Comments on: Roombongle! A Roomba USB dongle

By: Brad Wilmot

Brad Wilmot — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:14:34 +0000

You can also get the USB programming cable for the Uniden scanners. It has the same chip in it, and you can usually find it on Ebay for under $10. It’s put together the same way as the Futuredial cables.

By: Roomba Hacks and Modifications Collection | Planet Surfer

Roomba Hacks and Modifications Collection | Planet Surfer — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:05:15 +0000

[...] Roomba USB Interface [...]

By: todbot

todbot — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:01:10 +0000

Thanks Ryan, that’s awesome!

By: Ryan Jones

Ryan Jones — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:09:44 +0000

You can get the futuredial cable here.
Only $6.99

http://www.markdownalley.com/ShowItem.cfm?itemid=1523

By: Rich Flowers

Rich Flowers — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:15:25 +0000

I found a couple of these FutureDial cables on eBay recently

By: Aaron E

Aaron E — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:26:35 +0000

A further note on that. I picked up a cable with a bulge in it for the VX4500 hoping that like Shawn, I would get a PL2303. Unfortunately it’s a no go. My Cable had just some basic electronics inside. (It was an OEM LG USB7000… DO NOT get this cable!)

So If you can, grab a Futuredial cable. They seem to be the ones that reliably have the PL2303 chip that makes this thing possible.

By: todbot

todbot — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:12:51 +0000

Thanks Aaron, though that does suck. But then I've noticed it becoming harder to find serial-based sync cables as modern phones move to having USB interfaces inside them. Fortunately, I bet EBay will always have them. :)

By: Aaron E

Aaron E — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:09:34 +0000

FYI for anyone reading this more recently, RadioShack no longer carries FutureDial Cables. They stopped when they stopped carrying Verizon phones.

At any rate, look for a data cable for the phones mentioned on the NSLU2-Linux Tod mentions, and you’ll be able to find something compatible.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:46:10 +0000

Tod, The board looks exactly like the one they have at NSLU2-Linux. And I also did manage to get hold of the pinout for VX4500 pin 13 (RED) & 14 (Orange) corresponds to Rx & Tx on the phone (GND is 12-BRWN& 19-BLK for anyone’s future reference). I was a little confused because they had those two cables marked in reverse on the image at NSLU2-Linux. Could it be because it is Rx and Tx from the point of PL-2303 rather than the phone’s perspective? If that is the case then should I be connecting the Rx from roomba (pin#3) to the Tx of PL-2303 and vice versa? I just don’t want to wire the roomba all wrong and blow it up:))

Thanks for your quick responses!!

By: todbot

todbot — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 03:30:30 +0000

Hi Shawn,
Great price! If you can’t find someone else on the Net who’s used a similar cable to hook up to their project, then I’d suggest downloading the PL-2303 datasheet and following the circuit traces from phone wires to the PL-2303 chip. It should be pretty straight-forward. A bright light really helps see through the board if the traces are on both sides.

The other option is the find the pinout for the VX4500 connector and see which pins are TX, RX & GND.