Palm PDA <---> PIC ?? Best comms method?

Guest · Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 3:54 pm

I have never owned a Palm Pilot, so I don't know what theyre capable of.

Anyhow, what is the best off-the-shelf, future-proof, easiest way for a Palm Pilot to communicate with a PIC? If anything, I will just choose my parameters on the Palm Pilot, then dump it to the PIC during factory installation time. After configuring the PIC's parameters, I will detach the Palm Pilot.

UFAnders · Joined: 13 Apr 2005 Posts: 36 Location: Michigan

I imagine that IrDA would be the best route. Microchip makes the MCP2120 which is a cheap IrDA serial codec that you could include on your PIC board. Although I have a few samples, I have not yet tried to make an infrared communication system yet though I hope to soon. You can get cheap matched infrared LEDs and photodiodes through various surplus houses like www.BGMicro.com or www.goldmine-elec.com. Digi-Key also has them I'm sure. ALso search these places for the 3.6864MHz crystal you'll likely want to use.

Hope this helps!

ckielstra · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 3680 Location: The Netherlands

IrDA is the standard way for Palms.
Another option is a serial RS232 cable, this was standard for the old Palm Pilots but is still available as an option for most newer models.

MikeValencia · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 238 Location: Chicago

I was the original poster "Guest". I didn't realize that I asked this same question several months ago.

Anyhow, yeah, IrDA seems to be the consensus so far. I looked at the palm website, and even the entry-level palm pilots have IrDA. I see the "hot-sync" USB cable, and I don't think there is enough documentation nor Palm developer support to guide someone to program the Palm as a USB host to talk to a PIC. (Or is there?)

So IrDA it is i guess.

Douglas Kennedy · Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 755 Location: Florida

IRDA is fine ( 10 ft limit) but the palm also has a rs232 port with pinouts to the 10 finger connector that is used when docking to the serial cradle.
There's even an ethernet cradle.
Palm lost its way in its own cloud of secrecy around its OS and hot link ( sync)concept. Some say its easier to divorce a wife of 25 years than to seperate a palm from its betrothed hot sync link.
It's sad but many think Palm will go bust with its secret agent approach to its products.
There is little specific documentation for PALM especially about hardware
(schematics etc)..even very obsolete hardware...its bad news and good news ...bad news in that there is little info but good news since lack of documentation has decimated the future value of all PALM products so you can get things dirt dirt cheap often half the price of buying the touch screen LCD alone.

MikeValencia · Joined: 04 Aug 2004 Posts: 238 Location: Chicago

It even looks like that Windows-CE based PDAs got 40% of the market share, tied with PALM in 2004. And some recent news suggests PALM only has an 18% share now.

So to truly future-proof PIC/PDA, it looks like one must not ignore WinCE-based PDAs. Even then, IrDA or serial would be mainstays, i think.