Car Launcher without Car Cradle?

[SHaubner]

I was wondering if anyone has an idea if it is possible to launch the PEGA-CC5 "car launcher" software without actually physically docking it with the car cradle.

Would love to use it when it's docked in the desk cradle since it's finger friendly and includes the mail-to-voice feature (along with the screen saver) but it seems to only activate in the car cradle itself. Any ideas ???

[helmutk]

You can launch the Street Finder software anytime with the CLIE but you would not be able to use GPS portion of it.
The Car cradle is wired for the GPS antenna, speaker output, FM transmitter, DC power, and special wiring through the serial connector so it recognizes the Car Cradle as attached.
I suppose if you had the schematics you could rewire a desk cradle the same way the car cradle is wired but I do not know if you could then still use it as a desk cradle.

[SHaubner]

I was really talking about the Car Launcher itself. I was hoping that there would be a way to activate that program outside of the "physical" connection to the car cradle.

So far I failed to find any executable .prc file that will let me do this. I'm sure there would be a way in software to trick it, but have come up short so far.... :(

[helmutk]

A while ago someone asked me measure the resistance across two pins on the CLIE Cradle.
He was also looking to use the GPS, Text To Speech, and Car Launcher feature while the CLIE was not plugged into the Car Cradle. He said that a certain resistance applied across these two special pins on the CLIE cause it to recognize that the Car Cradle as attached and it would launch the Car Launcher software.
I gave the person the resistance but haven't read any posts on whether he was successful.
I have not tried this yet either.
Here (http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25759&perpage=15&highlight=cradle%20resistance&pagenumber=2) is the thread on it

[spidey]

That was me. It's just a theory of mine, but I can imagine no easier way for Sony to detect which cradle or cable it's attached to. That's how it knows USB or UART too so it makes sense.
Hopefully soon I will be able to tell you if putting a 4.1K Ohm resistor across pins 18 & 17 (on a empty connector for now) will allow Car Launcher to operate. If so, it's conceivable to wire up a selector switch on the cradle to select resistors and therefore Normal or Car operation. I won't be able to try this for several weeks in case some other brave experimenter wants to give it a try.