laptop screen
and show me valuable system information! If only I werent so lazy...
UPDATE!
My palm has suffered a major USB Fail. By accidentally shorting the USB
lines during operation, my Palm shut off, and when it came back online,
USB would no longer function no matter what I do. It staill charges,
but no data. I've reached the limit of what I can do with it, and now
the project is closed.
