OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Sharp Zaurus => Model Specific Forums => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Cxx0 Hardware => Topic started by: marshmn on May 25, 2005, 09:14:14 am

Title: Serial Connector Pin-out
Post by: marshmn on May 25, 2005, 09:14:14 am

Hi all,

I'd like to build a cable to connect my Z to a serial GPS device. I've been looking at the information on this page:
http://www.zaurususergroup.org/modules.php...name=SerialPort (http://www.zaurususergroup.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpWiki&file=index&pagename=SerialPort)

That info is very helpful and includes a table giving relevant pins on the zaurus connector. What I can't figure out is which way round the pins should be counted?

If I'm looking directly at my Z, should I be counting the pin on the left as pin 1? or the pin on the right?

I understand that some models have the connector upside down from others? So I'm talking about a C860 here.

Thanks for the help,
Matt

Title: Serial Connector Pin-out
Post by: marshmn on July 20, 2005, 08:19:50 am

OK, so after some playing around with the USB cable and a multi-meter I've been able to determine that the pin on the left as you're looking at the connector on the Zaurus is pin 1.

Right, now that's sorted I can get on with making my Z to GPS connection cable

Matt

Title: Serial Connector Pin-out
Post by: zmiq2 on July 20, 2005, 10:29:13 am

Hi Matt,

can you please comment on how are you doing the cable? Where do you get the zaurus connector from ?

Thanks.

Title: Serial Connector Pin-out
Post by: marshmn on July 25, 2005, 07:40:31 am

zmig2,

I now built the cable and have it working with the Z after a bit of messing around. I think at some point I'll write this up as a mini-howto or something with photos etc to save others having to do the searching around etc... but anyway, for now, here is the basic info:

- I bought some Zaurus connectors from:
  http://www.fivestarassoc.com/Z/index.html (http://www.fivestarassoc.com/Z/index.html)

- I bought some Garmin eTrex connectors from:
  http://www.pfranc.com/ (http://www.pfranc.com/)

I then connected the pins as per a null-modem cable, so from the output pin of the eTrex connector to the "Recieve Data" pin of the Zaurus connector (Pin 4) and from the input pin of the eTrex to the "Transmitted Data" pin of the Zaurus connector (Pin 3). I connected the ground pin of the eTrex connector to the "Signal Ground" pin of the Zaurus connector (Pin 8). I left the power pin of the eTrex unconnected.

- Details of the pin outs of the Zaurus connector:
  http://www.elsix.org/downloads/sio-specifi...030121_v100.pdf (http://www.elsix.org/downloads/sio-specifications_030121_v100.pdf)

- Details of the pin outs of the eTrex connector:
  http://www.syz.com/gps/etrex2info.pdf (http://www.syz.com/gps/etrex2info.pdf)

Then, I installed GPSBabel, which is already packaged up for the Zaurus:
http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=2895 (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=2895)

I also needed to install libexpat to make it work, which is also available:
http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=2894 (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showdetail.php?app=2894)

Right, now to do a test... plugged in the cable and turned on both the Zaurus and the eTrex. From a console, I first set the baud rate of the serial port:
stty 4800 </dev/ttyS0

Now I ran gpsbabel and told it to dump the waypoints stored on the GPS to a GPX format XML file:
gps -i garmin -f /dev/ttyS0 -o gpx -F /tmp/waypoints.gpx

And voila, all working.... for me at least

Hope it helps...
Matt

Title: Serial Connector Pin-out
Post by: donk0yote on April 20, 2006, 09:32:40 am

Matt,
i have an 860 also, and i'm running cacko 1.23, your post has been helpfull as i was building my own cable.
i'm not able to connect to an external modem using minicom,
and "setserial /dev/ttyS0" is reporting "UART: undefined, Port:0x0000, IRQ :14"
i have also tried the cable on my old SL5500 and can get no connection either   any help would be appreciated