well, since I've been experimenting a bit with this port, I'll reveal now what I've developed so far:
The port in the back of the jornada is propietary as far as "shape" is concerned. As you may know the other end in a hp sync cable is a standard DB9
(Female
). As far as pinout connections, in order to communicate with a computer, the cable HAS TO BE null-modem type
(RX-TX, TX-RX, and so on
). Well, so it was theorically possible to connect a custom null-modem type adapter at the end of the sync cable to revert signals to a straight fashion
(RX-RX,TX-TX, etc
). Not exactly theorically since I've proven it CURRENTLY possible. In fact I made it myself a couple of days ago.
After testing it was working, I went a step further and modified my sync cable to be a standard straight serial port without the need of an adapter
(to make it a "sync cable" I must connect now a standard null-modem cable to the end of my hacked-sync-cable and it's done
).
The Results? well, after fiddling a bit with it, I developed a sort of serial mouse driver that works wonderfully on my Jornada 728
(YEAH, I'm using a serial mouse in my Jornada
). I made it "tray-loadable" so it can be loaded and unloaded when required. I'll be releasing it after a few more testing
With the modification I've made to my cable, it's possible now to connect other serial devices as long as a driver is developed along with them
(joystick coming
). I guess external modems should work too.