Palm VIIx - Hot Syncing with a Serial to USB Cable

[bluemoss]

Hello,

I have a Palm VIIx with a serial cable cradle and trying to HotSync to my Toshiba Satellite Notebook. I have attached a serial –to-USB cable to the serial side of the cradle cable and to one of the USB ports on my notebook.

I can’t HotSync because there are only two options to do this, either Local (serial connection) or Modem. Is there a way I can HotSync using this configuration? I have a newer notebook that doesn’t support serial connections.

If not in the above config:

Is it possible to use IR (Infrared) to HotSync or the Modem port?

I'm using Win XP Home and I don't see any IF indicators on my notebook. Maybe an external IF device could be added?

Is it possible to vCard/vCal all the information from the palm software on 1 pc via imported to Yahoo and exported back into the Palm software on another pc/laptop, and keep the same format?

Or could I buy a PCMCIA card that does serial I/O?

Thanks

[redwudz]

Do you have Windows ActiveSync installed on the laptop? My PDA is a Toshiba Pocket PC, but it hooks through the USB port using ActiveSync and it does all the setup. There's not many laptops that have a serial port anymore. But USB should work. Just might be a configuration problem.

If you haven't been there, Palm should be able to give you some ideas. If not, look around for a Palm forum.

Palm downloads: http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/

Most laptops have a IR port, but it may not be configured or obvious as to it's location.

[kschang]

Why can't you pick local? Just pick the "emulated" COM port (probably COM3 or COM4) and you should be in business.

[bluemoss]

redwudz,
I’ll have to check to see if ActiveSync is installed.

I think I do have IR drivers installed but don’t have the IR little indicator on my particular model. I was thinking of getting a IR USB adaptor specifically for XP.


kschang,

I’m not sure what you mean, pick local from the handheld? If this is what you’re talking about, I did. I’m thinking that’s what caused the issue considering how the cradle is configured to work with a serial connections ( didn’t even think about IR until I was trying to resolve my issue of transferring data) vs. serial-to-USB connection.

I’ll look into it more when I get home today.

Thanks guys!

[kschang]

If you got an USB to Serial adapter, it would be emulating a regular serial port, so it shouldn't matter.

[bluemoss]

If you got an USB to Serial adapter, it would be emulating a regular serial port, so it shouldn't matter.

Ok, I have ActiveSync setup. I had the 'Allow USB connections' clicked, the automatic setting and 'Open ActiveSync when my device connects'.

I clicked 'Connect' to see if it would look for my device.

The device is located via Device Manager' as Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM7), so I go back to ActiveSync and unclicked 'Allow USB connections' and clicked 'Allow connections to one of the following' COM7, still my Palm cradle is not Hotsyncing.

[kschang]

Can you sync with Palm Desktop and Hotsync Manager, instead of ActiveSync?

[jsmithepa]

Can Palm Desktop talk to com7? Lotsa these serial-type software have the annoying limitation of talking to com1-4 and that's it.

Why com7 if u don't have any serial ports? that's mightly odd. See if u can reconfig adapter cable to use a lower port.