Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Re: Re: Re: Startac/Visor data cable

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Originally posted by potter
A few more details please. Do I understand correctly that you used a Lighter Charger for the StarTac connection? If so, which brand did you use? Did it have all the pins, or where you able to move the pins? What did you use for the connection on the Visor end? Parts bought from ATL, or did you use the ATL HotSync cable? Thanks.

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Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 2

Re: Re: Re: Startac/Visor data cable

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Originally posted by potter

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Originally posted by MarkEagle
I ended up making a custom cable[...]

Since both the phone and Visor use TTL, my cable provides a direct connection as outlined above with no need for the converter. Works great, too!

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A few more details please. Do I understand correctly that you used a Lighter Charger for the StarTac connection? If so, which brand did you use? Did it have all the pins, or where you able to move the pins? What did you use for the connection on the Visor end? Parts bought from ATL, or did you use the ATL HotSync cable? Thanks.

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Registered: Feb 2000
Location: SW Virginia
Posts: 290

Re: Re: Re: Re: Startac/Visor data cable

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Originally posted by MarkEagle
The phone connector came from a Belkin car adapter (p/n F8V712) I got at Staples for $19.95. It has all 15 contacts in it. At the Visor end, I used an ATL HotSync connector I had lying around (I had bought a few a while back when I got my serial cable from them).

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:

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Originally posted by jamespe
I thought I had a problem when my phone did not beep when I attached the cable, but it did beep when I asked the Visor to dial, and connected me to Earthlink on the first try.
On subsequent tries, I got an error message "authentication failure Ox1233). I will call earthlink and then sprint to see whose error message it is. I suspect it may be Sprints, since I have not signed up for wireless web service. (I will). If anyone else knows about this message, please post.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 78

No soldering please

This is a fascinating thread which interests me since I have a Sprint PCS StarTac phone with wireless web option. However, I am completely inexperienced with cutting cables, soldering, manipulating pins. Is there an easier way for the less mechanically inclined? I just can't see myself buying a perfectly good cable and messing with it.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Re: No soldering please

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Originally posted by pel in chicago
Is there an easier way for the less mechanically inclined?

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I've toyed with the idea of building cables however I can't seem to find a source for the phone connectors. Buying a $20 car charger just for the connector seems to be a big waste of money to me for mass production. I'm also surprised that the big cell phone manufacturers are so slow to offer Visor solutions. In the case of the StarTAC, it's only 3 wires and the 2 connectors... pretty simple if you asked me. Motorola already has connectivity kits for Palms.

I suppose you could obtain the components and find a friend who can do the hard part for you.

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location:
Posts: 73

Anyone know the pinout for the Sprint Touchpoint cellphone (made by Qualcomm) or how I might get it? I'd like to make a similar cable.

Thanks

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

metwork accessibility.

I want to connect my visor to my sprint pcs, and will probably build a cable as explained in this forum.
Anyway before to kae it I want to know onw thing:
Does internet access only work within sprint pcs network or also when roaming in other words does the timeport builtin modem only works on the sprint digital network(PCS) or works on a regular analog connection(CDMA/roaming)
Thank you.

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that's it.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Re: metwork accessibility.

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Originally posted by java_dude
Does internet access only work within sprint pcs network or also when roaming...

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 9

Modem not found (0x1106) error

Does anyone know what causes the message "Modem not found (0x1106)"? I get the whenever I try to connect to a modem with my visor:
- external modem with a null modem adapter
- ST7867W cellphone with a custom cable like people here have made
- ST7867W cellphone with the serial cradle and Motorola data cable, with and w/o a null modem cable

I've made my settings exactly the same as people who've gotten it to work, but I keep getting the same error.

This is even more frustrating because I was able to use my visor to dial an external modem several months ago, and it worked perfectly. I've even tried doing a hard reset before connecting to make sure that software I've installed isn't conflicting.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Edited by rslatkin on 01-05-2001 at 09:48 PM]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Re: Modem not found (0x1106) error

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Originally posted by rslatkin
Does anyone know what causes the message "Modem not found (0x1106)"?

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 9

Re: Modem not found (0x1106) error

It works!

I thought I had tried those exact same settings last night, but when I entered them again so I could post and say "yes, I've tried those settings", it worked! I don't understand, but I'm very glad it's working now.

The custom cable was not hard to build. (The hardest part was deciding where to cut the hotsync cable! ) I used a Handspring USB hotsync cable from Best Buy and a Wireless Technologies "Intelligent Plug-In Saver Charger" for a Motorola StarTac that I bought for $20 at Hi-Fi Buys. It has all of the pins in the connector, and the connector was easy to dissasemble: The plastic shell is held on by two small metal tabs on the back of the connector. I slipped a small knife between the plastic and metal, and the shell slid down the cable. The connector has a metal shell around it in two pieces. I wasn't able to completely separate them without breaking it, but they separated far enough for me to solder to the tabs at the back of the connector.

There are two wires and two resistors (one covered in heat shrink) in the phone charger connector that need to be desoldered and removed. Pin one of the connector is near the END button of the phone when the connector is plugged in. On the back of the connector, there are two rows of tabs, one with 8 tabs and one with 7. The odd numbered pins are on the row of 8, and the even numbered pins are on the row of 7 (easy to verify with an ohmmeter while the connector is apart).

Once I removed the connector, the plastic shell was still trapped on the phone charger cord by the strain relief. The strain relief seemed to be solidly molded around the cable, so I just cut it off and slid the shell off the cable. I then slid the shell over the hotsync cable before soldering on the phone charger connector. The shell did not fit snugly around the hotsync cable, so I used some small bits of rubber I had left over from mounting a headlight to my bicycle to make it fit and provide some strain relief. The cable came out looking very professional.

Thanks for all the help! I'm off to burn some wireless minutes now.

[Edited by rslatkin on 01-06-2001 at 11:35 AM]

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Burlington, VT, USA
Posts: 127

Okay, I haven't touched a soldering iron since the late 1970s, when I built a crystal radio that didn't work...

So, I'd like to get my HAM radio whiz and all-around electronics guru grandfather to build this cable for me.

I don't suppose any of you guys who've created one of these have sketched out a schematic, have you? Or could someone at least point me to concise instructions I can send him?

I have an extra HotSync cable, so I can just run out and get a charger cable for the phone connector, and then send him the kit and kaboodle..

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Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

quote:

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Originally posted by dennya
I don't suppose any of you guys who've created one of these have sketched out a schematic, have you?

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Visor to StarTAC Cable:

Phone TX pin 6 ---> Visor RX pin 1
Phone RX pin 7 <--- Visor TX pin 8
Phone Signal Ground pin 10 --- Visor Ground pin 4

- Pin 1 on the Visor is at the far left (when looking at the visor battery door).
- Pin 1 on the phone is closest to the "End" button.

No need for a schematic...

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 46

really confused

Ok, I'm really confused here. Its 3:23 am, and I'm just finding out about this forum. Someone explain this to me slowly and as simply as possible.

I have a Sprint PCS Touchpoint cell phone (the one with flip cover) with wireless web and a Visor(2meg). What do I need other then sprint's web kit to connect my cell phone to my visor and get online through it? I'm sorry for asking this guys, but sometimes you gotta explain it clearly for us stupid people

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 78

Also confused

After reading this post for a while, I have lost track of the actual purpose. Please summarize the goal, the needed objects, and cables/soldering equipment needed. Which modem do you need? Do you need to activate Sprint wireless web option?

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 15

Okay, let me see if I can clarify things here...

This string was originally posted under the Springboard Module forum when RMAPES reported that he could connect his Visor to the Internet via an EFIG module and a SpringPCS cell phone. He created a means for connecting to the Internet without needing to buy a special phone module just for the Visor. Several postings later, the EFIG module has been eliminated and now only two cables are needed.

It's now placed in the Troubleshooting forum since the basics are now understood and now it's mostly to work out the bugs related to the various combinations of cell phone, cables, service providers, etc.

In a nutshell: To connect the Visor to the Internet via a SprintPCS cell phone, you will need (1) a SprintPCS cell phone capable of data transmission; (2) have the SprintPCS Wireless Web service enabled; (3) a SprintPCS Connectivity Kit; (4) a third party serial cable built for the Visor (a null modem conector may be required, depending how the cable's wired); and (5) an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A modem is NOT required as this is internal to the SprintPCS network.

At the time of the original posting, a serial cable did not exist to connect the Visor to the SprintPCS Connectivity Kit's RS232 connector. Since then, several individuals and companies (Mark/Space, ATL, etc.) have stepped up to the plate and are producing them in quantities.

As to connecting with the Touchpoint, I believe RMAPES has one and was successful. Try to read this thread a little more carefully and see if this is so...

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 46

Which Markspace cable should I get?

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 8

Wireless Web & E-Mail Without Added Charges

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread and made me aware of the StarTac's capability. I was amazed to learn that with the StarTac phone on Verizon's system, the phone acts as the modem and I won't have to pay the extra $7 each month for wireless Web & e-mail connectivity when using my Prism! Now waiting for NYSEBULL to build me a cable. Anxious to try it all out and to have wireless capability for the cost of the $30 cord. Amazing!

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA
Posts: 79

NYSEBULL built mine, and I'm wireless without the additional monthly charge. With free long distance, I can use my StarTac to check in with the office without setting up more ISP's or web accounts.