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Happy Hacking Cradle Review
The Happy Hacking Cradle by PFU America, Ltd. is an interesting device. It's a small interface cradle that allows you to plug in and use a full sized keyboard. There are other keyboard solutions for the palm out there, namely the GoType keyboard and the soon to be released Stowaway folding keyboard, however neither offer full sized, regular keyboard capability like the HH Cradle.
The HH Cradle came packaged in a small OEM style box with a floppy disk, manual, and batteries. The cradle itself is slightly larger than a pack of cards and is well built. A cover flips up creating a nice substitute for the hotsync cradle and there is a conveniently located serial port in the back allowing the user to plug in a hotsync cable, modem, or other serial device and use it as normal. A hotsync button on the front of the unit allows for convenient hotsync'ing. A PS/2 keyboard port is on the left side of the cradle and an on/off switch on the right side. A small green LED is located on the top of the unit and let's the user know that the device is on and functioning properly. When the Palm is in the cradle this light is obscured and would probably be better located in front of the palm.
At first I believed that it was a problem with the keyboards requiring more mA than the 50 mA max that the manufacturer suggests, however after speaking with customer support, I was told that there was a small bug in the driver. After disabling the 'test keyboard' feature, all of my keyboards worked flawlessly.
The driver supports numerous commands, including pulling up the 'find' dialog box, turning the backlight on and off, scrolling and moving the cursor through fields, to name a few. Cut, copy, paste, and select all are also available via shortcuts, as well as undo and delete.
PFU America says that the batteries will last up to 80 hours using their Happy Hacking Keyboard and 20 hours or more using a regular keyboard.
One of the neat things about the cradle is that you can plug your palm modem or other serial device directly into the cradle and use it as you normally would, without having to remove the palm. The only thing you need to do is turn off the cradle to free up the serial port(as with other devices). One thing I found annoying was having to remember to turn the driver off before removing the palm. Forgetting to do so causes a soft reset. I'd like to see the driver autodetect like the GoType driver does.
The Happy Hacking Cradle does work. I found it to be impractical for use in the field as I usually find myself typing in someone else's office or on my lap while sitting in the car. Carrying a keyboard, Palm AND the cradle is just too bulky and cumbersome, and it's not practical to borrow keyboards from client's computers when I am in there office. I do use the keyboard in my own office in conjunction with my office computer as well as in the living room or dinner table(when I didn't feel like being in the office) although the extra keyboard does take up space. The bottom line is that the Happy Hacking Cradle is a great solution for a problem that doesn't exist. It is very well made, but unless you absolutely can't function without a standard full sized keyboard, there are much better options out there.
What I Like:
Has a port for Palm modem or other add-on's.
Ability to use a full sized standard keyboard.
Full assortment of shortcut commands.
Well made.
What I don't like:
Driver does not autodetect.
More cumbersome to carry around than other keyboard solutions.
Requires an extra set of batteries.
Rating 3 out of 5
The Happy Hacking Cradle by PFU America, Ltd. is an interesting device. It's a small interface cradle that allows you to plug in and use a full sized keyboard. There are other keyboard solutions for the palm out there, namely the GoType keyboard and the soon to be released Stowaway folding keyboard, however neither offer full sized, regular keyboard capability like the HH Cradle.
The HH Cradle came packaged in a small OEM style box with a floppy disk, manual, and batteries. The cradle itself is slightly larger than a pack of cards and is well built. A cover flips up creating a nice substitute for the hotsync cradle and there is a conveniently located serial port in the back allowing the user to plug in a hotsync cable, modem, or other serial device and use it as normal. A hotsync button on the front of the unit allows for convenient hotsync'ing. A PS/2 keyboard port is on the left side of the cradle and an on/off switch on the right side. A small green LED is located on the top of the unit and let's the user know that the device is on and functioning properly. When the Palm is in the cradle this light is obscured and would probably be better located in front of the palm.
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To use the cradle, you must first open it, place the Palm in the cradle, then turn the device on. Then go to the cradle driver and enable it. Once enabled, you can test to make sure the keyboard is functioning before going to whatever application you plan on using. I initially had problems getting the driver to work with my Windows enabled keyboard. I tried several other keyboards with some success. |
At first I believed that it was a problem with the keyboards requiring more mA than the 50 mA max that the manufacturer suggests, however after speaking with customer support, I was told that there was a small bug in the driver. After disabling the 'test keyboard' feature, all of my keyboards worked flawlessly.
The driver supports numerous commands, including pulling up the 'find' dialog box, turning the backlight on and off, scrolling and moving the cursor through fields, to name a few. Cut, copy, paste, and select all are also available via shortcuts, as well as undo and delete.
PFU America says that the batteries will last up to 80 hours using their Happy Hacking Keyboard and 20 hours or more using a regular keyboard.
One of the neat things about the cradle is that you can plug your palm modem or other serial device directly into the cradle and use it as you normally would, without having to remove the palm. The only thing you need to do is turn off the cradle to free up the serial port(as with other devices). One thing I found annoying was having to remember to turn the driver off before removing the palm. Forgetting to do so causes a soft reset. I'd like to see the driver autodetect like the GoType driver does.
The Happy Hacking Cradle does work. I found it to be impractical for use in the field as I usually find myself typing in someone else's office or on my lap while sitting in the car. Carrying a keyboard, Palm AND the cradle is just too bulky and cumbersome, and it's not practical to borrow keyboards from client's computers when I am in there office. I do use the keyboard in my own office in conjunction with my office computer as well as in the living room or dinner table(when I didn't feel like being in the office) although the extra keyboard does take up space. The bottom line is that the Happy Hacking Cradle is a great solution for a problem that doesn't exist. It is very well made, but unless you absolutely can't function without a standard full sized keyboard, there are much better options out there.
What I Like:
Has a port for Palm modem or other add-on's.
Ability to use a full sized standard keyboard.
Full assortment of shortcut commands.
Well made.
What I don't like:
Driver does not autodetect.
More cumbersome to carry around than other keyboard solutions.
Requires an extra set of batteries.
Rating 3 out of 5