Nokia 6585 Connectivity

Either a build in IrDA or a USB IrDA adaptor can be used for the infrared with the Nokia 6585 phone. In this part is focused on connecting the phone to a computer but the phone can also be connected to other devices like Palm. The most common connection problems are resolved by setting the IrDA port to 115200 bps.

I purchased the Y-160 USB to IrDA wireless connection to utilize the infrared connection with one of my desktop systems. Below is a picture of the one I got from eBay for $9.96 inclusive shipping. Included with it was a driver CD and a USB extension cable.



Installation was easy. I used the newest driver from SigmaTel. At that time it was the "V1.32 BETA USB-Ir Adapter Driver Installation Program for STIR4200 " driver. All I did was to install the driver, rebooted for good measure and plugged in the USB IrDA adapter. Windows installed the newly detected hardware. After that the Nokia 6585 could communicate without any issues and all settings where left at their default.

If the default settings don't work try setting the SigmaTel USB-IrDA Adapter Properties to:


         Infrared Transceiver Type: SigmaTel
         Min. Turn-Around Time: 1.0mS [Default]
         Speed Enable: 115200
       

Should the sound effects of the IR connections being established and dropped annoy you, you can simply disable them on the "Sound" tab of the "Sounds and Audio Devices" properties that can be found in the Windows Control Panel. The sounds are listed under "Wireless Link".

There are two cables for the phone. The DKU-5 is an older cable which is being replaced with the CA-42 cable. Both cable should work fine and the only noticable difference is that the DKU-5 has black connectors while the CA-42 are blue. I purchased and thus only have experience with the CA-42 cable. The CA-42 cable I purchased was a unbranded cable from a yahoo shop for $28.95. Included with is was a driver CD.



The CA-42 cable even has its own web site at www.ca42.com (which lately seems to have problems) where drivers and software can be found. Although, I could not get the driver from that web site to work, just like I had problems with the CA-42 drivers from the Nokia web site. However, the driver on the enclosed CD works flawlessly.

Sometimes just selecting the cable connection in the phone manager software doesn't work. If you encounter this you can manually pick the appropriate COM port in the connection settings of software.

Several people have asked me for the CA-42 driver because theirs didn't work or the cable did not include the driver CD. Unfortunately, due to copyright I'm not able to give out the driver I have. My driver CD includes Nokia PC Suite which clearly states that unauthorized distribution will be prosecuted. The driver themselves are copyrighted by Moore Computer Consultants, Inc and no statement about distribution was given. By default, this means that I'm not allowed to distribute the driver. www.copyright.gov has more information about copyright.

The cable has a higher data transfer rate than infrared but since often only small files are transferred between the phone and and the computer this really isn't a big issue. Things really come down to personal preferences.

With the IR port you don't have to hook up any cables, instead just turn the infrared on the phone on and then lie it in front of the computer's infrared port. For this I'd recommend adding the Infrared menu item into the right soft menu. With the cable you only hook the phone up to it and the phone automatically knows it should connect to the computer. Nothing to activate but you do have a cable stuck between them.

Finally there's the price. So with the IR dongle being so much cheaper than the USB cable I'd recommend going with IR.

If you ware unlucky you may have to finagle with it a little. This is mostly due that you're working with something new and unused. In any case the likely hood that you get into problems are about equal between infrared and cable and is easily solved with calmness, patients and a bit of googeling.