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[on:]

Hey everyone
I tried searching for this and I didn't find anything on this subject... So I want to use a Pocket PC with the Arduino, as of now, one can buy a decent Pocket PC on eBay for under $30, and they have stuff like a touch screen, bluetooth, WiFi, and many other useful features. Is it possible to control the Arduino (and vice versa) with a Pocket PC via the USB port or the TX and RX pins? This is for a robotics application by the way, and you can see my current robot that uses the Arduino board here: and pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/brandon121233/sets/72157600185375431/show/
Thanks for the help in advance.

[Reply #1 on:]

Most pocketpc's only have 'client' USB not 'host' USB , so you couldn't hook the arduino up to it straight away.

If you are ok in C/C++ you could write a Bluetooth application that just operates on a Bluetooth serial port.
You would need an Arduino BT for that...

Some Pocketpc's do have an exposed serial port that you might use to control an Arduino, you would need level convertors for it , i guess , but i'm not clear on that subject.

Someone cares to fill in the blanks?

[Reply #2 on:]

As buZz says, you won't be able to hook the arduino up over USB to most pocketPCs, as they can only do the 'little end' of the connection.

Many PPC devices have a serial port in addition to their USB sync port.  If you can get a serial sync cable for your PPC then you could talk RS-232 to an arduino's serial-port.     If you had an older serial arduino board, it would work right out of the box, as these boards are intended for RS-232 voltage levels.

If you have a USB board or the moderndevice.com barebones serial board, you'll probably need a level-shifter (max-232 or similar) to convert from the +12/-12 votages of RS-232 to the 5v/0v "TTL serial" on the microcontroller end.

If the PPC device is robust enough to accept 5v/0v input levels, you could possibly bodge up a simple level shifter using zener diodes, like the one used in some serial-port avr programmers: http://www.lancos.com/e2p/siprog_base.png

I've got an old iPaq 3600 lying around somewhere, but no serial cable for it.    Another option might be a compact-flash serial adaptor.

[Reply #3 on:]

What about something like this: http://www.lightconecorp.com/Products.html.
And also, say I wanted to shift the serial coming out of the PDA to TTL serial, can anyone give me a link or information about how to interface that signal to the Arduino board via the TX RX lines? I am not exactly sure how to connect any serial signal to the Arduino :-?

[Reply #4 on:]

Hi

you can use the older-model serial Arduino, which has a built-in RS232 interface.
If you want to use a USB Arduino, you can build a MAX232 style interface to shift the RS-232 to TTL.  Here's a link to a schematic:
http://sodoityourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/circuit_232.jpg

D