Connecting Arduino to iPaq

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hi everyone!

I have an Arduino Diecimila that I would really like to connect to an iPaq PDA. Said PDA unfortunately does not have Bluetooth, but I do have a serial cable for it (http://www.gomadic.com/comipseradca.html). I was hoping connecting these devices would just be a matter of hooking up the RX, TX and GND pins, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. Anyone have any suggestions of how/if this can be done?

Thanks!

~ Kim

2

Easiest to grab a serial Arduino. It has a MAX232 to convert the voltages.
You cant just link the RX/TX together.

3

Thanks for the response Cheater!

Ready-made serial Arduinos seem a little hard to come by: all I'm seeing from the American distributors are USB and Bluetooth versions. Besides, I'd like to use the one I have in-hand if possible (I have a bit of a tight deadline on this project). Is there no way of connecting the USB Arduino to a serial device with components from a local electronics store? I'm just not sure if the approach would be hardware between the USB and the serial cable or hardware from the RX/TX pins directly (or perhaps it doesn't matter?)

Thanks again,

~ Kim

4

I think you want one of these:

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/10/usb_to_serial_project.html

MikMo

5

hello

that serial module won't work....

you need an rs232 level converter made with a max232 (or a max233 because it doesn't need external caps)

see this diagram as an example http://www.compsys1.com/assets/images/Max233sch.jpg

connect the rs232 outputs (the DB9 connector) to the ipaq and the other side to arduino
pins 0 and 1 have the serial port before the USB converter... take the 5v and gnd from arduino

the serial arduino might not work... because for simplicity sake its interface circuit works better when connected to a computer

massimo

6

Thanks Massimo! This solution makes sense, I'll give it a try.

"pins 0 and 1 have the serial port before the USB converter" - thanks for that, I wasn't sure if this was the case or not.

~ Kim

7

I would like to do this when i get my arduino. i have an ipaq 3830 and it would be good to interface the two. for maybe developing on the move or sending and receiving data.. using the touchscreen to control servos and stuff, who knows..

programming the arduino from mt ipaq would be great tho.. if there was some way of uploading sketches to the arduino from the ipaq.

8

The project I've been working on could benefit greatly from this.

I've basically got a bunch of sensors coming into an arduino and then i have their readings visible via a couple of different modes and a serial LCD. I'm currently trying to do some logging with one of those usb key logger VDIP1 modules but having no luck. I wonder how hard it would be to get an IPAQ to do some simple serial communication.

The VDIP was around $30 and a USB key is around $20 and the LCD was around $30.

I wonder if I could replace all that with a pocket PC like an IPAQ and just use the arduino as a data collection device. Then all the data would get output to a PDA which would do logging, pretty graphs, pseudo analog gauges, etc.