USB on the 5500?

[torpor]

What sort of USB does the 5500 have - host or slave?  As a developer, can I consider adding support for external USB drivers to the 5500 somehow?

[ganoe]

The connector on the SL-5500 is client only.

You would need a CF card with a host adapter to connect USB devices.
http://www.interpocket.co.uk/

[arniel]

Would it be technically possible to have a host device connected to the Zaurus that provided a host port for other USB devices, basically the reverse of those USB networking adapters that can be bought all over the place?

I am thinking about ways of attaching a hard drive to my zaurus and it seems that there are the following options:
1. Microdrive - v. expensive/Mb, low capacity
2. CF -] PCMCIA adapter + (Toshiba) PCMCIA drive.  Also expensive, probably too much current drain for the Z, no such adapter exists (cheaply).
3. CF -] PCMCIA adapter + PCMCIA -] IDE adapter.  Again, CF -] PCMCIA not available, maybe IDE adapter requires 5v which I believe Z does not support.
4. CF -] USB + USB -] IDE.  CF-]USB extremely expensive, driver support?
5. USB -] Host -] USB + USB -] IDE.  Host translator does not exist (yet)?

[Anonymous]

2. CF -] PCMCIA adapter + (Toshiba) PCMCIA drive.  Also expensive, probably too much current drain for the Z, no such adapter exists (cheaply).

I found a CF-PCMCIA for about $40 (iirc) at Fry\'s.  But there are lots of cards (probably the overwhelming majority of what\'s on store shelves these days,  because of the trend toward tyhe 32-bit Cardbus) that won\'t work with it.

4. CF -] USB + USB -] IDE.  CF-]USB extremely expensive, driver support?

$140 from firewireshop.com.  Just arrived,  so I haven\'t played with it yet,  and I don\'t know how well the drivers (documented almost solely in Japanese) work.  Could well be slower,  certainly less battery-friendly,  and about the same price as a Microdrive.  Probably not a good choice,  unless you have other USB plans (which I do).

5. USB -] Host -] USB + USB -] IDE.  Host translator does not exist (yet)?

I assume you can get the effect you want by doing an smbmount of a drive or directory.  It\'s certainly the cheapest option.  Suffers a little in the portability department,  though  

[Anonymous]

2. CF -] PCMCIA adapter + (Toshiba) PCMCIA drive.  Also expensive, probably too much current drain for the Z, no such adapter exists (cheaply).

I found a CF-PCMCIA for about $40 (iirc) at Fry\'s.  But there are lots of cards (probably the overwhelming majority of what\'s on store shelves these days,  because of the trend toward tyhe 32-bit Cardbus) that won\'t work with it.

5. USB -] Host -] USB + USB -] IDE.  Host translator does not exist (yet)?

I assume you can get the effect you want by doing an smbmount of a drive or directory.  It\'s certainly the cheapest option.  Suffers a little in the portability department,  though  

Really?  I haven\'t seen anything like this in the UK, apart from one on ebay (once) but there was no info so I didn\'t buy it.  Doers it have a power socket?  With the current exchange rate, $40 is about £25, but then there is shipping to be added (if Fry\'s will sell abroad).x

I think I didn\'t make myself clear...
What I am suggesting is a USB adapter that will allow the Z to connect to another slave device i.e. it acts as a master to both the Z and the USB IDE adapter.  However, I have no knowledge of how USB works on a programmatic level so maybe this just isn\'t an option...

[VeeDubb]

There was also some talk a while ago about the fact that Compact Flash standard conveniently conforms to the ATA hard drive standard, so theoreticaly, you could connect any hard drive to any CF slot if you manufactured an appropriate adapter.  The discussion fizzled, so I don\'t know if anyone was ever successful, but I\'d love to see someone try.  Of, course, it would need it\'s own battery.

[Anonymous]

The CF-PCMCIA was only $25,  and has a \"PPA, Inc\" label on it.  It\'s probably a generic that PPA is importing.  The URL on the package is www.ppa-usa.com.  I believe Semsons carried it at one point.  Expansys probably does,  too,  if you need a UK dealer.  It shouldn\'t be difficult to find,  though perhaps not that cheap.

There\'s no way to connect power to it,  short of doing your own surgery.  It also doesn\'t give the impression of being very sturdy:  it\'s the one with a rubber sleeve containing some sort of cable or flex-circuit connecting the CF card to the PCMCIA socket.  Good for desktop experimenting,  but I\'d be nervous about using it on the go.

It\'s possible to do the sort of \"mini-host\" you\'re talking about,  but not that easy:  the standard USB architecture expects the host to do all the heavy lifting,  to help keep the cost of the peripherals down.  If you want something that supports more than a few very simple peripherals,  it\'d need enough memory and compute power to make it more expensive than the CF cards.  I doubt that there\'s enough demand to motivate someone to build one,  though.

btw,  despite Ratoc\'s website\'s claim to have the only such card in the world,  there\'s a company in the UK that offers one with fully-supported Linux drivers (albeit at a higher price).     http://www.interpocket.co.uk/

Ran

[arniel]

The CF-PCMCIA was only $25,  and has a \"PPA, Inc\" label on it.  It\'s probably a generic that PPA is importing.  The URL on the package is www.ppa-usa.com.  I believe Semsons carried it at one point.  Expansys probably does,  too,  if you need a UK dealer.  It shouldn\'t be difficult to find,  though perhaps not that cheap.

There\'s no way to connect power to it,  short of doing your own surgery.  It also doesn\'t give the impression of being very sturdy:  it\'s the one with a rubber sleeve containing some sort of cable or flex-circuit connecting the CF card to the PCMCIA socket.  Good for desktop experimenting,  but I\'d be nervous about using it on the go.

It\'s possible to do the sort of \"mini-host\" you\'re talking about,  but not that easy:  the standard USB architecture expects the host to do all the heavy lifting,  to help keep the cost of the peripherals down.  If you want something that supports more than a few very simple peripherals,  it\'d need enough memory and compute power to make it more expensive than the CF cards.  I doubt that there\'s enough demand to motivate someone to build one,  though.

btw,  despite Ratoc\'s website\'s claim to have the only such card in the world,  there\'s a company in the UK that offers one with fully-supported Linux drivers (albeit at a higher price).     http://www.interpocket.co.uk/

Ran

I tracked down PPA, Inc. but apparently they have no distribution in the UK.  Sourcing one shouldn\'t be too much of a problem though (international shipping will be a pain), but this leads me on to another question...
AIUI, CF/PCMCIA cards can run in 2 modes - memory mapped(?) or ATA.  If the Z supports both modes, it should be possible to attach a 2.5\" HD, otherwise the largest drive I could use would be one of those Toshiba PCMCIA units (according to the specs, these support both modes).
Does anyone know exactly what the Z (OZ 3.2) supports?

[dhns]

1. Microdrive - v. expensive/Mb, low capacity

How much GByte do you need?
CF microdrives are available now up to 4GByte: http://www.hgst.com/hdd/micro/4gb.htm The price per MByte seems to be lower than Flash.

-- hns

[arniel]

1. Microdrive - v. expensive/Mb, low capacity

How much GByte do you need?
CF microdrives are available now up to 4GByte: http://www.hgst.com/hdd/micro/4gb.htm The price per MByte seems to be lower than Flash.

-- hns

I\'d like 20Gb, enough for my music collection and off-air TV recordings, although 6Gb would be sufficient.
And, yes, money is an issue, so one of those microdrives will be out of the question.
Considering I\'ve seen a 2.5\" enclosure for £30 on clearout, and a 20Gb drive costs around £60, that would seem to be the best option for me.

[arniel]

The CF-PCMCIA was only $25,  and has a \"PPA, Inc\" label on it.  It\'s probably a generic that PPA is importing.  The URL on the package is www.ppa-usa.com.  I believe Semsons carried it at one point.  Expansys probably does,  too,  if you need a UK dealer.  It shouldn\'t be difficult to find,  though perhaps not that cheap.

Ran

Ran,
Thanks to your advice I tracked down the adapter you were talking about and found someone on eBay selling them, starting bid $9.99.  Luckily I was the only bidder, and even with $14.50 shipping it\'s still good value delivered to the UK.  Should be turning up in the next few days.

As for what to connect to it, now I have the choice of the Toshiba PCMCIA drive, which for some strange reason has just jumped in price from www.ebuyer.com (by far the cheapest supplier in the UK), or another \"bargain\" I spotted in eBay.co.uk - an Apricorn EZ-GIG PCMCIA -] IDE adapter, which appears to be supported by ide_cs (does the Z include this module?).

The only question now is can I get away with splicing 5v into the power line and hope that the I/O is 3.3v tolerent.  Anyone have any ideas?

[jorvic]

http://www.dansdata.com/cfide.htm

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