Slashdot Mirror
iPad Serial-Port Adapter Previewed
swandives writes "Following on from the iPhone serial port hack, Chris Pollock shows how an iPad will look with a serial port adapter for those who need more screen space. The pictures show a basic prototype, but Pollock expects to have a more attractive alternative up and running in the coming months."
If you need to reach into a rack or whatnot then a long cable from your laptop should do the trick. For me the advantage of an iphone adapter is that you can reuse a device you will definitely have on you rather than having to carry the laptop everywhere.
This should work okay on my openmoko. It has a usb host mode and I have a usb-serial cable which I have used with a laptop as a console device.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Though since he seems to have posted the pinouts and whatnot I guess someone else could try taking a whack at making it better.
Like a ... wireless BlueTooth to Serial port adapter? So all you have, other than iPad, is a little serial port dongle thingy? That'd be my choice: rather than hacking Apple's proprietary data/power connecter (though it had to be done... but now that's out of the way), hack their bluetooth stack
The Admin and the Engineer
It's a prototype. The finished dongle ought to be less than one inch across, if the guy designs it reasonably.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
all those "I don't need that, it's useless... I need that instead" commenter would realize that they are not alone in this world and that other people may have different need.
I personally don't need it because, as most tech users, I now only have a few, if any, devices with serial interface... but I can see how something like that may be totally useful.
There are still a lot of people who work with specialized equipment, often having serial port interfaces. Having a serial port interface for iPhone or iPad can become very interesting, as those device can be used very easily while standing hand holding them in the hand. With a laptop other than a tablet PC type laptop, I've always found doing this clumsy.