Classic Psion Devices - Recent Threads

PSI Data Base

simonfitzgerald@fastmail.fm — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:04:02 GMT

I have long since stopped using my Psion 3c but what I have done over the years is use

the address book as a database. It's perfect for my needs. I have been using it on my

PC for years, only now i have a new laptop with Windows 7 64 bit, and guess what, it no

longer works.

Any easy way around this ?

Thanks

internet psion 5mx connexion

jbel — Sat, 28 May 2011 17:22:30 GMT

Hi, i need fichier SGMSUITE.ZIP to connect my psion 5mx to unternet. Thank you for your help.

WAP2 vehicle cradle and serial connection to barcode scanner

vxcj78 — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:24:17 GMT

When using vehicle cradle (WA1210-G2) there is an option to connect Port replicator (WA4005-G1) and connect more than one peripherial.

Question: can I connect barcode scanner over RS232 directly to WA1210-G2 (without port replicator)? Will it work? Will the scanner be powered?

Thanks!

Wojtek

Keypress order to enable cable link mode on 3mx

Dodge — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:02:13 GMT

Hi guys,

My father has asked me to see if I can get the data from his Psion 3mx with a dead screen. It powers up fine, but I'm not familiar with the operating system enough to remember the keypresses to enable the cable connect mode so I can access the content with PsiWin.

As I understand it, I need to do the following:

Move to the System screen, select the 'Communications' command from the 'Special' menu, and choose the 'Link cable' option from the 'Use' line. Set the Baud rate to 19200 on a Siena, 57600 on a Series 3c, or to 115200 on a Series 3mx.

From the moment it's powered up, can anyone with a working 3mx tell me the keypresses to achieve this?

Many thanks in advance,

Paul

GPRS o Virtual WWAN port for WA 7527

jlorcau — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:19:28 GMT

Hi, I have a 7527 with WM 6.1 WA Clasic, it was necessary Restoration Projects with 25 326, but when trying to create a connection again and I have not the option "Virtual WWAN port o GPRS" in selecting Modem I have just (Bluetooth-Generic IrDA -Hayes Compatible on COM1).
I hope you can help me because they do not know where to get this controller.

grateful

Windows file manager for PSION Data files

rennybosch — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:05:45 GMT

Some years ago I had a Windows program that allowed me to open PSION Backup Data files and view and edit the file data just as I could on the PSION itself. I don't think it was part of PSIWin, I think I obtained it when I bought a used PSION via EBay. Where can I obtain such a program? I'd like it to run on Windows XP, and allow access to PSIWin backup Data files from a PSION 3a.

Psion MX 2mb RS232 buttom concern

mark.sumpay — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:33:01 GMT

Dear ALL,

I just want to know if we still have available RS232 Buttom for Psion MX 2mb? because one of our client need it. Please let me know. asap. Thank you.

Br,

MARK

Workabout MX and OVAL

Jacques Gourmelen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:54:19 GMT

Good morning

Mikesan

Hi Jaques,
I'd like to start writing programs using OVAL for my Workabout MX, but I want to use the built-in laser barcode scanner. Would it be possible to have the source code of the demo app that comes preinstalled with the Workabout MX? If not, some examples of how to do this. The way I got started with OPL probably only happened because there were numerous examples in the manual that I could build up my understanding from.

mike@russell27.freeserve.co.uk

For your information

The SIBO OVAL SDK v1.21 can be downloaded here.
The SIBO C, OPL and OVAL Barcoding SDK can be downloaded here.

Kind regards,
Jacques

& Please avoid emailing me directly as it prevents the rest of our community to contribute to and/or benefit from this talk. Thank you!

5mx and Vista Business - stumped

grovetown — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:05:12 GMT

I have recently rediscovered my 5mx and am keen to connect it to my laptop - which has Vista Business (32 bit) as its OS.

I successfully installed a USB serial converter (Videk); and downloaded PsiWin 2.3.3 (in that order). The port is identified correctly in the My Psion properties (COM3); and the speeds (115200) are matched.

And...nada...

Connection is attempted, but cannot be formed.

I'd love to use the 5mx for, say, correspondence while travelling, but it's not much use to me if I can't hook it up to the laptop.

Any suggestions please?

Cheers,

Johnny.

Psion 3mx / 3c disassembly instructions

FredL — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:07:32 GMT

Hi,

I have a couple of Psion devices which I'd like to repair. Are there any instructions available outlining how to take a Psion 3mx or 3c apart? I'm used to working with the internals of laptops (changing motherboards,etc). A service manual would be ideal.

Thanks,

Fred.

Psion MC400 - Power Adapter

Retrocosm — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:18:05 GMT

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help.

I have a Psion MC400 which I've been using with rechargeable batteries. However I have a power adapter that I could use if I knew how the connector was configured.

Does anyone know if it is centre positive or negative?

Charlie

Psion 3C Modernisation

nath316 — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:02:09 GMT

Hi all

I am doing this on behalf of my father. he has had his 3c for many years and loves it. He feels it is perfect for what he does with it.

He has had a few issues with it like for example recently it lost his data and contact information. He has just got a 512k ssd card from ebay so he feels a bit safer now

I would like to upgrade him or maybe modernise him.

I am after you input on what I could replace it with or maybe even do to his 3c to improve it.

Thanks in advance

OPL32 Errors and Panics List?

perry — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:43:02 GMT

Hullo anyone-

OPL snags, on 5/7/netbook. does anyone know whereabouts of

lists of errors and panics

with their meanings, like : 'OPL user 44' and ' kernel exec 3' . Thankyou,

Psion SIBO OPL16 SDK for Series 3c

kvines — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:21:48 GMT

Is there a download site for the Psion SIBO OPL16 SDK for Series 3c? I've searched the site without success. All I can find is the one for C.

Thanks.

Problems with the 3c coating

franter — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:17:25 GMT

I've been using my 3a since I got it when the 3a's were quite new. Much later I got a 3c but it's Azerty (French) for a friend, that I later got back and put it in a drawer. When I now took it out to test as an eBook reader I found it all sticky. I'm not living in a dry flat and I've noticed that all these soft rubber-plastics that were popular in the 80's and 90's (and maybe even today) all go to pieces or get sticky.

Has anybody had a similar problem with the 3c and if yes, how could one treat it? I was thinking of treating the surface with liquid or creamy silicone as it's said to be good to protect rubber, any other suggestions are welcome.

PCB specification, Psion Revo Integrated Printed Circuit Board (IR \ NiMH charger) power handling capacity?

RheologyScienceLegacy — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:01:06 GMT

I do not want to fry the Revo's internal charger circuit.

Does anyone know if the Revo's INTERNAL charger circuit could handle

the resulting impedance of a custom made external 2,4V AAA battery pack,

parallel to the internal pack?

Reason to charge packs simultaneously would be that the logic seems to determine auto-shutdown at the 10% mark based on the passed charge into the cells. Hooking up a parallel pack triggers no reaction on the gauge, so even if it shares load, psion still shuts down based on projected running time from a single pack, or so experiments lead me to believe.

BACKGROUND :

The Psion adapter,

rated 6 V pulsed 500 mA, in which maximum current depens on the Load relayed through the charger circuit within the Revo,

internally spits out 10,2V AC to a 16V 1000 uF polar buffered Greatz rectifier,

then a straight forward STmicroelectronics L7806 C6 turns it into a regulated 6,00 Volts.

The adapter's regulator specs say it can handle 1,5 A output, no problem here.

This plugs into the Psion Revo PCB.... which originally charged a 2,4 V 700 mAh NiMH AAA pack to 2,85 Volts.

ChaDis senses 420 mA as a fast charge current on the internal battery pack.

Replacement of a single pack is not an issue,

but paralelling two packs MIGHT be a problem due to a changed impedance from the combination and the PCB charger logic.

Series 5mx PRO CompactFlash boot failure

hvanderven — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:20:16 GMT

I have a beautiful 5mx PRO that stopped responding to touch screen. I thought a "hard reset" might cure the problem. This was the first re-boot since I got this 5mxPRO a couple of years ago. Much to my surprise the boot-up halts and presents an error screen. The message is in German so I don't know what it says, but I'm guessing the OS is corrupt and I don't know where to download a copy (and to be honest, having never done anything like this before I'm concerned that there's a special way to write an OS to CompactFlash card that's different than just saving a data file. Here's the error message: "Auf der aktuellen CompactFlash Card wurde keine gultige Datei gefunden" The error message window is titled "Fehler" (German for "failure"?)

Before doing the hard reset I did a complete backup of the C drive. The agenda file was open when the touch screen stopped working. When trying to open the agenda file on another 5mx (not a "PRO" model) I couldn't open the agenda file. The file opening graphical bar progresses to about 90% complete and then claims to not have enough memory and agenda fails to open. I think this must be data corruption because there is plenty of unused RAM. I made a new empty agenda file and used the "merge-in" function to pull entries from the seemingly corrupt old agenda file into the new file. IT WORKED! The new agenda file opens and has almost 100% of what was in the original file (what a relief).

Now if I can just get my 5mx PRO to boot-up it will feel like Christmas morning. Can anybody help me with this?

Psion Workabout MX, Oval and Cyrillic Characters

mixkaram — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:13:34 GMT

Hello, I need to make my Psion Workabout MX and the Oval enviroment to display the cyrillic characters.

Could you please help me with that?

Using PsiWin 2.3 and Psion Workabout MX on a Windows 7 64 Bit system.

rjohnsoy — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:13:41 GMT

I recently received an computer upgrade at work which meant upgrading from XP to Win 7 64 Bit. This caused problems with loading and running PsiWin 2.3 as well as connecting to and transferring files between my Psion Workabout MX and the new computer. After working on this problem for a day and a half, I have a soulution that allows me to load the PsiWin program successfully and allows me to upload and download files to the Workabout. I will post below the procedure I used:

To load PsiWin 2.3 on to a Windows 7 64 bit operating system (this should work for any program that will not load/function in the WIN 7 environment)

Must download and install Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC from (fairly quick and easy):

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Once the Win XP Mode and Virtual Machine is set up go to the Start Menu/All Programs/Windows Virtual PC/Windows XP Mode - This will start the XP mode.

Now install PsiWin 2.3 as usual by browsing to and opening the setup file.

YOU WILL NOT YET BE ABLE TO CONNECT TO THE PSION THROUGH THE SERIAL COM PORT YET but you may go ahead and set up your baud rate and select the com port you are going to use by going into properties when the device fails to connect.

Connecting the Psion Workabout to the COM port. Configuring the COM port in the WIN XP Mode Virtual Environment. (This should work for periphreals that connect through a serial port and use a communications program that only works in the WIN XP Mode).

The reason the Psion will not connect is that the com port is not set up to work in the XP Mode Virtual environment. To fix this go to : Start Menu/All Programs/Windows Virtual PC/Windows Virtual PC

This will bring up a dialog box which will have the Windows XP Mode virtual machine listed.

Right Click on it and choose SETTINGS.

Then select the Com port you are using (usually Com1).

The current value is probably set to none CHANGE this by selecting "Physical serial port" on the right side of the dialog box. Click ok and exit out of the dialog boxes.

Transferring files to and from the Psion Workabout with WIN XP Mode.

Activate the XP Mode: Start Menu / All Programs / Windows Virtual PC / Windows XP Mode

Have the Psion on and connected & make sure the Remote Link is set to ON in the Psion with the correct baud rate.

Double click on the "My Psion" icon on the XP desktop. Browse to the file you want to upload or download and copy and paste as you would normally. (THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE INSIDE THE WIN XP MODE). I have found that you CANNOT download files FROM the Psion Workabout directly to a WIN 7 folder. You can however Download it to any XP Mode folder and then copy and paste it from there to a WIN 7 folder by copy/paste or drag/drop. Also I have found that it IS POSSIBLE to copy and paste a file INTO the Workabout from a XP Mode OR WIN 7 Folder (ie I can have the XP Mode running and Psion Workabout connected in PsiWin 2.3, access an Excel File in a WIN 7 environment folder and copy/paste it into the Workabout with PsiWin 2.3 with no problems – but only supported files like xls files not xlsx files of course.

Hope this helps the those of us in the Psion community who still use the older devices like the Workabout. I also use the old XP and LZ organizer models on rare occasions but have not yet tried to use them on the new Win7 64 Bit system.

PsiWin / EConnect VS Windows 7

Jacques Gourmelen — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:41:54 GMT

Good afternoon All,

Has anyone successfully installed and used PsiWin / Econnect against Windows 7 PC machines?

E.g.

Windows 7, 32-bit Home Edition
Windows 7, 64-bit Professional Edition

All ideas, recommendations, suggestions are welcome

Kind regards,
Jacques

Psion Chess on the Series 3

Damian Walker — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:52:23 GMT

I've just received my Psion Chess SSD today. Unfortunately bare without documentation, but never mind. At least I've been able to extract a screenshot for its page on PsiGamer... http://psigamer.cyningstan.org.uk/game.php?id=3124

Looking closely I've noticed a distinct resemblance between it and the chess program by Purple Software for later Psions. The feature set is similar, as is the way those features are distributed throughout the menus. Steve Litchfield's Psion history says it's a development of Psion chess for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, but I'm wondering: is there some closer relationship between it and Purple's game?

High pitch noise from netbook

janbrink — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:17:56 GMT

I have a netbook which produces a high pitch noise from the right bottom side of the screen. Anyone has a tip how to get rid of this irritating noise ?

kind regards,

Jan

Recover data from local storage on device Psion 5mx series

dgts — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:36:26 GMT

Good Day

My custommer own device Psion series 5mx. I need recover data which are on inside storage system, because battery was discharge . No external data card!!!.

Manual Psion Series 3 needed

Christoph Pulster — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:26:34 GMT

I am looking for the Psion 3 user manual as PDF. All I can find is the english 3c manual, but I need the German 3mx manual. Thanks a lot,

Chris

Psion 5MX and Win7HP (32 bit) - can't connect

cprstn54 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:25:46 GMT

I have two of these that I played with a bit back in the day but not for at least 8 years. I tried to connect to a Win7 desktop PC having one real serial port (COM1) and one USB-serial adapter (COM4).

I did a hard reset (paperclip-shift-shift-ESC) and did Tools|Remote Link|Cable-115200|OK.

My PC COM ports show 115200-N-8-1, hardware control in the Control Panel.

When I plug in, nothing happens.

I set My Psion|Properties|Connections to COM1 and "maximum obtainable"

It won't connect.

Same for COM4.

I can run Psion Synchronizer in XP Compatibilty mode, but do not see any way to do that for My Psion.

I am for the moment without an XP machine to try due to a motherboard failure.

Any suggestions?

Ken C