TamsPalm - the Palm OS Blog

Like I promised before, I bought a copy of Dimitry Grinbergs “PowerDrive” two days ago.

Powerdrive allows (among other things) usage of any CF Card instead of the internal Microdrive.

The first part is fairly simple: Put PowerDrive on a SD Card and start the application. PowerDrive will then patch the OS on the Microdrive and will then copy the operating system to the SD card.

Now we come to the tricky part: PowerDrive will power down the Microdrive and you have to exchange it with the CF Card - while the LifeDrive ist switched on! (Don’t use any metal tools to pry the Microdrive loose…). After that is done, PowerDrive will repatition the CF Card and write the OS ono it. At this point you are given the option to change the size of the memory-portion used as “RAM” - everything between 16KB and 4GB is safe.

Twice the memory of an ordinary LD (Hands still shaking)

128 MB internal memory - big enough for me

I can’t show you the size of the internal drive since PalmOS refuses to display the size of drives > 4GB properly. But since I filled my LD with 7,5GB of pictures, videos and mp3s it really works as advertised.

Next thing to talk about is speed: According to VFSMark my CF Card is more then three times faster than the old Microdrive! This won’t make the LD as snappy as a TX - there’s still some lag when you start a big application - but you can hardly notice it (TCPMP needs less than 1 second to load its 2.1MB into the real Ram). The remaining lag might be the result of the LD still powering down the drive. That’s a great way to conserve energy when you still use the Microdrive - with a CF Card installed, this should be obsolete. Maybe Dmitry can fix this in a future version.

What’s left is a long-term test of the power consumption after the surgery. Since CF Cards draw a lot less power than a Microdrive, I expect a huge increase in running time.

My conclusion so far: 16 bucks (about 10 Euros, if you live in Europe) that are worth every single penny. Just imagine the money you save on cheap CF Cards (you can get the 32GB Card from Adata for around $150).

After my tests with the small Card are done, I’ll switch to a 32GB Adata

Today I’m pleased to announce that I am able to release Version 1 of my OpenMoko Theme Project based on the look of the Open Source OpenMoko Project. As some of you may know by reading this post here at TamsPalm or by following my threads at both 1src and Brighthand, I’ve been working on this project for over three months. There may well be bugs/glitches, as this is my first project of this magnitude, but I can assure you all the skins/themes are working perfectly on my Palm TX. Included in this package are skins for:

• AppIcon
• AppShelf
• IconPlus
• MySkin/Kbd
• PalmRevolt
• PictureLogin

This theme is 100% free to use, distribute and modify. Looking back this was a huge project which entailed a great deal of work, but in the end was a labor of love. If you enjoy using this theme package and wish to make a small donation to offset its development costs, please refer to the ReadMe! document contained within the ZIP archive for more information. You can download the package either at 1src’s Freeware Section or via this direct link!

Thank you.

__________________

Best Regards,

Brent Chiodo

Foreward — This is just a guide containing a few hardware mods I’ve seen done over time. I’ve talked with the folks who’ve originally done these mods for more info than their original posts, so hopefully I don’t cause too much chaos

This one focuses on the modifications that can be done to the official Palm hardcase available for the T|X, T|E, T|E2 and the T|T5.

—

– The Magnet Mod –

My quest for the perfect hard case started in May. I was dissatisfied with the state of my T|X’s hard case, and was looking for an alternative. My main problem was that the chintzy little clasp that held the case shut had snapped loose and would not keep my T|X safe. After a bit of discussion, we decided that replacing the clasp with magnets was a viable alternative.

The first step is to drill out the holes. Since I never really figured I’d be doing this sort of post 7 months later, I have no “in progress” shots, sorry :-).

Make sure you choose magnets before you drill the holes so that you don’t end up with a big gaping hole in your case. The best thing I have learned is that if you make the hole a tad bit smaller than your magnets, then slowly file it out with anything fairly sharp (Hell, a small flat-head screwdriver works) you will have a nice snug fit that will never require reglueing.

After you drill the holes (I did four, two on each half of the case) you can drop the magnets in. The best ting to do is use a pair of tweasers and coat the magnet with gorilla glue then you simply wedge the magnets in the holes and you are done!

– Anti Rattle Mod–

“So, uh, Ryan, why do you have pieces of dish towels glued to your case?”

Good question! (I’m sorry, I know that’s bad ) The case is designed just kludgingly enough so that there is a very smaller, probably less than 1mm gap between the T|X and the case lid, just enough to have it rattle around and scuff up the front of the the T|X. Jays333 originally gave me the idea to do this in the above 1src thread, however I didn’t have any of that foam lying around, so I simply cut up a dish towel.

Jays333 did a nice job on his however:

This effectively cancels out any rattling that may occur, keeping your T|X unscathed for years to come.

– Headphone Mod –

So, what else can be done to our T|X cases? Well, I have done a few other things to the case in the time I’ve owned it. When I performed the Magnet Mod I also decided to cut away a hole for the headphones so that the case would latch shut when I was listening to music, rather than mashing up my headphone jack.

The first step is to mark where you want to get the cuts. You can plug in the headphones and put the device in the case so that the headphones are where the cuts will be (at which point, you know where the cuts need to be, or you can wing it with a sharpie cap, like Chris Tengi did.

—

That’s all of the mods I could come up with in regards to the Palm Hardcase. Next time we will take a look at alternatives to the Palm Cradle: the design, construction and customisation of our own Cradle kit!

Also, if you try any of these mods please note that I cannot be held responsible if your case is permanently damaged! Perform these mods at your own risk! 

A while back a saw a screenshot of the OpenMoko platform, and was greatly impressed by its look an feel. So about a week or two ago, I started trying to make my TX look like this. Now this is a very young project, and it isn’t even closed to being finished, but I wanted to show you all some of the first screenshots, and to hear your opinions on how it looks/if you like it. So here goes:

When I finish this, I will (most likely) make it available to download. The set will include:

• PalmRevolt Skin
• IconPlus Icon Pack
• DIA skin
• Launcher Backgounds
• Maybe More/Undecided

You can follow the development of this theme at this thread at 1src.com

Tell me what you think!