Seidio Mount with Hands Free

[Eagle]

Can you supply a cable that will work with a Siemens SL45 phone and the Seidio Multimedia Mount to provide hands free operation?

[Pc-Mobile]

We do not know what the Seidio mount is, nor can we get one.

So naturally we cannot make anything for it.
_________________
Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

[Dave]

The Seidio basically has a USB socket on the mount, and supply a USB plug to iPAQ style charger plug which I presume center pin is positive and outer shield is negative.



In theory wiring an iPAQ style socket to Siemens SL45 wouldn't be a problem, but voltage may be a problem as it's really only designed to power other PDA's and similar devices at 5V, 1.2Amp.

[Eagle]

Dave



It looks as if the USB socket you are referring to is the charge socket for the PDA.



The USB socket I am referring to is the second one which clearly states handsfree. According to the Arkon site and the instructions with the Seidio mount it implies that this (the second USB) provides hands free operation with a mobile phone, whether it is cabable of charging the phone as well; this would be a bonus.



I believe that the intention is to have a lead, similar to a headphone lead which incorporates a mike, which plugs into the Seidio (or Arkon) and the speach would come out of the Seidio's speaker.

[Dave]

Eagle, the USB socket for hands free is designed for Pocket PC use only to interface with Pocket PC Phones, I don't think Seidio have it in mind to provide this support for all phones. You could certainly rig up a charging system, like I explained above. It might be possible to work out the current pin-outs to USB and use a standard phone in hands free mode, but it depends on power output and pin-outs, and if Seidio aren't providing this the only other way would be for PC-Mobile to get a unit, pull it apart and run tests before they could make up a cable.   The other thing also to bear in mind is whether it's cost effective to do this. The cable used is a specialised made cable, which suggests to me Seidio don't want other companies creating cable sets for the unit (I may be wrong though).

[Eagle]

Dave,



The Seidio Mount works as I thought.



Using an 'Enhanced MP3 Audio Adapter' for the Siemens SL45 (Code : S45AA) available from Pc-Mobile, I have connected this to the Handsfree USB socket on the Seidio and I can enjoy handsfree and listen to the GPS directions from Tom Tom at the same time.



I'm using a Pocket Loox and an EMTAC BT GPS with Tom Tom Navigator.

[Dave]

Superb, that's good to know, thanks!

[Pc-Mobile]

The "Handsfree USB socket" is confusing.

I cannot imagine what is it.



So what is it? I can only guess it is audio input. But USB? or ordinary audio jack?
_________________
Pc-Mobile
http://pc-mobile.net/gps.htm

[Dave]

Yep that confused me initially. There are two sockets on the bottom, one is labelled charger, to charge another device (as there is already an integrated charger cable), and the handsfree. Both are USB. I can only guess that it's wired up as speak/talk as would be a send/receive. It's nice from the point of view USB is fairly standard and cables are easy to get or to make, but I've never seen anyone do it in this fasion before.



They also have a DC out on the left hand side which would take a standard jack plug (comes installed with a standard jack socket), and on the top there's a 3.5mm headphone socket for speaker out so you can plug a Pocket PC or MP3 player in.

[Dave]

The handsfree socket is a USB type socket. Why a USB socket I don't know.

It is just a regular audio input using one pin for common, one for the left channel and one for the right channel.

The 'Enhanced MP3 Audio Adapter' from Pc-Mobile allows you to plug in a jack plug and then into an audio input of active speakers etc.

With the Seidio mount (the Arkon should be the same) I just made a lead to go from a jack plug to a USB plug. Plugged into the Seidio mount and the 'Enhanced MP3 Audio Adapter' and bingo.

I would have liked the mike on the 'Enhanced MP3 Audio Adapter' to be a little more sensitive as you tend to be a little quiet at the other end, but if you speak up it works OK.

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