JakeRich

Boxwave announced a couple of weeks ago that they now have a cradle for the HP 21x series. I had been looking for one for my HP 211, so I ordered one as soon as I heard about it.

Well, the cradle arrived yesterday, so I'm reporting on one day's experience with it. The cradle was the less expensive one, without the extra pocket to charge a second battery, because I don't have a second battery. It did come with a USB-to-miniUSB cable for syncing and a 5V, 1A power converter. The converter takes in 100-240v AC. I chose to just plug in the HP power supply, since it was there in place already.

The only connection to the 21x is the mini-USB connector you can see in the pictures in the link above. The process to connect is pretty straightforward: You line up the 21X carefully to be in parallel to the back support and then slide it down onto the mini-USB plug. It's a little tricky to learn, but it does work well. Once it's in place, it's pretty sturdy, but the cradle does slide around some without the 21x in it because the feet on the cradle aren't really very sticky. The unit is, for me, at a comfortable angle. It will NOT accommodate the leather case I have, and probably won't accommodate any case I have seen so far. The connector is too close to the backplate to allow for much to be between them.

One drawback of the cradle is that it only uses the mini-USB connection, and that connection has been reported to be so current-limited that it can't handle the 21x power demands. The symptom of the power issue is the screen flickers when using just a USB host port for charging. With the cradle I haven't noticed any flickering. With just a cable, I had noted that when Activesync kicked in the LED flickered. In the cradle it doesn't do that. In fact, the only flickering was able to generate was when, as a test, I fired up my navigation software, had BT running and then forced the navigation software to write to the SD card. There was some light flickering of the backlight when the writes were happening, but the green LED never went out. In normal use, the LED starts out orange, then goes to Green just fine. I have the brightness on my 211 pretty high, but when connected to the cradle I don't have the WiFi or BT on. I do use both a CF and SD card, however, so the current draw is most likely about average. I do keep my battery pretty well topped off, so a more depleted battery may overdraw the current supply.

There is a blue LED on the cradle that seems to be lit all the time. If you have the cradle on external power, the LED is lit whether or not the PDA is in the cradle. The same thing happens if you have the cradle plugged into a USB port without the external power supply. Basically, the LED is on all the time, so it's not very useful except to be a night light on your nightstand.

I still think it would be better to have used the 24-pin connector in a cradle, but for now, this cradle will do nicely, thank you. And at least my 211 is not lying flat on the desk or propped up on the case anymore. That's a good thing! :approve:

lujan

Thank's for the quick review. I think I'll wait for a 24 pin cradle though.

JakeRich

UPDATE: I think I have the blue LED sorted out. It seems to indicate when you are connected to a USB port, external power or not. If you have the external power connected, but disconnect from the USB, the LED slowly fades out. Fooled me the first test because I just did a quick disconnnect/reconnect and it didn't fade out fast enough for me to notice it.

Also, with a more depleted battery the orange LED flickers on and off when first connecting, then goes steady orange to show it charging. The Power screen shows "charging" at the same time.

Yarrenbool

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I guess I only have myself to blame.

I got my BoxWave dock with spare battery charger today.

However it won't work for me as I have the 4400 mAh extended battery and there's no way at all that the 210, with extended battery attached, will fit in the dock.

I know; if I'd given it even a couple of moments thought I would have realized that the extended battery would add too much thickness.

I plan to use the extended battery most of the time and only take the standard battery with me as a spare. I don't want to have to do a soft-reset by switching the batteries on the 210 each time I want to sync.

A couple of questions to anyone who has bought and received the BoxWave dock:

a: Do you think that I can pry off the clear transparent part of the dock without breaking it? If so, then perhaps the 210 with the 4400 would fit.

b: Is the power plug that goes into the dock a touch too loose? Mine will come out and loose power if the power cable gets knocked even a little.

I am really disappointed with having wasted so much money but know I have only myself to blame.

Be warned - if you have a 4400 mAh extended battery do NOT buy the BoxWave dock!

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Ceril

Interesting points. but it seems that the unit with the extended battery will fit in the cradle dock, though the battery alone won't charge in the extra battery dock. So for someone who only uses the extended battery, it could still be an option. It just goes to show how many things we take for granted when we read a description! I also didn't think to check about the ability to have the extended battery...Dell, it seems spoiled me a bit! :)

Yarrenbool

Originally Posted by Ceril

. Interesting points. but it seems that the unit with the extended battery will fit in the cradle dock, though the battery alone won't charge in the extra battery dock. So for someone who only uses the extended battery, it could still be an option. It just goes to show how many things we take for granted when we read a description! I also didn't think to check about the ability to have the extended battery...Dell, it seems spoiled me a bit! :) .

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No, sorry, it is physically IMPOSSIBLE for the unit with the extended battery will fit in the BoxWave cradle dock!

There is no way at all to force the unit with the 4400 mAh extended battery attached to fit in/on the cradle/dock!

I have not removed the extended battery from my 210 to see if the 4400 mAh battery will fit the "spare-battery-charger" dock.

Once again, be warned:

An HP iPAQ 210 with the 4400mAh extended battery attached will definitely NOT fit in the BoxWave cradle!
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Ceril

ah. my confusion. hmmm. it seems a bit short-sighted on the part of boxwave. It would be interesting though in your "spare" time to see if the the battery ALONE would fit in the extra battery charger.

Could it be that a unit with attached 4400 mAh fit if you got the simpler charger - i.e. the one without the extra batter charger dock?

Yarrenbool

Originally Posted by Ceril

. ah. my confusion. hmmm. it seems a bit short-sighted on the part of boxwave. It would be interesting though in your "spare" time to see if the the battery ALONE would fit in the extra battery charger. Could it be that a unit with attached 4400 mAh fit if you got the simpler charger - i.e. the one without the extra batter charger dock? .

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Looking at the photos of both cradles on the BoxWave site I would bet that it is 99% certain that the 210 WITH the 4400 mAh extended battery attached will NOT work on either of the cradles.:(
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JakeRich

One Brighthand.com user of the cradle and extended battery reported that you can remove the backbrace that holds up the 21x and the extended battery will fit. The downside would seem to be that the 21x is then entirely supported by the mini-USB and any "wedging" that the battery has against the cradle. I don't have the bigger battery, so I can't comment personally.

G@ry

Is anyone else having a problem syncing with this cradle? The PDA charges with no problem but does not connect to sync. Thanks!

JakeRich

Syncs fine for me. Maybe yours is defective? I'd return it to Boxwave.