neuromancer101

Before anyone says it, I have already used the mystical SEARCH function!!

I'm currently developing a PPC medical app as part of my University Final Year Project. Part of this project involves interfacing the Microchip Zigbee Developer kit to a PDA (which in my case is my Axim). I'm looking for an RS232 cable as this is what the developer kit uses. I know there's a few out there but I just feel that they are a bit too expensive for what they are.

Does anyone know of any cheaper RS232 cables for the x50v available in the UK?


My 2nd question is: Does anyone know of any vb.net code snippets or add-on libraries that will allow me to send signals via the serial port?

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bigbop

What serial signal lines do you require? I'm surprised you didn't find anything on this. I've created a number of posts specifically regarding serial interfaces on the X50.
In any case, SERIALIO.com has good serial cables. There are a couple of others as well.
Good luck on the project.

neuromancer101

Cheers, I did look at a few of your posts and found some useful info. I've taken a look at the SERIALIO cables and they do look well built but I still think they cost far too much for what they are, and I'm sure shipping to the UK would be expensive too. A few of the other people doing similar projects to mine are using the University's iPaq's and the serial cables for them are only £5!!

As I'm still figuring out how the zigbee developer kit uses the RS232 signals I'd really need all the signal lines as I'm not sure what I don't need.

I could probably make a serial cable, but buying a ready made one is quicker and neater.

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bigbop

Originally Posted by neuromancer101

Cheers, I did look at a few of your posts and found some useful info. I've taken a look at the SERIALIO cables and they do look well built but I still think they cost far too much for what they are, and I'm sure shipping to the UK would be expensive too. A few of the other people doing similar projects to mine are using the University's iPaq's and the serial cables for them are only £5!! As I'm still figuring out how the zigbee developer kit uses the RS232 signals I'd really need all the signal lines as I'm not sure what I don't need. I could probably make a serial cable, but buying a ready made one is quicker and neater.

If you want to do this on the cheap, you will need to build your own cable. I purchased the connectors from gomadic.com. If your local Dell sales is selling the power dongle cheap & with free shipping, you can use that too.
I assume you found the Axim Bob connector diagram. The X50 supplies 3.3 v output on pin7 when either pin5 or 6 is grounded. That will power a MAX3232 chip. If you can find a cheap cell phone programming cable with the RS232 converter built into the cable, that would be your best bet.
The reason the HP cables are so cheap is that HTC (who makes both the Axims and the HP PDAs, integrated the RS232 driver chip into the HP PDAs. Hence, the cable consists of just two connectors and wires.

neuromancer101

Thanks for all your info. I know this is an old post but I've only just got around to following it up. I'm now looking at purchasing the SerialIO cable, but has anyone from the UK bought from them before? Expansys UK sell the SerialIO cable, but at a slightly inflated price.

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Kenster

As for development packages kind of designed for lab interfaces, look at:
http://www.krmicros.com/Development/...etZeusLite.htm

Pc-Mobile

You might like to consider this alternative advice.

If it is just for the project and you need full RS232 port, you will be much better offer getting (buy or borrow) an old 2nd hand Ipaq, and its serial cable, rather than buying an X50 serial cable.

bigbop

Originally Posted by Pc-Mobile

You might like to consider this alternative advice. If it is just for the project and you need full RS232 port, you will be much better offer getting (buy or borrow) an old 2nd hand Ipaq, and its serial cable, rather than buying an X50 serial cable.

Why? What's wrong with the signals available on the X50?

BobSchaefer

Originally Posted by neuromancer101

Thanks for all your info. I know this is an old post but I've only just got around to following it up. I'm now looking at purchasing the SerialIO cable, but has anyone from the UK bought from them before? Expansys UK sell the SerialIO cable, but at a slightly inflated price.

Did you ever get your answer about using VB.NET and serial communications? If not, I can help on that, as I'm doing PPC development using C#, not VB, but still .NET and interfacing to a serial port. I'm using Visual Studio 2003 and an open source package called OpenNETCF to do the serial IO with. If you want/need more info, feel free to respond, and I'll help out as much as I can.

I'll be using my Axim for a non-work related project using Serial I/O as well. Unfortunately for you, on that one, I'll be using VS2005, which has the serial stuff built back in. (Plus I have the X51 as well) I will also be using the SerialIO cable to do the work. We'll see how well it handles odd-ball baud rates as well, as I need 8192 baud for my home project.

Bob

neuromancer101

Originally Posted by Pc-Mobile

If it is just for the project and you need full RS232 port, you will be much better offer getting (buy or borrow) an old 2nd hand Ipaq, and its serial cable, rather than buying an X50 serial cable.

As far as I'm aware, the TTL - RS232c signal conversion is done on the iPaq itself, whereas the axim doesn't have that converter hardware built into it, hence needing the cable to do it.


Hi BobSchaefer, cheers for the offer. No, I didn't really get much of a reply to my question about serial comms. I have access to VS2003 as well as VS2005 pro for free!!(Thank you Microsoft for your Academic Alliance!!) I was looking at OpenNetCF, but the code for serial comms looks a bit long-winded. I had no idea .NET 2 added serial support, what are the serial comms libraries for that like?? If it's gonna be easier for me then I'll make use of vb.net 2.0. However, in order to do that would I need to have WM5.0 or can I install .netCF 2.0 on WM2003SE??

Sorry if this question seems to be in the wrong forum section, I'll post next time on the development boards.

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