My Brief and Torrid Love Affair with the SIMpad SL4

I was looking for a CE 4.2 .net tablet that I could use as a big-screen GPS navigator as well as a big-screen Web tablet, video viewer, and all-around toy for trying out newer Pocket PC and .NET stuff. My old skeye.pad stopped working some time ago and sits in pieces in my room. Even when it was working, I struggled with it, having trouble even trying to sync with my PC.

I thought I had found a replacement when I stumbled upon a Siemens SIMpad SL4 on eBay a couple of weeks ago with the Mullenger CE 4.2 .net upgrade, for a mere $107. It came about a week ago, and I went right to work. Installed Ostia 7 on it and plugged in my Pharos GPS, and it established a fix quickly. Some nice Pocket PC apps showed up in full screen, including a pretty cool-looking freeware game called Distant Galaxies. I even tried Webby Mobile on it after installing .NET CF 2.0, and that browser looks like a nice alternative to IE CE 6. (Interesting feature I noted while using both browsers: both redirected automatically to viewing the sites through Skweezer. Of course, I could disable that with a single tap to see the normal rendering of the pages.)

It does have its downsides. Biggest one: only one card slot. To have room for GPS maps, and to use a Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse with apps running from the CF card, I'd have to find out if I could get a serial-to-Bluetooth adapter to work.

I never got the chance. Earlier tonight, someone broke into my car and stole it. First CE device I've ever had stolen from me. (An old Compaq Aero 2180 running Pocket PC 2000, as well as my cell phone, went with it.) So now I'm feeling an H/PC void in my life. Snatched away from me before the initial excitement even had a chance to wear off. And I'm now struggling with how to fill the void. I doubt I'm going to find another SL4 with CE 4.2 .net on it for that price, and anyway, the lack of a second card slot may have proved too much of a handicap for what I wanted to do with it. And a reflective screen would be nice - but are there any CE 4.2 .net tablets with reflective screens?

This isn't looking like a very good week for me thus far. . . .

Sad to hear of your loss. I thought about leaving my X51v in its holder in my car but was afraid of being broken in. I only leave Pharos GPS-500 with a Y-cable in the car.

Several cars were broken into in that area, even though it's an upscale neighborhood. And apparently they were looking for GPS devices. (My cell phone was on a holder suctioned to the windshield, so it obviously looked like a GPS at a glance.) I had most of my CE devices in the trunk (what's the point of a mobile device if you don't use it on the road? ), and the inside trunk latch was locked. I just decided to carry the SIMpad in the front because I was still playing with it. Usually the police are highly visible in that area, but tonight was an exception. (And why didn't the car alarm go off?)

Edited by CE Geek 2008-08-19 3:54 AM

aww, CE Geek.

if you do pick up a simpad with cenet 4.1 or even HPC2000 (they came with that originally, some owners never tried cenet), do not worry, you know we are good friends...
so if that's the only thing keeping you from buying another, then go ahead and get another.

oh also, you can connect a serial keyboard, the driver for it is in ROM too.


by the way if we are talking about simpad.. I also have a gripe with mine... mine cannot be flashed at the moment, why? because the serial ports on my PC never played nice with serload (god knows why), so I always used my sister's PC. now, my sister moved and took the PC with her.

though, I also got new PC (still have old one too), no serial on it, but the motherboard has it, so I just need to go and buy a connector to make it accessible, then maybe it would work with serload ... then I could go on with making custom roms for it ..

oh and I did try ne2000 card (yes have bootloader 2.5.3), no go either, no IP. same card is happy in 900c

Edited by cmonex 2008-08-19 11:36 AM

That's bad luck

I've always wanted to try a simpad...

Another downside of the device is that the sound isn't the greatest. The speaker seemed kinda weak on mine (not very loud, and the sound quality was not the best), and the only way to connect headphones/speakers is through the Siemens serial port. I had to get one of those audio jack adapters for the old C25 cell phone, which only has a 2.5-mm jack. Headphone sound is apparently monaural (one side only) and, again, not the greatest quality.

Again, hoping to use the SIMpad for a large-screen GPS may be more work than it's worth. I don't know if I would be able to hear voice navigation prompts (assuming that that feature works on the SIMpad), and I'd need to connect the GPS via Bluetooth using the rather cumbersome serial cable + Bluetooth adapter. Also don't have an easy power connection as there is no car adapter that I can find for it. On top of that, the screen (despite being labeled "transflective" TFT in the Devices list here) pretty much washes out unless completely shaded.

It was fun while it lasted, but I'm wondering if I have a better choice for my needs as I've described them.

I can't imagine that you leave a relatively large LCD device as a removable accessory in your car. It's definitely 'eye-catching'.

Want built-in bluetooth and an extra MMC/SD internal memory card for the Simpad SL4?

Check out Guylhem Aznar's instructions to do just that:

http://www.guylhem.net/r-hardware/simpad/bluetooth/

This project is not for the faint of heart. Read very carefully, and find some friend with the more than above average soldering skills to try this.

For me (not having a Simpad) it was just an interesting read.

Very tough mod! Maybe, one can replace the phone modem on MP900C with something more useful if the modem connects to a standard connector.

CAuser, the SIMpad was in the black carrying case it came with. It wasn't visible from the outside of the car until after the thief broke in.

Very interesting reading, theoak. Tough project, but it could be a big boost for the SIMpad.

I'm wondering, though, what the chances are of someone crafting a SmartCard-to-CF (or -SD) adapter to make internal tinkering unnecessary. (Could be helpful to Jornada 72x users too, of course.)

Sad thing CE Geek, is Guylhem's Simpad was stolen too after those mods. (Actually, if I remember right, it was lost to a trade that went bad.)

Gee, nice to know SIMpads are still in demand. (Too bad the new users are taking the five-finger discount.)