Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 3

While browsing through the developer pages on handspring I got the impression that the serial cradle can only support 9600 bps. Can anyone with a serial cradle or homemade wireup verify this?

Ivorget

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 200

I think it supports up to 115200cps - this is 14.4Kb/s - or 864Kb per Minutes.

I know that, my Olympus 2000 digital camera has a serial connection. To move the complete 8Mb SmartMedia takes about 10-15 Minutes (incl. error correction bits etc.) No question that I bought a USB card ready/writer 2 days later.

PS:I'm not the super geek, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[This message has been edited by HipHop (edited 11-01-1999).]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 3

I am aware that PC serial ports generally can support up to 115200. My question is specifically about the Visor's serial capability which seems to be only up to 9600.

On this acrobat file: http://www.handspring.com/developer...t2/DkManual.pdf

On page III-2, it says:
"The serial port provides asynchronous capability to low-speed devices (9600 Kbps or less)."
(Presumably that should be "bps" instead of "Kbps"?)

On page III-6, it says:
"Note that the cradle connector does not include hardware signalling for buffer overflow conditions within the handheld device. Therefore the maximum recommended serial transfer speed to the handheld device is limited to 9600 kbps [sic]."

If 9600 really is the limit then it's gonna suck quite a bit on non-USB machines.

What do y'all reckon?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 200

9600 is impossible! My IIIx is set to 115200 and I guess the Visor serial has the same speed.

At 9600 1Mb would take 14 Minutes to transfer, which was still state of the art when Yuri Gagarin hit space!

Registered: Nov 1999
Location:
Posts: 3

That's true, but the Palm series was designed to use only serial, whereas the Visor was obviously optimized for USB and as a consequence they may have had to cut back on the level of support for serial.