Building the special cable now... HELP!

[AxelausBerlin]

Hi!

Later, I was asking about connecting the TH55 to KB-100 with a cable to use it in landscape-mode. I was told, I should use an IR-keyboard. And I did. It's still consuming too much power for my taste (yes, I'm a power-typer... ;-).
Now, I got a male and a female connector. All I have to do now is to wire them together... RIGHT?
My question:
Do I only have to connect all pins "one-to-one"? Or is there something I should watch out for? Something that could kill my clie, if I make a mistake..?
Who can help?

Thanx!
AXEL

[El Maquinas]

Hi!

Later, I was asking about connecting the TH55 to KB-100 with a cable to use it in landscape-mode. I was told, I should use an IR-keyboard. And I did. It's still consuming too much power for my taste (yes, I'm a power-typer... ;-).
Now, I got a male and a female connector. All I have to do now is to wire them together... RIGHT?
My question:
Do I only have to connect all pins "one-to-one"? Or is there something I should watch out for? Something that could kill my clie, if I make a mistake..?
Who can help?

Thanx!
AXEL

Hallo Axel aus Berlin!

Well, for sure not all pins are used on the PEGA-KB100 but no documentation is available about the pins used on this device and I actually do not want to dismantle my KB100 in order to check that. But you can visit this link (http://pinouts.ru/PDA/sony_clie_pinout.shtml), this
thread (http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88276) and this pdf file (http://www.leggnet.com/clie/NX70body2.pdf) for more information about the pinout of the connector.

Connecting each pin one by one should be safe as far you solder the right pins. After completing all connections you should check all pins on booth sides. And verify all soldering points you did.

I wonder where you bought the female connector needed for the keyboard connector.

Best regards / Freundliche gruesse

[AxelausBerlin]

Hey! That was the answer I was looking for...

I will try and post the result. I also have to build a small "stand" that will keep the Clie in Landscape-position. But that'll come later...

Well I am going to use a spare charging / mini-usb - connector and the female connector from my old TG50 that died some time ago.

Thanks again!
AXEL

[suppaman]

Hi mate,
where did you get the connectors ?

I've got a Belkin G700 and I'm wondering about forkin the connector's cable in order to have another connectors and thus using the keyboard with the pda floating.

I was thinking about taking one of those retractable cable for SJ on ebay but I'm not able to find them anymore, does anyone where can I buy one for cheap ?

[DanT]

Remember USB/HotSync cable only have 4 conductors. The new CLIE connector has 20 pinouts with pin 1 and 20 open. I'm not sure how many pins out of the remaining 18 pins that KB100 uses. If it uses more that 4, you may forget about using that USB/HotSync cable for the job.

I took a magnifying glass and looked into the female CLIE connector at the bottom of TH55, see picture below, all 18 pins have conductors running from the connector to motherboard via the ribbon tape. I haven't had the gut to tear apart my KB100 to see how many conductors are connected to the male CLIE connector, yet. One of these days I may just snip that ribbon tape off the female CLIE connector and solder 18 tiny cables to a CLIE male (HotSync) connector.

http://www.1src.com/gallery/data/500/2949TH55_buttons_assembly.jpg

[suppaman]

Thanks for opening your Clié.

I've opened my Belkin keyboard, it actually uses 5 wires from the keyboard to the male connector and 2 wires from the optional PSU jack (that I won't connect).

The five wires are labelled Vo, GND, TXD, RXD, HSS and they are pretty obvious except HSS for which the only reference I could find on internet is a Intel High Speed Serial, any clue ?

Anyway I'm looking at this document (http://leggnet.com/clie/NX70body2.pdf) for the pinout and I've taken a few photos of the opened male connector of the G700, here they are:
http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/2668/particolarekk7.th.jpg (http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=particolarekk7.jpg)
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/9091/particolare2pi8.th.jpg (http://img234.imageshack.us/my.php?image=particolare2pi8.jpg)


edit:

I forgot to mention about the B1, B2 and B3 smd components. I cannot figure what they are, someone suggested me they are inductors as filters.

The cable i saw on ebay, other than retractable that is an appealing feature, where also for charging the device so I think they should have more than 4 wires, at least 5 (DTR TXD RXD GND and DC+), anyway this would not be a problem as I can easily use another cable :-)
I just need the connector for the Clié side, and I was thinking about a group of pin from a motherboard (like the front panel led of a pc for example) to fork the keyboard cable.

[DanT]

Well, I just won a SJ20 with broken LCD for $0.01, eBay's Item number: 260060268445 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260060268445&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D260060268445%26fvi%3D1) ;) :p

I plan to take the female CLIE 20-pin connector off this SJ20 and try to make the male-female adapter for the KB100 of mine. It will be a neat project. :D

[suppaman]

I plan to take the female CLIE 20-pin connector off this SJ20 and try to make the male-female adapter for the KB100 of mine. It will be a neat project. :D

Well, a cable with female and male connectors is the easiest way, but I cannot get a cheap female connector here in Italy.

Who produces these connectors ?

[DanT]

I plan to use one of these USB mini sync cable, eBay's Item number: 320058157689 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-CLIE-TJ25-TJ27-TJ35-TJ37-TH55-USB-MINI-SYNC-CABLE_W0QQitemZ320058157689QQihZ011QQcategoryZ58544QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item320058157689), by chopping off the mini 4 conductor cable into several pieces and resoldering them to get the necessary number of conductors. I may only need two of short sections, around 15 cm each. The original cable may be about a meter long, so it is plenty long for the job.

http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/320058157689_0.jpg

[suppaman]

I think was using bad keywords for search as I was not able to find them anymore.

Btw are you from UK ?

[DanT]

No. If you Google Earth that GPS coordinates, below my avatar, you'll see my town in southern Texas. I gave the eBay UK since it is closer to you.

Try to go to ebay.co.uk and search for TH55 and you'll find lots of that connectors in the auctions.

[salesrep]

I've got several SJ handhelds in various states of repair if you're needing them for the bottom connector. . .let me know if you need any!

[salesrep]

Anyone considered perhaps using the connector from many of the Clie Gear add-ons that has press-release button? Think of the GC10. Nice and compact as far as the connector goes, and the cable comes out on the left side, which would be ideal for using landscape and having the cable as tidy as possible. . .

I know many are currently discussing how to make the connections, but assuming it to be basically 1 to 1, or pin-to-pin, what about sacrificing the plastic body of an SJ22 with the bottom female connector intact; soldered together with the male connector from a GC10 coming out of the right side of the SJ case for connection. . .you could then whittle away at the face of the casing to 'build' a stand for holding whatever landscape Clie you wanted to use. . .

Whaddayathink?

[suppaman]

That I won't do such a thing as long as I own only one pda, my Sj20 :-)

[DanT]

GC10 connector looks like an ideal male connector. However, I would probably spend more than that retractable USB mini-sync cable ($7.00) to get one and I would still don't know whether GC10 pinout arrangement is the same as that of KB100. That male connector in that retractable USB mini-sync cable can be split open and the pins can be resoldered to whatever arrangement you want. The GC10 connector is so compact and probably is not modifyable.

I like to see how the SJ20's female connector wiring looks like before I do the soldering. Those pins are so close together it will be a little bit tedius to solder them cleanly. For sure we won't need all 18 pins, otherwise it will be one fat cable. For example, both pin 7 & 8 go to the same 5.2 VDC. Pin 1 & 18 are for ground, etc. Hopefully, like suppaman says, you only need 5 conductors.

[suppaman]

I'm still not sure about pin 11, on G700 it's brought to the microcontroller and is labelled HSS that is HotSyncSignal (I think).

We'd need pin 10 for direct battery power (uncontrolled so it will drain power even if the Clié is turned off), a GND, RXD and TXD.
On G700 all UART control signals DTR, CTS and RTS are not connected and there is the 22kOhm resistore between 17 and 18.

The scheme seems pretty simple.