Skeye Pad SL

I had plenty of difficulty myself making an ActiveSync connection with my skeye.pad. I once connected successfully over a WiFi network using mscdex' ActiveSync Partnership Creator, but was never able to duplicate the feat after a hard reset.

I have only been able to sync using the serial cable now twice...and that is after a zillion attempts. I am totally perplexed, other than perhaps it is the USB to Serial adapter I am using...yet I can sync using it with every other handheld just fine.

So today I ordered a low-profile pci serial card on eBay and perhaps it will work better...I'll let you know in a week or two when it gets here.

In the meantime, I got tired of holding the Skeye Pad to use it. So I took the car cradle that came with mine (which I will never use in the car) and modified it to make a desktop cradle out of it. It works great. I just took out the locking bar from the car mount and cut it down, and then screwed and superglued it to the back of the car cradle...makes for the perfect angle and easily holds the skeye pad in place. Now I need to go to Radio Shack and buy an power plug to mount on the backside so I won't have to plug in the a/c jack on the right edge....I'll just stick the Skeye Pad in the cradle and have power to charge...

BTW...still waiting for the 18650 battery holder from China to get here...but I got the 4000mAh cells (which I have the feeling are really only 2600mAh)...we'll see soon enough...







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Okay...news for all of you who might care...which is probably one or two...

Synch problems with Skeye Pad are over... I got my pci serial card today and installed it. Set the port speed at 115K. Created a network connection on the Skeye Pad using HW-SP3 on Com2: for 115K and then set that as my PC Connection...plugged it into the serial cable I made up that I mentioned earlier...and viola...it Activesynced first time just like it should. As a matter of fact, I hard reset it and tried it several times and it synced with no problems whatsoever...so that problem is gone!

Then I tried the OS update that I could never get anywhere with in the past. Set the comm port to Com3: which is my new pci card and it took right off. I now have CE.NET 4.2 installed in my Skeye Pad...

I'm getting happier by the minute. The point is that there is a difference using the USB to serial adapter versus using a normal pci serial port...even though I could Activesync with the usb -> serial adapter with my Mobilepro...it would not do it with this machine.





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Okay, got the 2 cell holder in the mail today...soldered the wires in place, glued the holder down. Looking good. Plugged in the batteries, unit powers right up on battery power. Plugged in the charger and it says "they are charging" Batteries only had 80% power in them according to the CE power report in the control panel.

Anyways, the holder extends outward from the back about an extra 1/4 of an inch or less...so a cover should be easy to find as my next step.

Pictures below: (top) showing the holder in place (bottom) showing the holder extending out further than the original back by 1/4"









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All done!

I was thinking I would use a project box for the back, but when I measured the opening I had cut, I realized that a simple wall plate would cover it without too much problem. I got lucky in the fact that I didn't over cut the opening. Check out the pictures below...

From top to bottom:

Pic 1: I used two old plastic caps from usb flash drives and epoxied them to the ends of my battery holder.

Pic 2: Then holding the cover in place I drilled two small holes in the plastic caps for my screws

Pic 3: The plate didn't quite fit down enough, so I used a gasket made for outdoor receptacles, cut it and glued it in place. It is pliable foam and makes a good seal.

Pic 4: The ruler doesn't show it good, but the overall thickness of the mod added 7mm to the backside of the case.

Pic 5: Here the cover is screwed in place. I just need to trim the gasket a little with a razor blade and paint the cover...

BTW, the Skeye Pad SL doesn't use a backup battery since the batteries are normally not removable. So if I ever need to change the cells, I need to keep it plugged in during the process to prevent a hard reset. Also I've left the thing unplugged now for a week and still have plenty of juice left. Those 18650s may not be 4000mAh...but they work pretty darn good.













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Ingenious...

Rick

Edited by Richard Plume 2013-01-05 8:02 PM

Thanks Rick...just trying to make CEGeek jealous since he said his battery had died a while back on his...

Well, I didn't find the Krylon paint, but I found some Rustoleum for plastic and painted it up. Color is close, not perfect. Put new labels on the backside...finished project looks pretty good.





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Looks sharp!

Prismatic lithium ion batteries are not so easy to find or match up. I am providing this to help anyone who needs to replace their Skeye Pad SL battery without doing what I just did in my battery mod.

Below are pictures of the battery in the Skeypad.

The top picture shows the battery without the shrinkwrap. It consists of (4) 3.7V LION cells. They are wired in a series-parallel configuration.

The next picture shows a single cell

The next shows the only marking I could find on the cell, and a websearch shows nothing at all.

The next three pictures shows the size of the cells. They are 63mm long, 33mm wide, and 10mm thick.

BTW, the recharging is controlled by a little proprietory circuit attached to the top of the four-cell block, it has a couple of small chips on it which I assume control voltage cutt-off and amperage matching for the individual cells.















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Those look like the same ones used in the J820 battery pack.

Excellent job! I have not touched my Skeye.Pad for quite a while.

I've been loving playing with the one I have so far. CE.NET 4.2 works fine. The built-in backup program is unmatched in any CE devices I've ever used. All of my software is working great on it. So far...no complaints.

I guess the biggest thing I've learned is that not all 18650s are created equal. I couldn't understand why the 4000mAh Ultrafires were so good when I first put them in and now they are crap. Well I found out why. When you first get them, they intentionally overcharge them. I had returned the ones I got and the seller replaced them with a couple of new ones. When I got them this time I measured them...they were coming with 5V charges on them. That's a lot more than the 3.7-4.5 they are rated for.

Under a normal charge now they power up to equivalent 2400mAh cells before the protection circuit cuts off. So I asked the seller, why are they advertised as 4000mAh and how do they get that rating. He admitted that he really didn't know...that he had ordered a couple crates of them from China for a buck apiece and is simply reselling them. He offered to refund me my money if I wanted. Since I didn't pay that much for them and he was being nice...I just let it drop and considered it a lesson learned.

Today I got in some Tangsfire 2800mAh cells with the protection circuit that I had ordered a while back before I put in the protection circuit on the Skeye Pad. I'll charge them up and see how they do. Again they are Chinese cheapos....but from what I've read, have a little better reputation than the Ultrafires.

The Sonys I paid premium price for are really worth it. They take a super charge and last a long long time compared to these other cells. The Sanyos that I pulled from the laptop batteries and the Panasonic I also got from laptop batteries are pretty decent too and are all in the 2800mAh range...but so far the Energytec are the best yet on this Skeye Pad.

Next project...play with a CF gps and see if I can install iGo8 or GarminXT gps software on the thing.





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Cool! You have good cells made in china US.

You're welcome!