On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, Mark Newland wrote:

>     I have a project that stores both calibration info and data logging
> information on it.  The product will be firmly fixed inside the cab of
> 18 wheelers.  The information will only be accessed once per month.  The
> options are:

The mind fairly reels with the possibilities...  Since I grew up in a
house with the chief engineer of Fruehauf, I gotta wonder what you're
monitoring.  Truckstop honeys, maybe?  8-)

> 2) RF Link:  Plausible but too expensive when talking about 20-100
> trucks per fleet.

Not to mention those pesky FCC regulations...

> 4) Build my own PDA and use whatever IR communication protocals I want.
>
> 5) Buy someone else's PDA (like a Palm Pilot, Handspring, etc.) and just
> program it.

Or build a data collector...  something small and hand-held to gather data
from the truck-mounted unit, store it, and send it to a PC via an RS-232
link.  Like #4, but way simpler.  Little shirt pocket size case, one or
two pushbuttons, nothing else.

> Writing the program for the PDA is the easy thing.  What do I do on the
> PIC side to make it compatible??

I'm totally ignorant of Palm programming...  is one stuck with only IRDA
communications from the IP port, or can one also write common, run of the
mill serial applications to use it as well?  Something simpler than the
complex IRDA stack?  I would think so, since I've seen (and used) learning
remote software for the Palm.

Dale
---
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
                -- Isaac Asimov