Database Develop

USB GPS Mouse connection

Hi there,
let me first thank you for this great site you put up here!
And here comes my question:
I want to hook up my USB GPS Mouse (made for the notebook -
meaning it get's it's power via USB) up to my XDA.
And now I wonder if I can simply solder the data +/- cables
from the USB Mouse to the USB data +/- pins on the XDA plug
(so I could still use the same cable for ActiveSync on the PC),
or if I have to solder the data +/- cables from the USB mouse
to the serial RX/TX pins as described on the 'The XDA's connectors'
page of this site...
I was planning to hook both the GPS and the XDA up to my car
power adaptor in a kind of a Y constellation:
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::__________ Power
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
::::::::::::::XDA ----------
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\___________ GPS
and use Power for both.
Maybe someone can tell me about the data hookup.
Thanks, Lars.

I don't have answers but some things you have to consider.
1) The XDA is a slave device. I presume the GPS receiver is one too. I really wonder if they can communicate with eachother
2) Based on how you describe this you want to power the receiver from the the car. I assume you have checked the right voltage requirements for the receiver and that the powersupply can deliver the currents required for both the XDA and the receiver. My personal experience is that the latter shouldn't be too much of a problem, but it can't hurt to check.
3) Combining USB and Serial the way you describe it is not a good idea. (mark the last character '.' as in PERIOD).
Robert

Power Supply
Hi Robert,
thanks for your suggestions.
Indeed both (the original ActiveSync cable from the XDA and the
USB GPS) get their power off a USB port on the notebook so
this must be the same voltage requirements.
This ActiveSync cable is a combined car charging cable with an
USB 'A' type connector on the end which you can plug either into
the USB port on the notebook (where it also ActiveSync's) or into
the car's power adapter (where it only charges).
So this both same voltage. And the car power adaptor should
nominally supply enough power for both...
But I don't understand what you said about it not beeing a good
idea to hook up the USB data to the SERIAL data.
When plugged into the notebook in WinXP the USB GPS installs
a 'Prolific USB-to-Serial COM5' to emulate to the programms
working with it a com5 (or com1 or com2 depending on your
hardware settings) communications port. So I guess the data
coming from the USB GPS is just the same as if delivered via
serial cable and all the driver does is faking to be a serial port
to any programm asking for data from com5.
And I think a USB device is 'not really' a passive device as it starts
popping out ASCII data strings as soon as it get's power (no matter
if there is a device to read the data or not).
So I figure when you plug it into the XDA and tell the XDA by means
of USB wakeup (USB_VDD pin 13) that there is an active USB
connection, that it will start trying to figure out what the heck the
connected cable is trying to tell it.
And here is the tricky part where I don't know if the XDA might not
believe it is beeing Sync'ed and therefore starts ActiveSync.
Anyone with any experience or suggestions there...??
(Sorry for the rather lenghty post)
Greetings, Lars.

Lars,
seems like you got the power all figures out
regarding the usb/serial discussion.
If I understand you correctly you can plug the USB connector of the GPS receiver into the USB port of the PC.
'somewhere' in the PC this is modified into a virutal serial port in order to enable serialport aware programs to work with the GPS receiver as well.
This is a good concept but at an electrical level that still means that the GPS receiver is connected in an USB fashion. There is nothing Serial Port about that. In a way you already pointed that out in your messages by using the word 'emulate'.
You can hook it up to the USB part of the XDA but still I doubt about the master/slave discussion of USB.
Regards Robert

No cahnce.
Save yourself time/money.
Forget it.
Lars said:
Hi there,
let me first thank you for this great site you put up here!
And here comes my question:
I want to hook up my USB GPS Mouse (made for the notebook -
meaning it get's it's power via USB) up to my XDA.
And now I wonder if I can simply solder the data +/- cables
from the USB Mouse to the USB data +/- pins on the XDA plug
(so I could still use the same cable for ActiveSync on the PC),
or if I have to solder the data +/- cables from the USB mouse
to the serial RX/TX pins as described on the 'The XDA's connectors'
page of this site...
I was planning to hook both the GPS and the XDA up to my car
power adaptor in a kind of a Y constellation:
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::__________ Power
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
::::::::::::::XDA ----------
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\___________ GPS
and use Power for both.
Maybe someone can tell me about the data hookup.
Thanks, Lars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Guess U R right
Hi Guys thanx for the feedback,
I spent an afternoon researching on this stuff and am very disappointed that I have to admit you are both right.
Now way (other than putting some 'intelligent' converter between the USB GPS and the RX/TX pins of the XDA) to make the USB 'language' sound like 'SERIALean'.
I think there should still be a possibility:
Let everything run via the USB, persuade the XDA it's not ActiveSync talking to it and write a driver that talks to the GPS via the open USB connection and sends the proper commands to recieve the NMEA ASCII.
And then you would still need to tell your route software to take the incoming data from the virtual (or emulated) COM port...
And when I read the above chapter once more :shock: I find this is definitly not a job for me!!
So I will just get a serial GPS an hook it up the nomal way.
Cheers and thanx again, Lars.

Hi,
Just read your post. I am new to pda land. Just bought a xda2
I have a laptop which I use with a gps usb mouse via usb on the laptop. Am I right in thinking that I could have bought a ps2 mouse and used a ps2 changer to usb and it would have worked??
If so can't I buy a usb to ps2 changer in order to plug into a car connection cable which has the ps2 and the xda conection and a ciger lighter plug for power? OR is there a similar cable for a usb connect for gps?
Am I missing something here?
Thanks
P

Rikaline 6010 GPS to xda Car Kit

Hi everybody,
I've got problems with connecting my Rikaline 6010 to the Car Kit. With the help of the forum I know now, wich pins I have to connect together. But I'm not be able to bring power to the Mouse. I have the +5V and GND connected but the LED on the mouse won't turn on. With a simple car adapter for the mouse and the xda it works perfect. I try to look inside the cable of the car adapter and it looks lite the cable, I build myself.
Maybe I have to short some pins inside the connector ??
Does anybody have a Rikaline 6010 successful connected to the xda car kit ?
thanks a lot
rob.

Make sure the switched power supply is connected.
I assume you are using the official XDA carkit.
I did some reverse engineering on this carkit and found that the GPS powerline is only working if the switched power line for the carkit is connected.
After disconnecting this line the GPS power will stay on for 1 hour and then automatically switch of.
Have you checked if there is power on the GPS connector of the carkit when nothing is connected? Maybe the current demand is to high? For pinlayout check www.vanhemert.biz
Francois

Hi Francois,
I think my problem is not the car kit. After it doesn't work with the carkit, I tried to connect my car-adapter-cable with the cable, I made myself to the gps-mouse. And also there, the mouse doesn't get power. So I simply put +5V and GND to the pins of the mouse-connection and it doesn't work.
Maybe GND must be connected to two pins or to the GND-pin AND the PS2-connector's metall ?
I think, I have to buy a H203e to make it work....
rob.

Pinlayout
I have looked at the data sheet (http://www.rikaline.com/pdf/gps-6010-manual-e.pdf) and it looks straightforward. Pin 2 and 4 should do the job but I can imagine that you need a correct RS232 signal to get the thing up and running. Are you sure that the LED is just an indication of power or does it only light if power and RS-232 is correct?
As you can see in the schematics on my website I had trouble opening the COM port on my XDA, Communication just did not start unless I pulled the DCD line (pin 6) to Vcc. This will activate Active sync in the same way as the original cable set I used to have.
Good luck,
Francois

Hi,
thanks for your reply. The LED on the GPS-Mouse have to turn on simply by bringing power to it. I've tried that by using my car adapter cable and simply connect the mouse to the cable and not connect the xda...and the LED turns on.
I've ordered today a Hi203E and I will try to conncet it as you described on your homepage....hope it will work (if not, I'll be back ;-))
thanks a lot
rob.

Hi Francois,
today I received my Hi203e and I will try to connect it to the carkit.
One Question:
Is the connector, which is shown on your homepage and labeled with "to gps" the female connector, which is wired to the gps-mouse or the male connector, which is wired on the selfmade cable between carkit and PS2-connector of the mouse ??
thanks
rob.

hi,
ok, my previous question is now obsolet. The connector, which is wired to the Hi203e, is male (at my Rikaline6010 it is female). So I have to buy a female connector and build new cable. I made a first test by bringing the +5V and GND of the carkit over an adaptercable to the gps-mouse and (yippie) it worked. The LED on the mouse turns on !! Looks pretty good.
...to be continued (if I have the new connector...)
rob.

Hi Francois,
I've got it now and it works perfect. Thanks again for the Info's on your webpage.
2 points:
I've got a low noise (frequently repeated) in the speaker, when the gps is active. Is there something to do against that ?
And how can I stop the activation of active-sync, when i put the xda into the carkit ?
Do you know that ?
thanks
rob

noise...
rob said:
I've got a low noise (frequently repeated) in the speaker, when the gps is active. Is there something to do against that ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would guess this is the speaker wire picking up the GSM signal, nothing to do with the GPS. Try re-aligning so that the wires relative to the antenna of the XDA. If that doesn't work, you could experiment with ferrite beads (these ugly black blocks on all modern cables) on the wires.

Same problem here, but...
I found that if I start serial communication with the GPS unit, i will hear some interferance via the speaker. It looks like the auto mute functions does not work immediatlly after inserting the XDA and "the connection is left open".
Workaround:
Pressing the red phone button to generate a tone (keypress) activates the automute and the interferance will disappear. (at least is does in my case)
Auto start of the active sync process:
This is caused by the DCD line pulled to Vcc. I first owned a standard GPS Y-cable (XDA/GPS/Lighter) and it showed the same behaviour. My first experiment was to not use the DCD line (just gnd, tx and rx)but at that time TomTom could not open the COM port. I did no further investigation but one of the forum members suggested to disable the IR connection and auto sync, this should free the com port to TomTom and not start active sync automatically. Again I have not tested it but if you will, i am interested.
Good luck,
francois

hi,
Been reading this thread with alot of interest...
can someone help me with a problem, I have the O2 carkit installed in my car, and i also have a rikaline 6010 that i would like to attach it.
I have found the GPS connector that i need to attach the GPS reciever to but when i check the connector for +5v its not there...
Does anyone know where i can connect it to... looks like the person who connect my carkit could'nt be bothered about connecting up the GPS connector properly...
and also the colour of wires that everyone mentions, mine are a different colour...
i have the following from my rikaline reciever, 4 in total...
red
black
green
white
does anyone know what connects to what????
Many Thanks
Zetex

Rikalinegps 6010 with cables - from eBay
This receiver is available with cable for XDA via eBay (see link below), but you guys have got me worried. I'm thinking of buying the Rikaline 6010 but am I going to have to do all this business of rewiring etc? What's the economical way of buying all the other bits that I need (Software, Car Kit etc)?
I'm looking for some easy to follow advice. Keep it simple please.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4668&item=3094896604&rd=1
:? :? :?

xda-ipaq adaptor

Hi
I baought a XDA-Ipaq 36xx 37xx adaptor. It's a littlee cable to connect to the xda Ipaq accesories. Can I use it to atach an Ipaq sleeve with PCMCIA wi FI or bluetooth or CF card/CF GPS? Will it work?

No, these cables only interface to serial or USB, not the expansion port (the XDA doesn't have one, which is the problem right there...)

Portsmith MobileDox Serial to Ethernet Adapter (PS6U1SE)

Has anyone tried out the Portsmith MobileDox Serial-to-Ethernet Adapter (PS6U1SE) with an XDA? I think that in conjunction with a Hot Sync cable, it should be possible to connect the XDA to an Ethernet Network.
Any views?

It doesn't help any of us now, but I hope whoever is developing the XDA II is taking note. There ae a lot of features on the iPaq that we would like to see on the XDA II such as usb master and slave connectivity SDIO standard bluetooth, etc.

GPS RS232 to XDA

Hallo, I'm from germany and i've got an Laptop-GPS with RS232 and PS/2 conectors and i would like to know if there is any possibility to built an adaptercabel?
Then i don't have to buy a new GPS antenna.
Thanks for answering

If your gps is made by Haicom or similar, the adaptor lead containing power and data connections are only £15 here in UK, lot less trouble than obtaining an xda connector and trying to solder the connections, if you get power in the wrong place you have no xda or gps.

Hello,
my GPS is build by GARMIN. It's a GPS 35-LVS. I don't know, if it is similar to a Haicom. Maybe anyone else knows it.

You can use a serial cable + null modem adapter which is no problem.
The biggest problem for you is how to power the GPS.
I understand it is normally powered by PS2 so you need to find an adapter so that you can power it in car or use batteries.
You may be better off buying another GPS.

Hi PC-Mobile,
thanks for your answer, thats the way i supposed. In my opinion i can use a powersupply that makes 5V out of 12V. Than i get power for both, the XDA and the GPS.
Thats the cheapest way for me, the null-modem cabel i can build myself and seriel cabel is easy to buy.

Look here.
Regards, Tore