Targus Stowaway for Axim??

[Midshipman Easy]

I just converted from my jornada 525 to the axim but im really missing my targus stowaway. So i started looking at how the targus works and i believe (mind you) that it uses the serial device format to connect to a PDA.. ( a jornada 525 is a serial only syncing device) Rather then wait for and the big IF they come out with a axim version of the keyboard. Im looking into making a convertor from the jornada pinout to the axims serial pin. If indeed it does use the serial interface that would only leave the driver. So out of curiosity i installed the IPAQ driver and it installed just fine and seems to be working. So Im looking for some help from the axim community.
1) Does it sound reasonable that the stowaway uses the serial interface?
2) Does anyone have a pinout of the Jornada?
3) Does anyone yet have a pinout of the Axim yet?
4) Does anyone know where i can get a female of the jornada connector? Has anyone seen one in an electronics catalog anywhere?
5) Does anyone know where i can ge a male plug for the Axim connector ? I suppose i could hack a serial cable when they become available? But it would be cleaner to make one from a electronics catalog.
6) Any Electrical engineers out there want to work with me on this one?

I picked up my jornada stowaway from a Comp Usa for 39 bucks and from what i see all the keyboards(examined a friends palm stowaway), they seem to work the same way so potentially one could make a custom cable for any spare keyboard one could find a good deal on.

Thanx for your time.
Ken

[Midshipman Easy]

Well I found on a site the pinouts of all of there products and the good news is that it does indeed use the serial format! So Anyone out there yet get the Axim serial cable???? And if so do you have a fluke and a few moments to trace the connectors 9 pin to the 40 pin sub Din?

[Midshipman Easy]

well ive put my money where my mouth is and just ordered a dell serial cable.. the cost was 29 dollars.. 18 for the cable .. 8 for the shipping! plus tax.. ugh.. the joys of living in texas with them.
ordered today on the 1/21 and they said i should have it by this friday.. 3 days to make my jornada female connector to serial test cable. :)


no one has replied so i just write this now to enjoy the sounds of my keyboard.. :)

I'm interested in your work. I have an old HP548 with the Stowaway and have just ordered an Axim. Was thinking that my old keyboard would be useless but your ideas sound great. PLEASE keep us posted. Thanks.

[Midshipman Easy]

Well Ive finally figured out the pinouts needed to make a connector from the stowaway to a 9 pin serial and have successfully used this 9 pin and the Jornada sync cable to make the keyboard talk with the jornada. :) So theoretically atleast i just need to plug in the axim serial cable and go. There is much talk about the serial cable not being able to be used for rs232 communcations on the DELL forum but in MHO this is worthless.. I mean how can they say it can sync with a pcs serial port but since it doesnt have a serial port on the Axim it will not work.. come on .. lol
But now that my Serial cable is "in production" i let you all know by next week!

[Midshipman Easy]

Well it shipped! A day late but atleast the serial cable is on its way! Its going airborne express from austin a mere hour away and so i should have it late today or mid tommorow. :) Im also digging out my old 28.8 external modem to see if i can connect to the interent via the serial and null modem. This will be the first test i perform to see if there is or is not a serial port or xscale emulator in the Axim.

Great! I used to use a null modem and gender changer with an external 14.4 external modem with my HP548. Later bought the Targus CF 56k modem so I could use the keyboard at the same time when dialing into my ISP.

Let me know if you get the Stowaway to work as I would like to get some good use out of it with the new Axim which is still IN PRODUCTION. Been practicing entering data with the Power Tools Remote Display as that is what I could do with the Axim to avoid buying an external keyboard. Guess, I'll end up beaming over most of my Tasks from the HP548 since I don't keep them on the desktop.

[Midshipman Easy]

Well i have recieved my serial cable finally! The good news is that i was able to dial up using an external modem via the serial cable!.. The bad news is that the pass thru pinouts that work just fine for the jornada did not work off the bat for the Axim when connected to the Stowaway. Bummer.. of course still lots of testing to do .. but one REALLY odd thing i noticed was that when the jornada and its serial cable were connected to a black box rs232 line monitor , the monitor lit up like i expected it too.. But the same setup with the Axim and its serial connector light up nothing!
Ill try it now, passing thru the external modem. Well it lit up this time and i see activity but its obvious the power is coming from the external modem to make the black box go.

well Ill all let you know.

[Midshipman Easy]

Well in case no one has seen the new serial dell cable it is not a straight 40 pin to 9 pin cable.. it has this tiny black box between the two connectors. As it turns out it is not just there for looks! It contains a tiny chip labeled. Sipex sp3243eca ... you can read all about this chip here...
http://www.sipex.com/products/pdf/SP3223_3243E.pdf

Apperently this is how they can say that the axim has no serial port yet is still able to connect to a pc via a serial port.. really was this so hard to tell us!!!!

At any rate this nifty chip has auto on to save power when used in devices like oh say a PDA !

This is a cool feature assuming the device you connect it too can tell the chip its there !

So the mystery of why the rs232 line monitor did not light up when connected alone but then connected to the extrenal modem lit up like a christmas tree!!!

Sad news for my stowaway convertor ! Since it cant tell the chip to turn on directly this goes from being an easy thing to a bit more complicated.

Anyone reading this have an idea of how i can trick the device to be on ?.. either thru a button battery on the connector OR via software and sending a signal down to the chip to tell it turn on?

Ill keep you all updated!

If you get a chance, try hooking up a GPS with the serial cable to see if it powers up the chip. I would assume it would hook up like the external modem.

[petekol]

Originally posted by Midshipman Easy@Jan 30 2003, 07:47 PM
Well in case no one has seen the new serial dell cable it is not a straight 40 pin to 9 pin cable.. it has this tiny black box between the two connectors. As it turns out it is not just there for looks! It contains a tiny chip labeled. Sipex sp3243eca ... you can read all about this chip here...
http://www.sipex.com/products/pdf/SP3223_3243E.pdf

Apperently this is how they can say that the axim has no serial port yet is still able to connect to a pc via a serial port.. really was this so hard to tell us!!!!

At any rate this nifty chip has auto on to save power when used in devices like oh say a PDA !

This is a cool feature assuming the device you connect it too can tell the chip its there !

So the mystery of why the rs232 line monitor did not light up when connected alone but then connected to the extrenal modem lit up like a christmas tree!!!

Sad news for my stowaway convertor ! Since it cant tell the chip to turn on directly this goes from being an easy thing to a bit more complicated.

Anyone reading this have an idea of how i can trick the device to be on ?.. either thru a button battery on the connector OR via software and sending a signal down to the chip to tell it turn on?

Ill keep you all updated!

this Sipex sp3243eca is just cmos/ttl to rs232 convertor with external device autodetection.

Once AUTO ON-LINE ® function active, the device is enabled until
there is no activity on the receiver inputs. The
receiver input typically sees at least ±3V, which
are generated from the transmitters at the other
end of the cable with a ±5V minimum.

so i think you do not supply power on yout keyboard and this chip does not see and device connected.

one q from my side: could you trace the wires to and from chip to get pinouts of axim. CMOS levels are usefull too. You have chip pinouts in pdf.

[Midshipman Easy]

Yes thats exactly the problem the Axim serial cable "SHOULD" supply power to the stowaway, so since there is no power to the keyboard the keyboard cant tell the Sp chip its there, so it cant turn on and therefore provide power to tell it to turn on.. lol .. ugh chicken or the egg.. :) Ive downloaded the PDF and im looking at a way to "short" the auto power circuit to stay on all the time.. to atleast TEST the cable connection once it all works..
Ultimately to make a proper connector one will need not only a supplier for the 40 pin connector. ( moonlight technologies has the sync cable for 8 bucks which could be hacked just for the connector), and Ive asked and hopefully will get a sample of the chip from the maker.. In the past you simple ask for samples and they are more then happy to give you one.
I will work on making a pinout of the 40 pin connector to the chip and then from the chip to the serial though this is as you meantioned covered in the chips PDF.

[petekol]

take a look
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/b...SERIAL.htm#Axim

[NMkiD]

wow youre sure putting a lot of work and research into this, I applaud you!

[tstar]

So it weems possible that with a little messing around with an adapter cable from my Handspring version of the Stowaway Keyboard to the Axim serial cable , I should be able to use the keyboard? Assuming I can find the driver software?