C500 sync cradle

[Guest boysweek]

I have an E200 and seriously considering an upgrade to C500. I have noticed in Paul's review of the C500 that there is no sync cradle. I use two of them with my E200, one at home and one in the office. Do Orange intend to do an accessory cradle although I bet it will be massively expensive :)

This seems like a big omission to me.

Steve

[Guest Dr Who]

I guess they are assuming that since Bluetooth now works that there is less point in having a permanent cradle? The USB-mini USB lead is pretty portable.

[Guest boysweek]

I agree IF Bluetooth implementation is better than E200. Despite loads of aggro I haven't been able to get my E200 to do BT Activesync with my XP based home PC :)

[Guest sponge]

The cradle is so much more functional though. You just pop your phone in at the end of the day; it syncs; you turn off the PC and it still charges overnight.

Can't do that now. You have to connect via BT or USB lead, then move the phone to a mains socket to charge it if you turn the PC off. :?

Plus XP SP2 buggered up my BT stack. Well, that's not strictly true. The MSI fix for my BT dongle buggered up my BT stack. (It works fine on my girlfriends PC that doesn't have the 'fix'.) :evil:

I really want a cradle. :cry:

[Guest Dr Who]

I'm still holding off the SP2 update - lots of horror stories out there. I wonder when the updates to the updates will begin appearing?

[Guest sponge]

There are more reason to install SP2 that not install it. My BT problem is a little annoying, but I am hopeful some further research and tweaking of settings will resolve the matter.

There'll always be horror stories for any product, whether it be hardware or software. If we assumed all SPVs were as bad as some of the ones mentioned on this site, no one would have one.

Getting back to charging for a moment though...

I bought a Fortuna BT GPS the other day and I was hoping to be able to use the car power adapter (USB) that came with it for my C500, but it doesn't work.

The power output on the official mains (3-pin plug) charger that came with the phone reads 5.15V and 1A. The output on the car USB charger reads 5V and 0.85mA

Secondly, the BT GPS also came with a mains charger that you simply plug the USB cable into. This is rated at 5V and 1A and it also won't charge the phone.

Thirdly, the USB hub on my monitor is powered. When I plug the BT GPS into it and power down my PC, but leave the monitor on, it charges. But when I try the same with the C500, it doesn't.

All this makes me think the C500 will only charge via USB if there is a Data connection (Active Sync), whether it be powered or not. The only other alternative (at the moment) therefore being the official mains charger that came with the phone.

[Guest boysweek]

I agree with Sponge, the cradle is very useful when you start to think about it.

For a start, when it is in the cradle on my desk at work, I don't keep having to pick up the phone t see if I have missed any messages or emails - I just have to glance at it. Same is true when I get a pre-meeting alarm etc etc.

All in all - no cradle means lots more hassle. If the C500 is supposed to be an evolution of the E200 why the hell isn't there a cradle. It doesn't make sense to me. OK, I realise if you mainly use the C500 for entertainment rather than business the cradle might be a bit superfluous but from what I read on this forum the C500 is rubbish for games. so who is it targeted at? :?

Steve

[Guest MaximilianWeisheit]

I said it from day one. "we need a cradle"

:-)

[Guest boysweek]

I said it from day one. "we need a cradle"

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!

So back to my original question "Is Orange (or anybody else) going to do one as an accessory? If not, I might have to seriously re-think getting the C500 after all :cry:

Steve

[Guest sponge]

We definitely need a cradle. But the fact it doesn't come with one is still not a reason not to buy the phone. It's still a damn good piece of kit. Go buy one o/

:)

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

A third party manufacturer is working on a cradle :)

[Guest Michel Merlin]

I said it from day one. "we need a cradle"

I disagree. I have an iPaq h2215 PDA, which has a very good cradle, however after buying a retractable USB cable (from Proporta), I shelved my cradle and never took it back; and I am sure that everyone having tried both have also shelved their cradle for good.

The retractable cable is much smaller, quicker to plug/unplug (winding/unwinding the cable is very quick, reliable and convenient), does everything the cradle does, and still more: the PDA battery does charge during use while you don't need to think of it; oppositely, the cradle charges only a 2nd battery (I have none, because useless), not the main one.

I guess some years ahead the PDA and Digicam makers will all have understood what the telephone makers have now understood:

1. while charging, the battery must remain in place in the device

2. the device must remain usable while charging

3. for that charging, user should have only to plug his device on a cable, then unplug it

4. that cable must be just a cable, not a cradle.

In addition, when charging from PC (thus in low voltage needing no transformer), that cable must be retractable.

Paris, Sat 18 Dec 2004 15:40:10 +0100

[Guest benjymous]

All this makes me think the C500 will only charge via USB if there is a Data connection (Active Sync), whether it be powered or not. The only other alternative (at the moment) therefore being the official mains charger that came with the phone.

Yup, I've found the same

I've got a 3rd party USB lead for my original SPV that'd charge from anything (I used to use the USB ports on the front of a PS2 to charge it when I'd left the charger at work and couldn't be bothered to go upstairs and turn on a PC)

Sadly, as you've said, the SPV only seems to start charging when it sees an activesync connection, which is a bit of a pain.

I wonder if there's something that could be done in software on the phone to make it charge from USB whenever

[Guest Dr Who]

There was an extensive discussion about the USB charging mores and manners some months ago on the C500 forum - lots of good stuff in there.

[Guest Michel Merlin]

Can you post the link? TIA,

Paris, Mon 20 Dec 2004 15:16:50 +0100

[Guest]

Posted from my SmartPhone!

Hi,

is it possible to rework on a E200 cradle to make it usable for a C500? A mini-USB connector is relatively cheap,all that is required is to remove the special E200 connector and to exchange it against the mini-USB.Challeng is to fix the new connector in the cradle firmly enough. Any ideas? Viable ideas could make old (unsellable) E200 cradles a sellable/recycleable good again ;-) btw: which alternative vendor will be selling C500 cradles? When? Weblink?