Comments on: Review: Universal Bridge

The Universal Bridge is a pair of new adapters that allow Palm models with the Universal Connector to use V or III series peripherals. This helps solve one one the most frequent complaints from handheld users, that they have to replace replace all their old peripherals whenever they upgrade. Robert Zach has this review.

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What about the m100/m105 cradle?

martianviking @ 1/10/2002 1:39:57 PM #

You mentioned, "With these two adapters a Palm m500/m505/m125 can be HotSynced in all existing Palm cradles."

Isn't there a cradle for the m100/m105 devices that uses a connector that there isn't a Bridge for?

Sorry to be a bit of a nit-pick, but that's what we PDA nerds are like, aren't we? :)

RE: What about the m100/m105 cradle?

bcombee @ 1/10/2002 1:54:05 PM #

The physical connector in the m100/m105 cradle is the same as on the earlier III-series cradles. However, this cradle is shaped to only accept the rounded bottom of the m100/m105. I think the Bridge may raise the device enough from the cradle to actually let it sync.

RE: What about the m100/m105 cradle?

Ed @ 1/10/2002 4:36:57 PM #

Paul Peterson from Midwest PCB Designs has confirmed what Mr. Combee said.

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News Editor

RE: What about the m100/m105 cradle?

martianviking @ 1/11/2002 7:28:38 PM #

Very cool. Good to know.

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/10/2002 1:47:26 PM #

'nuff said

Charging with adapter

SilliconMan @ 1/10/2002 4:04:38 PM #

>"The major disappointment I found was that the Palm V and IIIc cradles will not charge the m50x. I am not sure if this is a pin mapping problem or if it is just not electrically possible. I wish that there was a way around this or it could be made possible. A nice feature would be the ability to get an emergency charge from an any alternate cradle."

The problem is more likely to be the power supply to the cradle rather than the pin mapping. I had a IIIc but I am not sure of the charger power supply. I know my Clie has a 5.7V 800Ma supply, the m50x's probably close to that.

In the case of the III series, there is one pin on the connector that isn't used. On the IIIc this unused pin is the power input for the charger. Since this pin doesn't do aynthing but charge the battery, its also likely that they didn't wire it.

Palming away.....

RE: Charging with adapter

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/14/2002 2:31:00 PM #

So are you saying that if Pin 9 on the Palm III connector were tied to Pin 16 on the m50x connector
that the charging feature should work?

No Palm connector is usable

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/12/2002 11:33:17 AM #

None of these connectors are usable. The Palm world needs a CONNECTOR that attaches securely to it. How do you think things would be if all the serial, video, USB, PCMCIA, etc, connectors on our computers would work if they relied on just laying the device on it. Why can't we have a connector that will SECURELY attach to the Palm and will not fall of. This is absurb! I want to be able to attach a cable to my Palm and be able to move around freely without it falling off!!!

RE: No Palm connector is usable

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 3:06:32 PM #

The Universal Bridge does a great job in hotsync cradle/cable, keyboard, modem and many
many other non-portable Palm hardware accessory applications.

To make a blanket statement like "none of these connectors is usable" is ludicrous.
What you mean is that it does not meet your requirements for portable use.

What about the upper teeth?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/17/2002 5:17:28 AM #

If they went all this way to have it connect with the lower part of the Universal Connector, what about extending this bridge to have teeth for grabbing the Universal Connector holes too? If you had a connector like this, you have a solid sled grabbing to all the Universal Connector anchor points and not just the bottom.

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