How to connect an iPaq to eTrex and power both. Dansk   Deutsch   Español   français   Italiano     Nederlands   Polski   Português

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News: 12-June-2004 --- We have BA_i38's (adapt our combo cables for the iPaq's) plus 5V versions of our eCombo (we call eCombo5) are ready!

WARNINGS!
Big news (early 2005): Garmin has redesigned the good old yellow eTrex! It's Version 3. Unlike all the prior one's for so many years, it's NOT happy with more than 3.3 Volts external power! The screen goes dark. No damage but -- just not nice. Man. After so many years we started counting on the good old eTrex to be OK with up to 6 Volts and we start making available great innovative useful cable products that take advantage of it (hey ... it sells more Garmin GPS's!) and they up and screw it up. I'll bet you money they didn't even know. Hey, the spec says 3.3V and so they design to meet the spec. So now about everything I write about below is now obsolete (for the new Version 3 eTrex). Hey, life is a bitch (and/or a blast) and then you die. But, the really good news is; we have a new eCombo cable that has TWO voltage regulators inside, and it's the same price! A thousand were put on the ship in Hong Kong June first 2005 and we expect them by early July. Part # eCombo53.

I've built only a few of these cables for people. I've not heard of any problems - yet (2/23/03). (7/7/3 and still OK. No problems reported. And 10/03 all is OK, all eTrex's, rino, and geko's are OK with 5V input!) I've tested them with my iPaq 3835 (which has since been burned up - but not by this cable) and eTrex, however, the voltage for both units is set to 5V and only 400mA of power is available for both units and I hear there are all kinds of options for the iPaq like big disk drives etc that may require a lot of power and so I don't know what will happen when you try to take more power, and so you're on your own, always have a backup, and let me know what works and what doesn't so I can share it with everyone else out there on the edge. (Everyone not on the edge is taking up too much room!)

OutAspec #1: The iPaq charger can supply 2 amps at 5V - this cable supplies only 400mA, which is less than 1/4 the power - and - for both units. My iPaq charges up great even when the eTrex is plugged in, on, and both back lights on full. I don't know if it charges slower than normal but I don't care as long as it is charging and running. Again I'm running the basic 3835 with 64meg. I tried feeding it lower and lower voltage until it stopped charging and stopped using the external power and nothing bad happened.

OutAspec #2: The eTrex models specify 3.15V +/- 0.15 volts. This cable supplies 5.3V But I'm not worried because I've run my eTrex on 6V for hours without any problems, and it doesn't even draw more current, actually it draws a little less!... Not true with the eMap.... but it survived the test.

Here is a photo of a completed cable I made in about 1 hour starting with one of our new sample eCombo cables. Our current production eCombo cables do not have the power wire attached via the "Y" and into the CLP housing correctly to do this modificaion. The next batch available 2ed quarter 2003 will.

I like our "Y" near the CLP because CLP sockets are most always near the middle of a cars dash board and so our cables let you position the GPS just about anywhere and the PDA just about anywhere and they can be up to 9 feet apart from one another. I don't understand why everyone else put's the "Y" near the GPS. Especially the eTrex with its fragil plug. Why hang TWO cables from the little plug? I've seen several that have broken. It's why we run just one small light weight flexible cable from the eTrex several feet before the "Y", and also why we make our e2Plugs (and now our original ePlugs too) with GE LEXAN^® polycarbonate (a super strong, high quality, expensive engineering thermoplastic).

(News May 2004: We have a new model of eCombo cable named eCombo5. It is 5V. No modification required. --- also, we now have an adapter cable named BA_i38 that plugs into the DB9.)

To convert our new (iPaq friendly) eCombo into the cable above requires the following:

1. Open up the CLP (Cigarette Lighter Plug) housing and solder on a 1k ohm resistor piggyback to R2, or replace R2 with a 510 ohm resistor. This changes the output to 5.3V.
2. Test that the output is now 5.3V
3. Cut off the DB9 plug, strip and tin the 4 wires, slide on the strain relief for the iPaq 22 pin connector.
4. Solder the red wire (power) to pins 1, 2, 3, and 4.
5. Solder the white wire to pin 8. This is data from iPaq to GPS.
6. Solder the brown wire to pin 7. This is data from GPS to the iPaq.
7. Solder the black wire to ground pins 10, 15, and 22.

Looking at the solder lugs with the key slots on the right:
 1  2              1,2,3,4 = power
 3  4 
 5  6 [  key slot
 7  8               7=iPaq data in, 8=data out.
 9 10
11 12
13 14              10,15,22 = ground
15 16
17 18 [  key slot
19 20
21 22 

TESTING:

1. Setup the eTrex via "system" for NMEA output at 4800 baud.
2. If indoors, select DEMO mode so it will output sumulated data.
3. Load and setup a program in the iPaq that will accept NMEA data and display it. I found a cool free one at visualgps.net. And also X-Map by Delorme is very cool and easy to use and only $35.
4. Check that the GPS connects and data flows.
5. Check that the eTrex power it working from the external source.
6. Check that the iPaq battery is charging up - the light will flash.
7. If everything is working, complete assembly of the iPaq plug.

As of 5/1/03 all our eCombo cables are wired correctly to provide power to both the eTrex and iPaq - AND - we connected the power line to the DB9F pin #1 so one could make a little adapter cable and not have to cut off our nice little custom DB9F plug. --- it's gettin' better, a little better all the time.

Comments from people who have actually used it:

>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Bill (billspinuzzi(at)attbi.com)
>   To: larry(at)pfranc.com 
>   Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 3:13 PM
>   Subject: ipaq-etrex power cable
> 
> 
> Hey Larry I finally got to use the 
> cable on a longer trip.
> 
> I started at 35% charged on the Ipaq 
> and after about 3.5 hours it was at 100%.
> 
> I was using it the whole time with 
> Delorme maps and also tracking a predefined 
> route to try and put the biggest load on possible.
> 
> I am very satisfied with the cable 
> and would not have you change anything 
> about it.  It works great.
>
> Thanks again it has been a pleasure 
> doing business with you.
> 
> I will watch your site for new ideas and toys.
> 
>  Thanks again  Bill
> 

ePlug                CLP                DB9F
=====               =====               ====
(+)  <-----red----< (+3V) >----red-----> 1**  (power)
(in) <----white-------*--------white---< 3   (data to gps)
(out)>----brown-------*--------brown---> 2   (data from gps)
(-)  -----black------gnd-------black---- 5   (ground)

** Note: Early versions did not have pin 1 connected.  The idea 
is to make little adapter cables so you can connect a 
Garmin GPS to a PDA and power both!

Note: Update May 2004, checkout our eCombo5 cable with a 5V supply and our BA_i38 adapter.

Please send any comments, help with links, facts, words, data, spelling, syntax, format, presentation, etc... (even if a comma is out of place).... E-mail to: Click here. .... thanks!

IPO: 2/2003, My thanks to these people for their great ideas and editing help: Graeme Hills = first to try using the above info and found a big mistake I made! thanks Graeme.... , , and my second big mistake was found by our Pfranc of Spain, Doctor Franko, thanks Antonio, and yet another by Super Pfranc Dave, Pfranc of Wisconsin, and many others.
(this page had only about 4,000 page views in all of 2003)

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