New FS-Plugin: Serial transfer to other PC or Palm

[ghisler(Author)]

Perhaps I am not understanding how this tool is supposed to work??

No, you didn't misunderstand it! The tool allows to access all PalmOS devices, also from other vendors,e.g. to upload/download databases and files. However, it requires Palm Desktop. Why? The USB libraries used by other software aren't documented, so the plugin doesn't know how to call them!

What's strange is that you don't get an error that the USB dll isn't found! So apparently you do have the usbport.dll on your system, but it doesn't work with the parameters passed to it from TC...

[Jon Canale]

This is the file info from usbport.dll:

c:\Program Files\Handspring\USBPort.dll
File Version Information :
Company Name : Palm, Inc.
File Description : USB Port Module
File Version : 4, 3, 0, 0
Internal Name : USB Port DLL
Legal Copyright : Copyright © 2001 Palm, Inc.
Original Filename : USBPort.dll
Product Name : HotSync® Manager
Product Version : 4, 0, 3, 0
Legal Trademarks : HotSync® is a registered trademark of Palm, Inc.

Creation Date : 10/22/2002 09:00:29
Last Modif. Date : 05/22/2002 12:42:42
Last Access Date : 07/10/2003 00:00:00
FileSize : 28672 bytes ( 28.000 KB, 0.027 MB )
FileVersionInfoSize : 4 bytes
File type : Dynamic Link Library (0x2)
Target OS : Win32 API (Windows NT) (0x40004)
File/Product version : 4.3.0.0 / 4.0.3.0
Language : English (United States) (0x409)
Character Set : 1200 (ANSI - Unicode (BMP of ISO 10646))(0x4B0)

Now I have had the Palm version of Desktop on this machine before, so perhaps it left its usbport.dll behind. Do you see anything odd here? You realize that with Handspring, it is in the \Program Files\Handspring subdirectory? I think the Palm version ends up in the \P.F.\Palm subdirectory.

[ghisler(Author)]

My plugin gets the location of the DLL from the registry, from the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\U.S. Robotics\Pilot Desktop\Core
String value: DesktopPath

Does this point to the correct DLL? The problem is that even if Palm's DLL is loaded, the Palm USB driver may not be there.

[Jon Canale]

It's looking in the correct directory, "C:\Program Files\Handspring".

[ghisler(Author)]

It should work fine then - it's very difficult to say why it doesn't work. Maybe the USB DLL is expecting some different connect address instead of 'sync'. I think that we will have to wait until some programmer who has your device will perform some tests with my source code. Sorry.

[Olaf]

Did anyone use the handera 330 palm clone? Softwareversion 3.5.3
It provides 2 Card-Slots - CF and SD/MMC. Are there any Problems to detect thr "right" slot? Just the CF-Card-Slot is in use.
Did someone manage to run the plugin? Experiences?
Greetings from Berlin / Germany
THX
Olaf

[ghisler(Author)]

The plugin is using the standard Palm API to enumerate all card slots, so there should be no problem. Unfortunately I don't have a Handera myself, so I cannot test it. The source code of my plugin is available, so hopefully some developer with a Handera will test it.

[uxs]

Hello,
I tested filepc2pda on PalmOS 3.3 (de), and I'm
getting error message "not enough memory to
allocate buffer".

Analyzing the source I saw you're using MemPtrNew()
to allocate 63K on the dynamic heap.

Some Googling brought me here:
http://opensource.or.id/~yohanes/palmos/pptdg/chap04/ch04.4.html
http://rzm-hamy-wsx.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/External/Documents-Mirrored/Palm/mirror/palmos_dev_documentation/Memory.html

So before OS 3.5, the dynamic heap was very limited.
Is it possible to only allocate maybe 8K instead of 64K?
Or would that slow that the program to a crawl?

Thanks.

[ghisler(Author)]

Yes, it would be possible - the 63k buffer is needed mainly for USB connections and for accessing memory cards, which would otherwise be very slow. I will try to modify the program and plugin accordingly.

[ghisler(Author)]

2uxs
I have modified the plugin so it works also with PalmOS 3.0-3.3 now! Since serial connections use a 1k buffer only anyway, this was no problem.

I have tried it with the PalmOS emulator, but it would be nice if you could try it with the real device and let me know if it works or not. You can download it from the normal plugin page:
http://www.ghisler.com/serial.htm
only the PalmOS component has changed, the PC plugin is unchanged.

[uxs]

Hello Mr Ghisler,

everything works fine now Thanks!

I've ROM version 0x03303000, that PalmOS 3.3(de).
Started the Program on the Palm, stopped Hotsync
manager manually, started the Plugin, and voila! Great!

Maximum displayed speed was something around 13 KB/sec,
which is quite reasonable for serial line at 115 kbit/sec.

Thank you for great support
& best regards from Karlsruhe, DE.

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks for testing! Yes, 13k/s is about the maximum you can expect.

[Jon Canale]

Plugin still not working on my Handspring Visor Deluxe with 3.1OS. Oh well.

[AdLentis]

The program works great, I used it with the palm Tungsten|T over bluetooth.

But now I want to try it over a serial connection with my palm, so I need to change the port used by the plugin. When I try to connect, the port selection dialog does not appear, since I checked the option 'Only show this dialog via right click - properties in Network Neighbourhood.' Strange enough, when I right click on serial port and choose for properties, nothing happens. Is there any way I can make the dialog appear again?

[edit]Hmm... downloaded new version, seem to solve problem. v5.50 did support plugins, but not officially. Never checked that... [/edit]

[edit2]Some other strange thing: filepc2pda v1.0 did nog work over the serial cable, but fortunately v1.1 did. It might matter that I'm using a modified USB cradle (I added a serial cable to it).[/edit2]

[ghisler(Author)]

2AdLentis
I developped it with a Tungsten T, so no wonder that it works.

2Jon Canale
Sorry, the Handspring is causing major problems, especially with the USB cradle. Maybe you can connect via serial port.