Jornada 728 vs Simpad SL4

Hi guys,

I wonder what the general forum perception is regarding the advantage of Simpad SL4 over J728, both with Win CE3.00, from the point of view of computing power and flexibility to work with various hardware. I.e. except of course the larger screen, the missing CF card slot and keyboard and the upgrade possibility to Win CE .net 4. Thanks.

RedGear compensates well for the inability to upgrade the 728 to CE .net.

Thanks CE Geek, indeed it is so with Jornada.

On the other hand I have the opportunity to buy at an attractive price a good Simpad SL4, so I wonder if to go ahead with it or not. It has a much larger screen than my Jornada 728, which of course is something that I value, but on the other hand no keyboard or CF slot.

The size of this 8.5" Simpad without any pcmcia card inserted is of about the size of a modern Android 10" tablet, while the thickness is about 3 times larger and double weight, which is understandable given the nearly 15 years difference in technology.

After reading a number of posts on this forum I have come to the (may be unfair) conclusion that the Simpad is quite sensitive and the touch-screen gets frequently damaged with the "out of calibration" defect, leaving the owner with no choice on how to start the unit any more. This is because of the missing built-in keyboard. But is that so oftenly happening or am I subjective?

I wonder if attaching a serial keyboard (which model?) would give accces to the unit, even with a damaged screen.

Thanks in advance for any comment on the above!

Edited by arlex 2014-03-23 11:05 AM

Moved to Handheld PC General Discussion

I found the SIMpad to be a bit quirky - and the one I had (for all of six days) had CE 4.2 (the Mullenger ROM) instead of 4.1 or H/PC 2000. I didn't like the lack of a CF card slot, nor the reset issues (you had to shut down the device for a few minutes and then turn it back on before resetting in order to retain recently-installed files and data after the reset, and doing a factory reset required holding down several buttons at once). I found the Fujitsu Stylistic CT2020, with 4.2, built-in WiFi, PCMCIA+CF+USB host, and XGA (1024x768) display, to be far superior as a CE .net tablet. Even the ViewSonic Airpanel 100/ViewPad 100 (which can be flashed with either a core version of CE 3.0 or 4.1) is better in my opinion, with PCMCIA+CF+USB host, and a rotatable SVGA (800x600 or 600x800 depending on orientation) display (though changing the display orientation requires a soft reset each time).

Thank you CE Geek!

Don't know a thing about Sympad but this problem is resolved easily: increase maximum calibration error through the registry just once, you will be never bothered again.

And in the worst case you can do it remotely via Windows PC with Activesync and remote registry editor.

Thank you Alt Bass, I guess the idea is very good for starting up a dead SimPad with massive screen decalibration. As for the normal functioning, would that no compromise the screen alignment?

Hi guys, I did not listen (naughty, naughty!!!) to the voice of the wiser ones on the forum and here is where I am now: I have got a SimPad SL4 in mint condition, running Win CE3.0 HPC2000, but my problems started to pile up. Trying to link the Simpad to the PC over the week-end I have found that all the Siemens support links (www.my-siemens.com/simpad) were long gone and the same with the other support sites (www.opensimpad.org/). leaving me no choice on how to get the Win XP drivers for the Simpad. There was no CD included in the package, I have no idea even if that was supposed to be there.

The XP drivers are specifically required and without them the PC does not recognize the Simpad neither via the serial cable and Active Sync, nor via the USB.

Hence my question, please: is someone here on this forum that still has got a copy of those drivers and that is willing to upload them somewhere for me? (hope that would not be a copy-right problem).
Or any other suggestion or alternative, please? Thank you!

Edited by arlex 2014-04-07 8:13 PM

I just read the owner's manual for the SL4 and it shows Activesync connection is only supported by the serial port or infrared, or wifi once you have done the other. No USB at all.

Serial connections do not need drivers for Activesync. But some devices do not like to Activesync serially if you have the USB option selected in Activesync.

And if you are using a PL2032 adapter via USB to Serial...then those sometimes don't work too well either depending on the speed settings.

Hopefully you are using an XP machine with a true DB9 type serial port on the backside and the Siemens serial cable...otherwise if it is some home brew cable, you may need a null modem changer on it as well.

I guess what I'm saying though is you don't need any USB drivers at all from what I read about the thing...that USB port is not supported on the SL4.

However, since I've never owned the SL4...I could be totally wrong...but I don't think so...

Further reading shows that once you update to a newer OS, you do need some help with the drivers and activesync...file is attached



Attachments
----------------
sl4-usb.zip (1KB - 1 downloads)

Thank you Rich for your fast advice!



I agree, I have also thought that drivers are not needed for the serial connection, though I am not so sure that I was not reading the contrary on the net these days. Fact is that it was not working.
Indeed the USB option is selected, I will cancel that to test again tomorrow and report back to the forum.



Thanks for the file, I have also found it on the net, though the use of it is unclear to me because it says "Connecting the SIMpad to the desktop PC via USB". I guess that it must be valid for Win 7. Is it supposed to be installed via the context menu?

Edit: P.S. Yes, it worked connecting me as a guest. I am working with Active Sync 4.5 and need to delete some old partnerships that are not valid any more. Thank you again Rich, unchecking the USB connection did the trick!

Edited by arlex 2014-04-07 9:36 PM

Is there an upper limit on partnerships with 4.5? I have 66 active partnerships with ActiveSync 3.8 on my XP PC.

66! Cool.

It's almost the mark of the devil

Jake

CEGeek is only a little devilish now and then....

what about 787?