Third Party compatibility problem with my 5450

[jimski]

In the past week I have discovered two third party accessories that will not work with my 5450;
a.) Instant Power Charging cell
b.) NexiCam camera (w/sleeve)

All of my other Compaq branded accessories; PC Card sleeve, CF Sleeve, Foldable Keyboard and Micro Keyboard all appear to be working fine.

Both of the above accessories still work with my 3870.

For Instant Power, I tried soft resets, disabling USB charging, etc. with no results. The charger shows a "green" light indicating that it is active, but there is no charge light active on the 5450, nor does the battery indicator show any sign of charge. Again, the same pack works perfectly on the 3870. Mobile Planet is currently advertising that the Instant Power pack works with the iPAQ 36/37/38/39/5400 series. I have asked the Instant Power and Mobile Plant folks to respond, but have not heard back yet. Has anyone experienced the same problem? Without spare batteries available yet for the 5450, it was a pretty embarassing experience last week during a long, long meeting.

Regarding the NexiCam, the camera sleeve gets identified without a problem, but when opening the application, I get a message that reads something like, "device is not attached". I can view photos off of the inserted CF card from within the NexiCam application. I just cannot use the camera. Does this have something to do with the X-Scale processor? I tried uninstalling and cleaning out all references to the NexiCam and then reinstalling with no change. I found no help or reference to X-Scale, models, etc. on Nexian's website. Right now the NexiCam is sitting in the "to sell" box with my old 3870 unless someone has a solution.

Has anyone experienced problems attaching iPAQ 38/3900 series accessories (either through the sleeve port or sync port) on the 5450?

[Pony99CA]

This is rather disturbing. I've been thinking of getting a 5450, but I've heard my Pocket CoPilot NavMan sleeve won't work with it. I've heard it does work with the 3900 series, so I don't think it's just a processor issue.

If there are more peripherals that don't work, that's even worse. I'd more easily understand things breaking going from the 3800s to the 3900s (due to the XScale processor change) than I would going from the 3900s to the 5400s.

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

If there are more peripherals that don't work, that's even worse. I'd more easily understand things breaking going from the 3800s to the 3900s (due to the XScale processor change) than I would going from the 3900s to the 5400s.
Well, remember, HP changed manufacturers between the two models. Plus they did a fair amount of firmware work. I'd contact the manufacturer of the sleeves and ask them if they're going to have updated drivers available for the 54xx units.

--janak

[Pony99CA]

Well, remember, HP changed manufacturers between the two models. Plus they did a fair amount of firmware work. I'd contact the manufacturer of the sleeves and ask them if they're going to have updated drivers available for the 54xx units.

I assume there was also a lot of firmware updated when they switched to the XScale processor, too.

I did contact TravRoute about Pocket CoPilot, but their customer service really sucks and I haven't heard back from them. :-(

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

I assume there was also a lot of firmware updated when they switched to the XScale processor, too.
Presumably for the processor support, but the rest of the unit is nearly identical. :) The 5450 has all those new features...

--janak

[jimski]

[quote=Janak Parekh]
Well, remember, HP changed manufacturers between the two models. Plus they did a fair amount of firmware work. I'd contact the manufacturer of the sleeves and ask them if they're going to have updated drivers available for the 54xx units.



Well I visited Nexian's site and found a news release stating that the NexiCam II (whatever that is) has been tested and is compatible with the 5400 series. The link is messed up so I can't read the whole article. I downloaded the latest driver, but it did not help.

I left a message with customer support, but I am pretty sure they are going to get back to me with something like; throw away your 4 month old NexiCam and buy a new NexiCam II (same resolution, same everything) for another $200.

Now I am glad I ordered a new Pretec 1.3mp yesterday. Should have it tomorrow.

What really puzzles me is the Instant Power charger. This is just a two pin power plug that connects to a Compaq sync adapter. I tried an old adapter (from my 3870) and the new adapter that came with the 5450, but the results were the same, no power.

Mobile Planet still lists Instant Power as being compatible with the 5400 series (as well as all other iPAQs) but now the adapter will not be available until 2/28/03. Sure hope I can get my Instant Power back.

BTW- Both of these items are listed in the HP Accessories Booklet for the 5450.

[jimski]

UPDATE

I decided to try using an Instant Power pack with my PC Card expansion sleeve attached and guess what, my 5450 started to charge (actually the expansion sleeve charged first followed by the iPAQ).

As soon as I slide the 5450 out of the expansion sleeve, the charge light stops blinking and charging ceases (yes, I have left the Instant Power pack plugged in to the 5450 for more than 30 minutes without any blinking light and there was no charge). I know this is working as I have jumped from 69 to 78% on the main battery and from 90 to 100% on the expansion pack battery in about 10 minutes.

Glad to see that it sort of works, but does anybody have an idea as to what is going on?

[Pony99CA]

I assume there was also a lot of firmware updated when they switched to the XScale processor, too.
Presumably for the processor support, but the rest of the unit is nearly identical. :) The 5450 has all those new features...

There were a lot more updates between the 3800 series and the 3900 series than the processor. To wit, the 48 MB ROM on the 3970, SDIO support, Consumer IR support and the Nevo Remote software, the Sprite backup software, etc. I don't know exactly what firmware updates those required, but I'm sure they required some.

Yes, the 5450 has more new features, but I'd still think that the processor upgrade would be more likely to break things than anything else. Of course, as you know, any small change in software can have far-reaching effects. :-)

Somebody with a 5450 should ask HP why these things aren't working. I'd like to know exactly what changes were made to see how they might affect other peripherals.

Steve

[jimski]

Some updated info regarding my original post;

Reply from support@nexicam

Thanks for your inquiry,

Your unit is what we would call our first generation unit, which isn''t 54xx:(
compatible. Our second generation or sometimes refered to as NexiCam
II is 31xx-54xx compatible. The major difference is the second generation
has the ability to video conference with the use of our software. :?:

Thanks,
Nexian Support

In other words, I am the proud ouwer of a three month only obsolete Nexicam camera. Boy, that was quick! (BTW-When I bought the Nexcam I or whatever, they said it would be video conference capable.) Oh well.

Next question. I called HP Support and they did not even know what Instant Power was. After a thorough explanation, the tech could not offer any support, but did advise that he would pass my question along.


Reply from [email protected]

Dear Jim
Thank you for your interest in Instant Power.
Up until this particular model, our Instant Power charger was compatible
with all iPAQ's, but it seems that it is not :( compatible with this latest
model. We will update our website/records accordingly, and apologize for
any inconvenience.

Please note with immediate effect our new telephone/fax numbers. Please
amend your records accordingly.
Thanks.

Michelle Berkley
Electric Fuel Corp.
632 Broadway, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 646 654 2107
Fax: 646 654 2187
Cell: 917 698 5152
www.electric-fuel.com

Sorry for the bad news, but at least I now have some answers :? .

[dhettel]

Well I have a 5455, and I'm not impressed with the bluetooth. It will not send business cards to a 3970! It has a bluetooth Personal Network Server, that seems to do nothing! And their does not seem to be any info on just what the Personal Network Server does, or should do. The Bluetooth Network connection, doesn't even have a DHCP server! The network either needs to be set up manually, or it get a default IP address.

Programs like Proximity Mail do not work with the 5455 Bluetooth. And some owners of the 3970, can not get the 5455 to see it at all.

Looks like the registry has a bad value in it that prevents the Wlan card from being recognized. Programs like vxSniffer do not list the iPAQ WLAN Wireless Adapter.

[Janak Parekh]

Somebody with a 5450 should ask HP why these things aren't working. I'd like to know exactly what changes were made to see how they might affect other peripherals.
I'd be curious to know too; your points certainly make sense. It could be even something like a different design/engineering team tinkering with the specs for the expansion sleeve.

--janak

[Pony99CA]

Somebody with a 5450 should ask HP why these things aren't working. I'd like to know exactly what changes were made to see how they might affect other peripherals.
I'd be curious to know too; your points certainly make sense. It could be even something like a different design/engineering team tinkering with the specs for the expansion sleeve.

I was at CompUSA a week ago and, just for fun, had the guy remove the 5450 from the security device so I could see if my Pocket CoPilot software and NavMan sleeve would work. Even though the software and maps are installed on my 512 MB CF card, I hadn't installed the software on that 5450, obviously, so any registry updates and \Windows files wouldn't be there, and I didn't expect much.

When I put the sleeve on, I got an error saying it didn't recognize the CF card, but I hit OK. I ran the EXE file and Pocket CoPilot came up just fine. I checked the Expansion Pack settings applet, and the sleeve was listed correctly. I plotted a route from my house to Arizona, and the trip was planned as expected.

I didn't get to take the 5450 outside to see if it actually acquired a signal, but I think that would have required a special DLL anyway.

Given that other Pocket CoPilot users have said the system doesn't work with the 5450, I can only assume they mean GPS doesn't work, because I tried the rest of the important things (I didn't try GPS playback).

If HP has done anything with the sleeve interface, I think that would be a huge mistake. Sleeves are probably a major reason people are still buying iPAQs with current form factor.

Steve

[dhettel]

Ok I was on the phone to Hp the other night about some problems I'm having with my iPAQ (5455). Base on that conversation, if you have a plus pack, check the part number printed on it, against the part number listed for your plus pack for the 5455. If it's more than a month or two old, chances are it is not listed. :evil: Seems the plus packs may not work with the 5455. I'm getting a replacement for each, I'll post if I notice a change. One thing I did noticed was Rhino iPAQ Panel 2003 version 3.2 wold give a low battery warning, followed by a real battery state, (100%, 90% or what ever). On a 3970 this didn't happen. :twisted: So we will see.

David

[Janak Parekh]

If HP has done anything with the sleeve interface, I think that would be a huge mistake. Sleeves are probably a major reason people are still buying iPAQs with current form factor.
Well, rumors are abounding that there are a number of incompatibilites. David posts just above about CF+ incompatibilities, and I've heard a lot of problems with them too - in particular, the CF+ battery doesn't drain before the main one does. That would be a killer for me, and is perhaps the main reason I'm waiting to see how things shake out (as well as the audio softness, which is a no-go for me either).

--janak