Palm or other replacement for Clie

[colmin]

I have developed a commercial product that makes use of a Sony PEG TJ25 as a smart display terminal. Unfortunately I understand that the Clie is being wthdrawn and I need to offer a replacement.

My main concern is that I need the replacement to maintain the serial RS-232 data connection capability and simultaneous battery charging through the same cable.

I also need to be able to locally back up and restore the application program in the event of power failure. The Program.prc is less than 100k in size.

Please can you recommend a replacement device and a supplier of both the PDA and a suitable data/charger cable.

Regards

Colin

[Jim Cooke]

Colin,

Since the TJ25 uses a USB connection, I'm assuming that you used a USB to serial converter that successfully emulated the RS-232 data stream. If that's the case, any current Palm model should work equally as well although I'd avoid the T5 since OS 5.4 is not very well documented at this point. There are any number of USB data/charger cables and, once again, I assume you must have already been using something like this on the TJ25.

I'm not sure what you require in terms of backup. You can backup to an SD card using a program like BackupBuddy VFS and a hotsync should always backup your program to a PC. A power failure shouldn't affect the Palm end of things since it will continue to run on battery power and it seems reasonable that you'd have the PC on a UPS if this is a critical application. I can't understand why you'd have to restore the program itself. I can see where you might have to restore a data file but, if the PC or whatever device is feeding the Palm the data fails in the event of a power failure, what data would be any more current that you'd need to restore than what's already on the Palm? Is this something like a SCADA device or what? I'm just not clear on the scope of your requirements.

[colmin]

Dear Jim,

Thanks for your reply. I have just replied to it but it disappeared before I submitted it so if you have it then please excuse the double up.

My application is a portable SCADA one which used the Clie plus a microcessor based black box to process the data gathering signals. They communicate via RS-232 using a cable which within one of its connectors level shifts the RS-232 signals to TTL for the Clie and vice versa. The Clie does support standard EIA format (albeit TTL) communications for connection to Modems, GPS etc.

(Refer www.pccables.com - PDCT-M9CLA-6 6" CLIE T CLA- Powered Modem Cable )

My microprocessor box doesn't have the sophistication to be able to HotSync the Clie and so it needs an SD card and as you suggest something like Backup Buddy to do this in the unlikely event that its power goes off long enough for its batteries to flatten. The Clie has a Memory Stick and its own proprietary backup application. Providing a PC and Backup supply or even a Laptop would be a ridiculous. Why not use a Laptop in the first instance?

You mention a USB to serial adaptor. Does this device do all the conversion within or does it rely on PC based driver software for its operation. Where can I go to look for details?


PDCT-M9CLA-6 6" CLIE T CLA-Powered Modem Cable

Regards

Colin