Palm Software (yet again)

Check the pRASP web site. There's also RocketCalc which does various functions like tracking data reduction, descent rate calcs, and allows you to view the pRASP motor database. Wayne has also just released CPcalc. And although he hasn't put it on the web site, he's also ported my Neutral Point code for BG design to the Palm. User interface still is rather glass TTY as was my original code.

I'd love to see a full VCP port. And a good flight log program. Someone had one a while back, but last I checked the link was dead. And it wasn't very functional.

I just upgraded from my old Visor to the Zire 71. MUCH faster CPU is noticable when running pRASP. Color is nice too. The built in camera is pretty crude, but it's sometimes handy to have. I haven't tried things like the MP3 player yet, or done much with the removable SD card.

But I was *NOT* impressed with the difficulty of getting all my data from the old to the new. *NOT* as simple as hotsync the old one, then hot sync the new one. It took me weeks to get it usable, and I finally just used hot-sync to transfer the standard imbedded app databases (calendar, address, todo, memo), and then either beamed or restored the rest. Makes me wonder what would happen if the thing were ever lost or damaged. I'd never be able to get most of my data restored to a replacement.

Then consider all the features my old unit had that this one doesn't. I probably wouldn't miss them if this were my first Palm device, but I got really dependent on several of them, such as the floating TODO to remind me to take my pills, and adjustable snooze alarms so I could set a reminder 4 hours in advance and not have it go off again for 3 hours (the now one only does snooze for 5 minutes).

The Zire crashes half the time I do a search, then hangs forever until I find a paper clip to push the reset button, sucking battery power. Battery life of the new model is barely 2 days between charges (even without the crashes); I was able to spend a long week at NARAM without charging the old unit. And to top it all off, Palm support was less than useless in resolving these issues. I even offered to drive to their site (3 miles off my normal commute to/from work) with my old and new units. They didn't even respond to that.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

Check out the Software section of the Rocketry Resources directory on MaxThrust at

Cheers, Craig Craig R. Saunders, crs at MaxThrust.net,

I've done some work on a flight logger program, it's almost done but I haven't worked on it for a long while. I hope to get back to it shortly. If you send me an email with a list of stuff you'd like to see I'll see if it can be added. Of course I'll have to add 360x480 support now...

Mario Perdue NAR #22012 Sr. L2 for email drop the planet