Fujitsu Loox N560....pda with usb

SirSwampThing · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 55

I see that the new Fujitsu Loox N560 has a fast processor, gps, high res screen and most importantly USB connectivity to USB drives or external harddrives which means I can use my little firefly hardrive to store all my maps etc without having to buy loads of 1gb sd cards.
Anyone know of anything similar?
Anyone have any comments regarding the Loox range at all?
cheers

lbendlin · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:32 am Post subject:

I have an Asus MyPal which also cn be switched to USB Host mode. It's a nice idea but the big problem is that a USB host is supposed to provide power to the USB client, at 500 mA per connection. The battery on the MyPal lasts about 2 hrs in normal mode, and about 20 minutes in USB Host mode... :x
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SirSwampThing · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 55

thanks,
so.....as an example.if I wanted to upload a 200mb mapfile onto my pda from the usb h/d.........approximately how long would that take?

lbendlin · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:30 am Post subject:

according to this

http://www.usb.org/developers/usbfaq/#band1

thirty minutes with USB 1 and four minutes with USB 1.1
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SirSwampThing · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 55

thanks
OK, so if USB is going to be a major power draw, is there such a thing as a bluetooth/wifi enabled portable harddrive/Ipod type thing that I could store my maps on, and if so is this option going to be any better re: power consumption?

RS · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 14, 2006 Posts: 18

I use a Toshiba e800 regularly with my Garmin 60CSx providing the GPS input across a serial connection. Like the (very interesting) Loox N560, this supports host USB. The latest OS it runs is WM 2003 SE, not WM5, and to support a USB MSD you need to have a third-party driver. Don't know if this is still true of WM5.

Note that you only get USB 1.1. AFAIK, no PDA supports USB 2.0 Hi-Speed. Although USB host on a PDA can support a solid-state USB MSD, it is not recommended to try to power a USB drive from it. You can get separately powered USB drives that are ideal for the purpose, and also a variety of music and photo storage devices whose storage capability can be used in this way. Some of these have their own card slots, and some can write to cards as well as reading from them, and a device that can do this may well be a MUCH faster way of managing what is on your SD card than transferring through a USB connection to the PDA.

SirSwampThing · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 55

8O 8O 8O 8O Embarassed

here I am, trying to solve a simple problem the hard way..again Embarassed

thanks RS , I have to buy a photostorage device for my digicam anyway, so I will just put my maps on there too and transfer them direct to my sd cards when needed.
I wouldve figured it out myself ...........eventually.......................honest. Laughing Out Loud

RS · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 14, 2006 Posts: 18

Glad to know my reply was helpful. If you are going to get a photo storage device and use it in this way, do be very careful to check that it has full filesystem management capabilities. The device I have is a very cheap basic storage device (Vosonic), works fine, but all it can do on its own is dump the entire contents of a card onto its disk. Anything beyond that requires connection to a PC, or to my e800. I'm looking at upgrading to a device with a built-in viewer, and the new JoBo (made by Philips) looks interesting, better in a number of ways than the Epson.

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