Does anybody have a Fossil Abacus Wrist PDA?

[ixle]

Just wondering if I was the only one on this huge website that has one of these nifty watch PDAs. Somebody else has to have one. The only other real resource is a yahoo groups site but the message board format and lack of members is annoying. Somebody...anybody....
ixle

[dragonsgames]

I have one :)
Don't use it much. It's cool, but not very useful... :rolleyes:
Mostly because of difficult text input.

[ixle]

I agree that its not much use. Its too bulky, text is a pain, battery sucks worse than the UX-50. But I was hoping to get some kind of movement going to bring the yahoo groups WristPDA group onto this site. With the expertise we have on the UX board modifing the Wrist PDA might progress better. I posted on the yahoo groups site today about moving over here but haven't had any takers yet.
There are mods out there but trying to keep up with the posts on yahoo is difficult.

[dmitrygr]

i have one

[MaggieL]

I have one too. Since my purse (and thus my Palm IIIxe) are not always handy, it's nice to have the Abacus always with me. I agree that entering text sucks...but I can do that on the IIIxe, and beam it to the watch. The battery sucks too...and the beeper is way too quiet. Even though I have some hardware background (I'm a radio amateur and have kit-built some equipment for the hobby) the idea of going into something that small and modding it is a little daunting.

Ixle--most of the folks on that Yahoogroup aren't very clued; I'm considering leaving it altogther.

Just being able to be one of the people in the third frame of this comic makes it all worthwhile...:-) http://www.bugbash.net/strips/bug-bash20060130.gif

[zinzan]

I have one too... used it religiously for a few months but have gone back to carrying pda now.. battery life just wasn't up it.
I followed the yahoo group for a while, but got fed up with all the star trek watch face postings.. sorry!
The work on the increased battery was and is of interest, but it seems like some of those that have better batteries are reluctant to share out the info..

[Tam Hanna]

I have used one along my T3...but Treo cured me of that for now...but I have a new gadget replacement battery for it...

[dragonsgames]

I wish it had better battery life (and wasn't so big!!!!)...

[Tam Hanna]

As for the first, I currently play around with a replacement battery...

[mclien]

OK forum 1001 I join :-)
I have one (4 to be honest), too. I find it the most usefull PDA (to me), because all others are a extra thing to carry around. You can't putt the in the pockets of your trousers, because it'll braek, if you sit down. You (maybe only I) don't like it in the shirt pocket because its to heavy. I don't like those belt pouch/ bumbag/ fanny pack, because they are always in the way.
So I work to samrten up some things:
Of course batterytime is the most annoying thing. I found a LiPoly supplier, who have possibly matching batteries:
http://www.lipopower.de/
I'll try the 380 mAh and the 110 mAh types soon (in different setup, up to 4 at one watch).
Maybe the 380 type will fit without case modding.
Other Problems:
weight:
-wrist belt: 24 gr.
-all electronicst: 21 gr. (incl.: display ***., mainboard, battery)
-case: 47 gr. (incl. buttons)

no water resistance

alarm not loud enough:
from fossilwristpda.com forum:
"download Geeksounds.prc from FreewarePalm.com and, in DateBook, using 'M100 Warbler' as the default sound."
works fine.

getting a louder alarm will require hardeware modofication, I think. which is some sort of tricky, bacause after disassambling the watch, I wasn't able to fin the 'beebing device', I guess its part of the display assembly.

Software I use:
on the PDA: geeksounds and yotta
syncing: debian Linux and the KDE tools

[Tam Hanna]

Software I run on my WristPDA(when I use it)

www.palmbinaryclock.com
Palm Notepad

[I Like My UX50!]

I recently got a new one courtesy from my brother who likes the watch.

Now I have to download some programs for it :)

[dragonsgames]

Mine is messed up... whenever I unplug/plug it in, it crashes...

[mclien]

give it atry with Linux. or change the computer might help?
(at least Linux' syslog will give you some infos besides crashing)

[Tam Hanna]

Hi,
mine isnt too stable either when USB charging is concerned....

[Bullitt]

i have one
Hi Dmitry,
would it be possible to code an underclocking tool like THclockDA for the Fossil, so you could set the clock to 16 or 30 MHz ?

Thanks

[Muttin]

I performed the battery upgrade outlined on this site:

http://hamdomain.com/wrist-pda/index.html

My battery before this upgrade was lasting about 24 hours with no use at all, now it lasts about 10 days with regular use. Sure, it is a bit bigger... but that doesn't bother me at all. It was already a big watch, now it is just a little thicker. I much prefer not having to be concerned about it's battery going dead all the time to having it be slightly smaller.

[AzlBigKid]

I have two Fossil PDAs. I use one of them all the time and keep the other for backup. I've only ever had need of the other one once when I put a program on that kept crashing and freezing it and I couldn't delete it. So I discharged the battery and synced it up again a couple of days later.

I still use my UX50 alot especially for sending email, surfing and editing documents on the move. But most of the time the fossil does the job pretty well.

[Ballajura]

I have one. I don't sync all that often and really just use it as a watch; as long as I charge it every other day!

[mclien]

Anyone interested in this?:
http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117622&page=2

[dmitrygr]

Hi Dmitry,
would it be possible to code an underclocking tool like THclockDA for the Fossil, so you could set the clock to 16 or 30 MHz ?

Thanks


surely you kid me, even at 66 mhz it seems slow, i'd rather clock it at 120

[mclien]

surely you kid me, even at 66 mhz it seems slow, i'd rather clock it at 120
For me too, ts more important to get a longer bettery life than have the apps faster. Will DynaClock work it?

[Tam Hanna]

dmitry, IMHO the low speed is the fault of the ultrachip whichn is set to update the screen very slowly...

[Bullitt]

@Dmitry
First of all, thank you for answering !


surely you kid me
Absolutely not kidding, i'm a long time reader on this forum and RESPECT your work a lot !
As a Fossil owner you will surely know how terrible the battery-runtime is, so my intention is to find out, how to get it longer. There are two possibilities, first higher battery capacity means Case-Modding; second somehow underclocking the CPU.


even at 66 mhz it seems slow, i'd rather clock it at 120
Alright, that's your opinion, but when you take a look at the Palm m500 series, they got also OS4 and are IMHO with 33 MHz-CPU fast enough. So correct me, if I'm wrong.
(Plus I have read somewhere, that results with Speedy shows, that the Fossil doesn't run at 66, but at 45 MHz.)


And the main reason, why I'm especially talking to you is, that you're the Man who makes the Impossible possible !
;)

[Bullitt]

dmitry, IMHO the low speed is the fault of the ultrachip whichn is set to update the screen very slowly...
Hi Tam,
checked out your blog for the Fossil, very nice and informative !

I've done some Benchmarks to confirm your statement. These are PalmPi for CPU-Speed (as introduced on your blog) and PalmInternals "Speed Test" for Systemperformance. As in my last Post to Dmitry suggested, i compared the Fossil Abacus with Palm m515.
(both Devices don't have any Hacks or equal installed, that could influence the measurements !)

Here are the results:

[1] PalmPi (sec)
[2] PalmInternals (Time in tics/sec)

Palm m515 (OS4.1, LoRes, 33 MHz Dragonball VZ)
[1] 15.35
[2] 488/5

Fossil Abacus (OS4.1, LoRes, 66 MHz Dragonball Super VZ)
[1] 8.99
[2] 1680/17

Clie SJ33 (OS4.1, HiRes, 66 MHz Dragonball Super VZ)
[1] 7.82
[2] 311/3

For better comparison I'll do the same Benchmarks also on the SJ33 (SuperVZ-CPU) later, but first have to awake it to life ;)
...back to life

[mclien]

There are two possibilities, first higher battery capacity means Case-Modding; second somehow underclocking the CPU.
FullACK. I did the part I can do. Look my post about Batteries.
I have now a supplier for the LiPoly Batteries as well as the Ptototype of a modded backplane, which is only 2-3mm thicker and gives a 490mAh Capacity.
Next step is to make a closed mold, which will allow me to repruduce this backplane and offer ist together with the Batteries.
Please look my post (linked above) and tell me what you think

[Tam Hanna]

Hi,
IMHO, there is a way to tell the UltraChip to update with the highest possible FPS - but every app needs to do this on its own.

[Bullitt]

Hi,
IMHO, there is a way to tell the UltraChip to update with the highest possible FPS - but every app needs to do this on its own.
Hi,
correct me if i'm wrong, but is this "UltraChip" something like a Graphicscontroller and where exactly are the settings located ?
Wouldn't it be possible to change the FPS for the hole system and how ?

Say, it could be done, so it would speed up the Systemperformance means better results in PalmInternals and also better compatibility with OS4-Software, but less battery-runtime.


So as a summary, this must be done to get an optimized Fossil:

- Increase the FPS
- Underclock the CPU
- Higher Battery (which is already done ;) )


I wish, there would be more interest on this discussion, so any comments or suggestions are welcome !

[Tam Hanna]

Hi,
the UltraChip is the controller between CPU and screen that allows the CPU et al to turn off in watch mode(AFAIK).

The call for setting the FPS is in the sdk - are you interested in me hacking up something?

[mclien]

The call for setting the FPS is in the sdk - are you interested in me hacking up something?
I think most owners of this PDA are moe intressted to slow down the CPU for battery saving. If I understand it right, the FPS is the part that slows down the reactions of the UI, so why don't slow down the CPU until ists 'as slow as the FPS'.
Sort of: How slow should the CPU bee to make no significant diffrence at the UI?

[Bullitt]

Hi,
the UltraChip is the controller between CPU and screen that allows the CPU et al to turn off in watch mode(AFAIK).

The call for setting the FPS is in the sdk - are you interested in me hacking up something?
Sure, i would test it and report, if it influences the Systemperformance as we suggested.

[mclien]

Hi,
the UltraChip is the controller between CPU and screen that allows the CPU et al to turn off in watch mode(AFAIK).

Is there a way to verify this?
Because, IF the cpu is turned completely of in watch mode, the underclocking isn't much use while the greater amount of battery capacity is used in watch mode (e.g. I have 90-95% watchmode).

EDIT:
example Calculation:
(values from here: http://hamdomain.com/wrist-pda/index.html)
assuming 15 min 'haevy' useing and left time in watch mode:
15 min 40mA = 10mAh
23:45 1.6mA = 38mAh

This means when reaching 45min editing memos or likewise use (only) half of the power is consumed in working mode.
(same with about 22min memoediting and display off in powersave mode)

AND now for something completely diffrent:
Does anybody know if it makes a diffrence in power consumption, how much memory is used? (really I don't know, if this is a silly question for the rest of you)

[Razoff]

The only other real resource is a yahoo groups site but the message board format and lack of members is annoying. Somebody...anybody....
ixle

http://ix.ipn.ru/wristpda/

[mclien]

http://ix.ipn.ru/wristpda/
OK blame me for not learning kyrillic, but for me it's not a real source this way ;-)
(Or is there an english version, too?

[Razoff]

OK blame me for not learning kyrillic, but for me it's not a real source this way ;-)
(Or is there an english version, too?
Is it a problem? Click "English" (or "Deutsch" etc.) link on page.

[mclien]

Oh sorry, at work they gave us an old mozilla version on an old solaris version, which didn't show it up correctly.
from home it works, thanks

[realyst]

RAM usage does affect total power draw. Though it usually isn't much. But, on average, storing 8 MB would takes less power then storing 16MB. The actual amount, however, depends on the type of RAM used, the amount of memory used vs its actual capacity, the bus used to write the RAM, etc...

Because of all that, and the minimal amount of draw the RAM gives vs the more power hungry CPU and GPU, RAM is oft left out of underclocking operations.

[mclien]

Mine is messed up... whenever I unplug/plug it in, it crashes...
Had this, too. Found out that a bad bettery was the problem. I now use my own battery replacement kid instead.

[realyst]

Had this, too. Found out that a bad bettery was the problem. I now use my own battery replacement kid instead.

I know exactly what you meant, but this is one of those typos that really brought on a snicker:D

[mclien]

replacement kid
:-)
but there are times in very parents life you think aout this , too :rolleyes: