Adding a Pocket PC to Walbot

[Brandon121233]

So apparently no one saw my other post... I think I want to add some sort of Pocket PC to my new robot- Walbot.What kind of output would a Pocket PC have to have in order to communicate with say my Arduino board which is based on the Atmega168? Can a Pocket PC act as a USB host or would I have to adapt something so it could talk with the TX and RX pins? I was thinking of like the Dell Axim series. I think this would be neat since most Pocket PC's have bluetooth and WiFi so that would enable anyone to control a robot via their BT enabled phone or over the internet. I was also thinking of adding something like a person can draw a line or path on the screen and the robot would follow that drawn path. Having a touch screen, bluetooth, WiFi, and speakers in one unit for under $50 on eBay would be pretty sweet.

[JonHylands]

I've used a Dell Axim to do pretty much exactly that:

http://www.huv.com/uSeeker/index.html

You need to use Tx and Rx from the serial connection, which means you need to special order (from Dell) a serial (RS-232) cable, as the USB cable it comes with doesn't have the right pins connected.

You could also look at using a gumstix - its what I started using after I fried my Axim...

http://www.huv.com/roboMagellan

- Jon

[Brandon121233]

gumstix does not have a nice large LCD touch screen

so for the environment on the Axim, what kinds of methods are there for making programs on a Pocket PC? Is there anything like c++, cause thats all I know right now; or would I have to learn this Smalltalk language/ squeak? Also how hard is it to write programs like that, I have never done anything like that before.

[JonHylands]

I'm pretty sure there must be at least one free C/C++ environment available - do a Google search on "pocket pc" c++ development

This is one of the links that comes up:

http://www.codeproject.com/ce/Pocket_PC_Development.asp

- Jon

[dunk]

so i don't have any real experience with pocket PCs i'm afraid but i know there are some out there that run linux.
once you have linux installed you have your choice of programming languages.

another alternative is hacking the PSP.
sure it doesn't have a touch screen but it's really cheap compaired to a pocket PC, has loads of processing power and a really nice LCD.
http://www.psp-programming.com/tutorials/
i've been toying with this idea for a while but i don't think i'll ever get round to it.
i've too many other projects and i prefer developing on a linux platform and linux on the PSP is still in a very immature state.

dunk.

[Brandon121233]

I can get a Pocket PC for $30 on ebay

[dunk]

I can get a Pocket PC for $30 on ebay

cool. do it.

you will need one with some sort of port to connect to your robot.
like you say, a USB host port would be most likely on these devices i think.
i know some of these devices will have a USB host port as i have seen little foldable keyboards and other peripherals for them.
probably the easiest way of controlling things from a USB port is with a USB to serial converter connected to a microcontroller's UART.

the other thing you will need is some sort of programming language.
i presume there is a GCC port for embedded windows devices.

if it was me i'd get a linux compatible PDA but maybe you want to stick with the existing OS?
linux would certainly give you far more flexibility but there would be a learning curve if you are not familiar with that operating system all ready.

dunk.

[Brandon121233]

You might already know this, but my weakpoint is programming, the only stuff I know is from a Visual C++ course I took last semester ( yes I know I need much more than that) and that was enough to get me started... but when it comes to anything like linux or anything more than basic C++, I'm lost. So for now I think something like eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0, would be the easiest for me, as I can teach myself most and stumble through the rest with a little help ( until I can take some more courses on higher level programming languages).
Now onto the USB... so does anyone know if something like Microsoft Windows Mobile and most Pocket PC's have the ability to install USB drivers and become USB hosts? If so my day just got a whole lot better because the Arduino uses USB for programming and communication.

[Admin]

Now onto the USB... so does anyone know if something like Microsoft Windows Mobile and most Pocket PC's have the ability to install USB drivers and become USB hosts? If so my day just got a whole lot better because the Arduino uses USB for programming and communication.

you could always just buy an adaptor

[Brandon121233]

Does anyone know of any tutorials on making applets for Pocket PC's running Windows Mobil 2003/2005? Specifically I kinda need to know how to get started in the first place, and also how to include things like communicating with other devices via the serial port and bluetooth. Even having the source code for a program that includes some of those things would be nice. (after a couple hours of searching Google and coming up with nothing I though I might ask here) Any and all help would be appreciated greatly. Thanks again.