| I modified a standard iPaq sleeve, screwing an electronic utility
box to the
| back and a pair of camera ball mounts to that. Ipaq power supply
in the
| black box. Into the panel I mounted an RJ45 ( PC networking
socket ) with a
| corresponding tail on the ipaq ( Grey cable in photo) , my Garmin
and my
| partners Eagle handheld. Now we can fly with a different
combination of
| GPS/Logger/Handheld simply by undoing 1 cinch nut and unplugging
the RJ45.

Sound great Ian! Clever using the box behind the standard sleeve -
the sleeve that has the 'door' attached would work very well (the
door unclips). I have seen them sold by part numbers (check first):
249703-B21, 249707-b21, FA119A, and 170339-b22!

We have decided to fit high efficiency 12v to 5v converters behind
the panel and include +5v and +12v in the socket on the panel. Just
have to work out which socket to use and a safe use of the pins.

The familiar 8 pin Cat5 RJ45 plugs seem ideal, but I like the idea
of using the (also familiar) 9 pin D serial plugs as we may be able
to use the standard cables supplied with the various gadgets to link
them to a PC for transferring waypoints, tracklogs, etc.

If anyone can confirm suitable uses for each pin it would be most
appreciated.
So far we have noted:

Pin 1
Pin 2 used for serial data out (to iPaq) by CAI-302
Pin 3 used for serial data in (from iPaq) by CAI-302
Pin 4
Pin 5 used for data and power ground by CAI-302
Pin 6
Pin 7 used for +12v (to GPS) by Goddard Power Supplies
Pin 8 used for +5v (to iPaq) by CAI-302
Pin 9

I would hate to cause a problem by choosing to send too many volts
to the wrong part of a gadget!

Any electronic wizz able to offer us guidance here??

Cheers,

Jim Kelly