Hotsyncing PalmPilots On Multiple COM Ports?

lmsig asks: "I've recently run into a dilemma. I own a Palm IIIxe and my wife was given a Palm m100 for a Christmas gift. Unfortunately they have different shapes and use different cradles and cables to HotSync. I didn't think this would be a big deal; just throw one into each COM port; low and behold I have to reconfigure the software each time since it can only support one device. Palm has told me that they do not support the use of multiple cradles on a single desktop. Does anyone have any creative ideas to conveniently access both devices?" Considering the fact that high-tech households will have more than one Pilot, I think Palm has dropped the ball on this one. Why is it that the Hotsync software can only be operated on one port? Does the Unix software have this limitation?

program running twice?

[jmenezes]

Im not familiar with the palm software, as I havent had the pleasure of owning one. (but am willing to try, free donations accepted ;-)
But wouldnt it be possible to run 2 copies of the sopftware, installed at diferent locations, and having them both run simultaneously, as diferent processes, each one with its own configuration settings?
like i said, im not familiar with it, but its worth a shot
g'luck

Easy Under Unix

[winterstorm]

The unix software will have no problem dealing with multiple cradles. The popular pilot-link software will allow you to specify the serial port you wish to use on the command line. pilot-link will run on Linux, Solaris, and other Unix platforms.

URL to pilot-link

[winterstorm]

You can get pilot link from this website http://www.gnu-designs.com/pilot-link/ [gnu-designs.com]

Portable hot sync cables

[Leknor]

I've seen "portable" hot sync cables which were just the plug that connected to the palm. I don't know if these cables work across palm versions but it may work.

Leknor

Re:Eliminate the cradles

[tzanger]

Oops, Palm has updated their software to support IR Hotsync under W2K.

I'm not sure I understand... I hotsync my Vx through iRDA exclusively (static buggered up my laptop serial port) -- this is (was) under Win98 but now I use pilot-link since I now run Linux.

Try a Y adapter

[bdahlem]

Since The hotsync cradles simply leave the connections bare (there is really no circuitry in the base) when there is no palm in the cradle, you might be able to get away with a y cable or adapter as long as only one palm is in a cradle at a time. If you are afraid of sticking two palms in their cradles at a time, an A-B switch would work. It could be a cheap switch, since a mechanical switch would be no different than inserting and removing the palm itself. Brian

Re:Eliminate the cradles

[zero-one]

Thanks for that, just the news I had been waiting for.

Serial switchbox

[ksheff]

Why not just get a serial A/B switchbox and run the common cable into the com port that the Palm pilot software expects the hot sync cradles to be on. You can still have both cradles hooked up, the palm software should still work, and it's cheap (approx $10-$20 for the box + cable). Sure, you have the minor inconvience of having to flip a switch and remembering if your cradle is on A or B, but it's simple. That is unless you wanted to sync both PDAs at the same time...

#Palm

[Smev]

Join #palm on efnet or via www.palminfocenter.com in there "Live Chat" I'm sure there will be people there who can help :)

try networking the palms

[blonde rser]

if you're running a networking OS you can check out
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~echobase/index.h tml [globalnet.co.uk]
and it will tell you how to network your palm to your computer through the cradle. Then check out
http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/netsync.html [palm.com]
and it will tell you how to hotsync over a network. At this point all you have to do is go to the hotsync manager on your desktop and turn off local sync and turn on network sync. Then take your palm, go to the hotsync menu; select the modem sync prefs; set to network. You then half to fiddle with a few other options the palm explains quite well on their site. Only downside to this setup is when you hotsync you can't push the button on the cradle. Instead you have to open the hotsync program on the palm, select modem, and push the big hotsync button. Don't know if this will work for linux as I haven't tried. But if it works on w2k then with a little bit of work it will probably work that much better with linux.

I like the gnome-pilot stuff, myself

[roystgnr]

Install that, and the pilot-link frontend it puts in your control panel explicitly supports any number of devices, so you can have the daemon listening on both COM ports. You'll need to have a different username/id pair on the two pilots, though, if you want them to backup/sync to different directories.

Re:Portable hot sync cables

[Wog]

Unfortunately they do not. The III and VII has a thick connector (which doesn't stay in.. I wanna walk around with my phone plugged into it without losing the cable connection all the time, dangit!) whereas the V has a nice thin (easy to break?) connector which "clicks" in.

Eliminate the cradles

[EuroBryce]

Both Palms have IR built-in, so just add an IR adapter to your PC. Under Win9x/NT, IR ports are mapped to COM ports, so the Palm Desktop software won't notice the difference. W2K has it's own "special" IR support that does not offer COM port mapping, so you'd need use an IR adapter that plugs into a serial port.

Re:Eliminate the cradles

[EuroBryce]

Oops, Palm has updated their software to support IR Hotsync under W2K.

http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/palmdt_upd at e.html

Will have to try that out next week (what brain-dead Dell engineer decided that serial and IR ports belonged on my docking station and not the laptop itself?).

III series and m100

[lizrd]

While it does look a little akward, your wife's m100 hotsync cable should work just fine with your IIIxe. I sync my IIIe with my computers at work and at home. I have my cradle that came with my IIIe on my windows machine at work and I use the m100 cable at home. I've also made use of the m100 cable in my truck in connection with my IIIe, a null modem adapter, and my GPS receiver.
_____________

Re:Serial switchbox

[DickBreath]

The A-B switch is the trivial (and obvious) part of the problem. I don't think that is the part he is having a problem with.

The real problem, it seems to me, would be that the desktop software won't know what it synced with each PDA.

I add a new address to the address book on the desktop, thinking that next time I sync, I'll have this address in my PDA. But before I get around to syncing, the other PDA user in the household does a sync, and the new address appears in the address book of their PDA, and not yours.

I can see lots of other problems as well when the desktop software only supports one PDA, but two PDAs are sharing the one desktop computer. (For instance, your wife finds out about your boyfriend. But then I suppose you should be more careful when using a shared desktop computer.)

Re:Serial switchbox

[Fjord]

This isn't a problem. The Palm holds the HotSync id and broadcasts it when it HotSync. This is how you can have multiple Palms sync on the same cradle, providing the craddle is the same for each kind (there is a different craddle for the last 4 kinds of Palms and Visors have a different kind as well). The only problem is that each craddle is different. Why? Who knows. Maybe to force people to upgrade :)

Use just one COM port

[wakaramon]

I am assuming you are using Windoze to sync your Palms. Use a "Y" serial cable to connect both cradles to the same PC port. You can leave both Palms connected as long as you do not try to Hotsync the two of them at once. That's the setting I have for my IIIxe and my wife's V.

A "Y" cable is easy to make: one female and two male conectors, each male pin is connected to the corresponding female pin.