List Of Pandora Ports/connectors

[cosurgi]

Hi,

I was searching this forum for a while, but couldn't find a definitive list of ports that Pandora will have. I've seen the list at wiki and http://openpandora.ca/ , but it's just too congested (the information about ports are mixed with other information - and it's hard to extract what I'm interested in). I just want to know what I can plug into Pandora. From what I currently know I'll have:

- 1 mini-USB connector (no normal USB connectors)
- 1 svideo output (no VGA output, USB-RGB connector will be needed, once the driver for that will be written)
- 2 SD card slots
- no ethernet port (is that right?)
- 1 RS232 connector

Is that list correct? Can someone tell me what connectors will be there?

Speaking about lack of ethernet port - what is the intended way of connecting Pandora to PC? (assuming that I have no wifi at home). Usually I'm connecting ethernet cables, or I'm doing plip (ethernet over parallel port) if the device doesn't have ethernet port. Am I supposed to do slip? (etherned over serial port?) What will be the bandwidth then? (ethernet would give 10MB/sec)

best regards

UPDATE: I'm updating that list above to make it as close as possible to reality. Maybe it will be useful for someone:

- TV/AV/UART connector with 14 pins (I'm not fully understanding this)
- 1 USB 2.0 connector (full speed 480 Mbit/s according to wikipedia, normal size)
- 1 USB mini-A connector (On The Go, OTG)
- 1 internal (inside the case) RS232 connector
- 2 SDHC card slots
- 1 headphone stereo output, TRS 3.5mm jack (??)
- 1 microphone mono input, TRS 3.5mm jack (??)

not connectors, but listed to be complete:
- Wifi
- bluetooth

If you know anything more precise, please let me know in this thread. And I'll update this list.

 

[Tobriand]

I'm not entirely certain that's correct. In particular, you're wrong about USB and, I believe, RS232.

There's a USB-OTG port, which may appear as a micro-USB or a mini-usb port; I'm just not sure. There is also a full-size USB port with full host capabilities (and even power supply capabilities).

There is, however, no RS232 port. If you want to use that, you'll need to use a USB->RS232 converter. You're correct about no ethernet port, too, though I believe that is mostly due to lack of space, and I'd be unsurprised if some people decide to mod one in somehow.

USB is, of course, the intended method of connecting Pandora to a PC, but don't forget that pandora also has WiFi capabilities, so if your PC is attached to a wireless network, and your Pandora can get access (e.g. it isn't a MAC address filtered work network that you can't persuade the admin to add your Pandora to), then that means another method of connecting the two.

 

[Chip]

RS232 is available internally via solder pads on the board. It may be available through the custom multi-purpose connector as well. The multi-purpose connector will definitely have video out, JTAG, audio line in, and a few GPIO points.

 

[Tobriand]

The custom connector has jtag? I thought they'd said they hadn't managed to squeeze that in, but it shouldn't matter because they'd made Pandora unbrickable?

That may have changed, though.

 

[Pickle]

Hi,
Speaking about lack of ethernet port - what is the intended way of connecting Pandora to PC? (assuming that I have no wifi at home). Usually I'm connecting ethernet cables, or I'm doing plip (ethernet over parallel port) if the device doesn't have ethernet port. Am I supposed to do slip? (etherned over serial port?) What will be the bandwidth then? (ethernet would give 10MB/sec)
best regards

It would be better to use the network over USB-OTG like the GP2X F100 does.

 

[Chip]

The custom connector has jtag? I thought they'd said they hadn't managed to squeeze that in, but it shouldn't matter because they'd made Pandora unbrickable?

That may have changed, though.

Sorry it's UART, not JTAG. Everything is listed in the latest openpandora.org blog post.

 

[AireTamStorm]

There is "Normal USB", its called "USB Host". It is located at the rear of the unit between L and R.

 

[chad78]

There's also a headphone jack and, I believe the S-video out has been replaced by a custom video port.

From the blog:

"Final AV connector has been selected. It has enough pins to support line level inputs and outputs, TV output, UART, power and some GPIOS. It has 14 pins but looks like a larger USB OTG port so it has a lot of strength for hanging cables off of it."

And, as has been pointed out, there is a Mini USB and a full sized USB.

 

[emil10001]

To connect to your PC sans wires, you can either buy a bluetooth or wifi usb adapter for your computer. With bluetooth, there are several profiles to use, e.g. the file transfer profile. With a wifi adapter, you should be able to set up an access point on your computer, and then you're on the same network as your PC (depending on how it's set up).

 

[cosurgi]

Hi,

To connect to your PC sans wires, you can either buy a bluetooth or wifi usb adapter for your computer. With bluetooth, there are several profiles to use, e.g. the file transfer profile. With a wifi adapter, you should be able to set up an access point on your computer, and then you're on the same network as your PC (depending on how it's set up).

I have neither wifi nor bluetooth here. I could setup one or another (the cheaper one) but I'm used to cables - I'd prefer a cable connection I have a superstition that cables give higher transfer rate. So to use cables I'd need to buy an USB cable... I just wanted to be sure about that.

BTW - are you sure that USB wifi dongle is just enough? Don't I need to set up some kind of wifi hotspot (which makes things more complicated) ?.

Oh well... with eth0, it would be the simplest

 

[hessiess]

would it be posable to add an Ethernet port using USB? I live in a house with 3 foot thick solid stone walls so wireless is useless.

 

[Squidge]

I'd prefer a cable connection

would it be posable to add an Ethernet port using USB? I live in a house with 3 foot thick solid stone walls so wireless is useless.
Yes, you can just connect a standard USB cable from the Pandora to your PC, if you prefer cables.

You should be able to add an Ethernet port using USB also, but if you do that, it'll be more expensive, and you'll be limited to 10/100MB, whereas USB is 480MB.

I have a superstition that cables give higher transfer rate.
They usually do, Bluetooth and Wifi are both poor compared to the 480MB of USB.

 

[nubie]

Hi,

To connect to your PC sans wires, you can either buy a bluetooth or wifi usb adapter for your computer. With bluetooth, there are several profiles to use, e.g. the file transfer profile. With a wifi adapter, you should be able to set up an access point on your computer, and then you're on the same network as your PC (depending on how it's set up).

I have neither wifi nor bluetooth here. I could setup one or another (the cheaper one) but I'm used to cables - I'd prefer a cable connection I have a superstition that cables give higher transfer rate. So to use cables I'd need to buy an USB cable... I just wanted to be sure about that.

BTW - are you sure that USB wifi dongle is just enough? Don't I need to set up some kind of wifi hotspot (which makes things more complicated) ?.

Oh well... with eth0, it would be the simplest

Yes USB cables give a higher transfer rate than wireless, but to be brutally honest the SD card transfer speed is where your real bottleneck is. (assuming you plan to connect it to transfer files)

If I am not mistaken the cord will be included with the unit. So there is no need to buy one.

Use a USB 2.0 card reader if you want fast. ( http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA2029.htm $3 no shipping chargers. ).

Basically I just mean that any use of the Pandora can't really depend on high transfer rates because A: it can't process large amounts of data quickly and B: its only storage mechanism is SD cards.

I can see some instances where it would be nice to go faster, and I think that a USB cable will be great for that. Personally if I was keen on ethernet wiring the device I would look into a USB LAN adapter.

If you are not looking to network it for a specific purpose other than file transfer, perhaps a better method of external connection would be a USB Hard drive, this should be faster than SD cards and allow a lot of storage.

It is entirely open the manner you choose though, which is one reason that it has such a following. Even though this may be intimidating to someone without a lot of experience in connecting mobile devices, I think it is better to have choices than be stuck without the ability to connect to a device.

(Off topic, perhaps this is why Laptops are so much more popular now than when they where invented, Card readers, usb 2.0 Firewire, and now PCIe x1 cards and high-speed wireless mean that they are every bit as connected as a desktop, even without an optical drive. I mess around with some old, ancient?, laptops and find that the only option I usually have is a serial transfer cable or pulling the hard drive. Right now I have an IBM Tablet PC, a 486 )

 

[Jaxartes]

(Off topic, perhaps this is why Laptops are so much more popular now than when they where invented, Card readers, usb 2.0 Firewire, and now PCIe x1 cards and high-speed wireless mean that they are every bit as connected as a desktop, even without an optical drive. I mess around with some old, ancient?, laptops and find that the only option I usually have is a serial transfer cable or pulling the hard drive. Right now I have an IBM Tablet PC, a 486 )

I don't recall old desktops being all that well connected, either. The Mac that I took to college in '93 had a floppy drive and a couple of serial ports. Oh, and it had SCSI so you could connect an external hard drive. Or an external CD-ROM drive. Not that I had one of those.

A year or two earlier, and transferring files (games) from my computer at home to the ones at school consisted of bringing in a 5.25" floppy, using the instructor's machine to copy them to a 3.5" floppy, and then taking the 3.5" floppy to the machine I was going to use.

@ OP (and back on topic, or at least closer to it):
QUOTE
Am I supposed to do slip? (etherned over serial port?)

SLIP isn't exactly the same as doing ethernet over a serial port. It's IP (internet protocol) over a serial port, but it's not ethernet. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLIP. SLIP is also outdated; PPP is preferred. At any rate, doing that over a serial port would give you speeds roughly comparable to dialup, I think. Maybe a couple times faster, but not super fast.

Wireless would work best, since then you don't have to keep plugging/unplugging a cable to your Pandora. I've found with my laptop that the extra bandwidth I'd get with a wired connection (1Gbps for ethernet; I believe my hardware at home supports gigabit ethernet) isn't enough to motivate me to plug in a cable. I have a bad habit of tripping over cables.

It's sounds (from others' postings) like USB is the way to go. It's got the bandwidth, and it's widely available, and if you really want ethernet or serial or whatever you can find adapters for it.

 

[mraellis]

The custom connector has jtag? I thought they'd said they hadn't managed to squeeze that in, but it shouldn't matter because they'd made Pandora unbrickable?

That may have changed, though.

The Pandora is unbrickable? How and since when?

 

[cosurgi]

OK, I updated the list of connectors in the opening post. I'll try to get this list as complete as possible. Please help if you know more. I've put there all that I could extract from wiki, and official Pandora site.

 

[Squidge]

The Pandora is unbrickable? How and since when?

Since the beginning. The Pandora can boot from an SD card even when the NAND is completely empty, faulty, or missing. So bad firmware updates turning your device into a brick are a thing of the past.

 

[mraellis]

The Pandora is unbrickable? How and since when?

Since the beginning. The Pandora can boot from an SD card even when the NAND is completely empty, faulty, or missing. So bad firmware updates turning your device into a brick are a thing of the past.


One word - Brilliant.

 

[fusion_power]

The Pandora is unbrickable? How and since when?

Since the beginning. The Pandora can boot from an SD card even when the NAND is completely empty, faulty, or missing. So bad firmware updates turning your device into a brick are a thing of the past.

I've never bricked my GP2X so I think this also will never happen onto the Pandora I don't even have a clue how to brick a GP2X so I think this only happens if you use the Device beyond Gaming or listening Music. ^_^

 

[Prometheus]

I've never bricked my GP2X so I think this also will never happen onto the Pandora I don't even have a clue how to brick a GP2X so I think this only happens if you use the Device beyond Gaming or listening Music. ^_^

My first GP2X (one from the very first batch, for what it's worth) bricked itself, whilst applying an official firmware update from GPH, and following the instructions both from them and from people who had applied it successfully to the letter.