Palm Universal Connector

The Universal Connector was a standard port fitted to the bottom of many Palm PDA's from 2001 to 2004 and on units from other manufacturers that licensed Palm technology, including Garmin.

Palm Universal Connector
Type Communication, power supply, USB
Production history
Designer Palm, Inc.
Superseded Palm Serial
Superseded by Palm Multi-Connector
Pin out
Pin 1 Signal - ground GND
Pin 2 Data + USB USB_D+
Pin 3 Data - USB USB_D-
Pin 4 USB VBUS VCC
Pin 5 HotSync IRQ - +3.3 V push button HOTSYNC
Pin 6 not connected N/C
Pin 7 Signal - ground GND
Pin 8

Peripheral ID

  • USB Cradle : short
  • Serial Cradle : 7.5 kΩ
  • Mfg. Test Cradle : 20 kΩ
  • USB Peripheral : 47 kΩ
  • Serial Peripheral : 100 kΩ
  • Modem : 220 kΩ
 ID
Pin 9 power out +3.2 V, 100 mA max. Vout
Pin 10 RxD RS-232 in, GPS T RxD
Pin 11 TxD RS-232 out, GPS R TxD
Pin 12 Peripheral DETECT DETECT
Pin 13 CTS RS-232 in CTS
Pin 14 RTS RS-232 out RTS
Pin 15 DTR RS-232 out DTR
Pin 16 charge +5 V, 500–700 mA CHARGE

Out of the box, it is used to connect to the sync and charge cradle, allowing the Palm to connect to a desktop PC and receive battery power. A range of accessories were also available for the Universal Connector, including folding keyboards, external battery packs, wired and wireless modems, and many more.

The Universal Connector cradles were the first synchronization device that used USB to communicate with the host computer, in addition to the older serial port standard.

Some Palm devices manufactured between 2001 and 2004 did not use the Universal Connector. For instance, the Tungsten E had a mini-USB connector.

The Universal Connector has now been abandoned in favour of a newer standard, the Palm Multi-Connector.

Palm Models fitted with the Universal Connector

Garmin Models fitted with the Universal Connector


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