Charging App?

[palmcop]

What is your take on this app. It is supposed to charge your PDA through your USB cable. I thought my TX already does this on its own. Let me know what you think.

http://en.pdassi.com/product.php?pf=palmos&prod_id=25615

Dan

[_Em]

Both statements are correct... this app lets older Palms charge via USB (although it's a trickle charge), and the TX already has USB charging built in -- although it clobbers the USB ports on one of my computers when it kicks in.

[encephalon]

AFAIK that's not entirely true... I've observed that the TX is only charging via USB if the corresponding drivers are installed at the host machine; if you connect your TX to a computer without Palm Desktop installed or try to use a DC-USB-adapter, the device will NOT charge.

So I assume that the TX is only charging that way if the port was opened after some sort of USB-handshake (this would explain why my TX starts charging when I enable the 'drive mode' while being plugged to a 'non-Palm Desktop'-PC); therefore if this app is opening the port, it could be useful also on newer devices - but eg. the drive mode, as mentioned, has the same effect.

[Hawkeye]

I have many times charged my TX all the way back up to 100% within a short time, just through the USB on a IMac G5 running Tiger, there is absolutely no Plam Software installed on that thing, and drive mode wasent on.

[encephalon]

I have many times charged my TX all the way back up to 100% within a short time, just through the USB on a IMac G5 running Tiger, there is absolutely no Plam Software installed on that thing, and drive mode wasent on.
Interesting. Is it possible that the device is charging without the charging indicator going on?

[mikeux50]

I think that on some computers it will only trickle charge the palm (will not show charging icon) and other computers supply more power to the USB ports thereby charging the palm as if its plugged into the wall. I think I read this somewheres else in the forum... may be wrong though.

[encephalon]

I think that on some computers it will only trickle charge the palm (will not show charging icon) and other computers supply more power to the USB ports thereby charging the palm as if its plugged into the wall. I think I read this somewheres else in the forum... may be wrong though.
Well, my 2000mA-car-USB-adapter (which was even powerful enough to charge my VGA-PPC-brick!) does NOT charge my TX at all when plugged in the TX-USB-port. When I route the 5V to the seperate connector next to the USB port, everything works out as it should

[Hawkeye]

in my expieraince it has always shown the charging icon

[encephalon]

in my expieraince it has always shown the charging icon
Do you sync with that Mac you're charging on?

[Hawkeye]

nope, there was no Palm Software of any sort

[_Em]

My experience with USB charging:
1 Mac with TX PD installed: charges @ 5V
1 Dell PC without any Palm stuff installed: charges @ 3.3V
1 Whitebox with TX PD installed: causes kernel panic and reboots XP, or brings up an alert saying a device is demanding more power than the USB port can supply, or brings up an alert saying device not recognized... OR says "Palm Device attached" and charges @ 5V. Symptoms completely random. lightning bolt always shows up when charging is successful.

By the way, the Favorites app shows lightning plus current charge level; the Launcher shows a full battery and lightning when charging.

[Hawkeye]

I havent ever checked the voltage output, but i do know it is pretty good cause it doesent take long to charge

[drc54]

There are OEM hotsync/charger cables in the market, one end is the standard USB connector, the other end combines the two connectors, hotsync and power (T5, LD and TX). This would lead me to believe that using the standard hotsync cable, connecting to a full 500mA capable USB port with out the apps installed, will not charge the device. I can confirm this since I do have a traveller's 110/220V USB adapter which I use charge my Nokia phone with a USB/Nokia terminal cable, my old M515 with the USB hotsync cable, but failed on the TX with the standard hotsync cable. I hesistate to buy the hotsync/charger combo cable since they've yet to come with the spring-loaded-winding-thingamajig.

Regards,
DRC

[encephalon]

My experience with USB charging:
1 Mac with TX PD installed: charges @ 5V
1 Dell PC without any Palm stuff installed: charges @ 3.3V
It's getting more and more confusing for me... :confused:

First of all, where do the 3.3V come from? AFAIK USB only offers 5V?

And how come that charging is not possible with my 2A-car-charger or all the 'generic' USB ports I've tried? (those where all PC, not Mac)

My cell phone shows a very similar behaviour like my TX: When I boot XP with Motorola drivers installed and I plug my V3, it switches to 'Loud' profile and it starts charging. However, if I boot from another partition on the SAME MACHINE without those drivers installed and plug in, the driver dialoge pop ups but the cell phone does nothing. No charging, no profile change whatsoever. So I suspected that those machine required some data-handshake in advance, as the V3 ceases to work with my car- and AC-adapter as well (which are working perfectly with other devices)

[cronos007]

As far as I have been able to test to test on several machines, the Palm TX, like the RAZR V3 do need some form of driver support in order to charge from USB. In the case of the Palm TX, running it in Drive Mode will basically tell any machine it connects to that it is an external usb mass storage device and that is enough to cause it to charge.
All the PCs I tested on did not have any palm software of any kind loaded on it.
Now I know that some might argue that well iPods charge from usb without a problem. But then again, with an iPod the pc will recognize it as an external mass storage device.
With the RAZR V3 there is currently no work around to get a pc to charge it without drivers. As it has no way to be seen as a mass storage device. That will I have no doubt change with the RAZR V3i which includes a transflash card.

So in short. As long as you keep an app on the TX which will switch it into Drive Mode you are fine charging from USB.

[dmitrygr]

MY TAKE:

usb charging and drivers:
nop. sorry.
as long as USB is powered it will charge. some drivers power down ports when not used so that happens. i do not have palm driver on my laptop and tx charges. In Linux - same deal

this app: most complete BS ever. Opening the port will NOT make the PDA charge form it, it just makes the PDA listen on the RX line for connection, THAT IS ALL. Whoever thought that would make it charge should read up on how diodes work.

[encephalon]

MY TAKE:

usb charging and drivers:
nop. sorry.
as long as USB is powered it will charge. some drivers power down ports when not used so that happens. i do not have palm driver on my laptop and tx charges. In Linux - same dealWhich driver should power down my AC- (0,6A) and car- (2A) -charger-USB-port?

cronos007, thank you for sharing your VERY SAME experiences. Are you using a multilingual TX? Probably this issue has something to do with it... Or maybe we are using some other software which is preventing our TXs from loading at generic USB ports???

[_Em]

I'm using a multilingual TX, and having none of the experiences. Just thought you should know that. The only other question I can ask: are you using one of the early build TXes or one of the more recent ones? Mine's the earlier gen (doesn't clock up as high, but has better audio quality).

[encephalon]

Well... to be honest I've no clue how to determine that. Compared to another unit, the colours of my screen are rather cold (which bothers me sometimes - it's ice-blueish), furthermore there's a hiss in the audio jack, the serial starts with PN70M9L... and the unit was bought in november.

You think that our TXs are too new to charge via USB?
Now it's getting weird...

[_Em]

Well, my SN starts PN70M9D, so I'm not sure what that signifies... Dmitry would probably have more insight.

The only other possible difference I can think of is software...
What happens if you plug in the USB cable after doing a warm reset (up button held down during reset)? If it works properly then, you might want to install UnCache and start troubleshooting your apps to see what's causing the problem.

[cyberdude]

There are OEM hotsync/charger cables in the market, one end is the standard USB connector, the other end combines the two connectors, hotsync and power (T5, LD and TX). This would lead me to believe that using the standard hotsync cable, connecting to a full 500mA capable USB port with out the apps installed, will not charge the device. I can confirm this since I do have a traveller's 110/220V USB adapter which I use charge my Nokia phone with a USB/Nokia terminal cable, my old M515 with the USB hotsync cable, but failed on the TX with the standard hotsync cable. I hesistate to buy the hotsync/charger combo cable since they've yet to come with the spring-loaded-winding-thingamajig.

Regards,
DRC
are you looking for this (http://ziplinq.com/) ? I have one for my TX and have used it for about a month now. It's great. I believe boxwave makes them too.

[encephalon]

The only other possible difference I can think of is software...
What happens if you plug in the USB cable after doing a warm reset (up button held down during reset)?Same thing... :(

[drc54]

Ah yes, it's called the retractable cables. Okay, will look around this weekend. I've been told there is a big IT exhibition here in Singapore this weekend at the old convention center. Hope to find some good deals.