Got the Tactrix cable connected to my Toshiba e405 Pocket PC 2003 SE with host controller cable. Opened connection at 15625 baud and sent, received, closed.

More details tomorrow. I'm going to sleep...

 

kewl.....

 

That is really cool...

Now, i just need to get a cable for my Brick of a XV6700 Pocket PC Phone...

 

yeah i would like to find out some more details about this i watched the other post for a while but i have not heard much of late.

 

I can confirm that the tactrix cable will work with the following devices:

Toshiba e400
Toshiba e405
Toshiba e800
Toshiba e805

each of these needs a USB host cable (like 5 bucks). I have a auto-installer for the FTDI drivers so any program I release can be installed with included drivers. Then simply run the app and voila! Logging away...

I am going to refine it and put nice error handling etc. before posting to minimize support problems for me and to make it nice and slick for everyone.

BTW, Pocket PC 2003 first edition (?) 4.20 will not load the .NET compact framework. You need to have 4.21 or higher. The .NET compact framework will be required. You can find out what you have by going to Start->Settings->SystemInformation->System->OSVersion

I believe there is a DELL Axim that will also work. Marcel, you may want to post your model number here...

 

Hm...What do you mean a USB host cable? Is this a specific cable for the toshiba. Thinking back to the USB specs (which I haven't read in like 6-7 years), I thought there was just one type of cable specified (which 3 different connectors). The endpoint itself decides whether it's the host and controls the bus.

*confused*

d

 

Cool, I would like to ditch my laptop for one of these some day..

 

In the case of the Toshiba's you need a specific cable for their devices.

You are right that there are 3 types of connectors, but for a device to actually act as a host it must have a certain chip to control the communication, device detection, etc. Many mobile devices do not have this and are simply "devices" in USB terminology.

Supposedly, a host device that is mini-usb must be gray inside of the plug, but manufacturers disobey this it seems. On the full size plugs, any color goes.

 

Right. I remember all of that. What I was asking is if there's some new cable that will host FOR you. My dell axim x51v (fairly popular from what I can tell) does _not_ have any host hardware and the only solution I've found is a CF USB card.

In addition, I don't know if I told folks but you can't use an axim with a VAG-COM either. The axim cannot correctly set break.

d

 

Hmm, if there is no controller chip onboard you may have to go the CF host route. Let me know if you do because the FTDI driver needs to be modified in that case.

There is no general cable that will turn a device into a host.

 

Oh I don't plan on investing $100+ bucks in that particular solution. Out of curiosity, did you have to do more than just at the PID/VID to supported list?

Well actually there are. You can have a host device that is client controllable using a cutstom protocol on top of bulk transfer. You can then fake it with a driver. These devices have proven to be pretty lame because there is considerable latency and they are very expensive.

d

EDIT: On this topic, I'm also working on a bluetooth solution. A company in the UK (not ftdi) is sending my a dev OBDII unit that they claim will be programmable and meets all the requirements for doing MUT.

 

Well the PID/VID were all that needed to be changed for the normal cable install but I changed the name too so it said "Tactrix". For a CF host you MAY need to add a registry entry, depending on the CF device.

Custom protocol? Wow, that sounds like total overkill. Better to just buy the CF host adapter.

 

Bluetooth would be cool. How does that work?

 

Don't know yet. The unit and white papers haven't arrived yet. It's advertised as a bluetooth-OBDII adapter. They claim it's a microcontroller that understands the elm323 style modem control sequences over bluetooth. I described the requirements for MUT logging and the indicated that it would be able to do that too if i was willing to write my own firmware. We'll see.

d

 

be cool if we can get this to work in windows mobile 6