MSefi.com read only forum (Jan.15,2018)

I just ordered a Palm M105 off ebay for $18, including the serial cradle. Now, what else do I need to use it?

Thanks,

Dan Blackwood
South Charleston, Wv
1966 Triumph TR4AIRS

Seems like there were some guys setting up bluetooth on these things. You might want to try a search to see what you need.

I just finished a project like this one. M105 from Ebay-

I had to change the gender of the serial cable and swap Rx and Tx. Then download the Palm install software free from the palm website. Now that I modified my serial cable to interface with the megasquirt it will no longer plug into my computer with out a gender changer and null adapter. I opted to install my palm software using IR. Actually worked well.
Having never used a palm anything before loading software to the palm was the biggest pain.

It's a fun little device. As usuall now looking for bigger/faster palm.

Joe

Some Palms come with a cradle, if yours has a cradle then just use this to connect to the PC, and buy a serial lead from ebay and swap the wires over on pins 2 and 3 in the DB9 connector to connect to MS.

http://www.blessedmemories.net/Palm has info and the Palm apps.

so what you are saying is there are a couple of pins reversed for the MS. Why would they do that?

Nothing is reversed on M/S. There are two layouts for serial ports. DTE and DCE.

Basically for two serial devices to chat the transmit pin on the terminal needs to go to the receive pin on the other device and the receive pin on the terminal needs to go to the transmit pin. My serial cable (May or may not be the same as yours) was setup to plug into a computer. The pc is the host(DTE) and the palm is the slave(DCE) . M/S is also designed to plug into a P/C, and is also wired as DCE.

Now you are trying to hook two components that are wired the same. Palm(DCE) and MS(DCE). You need to convert your palm to a host setup(DTE) so that it will talk to your M/S. After you convert your palm you will notice that now you have your host pc(DTE) and your palm(DTE) you have the same issue making your palm talk with your PC. They are wired the same. At this point I just used IR to transfer data from my palm to my PC. Just didn't feel like making another cable.

Converting the palm cable was easy. Just get a male 9 pin and swap pins 2&3 (rx, tx) when you install it.

You could even make your own cable between the palm and M/S so you don't have to modify the palm cable.

Custom cable would be a gender change NULL modem type cable.

I'm Using DTE and DCE from memory, hopefully I don't have them backwards. The point is the two ports have the transmit and receive pins swapped so they will chat.

Good luck, it's a pretty cool little device.

Joe

We got the car running. I am almost ready to try the Palm, but for some reason every time I tried to install PalmTune I get a fatal exception and have to reset the Palm. The icon appears on the palm, but it won't run. Does it need to be connected to the MS to run? I tried it on my Tungsten E, and it runs there, but I see from the forum that the E is not compatible. Is that because it is USB?