I soon filled the 8 Megs of RAM and wanted to add more books, games and other applications. Fortunately, I stumbled across the Kopsis website that explained how to build your own adapter to use a compact flash card in the Visor, with the software drivers Kopsis was just getting ready to develop. I wanted to order a TDS adapter from England, but being frugal by nature I did not want to pay $39 including shipping, so I gathered a number of orders from others who were interested and purchased about 10 adapters at once, then shipped them on to the other purchasers. This reduced the shipping costs for all of us. I also purchased a 4MB compact flash card on Ebay.

Kopsis released a free beta of its drivers near the end of November, 2000. I enjoyed playing with the software and was thrilled to have an extra 2.5 Megs of storage space. (The 4 Meg card did not increase my storage space by 4 Megs, since I leave about 1.5 Megs of RAM on my Visor empty, to allow me to move files back and forth to the Compact Flash card.) However, I wanted more space, so I purchased a 48 Meg compact flash card and a compact flash card reader on Ebay for about $85.

Unfortunately, the card did me no good, because it was a Lexar card. It was great for storing files from my PC, using the reader, but it was incompatible with Kopsis' FAFileMover software.

So I resold the Lexar compact flash card on Ebay then spent 2 weeks trying to find another compact flash card on Ebay that I could get at a decent price. During this time, Kopsis was releasing new versions of the software drivers 2 or 3 times a week as users were trying it out and discovering bugs in it. The software got better and better, and Kopsis was very responsive to users feedback. It was lots of fun to be part of a development effort of that sort.

As more people learned of Kopsis' software, people were frequently asking where they could get short adapters cheaply, where they could get compact flash cards cheaply, and how to get springboard housings without having to order 65 at a time!

I decided to take a shot at designing a custom-built short adapter and see how much it would cost to build. I found a company that gave me some encouraging estimates on pricing, so I began looking at ways to begin production. An attorney who has helped with startup companies suggested that I research the market and the competitors, prepare a business plan, then present it to potential investors and raise some start-up capital.

Two problems with that. I knew that there was at least one big company working on a similar concept (probably with the software loaded on the module). I also knew that because I was not going to load the software on the module, it would not be a true Springboard module and Handspring would not let me advertise it through their website. (I've asked them if they will make an exception, and I would be thrilled if they say yes, but I'm not holding my breath!) Those two facts alone would be enough to scare away any potential investors. Besides, the time and energy it would take to do all that could be better spent, I felt, in getting orders for my custom adapter.

So here I am. I have a manufacturer for the custom adapter lined up, ready to go, as soon as I can send them a check. To my surprise, the more difficult search has been for a good source of compact flash cards -- wholesale prices for compact flash cards appear to be higher than Ebay sale prices for new cards!

I'm still working on getting a reliable source of compact flash cards, but I'm confident that will happen very shortly. While I'm waiting to hear back from some potential suppliers, I decided to get this web page ready to go. The Kopsis software will be ready for commercial release in January, and MatchBookDrives will be coming off the assembly line by the middle or end of January.

Since I still have a day job, please bear with me if you have questions and need to contact me. I will get back to you just as quickly as I can by email or telephone -- usually within 24 hours.

May 5, 2001

It's hard to believe all that has happened since I wrote the entry above.  I don't have time at the moment to record everything that has happened, but here are some highlights.  I launched my website on the morning of December 28, 2000 by sending a press release by email to 6 or 7 websites that deal with handheld computers.  By the end of that day, orders were coming in at the rate of about 25 a day, much to my astonishment.  On December 29, I learned that my production costs were going to be 3 or 4 times the original estimate I had been given.  All of a sudden, the comfortable cushion I thought was there became a very slim profit margin.  However, I decided that it was still a benefit to customers to be able to purchase a completed adapter for about $30, rather than pay $39 for a circuit board that then required an hour of hand modifications using a soldering iron, so I forged on.  

On January 3, my website went down.  I had used a free hosting service, and it died a sudden and unannounced death.  I hurriedly put up an emergency replacement site.  The next day, my cable internet connection at home went down.  The cable company came out and investigated and said that the line to my house from the box across the street was corroded, and they would have to schedule a time to come out and dig up the street to replace the line.  I was told I would be without service for 3 to 4 weeks.  (It turned out to be closer to 6 weeks, since when they came out and made the repair, they mistakenly ran the repaired line into my neighbor's house, rather than mine!)

I managed to get a dial-up connection (I had forgotten such a thing existed!) running by the end of that day, rather than a week later, as my dial-up ISP suggested.  I struggled with design issues, being told I could not build what I was trying to build with stock parts.  I ended up acquiring a board designer, and built a long adapter (the MD-001), which lets the CF card protrude 3.3 mm., instead of the flush adapter I had designed.  Interestingly enough, 2 months later  I managed to push my board designer and we were able to produce the flush adapter from stock parts.  All part of the learning curve.

Then came the competition, putting up web sites long before they were ready to deliver (well, okay, I did that too) and disrupting the flow of orders. 

I won't bore you with more stories at the moment, but suffice it to say it has been quite a ride.  From the information I can gather at present, MatchBook Products has sold about 3/4 of all the commercially-built flashadapters currently in customers' hands.  However, we have hardly scratched the surface of the potential market.  We are currently working on some fund-raising so we can develop an even better adapter, with the software right on the adapter.  And the software just keeps getting better.  Kopsis has just released a beta this week of a modified version of CSpotRun that reads doc files right off the CF card in 4K chunks.  They have also added plug-in capability to FAFileMover, which will allow other applications to accomplish the same thing very easily.  In addition, they are working on VFS support, which would allow any applications written to access external memory on the Clie or the TRGPro using the VFS drivers in Palm OS 4.0 to also work with the MatchBookDrive, as long as they do not rely on other 4.0 features.

I predict that by this time next year, MatchBookDrive owners will number in the tens of thousands, rather than the hundreds. We will continue to strive for reasonable prices and shipping costs and excellent customer service. Whether I still have my day job a year from now remains to be seen. For now, I'm content to make a quality product at a reasonable price, and not be in a panic to sell hundreds of adapters each week just so my family can eat. 

I invite you to discover the world of compactflash memory for the Visor handheld.  It may open a new world for you as it has for me.  Come along for the ride!

Keith Hudson
Mesa, Arizona

P.S. August 8, 2001.  
Well, my predictions do not appear to have come true.  Although Visor/CF users may number in the tens of thousands a year from now, MatchBookDrive adapter owners will number in the hundreds. Today, I made the painful decision to liquidate existing inventories and shut down MatchBook Products.  Barring a miracle, when inventories are liquidated, we will have sold approximately 1250 adapters. With a little luck, I will come out of it without having made a lot or lost a lot.  It has certainly been a tremendous  learning experience.  

Thank you to all of you who have supported MatchBook through its birth, its adolescence, and now its untimely demise.  I hope to continue to be involved in helping move the use of external memory on handheld computers forward.  It is an exciting time for the handheld computer industry and for computing in general.  Once again, thanks to all of you who have provided so much support, encouragement, and positive feedback.
Keith Hudson

November 30, 2001
The response to our liquidation was so great we were able to settle a long-standing dispute with our supplier and free up another 850 MD-100 adapters.  Today, I removed the MD-100 from my order page.  I have 4 left in inventory, plus a few strays lying around the house, and I am sure there will be a few customers who already own Type II flash cards who will write in future wanting a Type II adapter, so I will keep these on hand for custom orders.  In addition, PDALight.com has perfected a modification that allows the use of the IBM microdrive with the matchbookdrive, so we'll see what happens with that. I will continue selling the Innopocket FlashPlus, and look for other Visor-related products that are reasonably priced.
KOH

Update July 23, 2002
I continue to sell FlashPlus adapters by Innopocket, with the software right on board.  I've received lots of positive feedback from my customers, for which I am grateful.  The long-term fate of Matchbook Products remains to be seen, but no matter what happens with Matchbook, this has been a very interesting and mostly enjoyable experience!
Keith Hudson

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