Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

I know it's been a while but I just thought I'd update you as to the situation with the EDAs. Eventually an engineer came up and re-imaged the units using an image he'd successfully used on another project. This seems to have sorted out the problems with Synchroneyes. We're still not happy with the dreadful battery life (even with just basic functions being used) and are taking a look at what we can replace them with for the next school year.

Thanks to everyone who offered help and advise over this matter.

Graham

I don't know - I wasn't involved in the purchase of the PDAs. I'll have to ask.

I'll certainly be interested to know if our suppplier told us or not.

Does anyone know of any official word on f-s withdrawing and/or discontinuing the EDAs? I can't see anything on the f-s website, and there's nothing on their support forum. They've still got the support page up, but a number of online vendors show the EDA as discontinued.

Graham

Hi Matt,

We've been using ConnectMobility-E2C as installed on the EDAs and supplied by Steljes. It's interesting that the Fujitsu-Siemens site you gave the link to reccomends deleting the program!

Not sure how to set the WLAN to reconnect automatically or how to check/change the WLAN power setting. Any help would be appreciated.

Graham

Runcorn CLC is facilitating an EDA project with a local primary school (one of the Year 5 classes). We've just taken back the class set of EDAs so we can do a full check, try to get them all working on SynchronEyes at the same time, and get the dodgy ones replaced.

We've found that the pupils have been taking good care of the units, with only the odd accidental damage.
I've found that the response to inputs can be sluggish at times, and can even grind to a halt if too many applications are opened.
A number of the EDAs have had operating system bugs which have caused one to become unlockable, and two to become un(screen)alignable.
Charging is a real problem. There isn't the space (or sockets) in the classroom to charge them all in school so the charging cradles have been sent home with the pupils. This creates problems when the EDAs turn up the next day uncharged, either because the pupil forgot or because it wasn't placed into the cradle securely. Someone needs to manufacture a box/tray/case charging unit run from one socket where a class set of EDAs can be stored/charged in the classroom. And as previously mentioned, some sort of indicator to show when it's charging would be very useful.

Graham

Thanks for the reply, Graham.

The HTC Advantages that we also have for other projects gives the option of keeping the wireless connection even when the unit goes into powersaving mode. I can't find any such option for the EDAs. I'll certainly contact Smart to see if they've come across this problem before.

Graham

My CLC is running a primary EDA project using Fujitsu-Siemens EDAs.

We've set them all up with Syncroneyes so they can all be viewed by the teacher and so the pupils can share their work. However, when the units power down they lose the connection to SyncronEyes and drop off the screen. Does anyone know of a way to keep the wireless connection active even when the unit times out? The other option is to set the units so that they don't power down, but that means the battery barely lasts any length of time.

Graham