Activesync connection between two USB-host controllers

Question

For a hobby project I wish to develop some stuff for a WinCE 6.0 device. Ideally, I would have an activesync connection to debug from Visual Studio. The OS appears to have all the prerequisites in place, but I'm not sure about the transport. What are my options?

The device has a USB port which can be used to connect e.g. flash drives for mp3 playback, so this seems to be a USB host port. Can I use this to obtain an activesync connection? I guess using a usb-to-serial cable on both pc and WinCE device could work. Or is there a RNDIS way perhaps?

If possible I rather not disassemble the unit, but if my chances of finding a USB client port or wired ethernet are nonzero I could consider that. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

ActiveSync will work on a serial cable, so the idea of using an USB-to-serial adapter may work. But you need to have drivers for it in the OS image. There are some CDC drivers and FTDI provides drivers for their chips. You may be able to load them on the device, copying them using a USB thumbdrive and modifying the registry using a registry editor for windows CE, but that's not granted. Windows CE also supports RNDIS compatible USB to ethernet adapter but honestly I don't know if any device of this kind is currently available on the market. If your device has wi-fi connectivity you can skip using ActiveSync and debug over the network.

Answer 2

You can not use USB host port for Activesync connection.

But if it is USB OTG (Both host and client) port, you can use activesync using USB OTG or USB Client functionality.

Your BSP should support USB Serial Client functionality (Search SYSGEN_USBFN_SERIAL sysgen variable in catalog items).

Also, your USB driver (lower level driver) should support USB Client functionality.