Serial cable for iPAQ h2210

Introduction

Need a serial cable to connect your iPAQ h22xx (h2210, h2212e or h2215) to your GNU/Linux PC and start playing with the Linux kernel? Having a serial connection is much easier than a USB one in early kernel debugging.

Unfortunately, only an USB cable is supplied with the H22xx.

Fortunately, you have 4 options:

You can buy a dual USB/Serial cable from HP. It's reference is FA122A#AC3 and it costs $25.
You can reuse a dual serial/usb cable from the cradle of some other iPAQ devices! The same dual serial / usb cable will work for H38xx, H39xx, H5xxx, and H22xx, though the H22xx will not fit in the cradle. Don't hesitate to get a second-hand one, which should be quite easy to find.
You can hardwire your own connector, knowing the connectivity between the cradle and the serial and usb ports. You can do that by sacrificing your charger cable, soldering its wires to those of a serial plug from an old serial modem. Contact us through the h2200-port mailing list if you need more details.
You can use IrDA instead of a serial cable. Just run minicom on /dev/ttyS2 and set up the kernel correctly (Character devices -> Serial port drivers -> PXA serial device, check "use ttyS2 in SIR mode"). This is probably your best and cheapest option if you have a working IrDA port on your GNU/Linux computer. CAUTION: this doesn't work yet... We are still investigating! So far, a serial cable is still the only option to access a serial console!

Cradle disassembling instructions

Here's how I disassembled my iPAQ h3970 cradle. Hope this can help you too!

Caution: you could damage your cradle and make it unusable! Of course, doing this may also void the warranty of the cradle you disassembled!

First you have to unscrew the 4 small screws on the back (in the blue circles):

The screws look like torx ones, but even my smallest torx wrench wasn't small enough.

Fortunately, my neighbour had a very small allen wrench, with a round end, of the below shape:

wrench

Good luck! This could be the most tricky part!

Now that you took the screws away, you can easily remove the black sides and get:

Now take the base away:

Now smoothly slide the 2 connectors respectively up and down, to separate them from the base. You never have to use force:

Here's what you get when you're done:

You can now take the connector away from the base:

Remove this part from the base by unclipping it, to get bigger hole in the base:

Don't try to separate the cable and the base by this end. The serial connector can't go through the base. It's too thick:

Instead, move the connector through the base. This is not very easy, but after rotating it several times, you'll find a way to take it through. Again, you never need to use force. Be flexible and patient:

There you go!

And now, here's the expected result:

Serial cable for iPAQ h2210

Introduction

Cradle disassembling instructions

Links