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Handhelds Hardware

Small, Robust, and Portable WinCE-based USB Masters? 29

Posted by Cliff from the painful-situations dept.
Dandre asks: "We have come across a need for a very small and robust USB master to portably read data off a USB device. It should have significant memory (>256M), but ideally needs to be robust to vibrations (such as running). Our initial searches have found that no WinCE like-handhelds are USB masters (except one that is a master in the cradle, which is unacceptable). We have software what does this for a Win32 laptop PC, but most laptops fail the portability and size tests. Ideally, we would want a solution that allows us to easily port this code -- so WinCE initially seemed like a good idea, but the reality of the WinCE situation makes us, well, wince."
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Small, Robust, and Portable WinCE-based USB Masters? More

Small, Robust, and Portable WinCE-based USB Masters?

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  • Check out the HPC (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2002 @02:47AM (#4914054)
    Look for HPCs that support this feature - while it was rare on PocketPCs, it was quite common on later HPCs. The Panasonic Toughbook 01 comes to mind. It's a bit steep at $1350 but it is ruggedized, compact, and it includes your choice of wireless modem (CDPD, Cingular, etc.).
    Also take a look at Internmec's products.

  • hmm (Score:2)

    by Hadlock ( 143607 )
    except one that is a master in the cradle, which is unacceptable

    um, epoxy the winCE device into the cradle, and then file the cradle down to the size you need it? generally the cradle is a metal weight, some pretty plastic molding, and a wire sticking out the bottom
    • I doubt the handheld supplies power to the cradle - it will either come from a dedicated power source or through the serial/USB connection to the PC. The USB master in the cradle would be useless while this device is being carried around.
      • You can simply put 5V on the USB power line if necessary. Add a battery pack and regulator, maybe one of those nice InfoLithium batteries that seem to last forever. BTW, serial does not carry power.
  • Check out the OQO [oqo.com]. By default, it runs Win XP or Linux rather than WinCE, but you can run WinCE for x86 on it if that's your fancy -in most single-app/embedded situations it would likely perform better and be more robust than WinXP at least!

    The OQO is a bit expensive and it's not out until April... But the cheaper model has a 800 MHz Transmeta CPU, 256 MB RAM, 10 GB HD, USB, FireWire and docking ports (adds VGA, PCI and AGP bus interface). Not sure what the shock protection is like, but you could always run it out of a RAM disk.
    • This is likely vaporware. The website hasn't changed in at least six months. I've been following this but I'm not optimistic. However, you say it comes out in April. Where did you see this?
  • http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=VP-203 0
  • This just started shipping.. runs Linux.. and has a usb host controller.

    While this isn't WinCE.. it's as close as your going to get with a usb host controller.

    next
  • Add the expansion pack for the USB and you can us a IBM Microdrive to caoture yoru data. If you can't afford the 99 bucks, there is a 40 dollar solution to add a USB dongle.
    • The Toshiba e330 and e335 offer the same USB host capability. Too bad my e310 doesn't :-(

      The e33x don't have the CF capability, but there are 512 MB Secure Digital Cards available.

  • What about the Mine? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Myself ( 57572 ) on Wednesday December 18, 2002 @10:26AM (#4914843) Journal
    Have you looked into the Terapin Mine [terapintech.com]? It sounds like exactly what you're looking for:

    USB master, USB slave, PCMCIA slot, 10baseT, and it's small! Replace the rotating-platters laptop drive with a solid state version [memtech.com] if you're really worried about vibration.
  • Last time I investigated this, there were a few handhelds out there, but there were very few devices that had drivers for WinCE. I'm not sure that USB on a linux based hand held is there yet either... I'm not willing to plunk down that much cash to find out that none of my USB stuff works with it...
  • The NEC unit has a built in USB Master without need for a docking station. Though it does need an adapter.
  • You might want a Intermec 6651. Good luck buying it tho, the only place I found it was MobilePlanet, and they ripped me off so I advise against shopping there.
    (When I bought my 6651 it said it had HPC2000, it arrives and it has the older version. Website's changed, the SKU I ordered now says the older veersion and theres another SKU for the new one So I call them and they wont accept a return cuz its opened, even tho its their fault. So I have to spend another few hundred on the HPC2000 upgrade when it comes out, and of course theyre the only ones that sell it. I highly recommend against shoppign there.)

    Its large (full clamshell form factor) but it has a usb master port. However AFAIK the handheld pc 2000 software that comes with it doesnt support usb mass storage. (If anyone has a usb mass storage driver for HPC2000 I could really use it thx)

    Also a previous poster mentioned the Terapin Mine, that might work for you but forget about the built in display (it sucks, only 4 lines). It does have a composite video out port tho, so you could hook it up with a HUD or something.
  • WinCE is no more. Got renamed to Microsoft Pocket PC a while ago (like 1-2 years).
  • What about an iPAQ + PCMCIA backpaq + PCMCIA USB adapter? Wouldn't that work?
  • Hmm.. Small USB Master..

    The IO Networks AnywhereUSB [ionetworks.com] is a USB host. That's all it is. It has USB master ports which you use through IP.

    That's probably not quite what you had in mind...

  • We research wearable computing so we have quite a similar set of requirements to you. The board that we use is an ADS Bitsy which support either winCE (yup some peeps still call it that after all this time) or linux (hooray!). Take a look at their site [ttp] for details. I'm not sure about ruggedness though, we put it inside a custom metal case so it can take a bit of a battering. We let student loose on them fer gods sake!

    At one of the last wearables conferences I went to though I remember a talk from Xybernaut which sticks in the head as they claimed to have invented the concept of wearable computers to a room full of researchers working in the field, quite amusing. But anyways, they do a range of full blown windows / winCE devices in very rugged cases that were actually really good - but the battery life sucks on the fullblown windows ones. Try their site here [xybernaut.com].

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