Syncing the SIMpad with USB is possible! And a suggestion

[Mastiff]

This file is all you need (the server is busy so you may need to try a few times to get it): http://www.silentservices.de/simpad/sl4-usb.zip , and a regular USB cable with the smaller, square connection in one end. Look at the pad and you'll see which one I mean.

The zip file contains an inf-file that at least works under XP. I have just installed NetRemote via USB, and it took (of course) a fraction of the time that pesky serial connection uses! One little thing, though: You need to have the SIMPad turned on before you connect the USB cable. If not you'll only get "unknown USB device or device error". If this has happened you need to soft reset the SIMpad before you try again.

And Ben, how about having a separate forum for SIMpad questions and development?

[grog]

That's pretty cool. The serial connection is painfully slooooow. But for ultimate speed you should try syncing over the network which is what I've been doing. It was a pain to get it working though - I had to do a registry hack to add my PC to the SIMpad's hosts file. Otherwise it would never connect. But now that I've got it working it's great.

Let me know if you also have problems syncing over the network and I'll write up the steps to get it working.

Regards,
Jason

[Dave T]

Grog:

Yes - could you please write up the step-by-step to get network connectivity working?

- Dave

[grog]

Okay, here goes.

When I first tried syncing over the network it would just sit there for a while trying to connect and eventually fail. I did some searching around and found out that the issue seems to be related to the SIMpad (or any CE/PocketPC device) not having a WINS entry for the host you're trying to sync to. Why the heck it needs WINS, who knows, leave it to Microsoft...

Anyway, there are two workarounds I found. The first was to hardcode a WINS server address in your IP settings and set it to the host you're trying to sync to. Easy fix but unfortunately this didn't work for me but you may want to try anyway since the other option is quite a bit uglier. The other option is to add a static hosts entry for the host you're trying to sync to. The problem is Win CE doesn't have a hosts file you can simply edit, it stores hosts information in the registry. What's worse is there's no registry editor built into CE. So, I searched and searched but couldn't find a third party registry editor that's compatible with CE 4.x. The only thing I could find was the full blown Microsoft Embedded Visual C++ that includes a remote registry editor feature. What sucks about that is it's a 330 MB download!

But since I couldn't find any other option I bit the bullet and downloaded it. The main download is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1dacdb3d-50d1-41b2-a107-fa75ae960856&DisplayLang=en

You'll also need SP1 to make it compatible with CE 4.1 (another 30 MB :x ):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4a5cfc1f-47d6-4a94-95ea-0a6357ad4f1c&DisplayLang=en

Install the whole works, and then go to Tools -> Configure Platform Manager and modify the CE .NET default device to use ActiveSync for both the transport and startup server. Then connect the SIMpad through serial ActiveSync and in Visual C++ go to Tools -> Remote Registry Editor and select the default device. You should then get the SIMpad's registry to load.

Then all you need to do is add a hosts entry for your PC to sync to. Instructions on how to do that are located here:
http://www.phm.lu/PocketPC/RegTweaks/Tweak.asp?ref=48

Then you should finally be able to sync over the network properly.

Hope that helps.

Jason

[Mastiff]

Weird. I just made an USB-connection and a partnership and could WLAN-sync right after that.

[umachan]

Thanks very much for the information about synching using TCP/IP and WiFi.

Regedit can be downloaded from :-

http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/RegEdit/

Works on the Simpad under HPC 3.0 and ce.net 4.0. Not tried this programme on ce.net 4.1 yet.

Note that there is an excellent Simpad FAQ (in German!) at :-

http://www.silentservices.de/simpad/

This links to the germam Simpad forums at :-

http://palmtopmagazin.de/board/tablett/ (currently unavailable?)

Ralph

[discojudd]

thank you all for your help!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the common problem that I kept encountering is "a service installation section in this inf is invalid"

if you recive thiserror messge the solution is very simple (it only took me three days to find it) but seconds to fix.

throught the support website for fujitsu-siemens and the info from a 'guest' (thay can be useful) it was offered that

"the wceusbsh.sys file was not being copied into the system32/drivers directory. After doing this manually it works. Dont ask me why it was not being copied or why I had to do it manually" thank you guest!!

a quick search of my computer found it in C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\Drivers

copy and past into C:\Windows\system32\drivers and "boo-ya it's alive..."

no need for reg hacks or anything else it just works
I will admit that
during the process of writing this i have realised that Mastives advise was also needed
"One little thing, though: You need to have the SIMPad turned on before you connect the USB cable. If not you'll only get "unknown USB device or device error". If this has happened you need to soft reset the SIMpad before you try again."

so again thank you for your help and I hope that my small piece of info is as helpfull to youall as you have been to me.

oh and PS... am running win xp sp2 and just found out was useing the non winxp usb drivers (could explaine why twas not transfering wceusbsh.sys )

Also note: now that I have found win xp drivers, they use wceusbsh.sys vs 1.xxxx the wceusbsh.sys that came with active stnc wa vs4.xxxx)

Disco Baby yeh!!! 8-)