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

220V adapter replacement for cradle

My 220V adapter that conects to the cradle is broken (gives only 0.7-1V).
According to O2 NL the 1 year warranty is only for the XDA itself, and they seem NOT to sell the 220V adapter separate!
Any ideas if a universal ~220V / 4.5V or 5V adapter should work with the cradle???
Marco

If it is a USB cradle, you can also modify it, to get the power of the PC directly.
Normaly all universal adapter will work. You just have to take a look at the size of the connector, polartiy of the connector ( + and - ), and the voltage of it. I think the power consume is low, so that you don´t need a Adapter with 100W...
Regards
stefan

I use the Adapter of a Nokia 6310 on the road.. it has 5.7V and the same plug as the XDA
Fidl

Does the Nokia adapter works 100% oke? Because it is just 500ma and the original XDA adapter is 1000ma?

Yes it works ok!
I am using it for about half a year now most of the time and i did not experience any problems
Fidl

220V adapter
Hey
i needed to have 2 adapters for my XDA.
one for the office and the other to my house.
so what i did is i bought a direct USB XDA charger for 15$ and a FIXED 5.0 volts,1amps power supply from some phone srore - 5$.
im a computer tekkie so i got myself a USB female connector (you can buy the in a computer store for 3-5$) and i connected the VCC+ and Ground of the USB female connector to the power supply`s + and -, VUALA! its a perfet charger.
you can disconnect the USB cable from the female USB and use the cable so sync.

Thanks for the feedback Fidl.
Smart thinking Sonic ... as I already have an USB sync/charge cable this is a nice option

Where to buy Micro USB to Micro USB Cable (UK)

My problem is simple, i'm tethering my Wifi Nexus 10 to my Galaxy S3 and the S3 just doesn't have the staying power of the tablet and the AP is battery intensive.
I have considered:
Extended battery (unofficial) - don't want the bulk.
Extended battery (official) - not cost effective.
The other option would be usb otg and charger cable but I'd like a single cable if possible.
To make it clear - I'm looking for a double ended micro usb (B) cable.
If anyone knows of a reason this wouldn't work please do say

You could use this adapter with your original cable to see if it dies the job.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Right-Angle...006572?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item27ccd180ac
I have the same setup (nexus10 and s3) let us know if it does work.

You could try monoprice.com. I get all of my cords and such from them.

eBuyer tend to be pretty good for this stuff.

Just FYI, I tried this using an OTG adapter and a standard USB-A to USB-B micro cable. Depending on which side I plug the OTG adapter into, the S3 charges the Nexus (when the adapter is plugged into the S3) or vice versa (when the adapter is plugged into the N10).
EDIT: It would be interesting to try though what would happen if one was to connect the four pins (VCC, D+, D-, GND) directly to one another, with the ID pin being left unconnected (since that is what a Micro-B to Micro-B cable would most likely do). My guess is that nothing will happen, since neither of the devices assumes a master/slave state and so it doesn't know that it should supply power to the other device. I guess I need to order some Micro-B plugs at Digi-Key and whip up a cable...
--fbrozovic

[Q] USB Charging vs data Synch Cables

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the exact difference is between these two USB cables? Are they wired differently internally or is it just a difference in the quality of the copper used?
I have tried several USB "charging only" cables to connect my GT-N7000 to a PC. Some will data synch and allow file transfers but only in one direction and only some of the time, some of them won't connect at all ie are charge only.
At least one cable I bought from a leading IT store stated "USB Data/Synch" on the packaging but only works as a data/synch cable on a Windows XP netbook but NOT on my Windows 7 x 64 desktop PC. It won't connect for data synch at all on the desktop.
I have Samsung's USB drivers installed on both machines.
Only the original Samsung Data/Sych cable works reliably for both charging and data synching on both my PCs.
Can anyone tell me what's going on?
Thanks in advance
Trevor

All of those cables sound non-standard. A decent charging cable like the original Samsung one will likely have all 5 pins: power, data-, data+, ground and the other one which I can't remember. The power will be rated at at least an amp for charging and it should all work fine.
Power only cables may just have power and ground to keep costs down and some data cables are only rated at 500mA as that is to the USB spec.
I'd just get another Samsung cable, pretty cheap on play.com.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

Usb Y cable to quick charge and use android auto HU

Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a USB Y cable (with two male usb plugs converging into one female usb port) that could allow quick charge and data transfer so it could be used with Android auto? Both male usb plugs would need to be able to transfer data into the female usb port in order for this to work.
Sent from my XT1572 using Tapatalk

I guess this wouldn't work and might also damage the head unit, but I'm no engineer.
If I were adventurous enough to risk frying my head unit and/or phone, I would follow this
http://www.instructables.com/id/Add...-hub/step3/Cut-the-VCC-wire-of-the-USB-cable/
and connect the output of the quick charge car adapter instead of the external charger.
Then would cut the Vcc wire directed to the head unit.
I don't know if the main hub cable (the one which normally goes to the PC) has to go to the phone or the head unit: who's the host in Android Auto? I'm inclined to think it's the head unit, since the phone connects in mtp mode. So my first guess is main hub cable to head unit, quick charge adapter connected like in the article, then big usb to micro usb cable to phone.
Maybe voltage higher than 5V would fry the hub, and maybe Android Auto connection is so picky (and it's picky, you know) that the hub circuitry wouldn't allow it. Who knows.
Again I'm no engineer and I'm scared to try
But I would buy a safe device tested for this use case, 10/10 :laugh:
Sent from my Galaxy Note 4 using XDA Labs

Use a usb y, but don't short the data pins to send it to high charge/current mode. You won't necessarily hurt the hu but you'll never connect to AA, the phone must detect the shorted pins to enter high charge mode. Which means the phone can't talk on the data wires. I find a 2a charger running at 1a plus the hu's usb keeps just ahead of the power usage.
Sent from my SM-T520 using Tapatalk

glowsti047 said:
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a USB Y cable (with two male usb plugs converging into one female usb port) that could allow quick charge and data transfer so it could be used with Android auto? Both male usb plugs would need to be able to transfer data into the female usb port in order for this to work.
Sent from my XT1572 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, you can't have quick charge (2.0) and data transfer at the same time (at least with my Galaxy note 4). On a standard USB cable, you have 4 wires, two for data, two for power. On my GN4, the data pair communicate with the quick charger (I'm not sure exactly what the communication is, I remember reading somewhere it used the data pairs to communicate voltage, etc...).
Now, what I did do, was make my own data cable using 2 male type A adapters and connecting it all up to a a male microUSB end(Data pair is only connected to 1 of the type A male ends, I can't remember if I wired up the power in parallel). My AA head unit puts out less amps than my car charger, so even though I'm not getting quick charge speeds, I'm getting a bit more amps to charge with. So, one male end goes to my charger, one end goes to my head unit. I've been using it like this for over a year with no issues.
How much better is it than charging while connected to the AA head unit? Not sure. I'd rather have more amps than not enough.

Just buy a y. Cheaper and safer than self making.
Sent from my SM-T520 using Tapatalk

Nova5 said:
Just buy a y. Cheaper and safer than self making.
Sent from my SM-T520 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a link? Can't seem to find anything that I think would work.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

Something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enhancer-Female-Data-Charge-Charge-Extension/dp/B00NIGO4NM
Sent from my Nexus 6P using XDA-Developers mobile app

Hi,
I want to clarify some aspects:
1) Qualcomm's Quick Charge doesn't work when the USB is in use for data.
2) Quick Charge requires a certified adapter (as it's an active function).
3) USB power can charge the device, however very slow... in fact with AA the device consumes battery when running.
So, my question is:
- Increasing the USB power current with an Y cable the device can be charged more quickly?
- And if this is true: the Y cable needs to block the current from the dta USB port of the car?
I like to comment these topics.