Database Users

Arkon CM55 Powered PDA Cradle and XDAII

I have just had this product delivered and it seems to work fine until I make or receieve a call on it. There is terrible feedback from the speaker and no matter how high or low I have the volume on the cradle or the XDAII the feedback from the speaker remains.
On the Expansys website it states that it is compatible with the XDA and in the leaflet that comes with the Arkon CM55 Powered PDA Cradle it states that:
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"Important notes:
A special adapter is included for the pocket PC Phone...
When you speak your voice will be transfered through the microphone on the device. The persons voice on the other end of the phone will come through the speaker build into the back of the PDA mount cradle."
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So there is even a special adapter included so I can use it with the XDAII??
The above passage leads me to believe that I should be able to use it to make calls but with the mobile so close to the speaker it is impossible? Has anyone else used this product to make calls? Any tips on how to get it to work?
Thanks

I have the same problem, I dont think the speaker was designed for a phone application, it works great with a pda. The only solution I found when using it to navigate was to switch of the radio/phone but that kind of defeats the object. I am looking for a filter solution or maybe using another speaker that is screened from the rf interference.

I purchased the "special adapter" only from Arkon, and used it to plug the I-mate into my car's auxiliary stereo input.
The volume on the i-mate is at FULL.
It works absolutely perfectly. The sound for MP3's is perfect, and the phone calls sounds crysal clear. (the microphone remains enabled on the I-mate, while the sound is transferred through the stere system).
You can use a Tape deck adapter if you do not have an AUX-input on your stereo.
Ken.

Unfortunately I have cd player without aux input. I have bought an xda car kit now so the Arkon is going to be redundant.

Possible Car Kit breakthrough!

I am 99% finished on developing a car kit for the XDAIIs. The plan is to make this available for all versions of XDA, MDA, SPV etc. when complete.
At the moment the kit will do the following
Power the XDA
Has got a microphone input.
Has got speaker output of voice through the car stereo speakers
Has got speaker output of navigation through the car speakers
Connects to a wired GPS antenna - currently using PS2 connector but I'll be making an RJ11 version on Monday!
All I need now is a way of signaling to the car kit that the XDA is in the holder! :x
From the car kit, I have 1 wire which needs to be connected to 5v to power on. I also have a 5v feed from the car kit so I could simply join the wires but thats not the point.
I would like to find either of the following options.
1 - 5v feed from the XDA when in the holder
2 - Using 2 pins on the XDA to feed 5v in and get 5v out on another pin.
I have also found that on an XDAII, there is a 5v feed on one pin when in a call, but there isn't anything out of an XDAIIs in the same situation. I just need 5v when the device is present in the holder.
If anyone can tell me if this is possible I would really appreciate it.
Regards
...Spence

In order to get the carkit to work, I think you had to ground the pin instead of putting 5V to it, as specified in this thread :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=4829&start=75
It would be great if you could post your circuit !
Where did you get a proper connector, or did you just modify a xda II connector ?
Ciaos,
Kristof

A modified Carcomm cradle?

THe XDA uses 3 pins for the +5 Volt charger. I believe these pins are shorted inside the XDA
If you charge through 2 of these pins you might be able to use third to recognize that the XDA is inserted

s93ncer said:
I have also found that on an XDAII, there is a 5v feed on one pin when in a call, ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What pin is that that gives +5V when in a call on the XDAII?

What pin is that that gives +5V when in a call on the XDAII?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pin 12 on an XDAII goes to a positive voltage when in a call.
One thing I did notice was that the voltage does just appear and disappear, it builds up and drops off over 2 seconds,
Regards
...Spence

Thanks for the info!
Is there any similar behaviour when ending a phone call
I suspect my XDAII/iMate carkit is triggered by this signal, I would like to manipulate it in order to have the carkit amplify the TomTom directions also.
Other question: what type of mic did you use? The XDAII has quite some problems with the mic input signal (resulting is bad sound quality)

The voltage builds up to about 5v when making a call and does drop off to 0 when you end the call. Also, I don't have any problems with sound quality (although this is in an office at the moment) with the microphone.
I am using a universal car kit that my company sells, just hacked the connector off the end and connected it to the XDAIIs connector.
Still having problems, but with the car kit now and not the XDA
Can't get it to switch on/off when the XDA is in the holder and taken out!
..Spence

Sounds like you've found out some good stuff Spence.
I'm working on a similar project at the moment, except I'm using a circuit that detects audio coming from the XDA's pins, which then switches a relay to ground.. this is connected to the car stereo which goes to "Telephone mode" when grounded. Its about half way done at the moment, so I'm not sure how sucessfull its going to be.. but I'm currently having trouble with the volume of the audio from the XDA, (I haven't tried a Mic on it yet)
Would be interested to know if the XDA1 also has 5v on Pin12 when in call.. as I could revert to this if my plan doesn't work, although it would mean loosing Tomtom prompts through the stereo
Keep us updated on your progress :wink:

The other added goodie that I can put into some vehicles is a thing called an intellimute - made and designed by my company!
Linked in with the stereo, it will mute the stereo when it senses audio not just when in a call hence the Nav audio as well.
This might be useful to you - but you will probably have to but one to try it out.
I don't have an XDAI to try anything with - plus most people who I have spoken to have a II or IIs
...Spence

@swifty: When Pin 19 - Car On - is connected to GND via a 10k resistor the XDA gets into 'carkit-mode' resulting in ALL audio to be sent via the bottom connector. This will help you feed the audio to your stereo.
Together with the Pin 12 behaviour (+5V when in call) one should be able to build a carkit circuit:
Connect the audio-out pins to the car-stereo audio in or -alternatively- a seperate amplifier.
Make your car stereo go into mute when Pin12 gets 'high'
BTW, I gues you checked the wiki pages:
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Connectors
I would like to know what mic type is used by you guys, as I read in the other thread mentioned that this still might have issues.

Thanks Edsub,
Thats pretty much how i've got it hooked up at the moment, but I think there was a problem with the amplifier I was using as the audio from the stereo was very quiet. I've now changed the circuit and will be testing it out in the car tomorrow.

Spencer
What connector and cable are you using for this.
Thanks

What connector and cable are you using for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To cut a long story short, I had a couple of data cables for Ipaq's (3800 I think) lying around and I got a complete car kit from stock, cut the cable off at the phone cradle end and soldered on the connector from the Ipaq.
At the moment it looks a real mess, but it does work!
Haven't played with it for a few days, but might do some more today.
FYI, the problems at the moment are car kit related, not XDA - the XDA issues are solved.
...Spence

If you need an xda 1 and or the car kit to loan for your project, let me know.

I still have my iMate/XDA2 carkit (the one as sold by ie Expansys).
There still are two things I like to change:
1. Mic quality. I allready used a better mic (Nokia style gooseneck) with a thicker wire (as sugested by Expansys): Things did improve, but I still sound like I have a bag over my head (or like I am talking into a toilet bowl according to my collegue) . . .Any help greatly appreciated
2. Only the in-call audio is send to the carkit speaker. I would like to get all audio on the carkit speaker (so I get better amplified TomTom instructions). The car-audio mute only has to do its work when in a call (otherwise you wont be able to listen normally to a conversation or ie. the traffic info on the radio)..also: any clues???
A hint: In one of the other threads on this it is suggested that putting someting into the XDAII headset jack wil get all audio out, but that is not quite workable withou drilling the cradle to pieces.
Can anyone tell me what the effect on the bottom connector signals is when you insert something (ie an empty plug) in the headset jack?

Hi all.
Great topic. There's one thing I still don't know.
Does IN_CALL pin work in XDA 2s / MDA III ?
Mine XDA IIs doesn't put anything on IN_CALL pin when calling.

I have been having similar problems with audio with powered cradles/car kits. Just cannot get the damned audio to come out of the car kit, only call audio! (XDAIIi/Qtek 2020i)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=41716&highlight=
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=45779&highlight=
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=45462&highlight=

Suggestion
Why not simply have a mini contact switch in the bottom of the cradle to sense when the phone is in the cradle?, or use a simple current sensing circuit?
a VERY simple circuit would be a coil of the 5v feed and a reed switch, when current is being drawn through the coil it will generate a weak magnetic field, which could be used to close the reed switch...
Simple yet effective...

Wiring diagram for headset

Does anybody know the wiring diagram for the supplied headset?
Wolfgang

Sorry wolfgang, this is just a bump and not an answer. I'd also like to know if anyone's investigated the headset. What I'd like to be able to do (and I've never even *seen* the headset yet, still stuck in the hell of trying to obtain an Exec, see other threads) is use the microphone / button from the headset with a different pair of headphones.

I assume you mean the plug wiring? I've not had time to double-check this yet, but I believe it's the same as my Jornada 928 mic/stereo-headset.
Reading from the tip of the plug:
Plug tip: Left ear piece (short cable on the Jornada)
1st ring: Right ear piece (long cable on the Jornada)
2nd ring: Microphone
Top ring: Ground
When it arrived, I briefly tried the Jornada headset in the O2 Exec, and it worked in both ears, but I didn't check the left/right orientation. Until my Jabra BT500 bluetooth headset arrived, I was also using a self-modified (re-plugged) Plantronics single-ear headset with the tip and 1st ring linked to give mono, and that works without problems.
I suspect the standard headset shorts one of the signal lines to ground to give the answer/end function, but don't know which one.
HTH

Hey Astage can you tell me the Headset you using with single headset?
I am not heavy music listener, and I want a wired headset with single speaker ...
I will check plantronics sites also...
Please update me with the model which works fine with Wired Single Headset.

dont forget that you can use completely normal headphones in the Jasjar, this means (as posted Astage) meaning the ring that is the odd one out, compared to normal headphones, is used for both the Mic and the button. If nokia's are anything to go by the button will switch in a resistance of a certain value to indicate it has been pressed (this is because if the Mic is a coil mic it will already read as 0 ohms, a straight short to ground)

Mniko: Unfortunately this will not help you - I have the Plantronics M130 - however, as I said, I had to wire a different plug onto it.
The problem is that most single-ear headsets come fitted with a 3-ring 2.5mm diameter plug, wired as:
Plug tip: Microphone
1st ring: Ear-piece
Top ring: Ground
The Exec/Universal and other microphone+stereo headsets seem to use a larger 4-ring 3.5mm plug wired as per my earlier message. Because of the different wiring for the microphone signal you cannot just use a 2.5 to 3.5mm converter - even if you can find one. The situation is made worse if the headset (e.g. Plantronics) has a microphone sensitivity switch built into the plug, as you may need to also transfer this into the new plug.
Ice_coffee: Thanks for the update - saved me having to cut mine open.

yes I understand.... the prob is 2.5 & 3.5mm... I dont think any headset available around 3.5mm with mic and single headset, that made me to cut off the second speaker, which I already did...
I found one on http://pc-mobile.net/pxdaa.htm
But they dont seems to have it anymore... I really wonder how come HTC didnt thought of it... after all universal is a phone to rite?

Ok well, using my multimeter and some maths I figured out that
1) Under normal circumstances the jasjar sees the mic as a 1000 ohm load
2) It knows when you have pressed the button because the load drops from 1000 ohms to a mere 45 ohms
3) you could acheive this by putting an 47ish ohm resistor on a switch in parallel with the mic, using this info you can construct a working headset from almost any headset on the market, most notably the many many headset/mic combos available for PC's

8125 Audio Output Jack Problems?

I recently have gone through two different Body Glove Sport Stereo headphones with some issues. I can't decide if I have another faulty headset or if the phone audio connector is the issue. The body glove headset is similar to the headset that comes with the 8125, but it looked more comfortable.
The problem I am having is this, the headphones only play in the right side. Messing with the plug on the headset results in some quick burst of audio on the left side and pulling it out a tad gives me some faint left audio and the right side audio goes out completely. It seems the plug and jack don't quite jive... anyone else experience this? It comes with an adapter for the "bigger jack" and upon trying one of my girls iPods, they work fine with the adapter in the mix.
My application is this... I listen to MP3's while riding my motorcycle and the earphones that came with the phone hurt my ears after a while. Plus they don't have the greatest audio quality. Looking for a comfy replacement, but the above issue has me scratcing my head.

Here is a link to the headphones: here

i think...
i think you have the wrong adapter. i tried using the slvrs adapter with my 8125 and it did not work same prob as you. i went to radioshack and got one from there and it did. im most absolutely sure is the inner wiring. what happens is that there's also a connection for a microphone on the 8125 so some adapters dont work.
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~unit~Cingular_8125-559~area~accessories~item~PPCPADPT21.htm
ps my friend got a mono one at radio shack and it worked for him both sides. hes not a audiophile but you get the idea, it has to be the connection of your plug.

The headphones in addition to be being stereo, have the microphone too, I think the paragraph in the page you linked clears up a few questions for me:
Most manufacturers create their devices allowing audio compatibility with only their specific brand headset or headphones. We have designed and engineered several different types of audio adapters to accommodate a variety of devices. Our unique audio adapters give you the freedom to use any standard 2.5/3.5 mm. 3 conductor headset and/or your favorite set of headphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would seem although the Body Glove headset uses the 2.5mm jack, the internals of the 8125 are off enough that a select few aftermarket stereo headsets with mics will work with the phone. Interesting.

Upon further examination of the jack, it is different than the one that came with the phone. In spite of the BodyGlove being a stereo headet with a mic... just like the one that comes with the phone, the connector is different enough to not with aftermarket stuff I guess. Those dirty rascals!!!
The connector on the left is the one that comes with the 8125, the one on the right is the BodyGlove.

Searched and found this old thread. I went to connect my 8125 Wizard to my cars 3.5 jack using a standard adapter and it only came left channel.
Is there a more cost effective proprietary four-conductor jack to a 3.5 mm converter than posted above at PPC Techs? I was hoping to spend a few dollars.

I'm actually using my old Ngages audio cable to get Stereo sound out of my car stereo. It works but sometimes I can't use the mic on the cell phone to talk.
When it works it's really cool, but otherwise I gotta unplug the cable and use it like a regular phone during phone calls.

Sedio Car kit ETA???

I know this has been discussed to death here but when is the seido kit coming out or is it ever????
I am looking for this in a car kit any ideas, sifting through hundreds of posts I realize seidos was the best option like the one he has for some other PPC. This is what I want:
1) Easy cradle, just pop in and take out. No need to connect wires.
2) Car charger automatically attached to cradle no need to move charger in and out.
3) My car does not have bluetooth, but I have a tape deck (I know I know it is a 2000 4runner) so I would love for the ability to have audio out via audio cable to listen to music and calls through cars speakers via tape deck tape with cable.
4) Also some sort of enhanced microphone (beyond built in cell) so I can do hands-free calling
5) Donot really care about landscape mode.
I know 3 and 4 can be solved by having bluetooth in my car, but I donot want to buy a audio receiver or new car LOL I wish I could.
Any suggestions......
Seido you would me a couple of G's quickly once you release this, trust me you have my $120 waiting eagerly what is the delay?!?!? No pressure LOL