But when I opened the unit up, I saw that there was ample space for one more AA battery. Strangely enough, there’s even a plastic slot at the end that can accept the springy “negative” battery terminal after the latter has been removed from its original position.

Any worries about “frying” the circuit were quickly dispelled when I realized that four rechargeable AA batts, at 1.2v apiece, would only deliver 4.8v of juice –whereas the Dana happily accepts 5v via its inbuilt USB ports. And, in any case, the output of the Dana’s factory-issued charger is a surprising 7.5v!

Pictured here ( http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6418696231_c3d0a16e4e_b.jpg ) is my own mod, based on yours but with the “negative” terminal moved to the end slot. Note that the original plastic slot has been melted away and filed down to allow the fourth AA battery to easily slide in and out of place.

First, I’ll find out soon enough I suppose, but is the battery compartment ground connected to the battery pack ground? In that case, I think I can just cut out the positive “blanking plate” from a dead battery pack, and insert it into the battery compartment, and still leave everything connected? ie no surgery required to the AS itself.

Also, has anyone looked at adding backlighting, eg some LEDs around the display, or an electroluminescent panel behind etc?

I’m looking at installing ssh and a few similar things, I gather TuSSH supports alphasmart.
Of course the big limitation is WEP only 802.11b, but I also have an old palm bluetooth SD card, and my aim is to experiment using the AS as an “intelligent keyboard” that you can also take with you. In the simplest case it could be a “KVM” type keyboard with hosts listed and selectable on the touchscreen, for example.
Jack

I thought I’d share that instead of connecting to the battery case the wires (A) which are directly connected to the motherboard, I detached the wires (B) from batteries in the rechargeable pack that came with the Dana, and connected those wires (B) to the battery case, after cutting away the wires (C) originally attached to the battery case.

The battery wires (B) were kept connected to the motherboard wires (A) by the original power connector.

I might not even have had to take off the whole back cover doing it this way, just the battery compartment cover.

I don’t think any Palm styluses will fit in the Dana slot. I think they’re a custom job. You can buy a ten pack from Renlearn:
http://www.renlearn.com/store/storeitem.asp?item=ACCSTY10&id=3248&type=0&c=MP+73%3A24%3A5+1102%2F11%2F6