PDA fun

[SteveGorst]

A couple of weeks ago someone mentioned connecting a pda to a laptop with VNC.

I thought it sounded like a cracking idea so as I had a laptop and PDA I thought I'd give it a go. My Laptop didn't have wireless so I bought a bluetooth USB Dongle off eBay for £1 yes £1!!! and it works!!! (the postage was £7 though) The VNC software was all free. RealVNC for the Laptop and NET VNC viewer for the PDA. I had to install .NET compact framework on the PDA first.

I can now connect to my laptop and view and control the navigation software from the cockpit. The pda view can be scaled and rotated but the picture degrades a lot when I do it. It's better to zoom in and out on the chart, using the pda to do so.

As my PDA isn't waterproof I probably won't use it in anger but it's a really cool thing to show off in the club!!

Steve /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Rich_F]

That was my suggestion - I'm glad it worked out.

I still haven't got round to upgrading to a PDA with wireless - hopefully next week!

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Ooh....

I've spent the last hour digging out drivers for my old bluetooth dongle, downloading .net compact framework, and vnc server and .net vnc viewer..... look what you've started!

Interesting hurdles are that my nav laptop is running 98, and PDA is Pocket PC 2002 so could be challenging!

 

[Rich_F]

My nav laptop runs Win98 too. Do post any hints and tips regarding getting it working!

 

[Guest]

PC OS ...

It shouldn't make difference to VNC as long as correct version VNC is loaded.

As the VNC site says - it doesn't care about platforms etc.

Glad to see someone is getting good results - mine were going fine till XP decided to throw its activation hand in ...

Will start again shortly ...

 

[SteveGorst]

yes Rich thanks for the great suggestion. One thing i forgot to mention was if you are running xp with a firewall you either have to switch the firewall off or make an exception for port 5900.

I've also found an old see through waterproof pouch I bought for my first hand held GPS many moons ago. This could get repurposed....

I also tried terminal services client but that won't work.

Steve

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Steve,

How did you establish an IP session between the two devices?

I've got the .net client running on the PDA, and the free server running on the Laptop OK....

And established a bluetooth session between the two devices..... but can't logon to the server.....

Reading the manual, I need an IP session for VNC to work... and at that I am stumped...

 

[SteveGorst]

I'm not sure whether this is critical but i got a bit of software with the dongle called ble soleil. When I fire that up it activates my dongle and sets up a personal area network. In the bottom right corner it gives the IP address it has assigned to my laptop.

I then used the bluetooth management wizard to join the personal network with my pda.

The next step is either to disable your firewall (if you have one) or make an exception for port 5900. Initially i think it is easier to disable to remove any uncertainty.

Then you can make the connection with your pda. Start up vncviewer on the pda. type in the ip address followed by the port number 5900 in the format ***.***.**.*::5900 note the double colon, it's not a typo. I also struggled a bit at this stage but I hadn't turned off the firewall, as soon as i did that it worked.

It's really impressive once it's working.

Good luck

Steve

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Gave up on bluetooth, as I could only get a virtual serial connection, and started again with a WIFI network....

Works well, only I seem to have a dodgy wifi adaptor one end or the other as the WIFI session keeps dropping out, which crashes the client....

I don't have a 3rd wireless device to test which end is being troublesome, so for the moment, experiment stopped.....

Did however get it working long enough to get Maptech running nicely on the PDA.... good stuff!

 

[PembrokeshirePromise]

When I was playing with this - I also could only get the wireless connection to work.

I saw lots of comments about bluetooth between the PDA and PC being tricky. I suspect it depends on the exact type of blueooth / drivers you have.

Gave up and stuck with wireless - suspect the range and reliability are bteer - but possibly power drain slightly higher :-(

James

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

After several hours of playing around with drivers etc etc... it works fine now....

Its a bit slow refreshing a full screen, eg a chart change or a scale change, but if just a small area changes, eg a gps track, then its almost as fast as the PC display itself.....

A super way of getting a GPS display in the cockpit for emergencies, and i'm glad i've done it....

I am now going to fit a 12V outlet near the helm so that I can use it there, on its cradle if neccessary...

However, its not something for the PC illiterate to try.... took quite a bit of experience with PC's to get it working....

 

[PhilF]

any chance of a step by step guide. Linking PDA to PC
Downloaded VNC to PC then what , want to use bluetooth too, thanks in advance
PhilF

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Phil,

Unless your Bluetooth is capable of establishing an IP session then you can't use it.... which from a bit of research is rare....

Instead, I have used WIFI...

To set this up, install the client on your PDA... first you'll need to install the .net compact framework from Microsoft to make it work, and then load the server from realvnc.com to your laptop...

Set up an 'ad-hoc' network, and check that both wireless devices have been allocated an IP address..... and then that they can see each other, eg each wireless device 'sees' its partner when you execute a scan

Then you should be able to connect to the laptop from the PDA by connecting to the server at its IP address, and the appropriate port, which will be 5900 in the format

111.222.111.222::5900 but replacing the 111's and 222's with the correct IP address (which can de discovered by opening a DOS prompt and typing in IPCONFIG and hitting return which will give you the IP address...

I would happily provide more detailed step by step guides, but each installation is likely to be quite different dependent upon what wirless client you use, and what operating system is on your PDA.....

What I can tell you is that installing the VNC client and server is quite easy, and was in my case pretty trouble free.... its getting the connection between the two devices that is challenging, and you'll need to play around with the wireless network to get a seesion established..... it took me 4 or 5 hours to get it working from a clean start, eg no wireless installed, and I am reasonably PC literate....