3.3V pcmcia? 3COM XJACK wifi.

Hi
I am about to buy a J720 and I have a question. I got a 3COM wifi card 3CRSHPW196.
http://www.3com.com/prod/se_SE_EMEA/detail.jsp?tab=features&sku=3CRSHPW196
This is a 3.3V 16bit card and I wonder if it is compatible with the J720?
I have surfed around a little but I haven't found anyone that uses a 3.3V card only 5V. It would be great if this card was compatible. I just love the XJACK antenna.

We might be able to get this working. If you're willing to be a guinea pig on it, I'll spend some time with you on it.

That would be great.
If the J720 accepts 3.3 volt cards it should be possible. My question was mainly about if the J720 accepted low valtage cards (see image). A low voltage card won't fit in a 5 volt slot (naturally). This is something that has been a problem for me before. I got a Toshiba Libretto 70CT which only accept 5 volt cards.

But I do not have a J720 yet. I will get back to you when I do.





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Type II PC Card.gif (8KB - 69 downloads)

It is a PDA, not a laptop. It has been designed specifically for low voltage hardware.
The PCMCIA driver switches voltage under HPC2000 and will accept either.

I'm afraid I haven't heard any report of it working or not.
The voltage thing, as C:Amie said, should not be the problem.
The problem would mostly be driver compatibility. 3COM does have drivers for WinCE, but will it work for Handheld PC 2000? Only one way to find out...

See also:
http://www.cewindows.net/peripherals/pccardwirelesslan.htm

If you get it to work, I would be interested to get one for my J728 as well. The retractable antennae card might be pricey, but it's better than buying a snap-in-half card (hasn't happened yet, but almost *touch wood*).

Edited by takwu 2005-01-17 12:53 AM

Hi again.
I ask you to forgive my ignorance about the 3.3V issue.
I was much disapointed when I realised that I couldn't use this card with my Libretto...
I just wanted you to know that I have now bought a J720.. it will be delivered to me sometime next week. I will start the trials as soon as I do.

I just want to update you on the 3com XJACK... it's great... most of the time.... But sometimes the antenna just won't stay in the retracted position... really annoying.

I guess this could be fatal.. the antenna feels pretty fragile...

Success.
I have just gotten my "new" Jornada 720. Nice little gadget... Obscure OS though... have never used CE before... Hopefully it will grow on me.

Well anyway. The 3COM 3CRSHPW196 was easy to install... 3COM had released drivers for Pocket PC 2000 and 2002. There were only some "window-size" issues... Fairly common i guess.
The drivers supports 3CRWE62092B, 3CRSHPW196 and 3CRSHPW696.... Might be usefull to know..

The card is not without bugs though... The power management doesn't seem to work... and sometimes when I use the software to turn the radio off it freeze the system... I don't know how used the HPC community are to these kind of "features". Maybe I should feel lucky that it works.... Well actually I do... I thought that there would be much more trouble to get it to work.

I include a picture... extracted antenna... retracted antenna...
You can see how it totaly disappear.... Nice..

I will get back to you if I run in to any noticeable problems....

Thanx for a great site.





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xjack_j720_3.jpg (90KB - 54 downloads)

Maybe a link to the driver..

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/result.jsp?selected=5&sort=effdt&sku=3CRSHPW196&order=desc

3cwlance.exe

Thanks for the update.

When you say the power management doesn't seem to work. What isn't happening?

Well... I have been trying to get the same error as last time... and now it looks like it works.

The problem was that the last time i tried to enable Power Mgmt. It lost the ip-number and didn't get it back until I Disabled Power Mgmt and reseted the Jornada... Maybe It was the reset that did the trick and not the Power Mgmt setting... Honestly I don't know what the Power Mgmt setting does... But it sure sounds nice... maybe save some battery juice...

Anyway... Me likie picture.... So here you get one of the WlanMonitor Dialogs... I just saw that I missed the WEP keys dialog... but I guess it's trivial...

As you can see there are some strange menu-bar selections... "Temp"... If you "klick" it you get a drop-down with only one selection.. "FOO"...
Strange...
Nothing happens if you hit it though..

Hm... I just had to make a reset again... Somehow it lost connection with the dns... I still had connection though... Hm... It might be my router. It's a netgear MR814v2.. Known to be troublesome...

Conclusion??
It works... And personally I think the XJACK-antenna is worth a "little" hassle..





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WLanMonitorCE3.gif (21KB - 55 downloads)

Power Management setting on WiFi is a standard driver setting under Windows CE 3 WiFi.
It allows the device to power down the card's tranciever when it isn't being used by the system. So making it more economical. It is controlled by a binary value registry setting.

Thanks for the screenshots.

My!!! ... that is one neat wifi card ... ... 3COM 3CRSHPW196 ... hmmm

Thanks for the update athom.

Yeah the disappearing trick is awesome... Time to look at my gadget budget again

Anyone knows the power specs for this neat card? Tx/Rx/Idle? mA?? If its lower ~150mA ... with its disappearing antenna ... its one prime candidate for replacing my wifi card!

Sorry, don't know... And it doesn't say anything on the card... can't find anything on 3coms site either. If you want me to I can check the box... I still got it somewhere in my storeroom... I think.