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- How To / Troubleshooting (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=2)
-- Sync Speed Comparison: USB vs. Serial (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=7652)

Posted by leojbramble on 08-25-2000 07:19 PM:

I have Win 95 at home, so I'd been doing syncs via Serial port, all the while hearing about how much faster USB was. (Truth be told, I thought the serial syncs were reasonably fast, except for AvantGo downloads, which took a while). Then I got access to a USB at work, so I now have another Desktop setup there, but I don't really see much -- if any --difference; AvantGo still takes a bit of time. Anyone else use both setups and notice a significant speed difference?

Posted by MarkEagle on 08-25-2000 11:13 PM:

According to the Handspring Visor Comparison page, a USB HotSync is 4x faster than serial.

On the Visor Details page it says:

quote:
Nearly 4 times faster than a normal serial connection and easier to configure.


From the Handspring Developer's Kit manual:
quote:
The high-speed USB interface is a slave-only interface, providing a payload bandwidth of up to 400 Kbps between a host PC or Mac and the handheld device.


My own personal experience is that the USB is at least twice as fast (AvantGo excluded) as serial using my super-sophisticated timing device (Timex Ironman ).

[Edited by MarkEagle on 08-27-2000 at 10:44 PM]

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Posted by leojbramble on 08-25-2000 11:44 PM:

Smile

quote:
Originally posted by MarkEagle
...
My own personal experience is that the USB is at least twice as fast (AvantGo excluded) as serial


Really? Hmm. Well, maybe I have far less data on my VDx than the average user, but for me, barring AvantGo, the serial synch takes less than a minute anyway, so the time issue is fairly academic. Even with my daily AvantGo sync, if I start it before I get in the shower, it's easily done by the time I'm done.

At least now that I have the USB port at work, I don't have to disconnect my serial to take it with me to use during the day.

Posted by editboxer on 08-26-2000 12:20 AM:

Hi, Leo!

USB absolutly rips! Go with win98.

I had ZERO problems upgrading to 98 and it's worth the 30min install time to get the speed gains of a USB Visor connection.

See ya,

albert

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(OIIIIO)

Posted by Visorholic on 08-26-2000 12:24 AM:

Well serial has a max speed of 115kbps. USB on the Visor is supposed to be around 400kbps. Avantgo will be about the same speed on either because the majority of the time avantgo take to sync, its either downloading pages from the net or cleaning pages off the visor. Both of those don't take advantage of the USB speed, even cleaning off the visor because its just sending commands to clean the old pages off, the visor then has to execute those commands and delete old content, thats what takes time.

If you really want to test the speed do this. Get a big file. like 500k. Disable the Avantgo sync. Then sync on the serial and sync on the USB. You'll notice a difference. But I agree with you on the shower part. When I'm getting ready in the morning and I sync to avantgo, it really doesn't bother me how long it takes. The only time I really appreciate the USB is for big files. Handspring makes a big deal out of the USB which I definitely think its cool, and I love not having to use a serial port, but the majority of users out that really don't see a significant speed increase.


-Visorholic

Posted by MarkEagle on 08-26-2000 01:56 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by Visorholic
The only time I really appreciate the USB is for big files.


This is true... large file transfers are where you see the most advantage. There are several factors that come into play when syncing. For example, how much data has changed since the last one? Another big factor is whether you're syncing to the Palm Desktop or to another PIM like Outlook. Using PocketMirror with Outlook takes substantially longer than syncing to the Desktop, probably due to Outlook and not the Visor.

In the end, I'd say that the typical user should be able to do a normal sync in around 5 minutes with AvantGo and probably more like 2-3 minutes without. These are educated guesses on my part... your actual mileage may vary

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Posted by JHromadka on 08-26-2000 05:33 AM:

Arrow

A while back I did a speed comparison between serial and USB.

http://www.visorcentral.com/article.php3?id=28&pv=1

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James Hromadka
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