USB Mass Storage Driver for Pocket PC 2002

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.deje.gmxhome.de/' target='_blank'>http://www.deje.gmxhome.de/</a><br /><br /></div>The Toshiba e740, Casio E200, and a few other Pocket PCs have had USB host support for a while now, but their use has been limited due to a lack of drivers for USB peripherals. This has been changing, with drivers having recently been written to support mouse pointers (and, correspondingly, USB mice) in Pocket PC 2002; today comes the news from a <a href="http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64409&perpage=15&pagenumber=16">Brighthand discussion</a> that a Mass Storage driver is now working, enabling the use of USB hard drives, cameras, etc. Note that this code is alpha-quality and could cause corruption, so don't go plugging your main hard drive just yet -- but kudos are deserved for the Pocket PC community, especially DeJe, for their work.

[Perry Reed]

How about a USB-host CF card (or SD) for the rest of us?? I'd love to see that!

[agostumpy]

This Card (http://www.netac.com/products/View.asp?CodeNo=00000008) has a Mini-usb port on it - looks kinda nifty. No idea how it handles in real life. Anyone have one of these? :?:

[Perry Reed]

This Card (http://www.netac.com/products/View.asp?CodeNo=00000008) has a Mini-usb port on it - looks kinda nifty. No idea how it handles in real life. Anyone have one of these? :?:

Unfortunately, that card isn't USB host. It's just a USB-"client" much like most Pocket PCs are. Just like most PPCs, it can only be plugged into a USB-host device (usually a PC) and you can't plug other USB devices into it.

The USB port on the card is meant to allow it to be plugged into PCs that don't have a CF card slot.

What I'm looking for is a CF card that would allow me to plug USB devices into my Jornada (like my MP3 player and digital camera) just like I currently plug them into my PC.

[agostumpy]

Well poop... Is there any other way to hook, say, a mouse or some other USB device to my Ipaq 3800? The mouse thing sure would be nice with my Targus keyboard - sitting in Barnes & Noble getting wierd looks from people who've "never seen a laptop that small before!" 8)

[Gen-M]

Unfortunately all USB Host cards that I've seen are CardBus (32 bit) - they are not even 16 bit PCMCIA.

HP chose to use the same video chip as Toshiba, but used the version that did NOT include USB Host support. :evil:

[dean_shan]

This driver has great potential. This will become killer once the bugs are worked out on e740. It would be nice to hook up a USB Hard Drive to my tosh and take my MP3 libray and other files with me.

[vincentsiaw]

well, to bad hp product haven't got any usb host support at all

[jmbneaf]

This driver has great potential. This will become killer once the bugs are worked out on e740. It would be nice to hook up a USB Hard Drive to my tosh and take my MP3 libray and other files with me.

The bugs are now worked out. Modify the MaxTransfer registry setting to 1536

This works great with my 20 Gb IOGEAR Ion Drive, Olympus 3040 Digital Camera, and PQI Flash card reader!

Go to DeJe's web site and download the new 0.0.0.7 Alpha release, install, make the registry tweak, and your e740 is ready to go!

Truely wonderful....

JB

[jgrnt1]

Deje's driver works with the Toshiba Genio e550g also. Same caveat as in jmbneaf's post -- you need to edit the registry on Toshiba PPC's. I set the Buffer and MaxTransfer to 1536 and it works great. I have an Archos 20GB MiniHD and was able to play mp3's from it on my e550g, using the USB port on the cradle. The drive pulls a lot of juice, though, and still needs an external power supply. I just ordered the USB host cable, so I can ditch the PC Card adapter and CF to PC Card adapter when I use it in my car.