BU303 USB to IPAQ 5550 connection cable

gaznasty · 10-02-2006, 01:31 PM

Hello to anyone that would be kind enough to help me!

I am the owner of an ipaq 5550 and have been looking on the internet for a gps to pda cable that will work with a BU303 usb gps device to use in my car.

I am debating if I should attempt to build my own GPS cable for this purpose, I have some basic electronics knowledge but gps and ipaq connection is still fairly new to me so my question is below.

I can use an old sync cable plug for the ipaq plug on which to solder new leads, I have searched different sites regarding the pinout diagram for the ipaq 5550 which consists of 22 pins. I have found a site that suggests pins 1,2,3,4 are connected together to live, but I dont know if this is supposed to be +12 volt or +5 volt and connecting pins 10 and 15 together to ground, however, another site suggests also connecting pin 22 to ground but as I am after good advice I would appreciate any help from anyone (especially as 1 site referred to pin 22 as a "drain wire").

Pin 7 appears to be RXD which i presume means receive data and pin 8 TXD which I presume means transmit data.

Regarding the BU303 GPS USB unit I understand that pin 1 will be VCC +5 volt live, pin 2 will be data-, pin 3 will be data+, and pin 4 Ground.

Would the data- and data+ from the BU303 connect to the ipaq at pins 7 and 8 or would'nt this work at all? I did also note that pin 19 on the ipaq is USB UDC+ and pin 21 is USB UDC- and again I have no idea what his means.

Would someone please advise me on if the above can be done and is this the correct way to carry this out.

I look forward to help and advice from anyone to save me owning a very expensive paperweight.

Garry

NeoMatrixJR · 10-02-2006, 05:04 PM

Please link the pinout you found for the HP 5550. I'm going to guess that this will not be possible. MOST PDA's don't have USB Host capacity (meaning they can operate USB devices) on thier own. the TXD and RXD you would have found would be serial (not USB...oldschool serial) and cannot be converted one to another in this instance (that I am aware of). You do have hope though. Without doing much research, I believe that I found that the 5550 is compatible with the CF/PCMCIA adapter sleeves. IF you can find a USB host card in either format with compatible drivers for PPC use, you could get a sleeve, a USB controler, and then hook it up.

Good Luck!

gaznasty · 10-03-2006, 08:39 AM

thank you for the clarification regarding the different languages between USB and serial. The link I used as a foundation for this design regarding the ipaq plug is below and I found this information helpful regarding cables and sockets.

http://web.it.kth.se/~maguire/ipaq-notes.html

Back to the drawing board!

NeoMatrixJR · 10-04-2006, 01:21 AM

Yep...I was right. You're going to either need the sled + adapter I mentioned above or a serial GPS. BTW...RS232 = Serial for future reference. The USB you see on the pinout is for the PDA's Device side USB port. Device and Host are two different things. You need a Host side port to run your GPS, thus the adapter I mentioned. Sorry to say you can't use the bottom connector as-is with a USB GPS solution.

gaznasty · 10-04-2006, 10:47 AM

Thank you for saving me from destroying my ipaq!

I will look for a Serial GPS now.

Garry