Windows Mobile

[galvitron]

The following are tested with the FTDI driver (used for Tactrix cable) for WinCE:

Toshiba e800 with Presentation pack (PA3326U-1PRP)(ARM4)
Toshiba e400 with USB host cable(ARM4)
ACER n20 Windows Mobile 2003(ARM4)
CEPC - running Windows CE 4.2(x86)

[Fitz]

Colby told me once that the Tactrix cable requires a host controller.

Uh, duh? Seriously, my first point was that the real goal is not USB, the goal is a suitable UART connected to the K & L lines. The FTDI chip is fundementally a USB target controller and a UART. In the PDA crowd, USB host controllers are rare - but UARTs are required. I know from personal experience (writing kernel level drivers) that iPaq's, as well as others, have suitable UARTs. So it would be feasible to get SSM, MUT, J1979, etc. working - using I/O circuitry similiar to the OpenPort.

And some PPC/WinCE/Mobile5 devices actually do have one.

Look carefully, the reason PocketPC platforms (the platform was first introduced with CE3x) don't have Host controllers is that there is no host USB driver stack in most the licensed images. This was a bone of contention with those of us on the USB peripheral side at the time. Tablet PC's and Mobile platforms are another story.

Wiki USB for more info on the spec.

Try www.usb.org instead. You can download the 1.1 and 2.0 specs from the Developer's area. If you need something from the members area, let me know.

-jjf

[MalibuJack]

Oh, I have sucessfully use home-made serial to ISO cables (the Jeff cable for example) using almost any PDA,

I think what is at issue is using the SAME tactrix cable with your PPC as you would with your laptop..

Otherwise its really easy, make the cable without the FTDI chip and keep it an RS232 only interface.

In reality, making the cable available as only makes sense now that most computers don't have built-in serial ports.

I have a media player thats portable, and linux based, that recognizes a serial port when its plugged in.. Only it has no function that I can see in the device. But I know it has a host bus because I can plug a thumb drive into it.

If you have a PDA that recognizes thumb drives, and other portable drives, many of which should these days since thats how most people transfer data, then the USB port should be host capable, although it may not have a full implementation.

To be completely honest, if there were a Tactrix cable which uses a serial port, I'd probably use it with a Keyspan 4 port USB/Serial device (it has 4 serial ports on it) but then Colby would have to rewrite the software to use serial ports again, and a whole new set of support issues turn up with people who can't figure out what serial port number their cable is, etc..

Many of the new PDA's probably have host controllers, for the reason I said earlier. The problem is if the driver stack, or the chipset has full support for devices.

[Fitz]

Otherwise its really easy, make the cable without the FTDI chip and keep it an RS232 only interface.

That was my first point.

I have a media player thats portable, and linux based, that recognizes a serial port when its plugged in.. Only it has no function that I can see in the device. But I know it has a host bus because I can plug a thumb drive into it.

That is exactly as to be expected. The device is being enumerated but there is no driver associated with its VID/PID combination. So there is no functionality at the app or OS level. If you want to learn how to write a device driver for Linux, the O'Reilly book is a good place to start. Getting a new driver installed into someone elses existing embedded install can be a little tricky, but it is usually doable.

-jjf

[galvitron]

Uh, duh? Seriously, my first point was that the real goal is not USB, the goal is a suitable UART connected to the K & L lines.

I should have made clear that I am exclusively looking to make the existing 1.3 Tactrix cable work. So in my case the real goal is indeed USB. Another reason for this is that I will need multiple devices connected to the device. USB seems an easy way to do this from an end-user setup/experience point of view.

[gethin]

Toshiba e740 has a USB host controller

[Fitz]

Toshiba e740 has a USB host controller

Interesting. It was one of the first Intel XScale based offerings. I remember it as a battery hog, but I (like everyone else at the time) mostly played with the built in WiFi, which was fairly novel. I have really seen the later models (e750, e805, etc.) in the series.

-jjf

[chrisw]

The audiovox SMT 5600 has the proper USB hardware. I think the newer device is the cingular 2125.

Both of these smartphones can run WM5.

I have one of those and another Ipaq hw6945 that I want to use for data logging once I get around the whole tatrix <-> USB <-> Ipaq connections figured out.

For logging I am thinking of using bluetooth, there are several good threads on this forum regaurding the merits and problems of bluetooth, so I don't want to dilute this thread on that debate.

[gethin]

Yeah the e740 was a nice PDA, pitty that Toshiba dropped it like a hot brick after it was launched for some whacky reason. And the battery problems sucked. Thats why I reluctantly sold mind a few weeks ago.