iPad Serial-Port Adapter Previewed 88
swandives writes "Following on from the iPhone serial port hack, Chris Pollock shows how an iPad will look with a serial port adapter for those who need more screen space. The pictures show a basic prototype, but Pollock expects to have a more attractive alternative up and running in the coming months."
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A bit bulky eh? (Score:2)
I personally would have designed it better. Maybe a USB port on the "serial" box so that it's not hanging off my iPad/iPhone.
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Re:A bit bulky eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
If you need to reach into a rack or whatnot then a long cable from your laptop should do the trick. For me the advantage of an iphone adapter is that you can reuse a device you will definitely have on you rather than having to carry the laptop everywhere.
This should work okay on my openmoko. It has a usb host mode and I have a usb-serial cable which I have used with a laptop as a console device.
Re:A bit bulky eh? (Score:5, Interesting)
Though since he seems to have posted the pinouts and whatnot I guess someone else could try taking a whack at making it better.
Like a ... wireless BlueTooth to Serial port adapter? [google.com] So all you have, other than iPad, is a little serial port dongle thingy? That'd be my choice: rather than hacking Apple's proprietary data/power connecter (though it had to be done... but now that's out of the way), hack their bluetooth stack [google.com]
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then why not go android and not have to hack at all?
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.magicandroidapps.bluetoothterm [appbrain.com]
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Or just do it directly with this [engadget.com].
As I pointed out elsewhere, this is nothing new. People have been breaking out the serial port data lines in the dock connector for at least 4 or 5 years now.
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Maybe because all the Android tablets seem to be 7 inch screens and 10 inches is much more readable and typing is easier. Quite important when you're configuring routers.
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Archos have the 101 on its way, and i think creative recently announced a 10 inch android device using their zii platform. And there could be others that i fail to recall the name of right now.
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because I already have the ipad.
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Did you um, read the parent? He was talking about using a serial to bluetooth adaptor instead of a serial cable, thats why I mentioned bluetooth. I'm sure there aren't any heavy duty routers that use bluetooth.
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Most serial "adapters" are pretty doggy. I found most of them work great for a low speed console 9600bps. If you crank the speed up and try to say copy an IOS image to it you run into trouble. I have tried a couple different serial "chips" Linux and Windows on a few laptops. Its never fun, there is something to be said for a real PCI or ISA connected serial port. Considering all the issues I have had with USB adapters I can't imagine bluetooth would be any fun at all.
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Seconded. The keyspan works great at all the applications I've thrown at it.
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I guess I'm having trouble seeing the point.
We're not talking 11 Mbps USB 2.x. We're not talking about the 1.5 Mbps USB 1.x. We're talking the 19.2 Kbps 16550 UART RS-232 style 1980s era serial port!?!? That you have to get to by invalidating your warranty and putting a 6" "dongle" on the side of your 12" iPad?
As somebody who spent years dealing data rates, parity, word sizes, and stop bits, armed with a soldering iron and MILES of 4-lead telephone wire routed to the back of a DEC VAX 11/750, this just brin
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I'm holding out for SCSI or an Amiga video slot. I want to track down a dusty Video Toaster 4000 card and do some genlockin'.
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I'm holding out for SCSI or an Amiga video slot. I want to track down a dusty Video Toaster 4000 card and do some genlockin'.
Amiga video slot for genlocking?
Uh... Are you aware how promiscuous the relevant signals are to the Amiga chipset (in order to simplify genlock design)?
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I got an Amiga 2000 on the side and the down low. Keeping it very real. My 4000 is a freak though, she's all about the bridgeboard action.
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But it's useful!
You can use it to program an Arduino (no, wait, those generally use USB these days). Or a TI MSP430 Launchpad (er, which actually also talk USB on the $4.30 dev kit).
I know: You can plug it into a random embedded system and debug it! (except, these days, such random embedded systems that are commercially produced have a Windows GUI or DOS front-end for configuration...)
Wait: I've got it! You can CONFIGURE A ROUTER WITH IT! Give me a router, some VT100 emulation and a serial connection t
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laptop is not always very easy to use when you have to squeeze into tight spots.
That's what a tiny netbook like the EEE 701 is for. I can hold it between two fingers, let alone in one hand. And it has a keyboard which is just barely big enough to touch-type on (I used it for six weeks in Panama and had to learn how to type all over again when I came home) yet with my big hands it's just small enough to thumb-type on if I have to.
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Spoken like someone who has never actually tried using a laptop while standing. It works fine, though I've found that using longer cables works better if I'm going to be at it for awhile...
And there's no reason to be insulting, you miserable fuck. Almost all of my work is in the field in the places you describe, though I suppose you could scratch "scientific outpost" and replace it with "on top of a tower."
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I'm not much on the iPad aspect, but serial ports in general are still ubiquitous in datacenters. For all the madness of pinout jumbles and baud rates, it's among the most simple circuits an embedded device or facility can have that can output sufficiently rich data for initial configuration and emergency situations. Even when booting linux on a server and you want a text-based console (e.g. for logging), nothing is as robust as a serial connection.
Now you can propose any number of 'modern' alternatives u
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Thanks for expounding on my point, though I will say that the biggest FUBAR in serial space are myriads of pinouts. Most of the time when you see D-SUB 9 *male* port, it's going to act predictably.
I have seen female DSUB9 ports with odd pinouts (understandable, bendable breakable pins coming off your expensive boards instead of cheap cables is bad, but the pinouts are remarkably varied). I have seen tip/ring/sleeve, I've seen RJ45, RJ11, completely proprietary connections, and even things like physical mi
Re:A bit bulky eh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Kind of archaic (Score:1)
It really needs an HDMI. The resolution is pretty low but at least I could play music through my big screen. I'd really like to see a laptop style port replicator made for an iPad or Touch with supporting software. You can adapt to USB devices but that and mini plug are your only options. The device is multipurpose but the output options are very limited. A proper port replicator seems simple enough and shouldn't threaten the closed nature of the device.
Boring (Score:3, Informative)
iPods/Phones/Pads have had serial ports for the longest time - why do you think there's such a thing as the iPod Accessory Serial Control protocol?
What's interesting about this is that an app has been able to steal the serial port from the system for its own purposes, i.e.: a tty.
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Its even more boring than that. The jailbreaking developer community has been able to tap into the iPhone's serial port for some time now. I was interfacing with the iPhone over serial in early 2008, before the iPhone SDK was even released, using publicly available information from the jailbreaking community.
The real "news" here is that someone's found a use for this thats caught the attention of the mainstream online technology press.
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The real news would be if someone figured how to do this cleanly without requiring a jailbreak.
Cool hack....but... (Score:1)
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You know you can turn off the autocorrect, right? And that there's a backspace key just like a regular keyboard?
The iPad might not be the best tool for other reasons (check out the corresponding iPhone adapter linked in TFS), but it's not for the lack of a real keyboard.
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The iPad might not be the best tool for other reasons (check out the corresponding iPhone adapter linked in TFS), but it's not for the lack of a real keyboard.
The iPad's onscreen keyboard is painful if you have to type anything that isn't straight alpha characters. Anything involving punctuation, special characters, or lots of numbers - *especially* when they're mixed in with regular alpha characters - is an exercise in frustration. I can't even imagine what would drive someone to prefer an iPad over a
i think... (Score:2)
someone did something similar using a N810 and a ethernet to usb dongle.
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I find the N810 much easier to use than an Ipad just because of the great keyboard attached to it. For me this small device replaced a laptop when I am on call. As I can RDP into windows and SSH into Linux from anywhere.
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Why would they do that? The N810 has a true RS232 Serial port on it's back. Or if that isn't good enough, use a usb to serial adapter you can buy for cheap on ebay. Or a bluetooth serial adapter.
Although I'm curious, how did they manage to get rs232 out of an usb-ethernet dongle?
I have to say though, I love my n810, it's perfect for all my needs! It has everything I can think of, and a real Linux OS underneath it (Maemo, Debian based) where you have access to anything you want. It actually replaced my la
Not for long (Score:2)
3... 2... 1... how long until the company gets a C&D from Apple?
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how long until the company gets a C&D from Apple?
Never, this isn't a hack. Apple publishes the specs for the Dock Connector for exactly this purpose. There are even companies out there which are already producing cables that convert [engadget.com] the Dock Connector to serial and RJ-11 interface. In fact, people were publishing how to do this as early as 2006. [engadget.com]
Nothing to see here, really. This news is ancient.
I wish... (Score:4, Interesting)
all those "I don't need that, it's useless... I need that instead" commenter would realize that they are not alone in this world and that other people may have different need.
I personally don't need it because, as most tech users, I now only have a few, if any, devices with serial interface... but I can see how something like that may be totally useful.
There are still a lot of people who work with specialized equipment, often having serial port interfaces. Having a serial port interface for iPhone or iPad can become very interesting, as those device can be used very easily while standing hand holding them in the hand. With a laptop other than a tablet PC type laptop, I've always found doing this clumsy.
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Yea, my Psion 5mx can be used for that too (with an appropriate adapter on the PC to Psion RS232 cable), but I imagine this would be useful for those who have an iPad but do not have a netbook or Psion 5mx - they can use the device they have instead of buying another one.
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I wonder why do people bother converting a tightly locked down crippled device with no keyboard when they can have a n900 of similar size, fully open OS and a physical keyboard. If you want a screwdriver, trying to sharpen a hammer is a strange route.
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Yeah, If you ignore the fact that the screen is only 3.5" and the entire device is basically the size of a really fat smartphone, yeah, it's a very similar size to an ipad.
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4", but since the iPad wastes half of its screen for the touch keyboard, it's not that worse off. And if you want a larger screen, an actual laptop will be so much cheaper and so much more powerful.
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Well if you are not typing it isn't there.
For surfing the web and reading email you get the bigger screen.
And why not a notebook? A not book with as nice of a screen and as long of a battery life is very expensive.
The N900 in an interesting machine but it doesn't replace the iPad. And notebooks are very nice for some uses but for a lot people an iPad is a better solution.
It really all depends on how you are going to use it. For watching video, and surfing the web the iPad is a very good solution.
Plus does t
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For surfing the web and reading email you get the bigger screen.
Except we are talking solely about administrating routers and similar boxes here. Ie, work rather than play.
Plus does the N900 have AngryBirds?
Uhm, it does. ...? There's so many orders of magnitudes more games available for those platforms that your claim makes me
Plus, as games are concerned, you jest trying to claim iP{hone,ad} has more. There's just a few GOOD native titles, but try using emulators. I for one spend way too much time playing through DosBox recently -- does your iPad have DOS, NES, SNES, ~10 other consoles, Java, Flash,
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Well for administering a router then a netbook beats both the N900 and the iPad.
The AngryBirds comment was a joke. Wow the Nokia fanboys are the most rabid on the planet. They rival the Amiga users of which I was one.
Take a deep breath. I don't have an iPad, N900, or a netbook.
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Well for administering a router then a netbook beats both the N900 and the iPad.
Of course -- if you do lug one. A pocket size device has the advantage of always being with you -- to use a netbook/laptop you'd have to keep it in your car. I do 99.9% of work comfortably sshed in from a stationary computer, which in turns beats netbooks.
Wow the Nokia fanboys are the most rabid on the planet.
I admit that Nokia's software is abysmal. They went a long way to show how NOT to make a mobile Linux distribution, and how to make user interface crappy. The reason I use a n900 is that I can modify it -- Motorola's comparable hardware is as good or b
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Netbooks are so small that if did need to work on routers I would probably carry one with me. :)
Frankly for the serial hack on the iPad/iPhone I can see one great use.
The new IPhone has gyros to go along with the GPS and accelerometers. Throw in the camera and Cell interface and it makes one heck of an autopilot
I am just waiting for the iPhone 5 to come out and then pick up one cheap on ebay and jailbreak it.
Use the serial interface to talk to a servo controller board and you have a wifi sniffing war flying
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About time! (Score:2)
Neat, and pisses me off a little about iOS gaming. (Score:2)
While people are decrying the pointlessness of a serial controller on the iPad/iPhone, instead imagine a tiny smd 8 to 1 or 16 to 1 multiplexer feeding this thing digital input from some connected switches.
Yes. I'm talking about a snap on joypad device. While people here are going to yell and scream about Apple's locked down nature, I'm going to yell about their short sightedness. Apple screwed the pooch with iPhone OS 3. When they announced compatibility with attaching devices to it's dock connector, t
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Want to take notes on an iPad? Here's your stylus [cnet.com]
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I think Steve Jobs was absolutely 100% correct when he said styluses suck as a primary input source.
However, I think Steve Jobs was wrong in not *offering* a stylus as an addon accessory first party. I know about the pogo stylus, i wish apple had put out a first party solution.
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the main issue with everyone else:
The customer always wants *something*, they want more, more and more.
Between the options of merely lacking a first party stylus and instead lacking something like say, multitouch or smooth UI effects, or a real app infrastructure, or...
Given the options of satisfying an angry mob or an angry madman, I'd say that the angry mad man is more correct. Developers and managers suck at telling me what a good UI is. This is how we get shit like Symbian, Windows Mobile 6.5 and the
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There's precedent for what I'm advocating though, and that's the dock port remote interface. I've got an iTrip that talks to both my iPod classic and my iPhone 3GS.
Having an official API would make it easier to adopt than releasing an API and spec sheet. as a gamer, I want consistency. I plug it in, and it works.
Ouch (Score:2)
That's a lot of leverage hooked up to the iPad's dock connector.
They really ought to find a way to put a U-turn in there, and have most of the attached hardware sit close behind the iPad, perhaps built into a case.
So elegant... (Score:1)
Is it even possible ? (Score:1)
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