Raynman

Hi All:

I have both the cradle and the USB travel cable for my AX. Obviously, the Ax charges nicely while in the cradle since there is a power adaptor connected to it.

I saw a site the was advertising a USB sync cable that also promised to charge via the USB bus. The picture of teh cable looked very similar to my Dell cable.

My question: Can you charge from USB only and if so can the Dell cable be made to work this way.


Also, I do notice that if I keep my AX plugged into the Dell cable on my office computer, it sucks the battery dry in a couple of hours!


Ray :D

cageyjames

The Dell USB cable won't charge the Axim on its own. You'll need something like this...

http://www.gomadic.com/delaxpowsync.html

Raynman

Thanks for the link.

That is the cable I had previously seen.

It seems to me that the only diffenrence in this charging cable and the one that Dell sells is a couple of additional wires in the bundle. There does not appear to be and electronics built in.

Why then doesn't the Dell cable offer the charging capability? Surely the price difference to manufacture one or the other must be negligible

cageyjames

Remember, this is the first Pocket PC that Dell has produced. Its going to take a couple "versions" to figure out what is the right way to do this stuff.

Raynman

You're absolutely correct but it doesn't prevent me from venting ;)

cageyjames

That is what the internet is for. :p

kark_1999

I'm not sure I understand. I ordered an Axim (400), but opted for just the travel USB cable rather than the cradle (to save a few bucks). Will this mean that I can't charge my Axim once I get it?

Raynman

Sorry for the confusion caused.

No that is not the case. You will aslo receive seperate charger. It is one of those transformer bricks that all electronic devices seem to have. It plugs into a small round power port on teh bottom of the Axim.

I wanted a way to charge without carrying around the charger and since USB has power in it that seemed like the logical place to look.

cageyjames

All Axims come with a AC adaptor. The cradles don't. You need to use the adaptor that comes with the Axim to give power to the cradle. What this means is you'll have to plug in two cables to the bottom of the axim. 1 USB, 1 power.