RCom This file describes RCom, the PC software which is for use with the Psion 3Link lead and DOS based PCs. This file tells you how to install RCom on your PC and how to use it to set up a link between your PC and Psion. If you need information about files and directories, file formats for file transfer, or the Comms application that is supplied on the 3Link lead, you should refer to the PsiWin manual. Otherwise, though, you may not need to refer to the PsiWin manual at all. Instructions for you to follow are indicated with numbers. Extra notes, which you may find useful, are indicated with a + symbol. RCom supports: Computers in the Psion Series 3, MC and HC ranges. For the sake of convenience, only the Series 3 is referred to in this document. (The Series 3a, MC and HC are referred to where instructions differ from those for the Series 3.) PCs with DOS versions 3.3, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x. What is 3Link? ============== The 3Link lead converts the expansion socket on the left side of the Series 3 into an industry-standard RS-232 serial link. When used with RCom, it allows you to: * transfer files between your Series 3 and PC and control file transfer from either computer. * backup files from your Series 3 to the PC. * access files on the PC directly from your Series 3, even from within the Word processor, Database etc. * print from your Series 3 to a printer that is attached to the PC. The PC half of the 3Link lead can be replaced by different leads for connecting to printers, modems, etc. Connecting the 3Link lead ========================= 1.Connect the two parts of the 3Link lead. 2.Connect the plug on the 3Link lead to a serial port on the back of your PC. Use the one that is labelled COM1, if it is available, if not, use COM2. Make a note of the serial port that you have used - you will need this information when you come to set up RCom. + Modern PC ATs have 9-pin sockets on serial ports; older ones have 25-pin sockets. If you have just one serial port, its name is usually COM1; a second serial port would be called COM2, and so on. 3.With the Series 3 switched off, insert the small 6-pin plug on the 3Link lead into the expansion socket on the left side of the Series 3. 4.Turn the Series 3 on and move to the System screen (the Desktop on the MC, or the Command prompt on the HC). 5.On the Series 3: select the `Remote link' option on the `Special' menu and set `Remote link' to `On'. Make a note of the setting on the `Baud rate' (communication speed) line - you will need this information when you come to set up RCom. On the MC: select the Link icon on the Desktop. On the HC: type LINK at the command prompt. Important: You should now install and set up the RCom software on the PC. When 3Link is in use Important: If you open either of the SSD drive doors, the PC cannot communicate with the Series 3 until you close it again. Although you should not lose any information, it is safest not to open either of the SSD drive doors when using 3Link to link the Series 3 and PC. + If the link fails to re-establish after opening and shutting an SSD drive door, try switching the Series 3 off and on again. The 3Link lead is powered by the Series 3 when in use. If your Series 3 is powered by batteries, using 3Link will reduce the battery life to some degree. As soon as the 3Link lead is disconnected from the Series 3, power usage returns to normal (even if the 'Remote link' option is still set to on). When battery power is too low to use 3Link, the Series 3 may turn off. You cannot print from the Series 3 to a printer attached to the PC when 3Link is in use. For example, on the Series 3 you must set the `Remote link' option on the System screen to `Off' before printing, and then set it back to `On' to use 3Link and RCom for file transfer. Installing RCom The following installation procedure is for PCs with DOS versions 3.3, 4.x, 5.x, or 6.x. 1.Insert the PsiWin Disk 1 in your PC's disk drive and make sure that the DOS prompt is displayed. + If you have a hard disk, you may wish to use the DOS command MD to create a new directory in which to install RCom. You can then use the DOS command PATH to set up a path to the RCom directory and use PATH in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file; you will then be able to run RCom from any directory on your PC. See your DOS manual for more information. 2.Type A: (or B: if you have placed the PsiWin disk in the PC's B: drive). The default installation sets RCom to communicate with a Psion computer attached to the COM1 serial port at 19200 Baud (suitable for the Series 3a and MC). If the default installation (described above) is suitable for you: 3.Type DOSSETUP followed by the PC drive and directory in which you wish to install RCom, for example: DOSSETUP C:\PSRCOM If the default installation (described above) is not suitable for you: 3.Type DOSSETUP followed by the PC drive and directory in which you wish to install RCom, then the name of your Psion computer ("S3A", "S3", "HC" or "MC") and/or the name of the PC serial port to which it is attached ("COM1", "COM2", "COM3" or "COM4"). For example, you might type: DOSSETUP C:\PSRCOM S3 COM2 or DOSSETUP C:\RCOM COM3 Important: You must not type spaces as part of the name of the computer. It should be typed as follows: S3, S3A, HC, or MC. If you don't specify the computer that you wish to connect to the PC, RCom is installed set up to communicate at 19200 Baud, which is the right setting for the Series 3a or MC. You can now run RCom and use the RCom commands (as described in the following sections). Using RCom commands =================== Important: If the directory that contains the RCom software is not in your PATH, you need to change to this directory before typing the command line to display the RCom command prompt. Displaying the RCom command prompt ================================== RCom is initially set to use the following settings: Baud 19200 or 9600, according to the Psion computer that you specified when you installed RCom. 19200 Baud is used for the Series 3a and MC; 9600 for the Series 3 and HC. Port COM1 You should have noted the settings that you need for `Port' and `Baud' when you followed the instructions for `Connecting the 3Link lead' earlier in this document. If RCom's initial settings (see above) are appropriate for you: Type RCOM and press Enter, to display the RCom command prompt. If RCom's initial settings (see above) are not appropriate for you: Edit the appropriate lines in the RCOM.INI file from which RCom takes its default settings. This file is copied to the root of the directory in which you installed RCom as part of the RCom installation process. You can use a program editor or your DOS editor to edit RCOM.INI. See your program editor or DOS User Guide for details of how to do this. When you have edited the RCOM.INI file appropriately, you can type RCOM and press Enter, to display the RCom command prompt. Parameters in the RCOM.INI file can also be overridden using switches on the command line to display the RCom command prompt. The /B switch is used to set the Baud rate, and the /P switch to set the Port. For example: RCOM /B9600 RCOM /PCOM2 RCOM /B9600 /PCOM2 Type RCOM /H at the RCom command prompt for more information. + Switches are commonly used with DOS type commands to specify particular options for the command that they follow. See your DOS manual for more information about switches. If you use a non-standard serial port: you must edit the RCOM.INI file and change the "Physical" line to: PHYSICAL=IxAAA where I is the interrupt request line and AAA is the base I/O port address (in hexadecimal format). For example, PHYSICAL=9x2e0 When the RCom command prompt is displayed, you must set up the letters that represent the drives on your Series 3 before using RCom commands to transfer information. Setting up letters to represent Series 3 drives =============================================== RCom is initially set to use the following letters to represent the drives on your Series 3: Series 3 drive Letter used to represent Series 3 drive M: (Internal) I: (for "Internal") A: L: (for "Left hand SSD drive") B: R: (for "Right hand SSD drive") If you wish to use a different letter to represent a Series 3 drive: 1.Type SUBST followed by the letter that is currently set to represent the Series 3 drive, followed by the /D switch and press Enter. This deletes the current setting. For example, SUBST I: /D to delete the default setting of I: to represent the Series 3's internal drive. 2.Type SUBST followed by the letter you wish to use to represent the Series 3 drive, followed by REM:: ("REM::" stands for "remote") then the Series 3 drive that the letter should represent. For example, SUBST Q: REM::M:\ This sets Q: to represent the Series 3's internal drive. (The Series 3 SSD drives are specified on the SUBST command line with REM::A:\ and REM::B:\) Alternatively, you can edit the RCOM.INI file from which RCom takes its SUBST settings to include the letters that you wish to represent the drives on your Series 3. This file is copied to the root of the directory in which you installed RCom as part of the RCom installation process. The lines that you need to modify can be found towards the end of the file under the heading [rcom]. You might, for example, change the line: subst2=YI:-REM::M:\ to: subst2=YQ:-REM::M:\ to set the new PC drive Q: to represent the Series 3 internal drive, instead of the initial setting of drive I: to represent the Series 3 internal drive. (Ignore any "Y" or "N" in front of the PC drive letter.) You can now use the RCom commands. Using RCom ========== You can use RCom at any time; you do not need to reboot first, and you do not need to have any memory resident programs loaded. Important: Make sure that the link is set up on the Psion computer before attempting to use RCom to transfer any information. On the Series 3, for example, the `Remote link' option on the System screen must be set to `On' . Backing up information from the Series 3 to the PC ================================================== Important: * It is a good idea to turn off any automatic switch off function on the Psion before backing up. On the Series 3, use the `Auto switch off' option on the `Control' menu on the System screen and set `Auto switch off' to `Off'. This prevents the Series 3 switching itself off - if the Series 3 is switched off during your backup, RCom exits. * The BACKUP and RBACKUP commands cannot copy open files to the PC.You may therefore wish to use RCom's XSTOP command to stop programs that have open files on the Series 3 drive, or manually close any open files on that drive, before starting to back up. See `About Rcom commands' later for more details. Backing up all the Psion computer drives: You can use the RBACKUP.BAT batch file that is copied to the PC as part of the RCom installation process, if you wish to back up all the drives on your Psion computer. 1.Make sure that the Dos prompt is displayed. 2.Type RBACKUP. RBACKUP starts Rcom and uses a file called BAK.BAT to backup the drives. This copies files on the Psion computer to the C:\PSION backup area on the PC; files in each of the Psion computer drives are copied to a separate subdirectory of C:\PSION. For example, files on the Series 3 internal drive are copied to C:\PSION\I, files on an SSD in the Series 3's A drive are copied to C:\PSION\A and files on an SSD in the Series 3's B drive are copied to C:\PSION\B. If you do not wish to use the default letters to represent your Psion computer drives, or wish to back up to a different backup area on the PC, you must edit BAK.BAT before using RBACKUP.BAT. Backing up single Psion computer drives: The following example backs up files on the Series 3 internal drive and on an SSD in the Series 3's A drive to the S3BAK directory on the PC's C: drive. 1.Make sure that the RCom prompt is displayed. 2.Type BACKUP I: C:\S3BAK\I This copies all the files on the Series 3 internal disk to C:\S3BAK\I. 3.Type BACKUP L: C:\S3BAK\A This copies all the files on the Series 3 A: SSD drive to C:\S3BAK\A. Two people can backup information from their Series 3s to the same PC by specifying different backup areas in the BACKUP command. + You can use the /F switch on the BACKUP command line if you wish to backup all your files, regardless of whether they have been changed or not. Alternatively, you can simply backup to a new backup area on the PC. Type HELP BACKUP at the RCom command prompt for more details. + You can use the /A switch on the BACKUP command line to suppress archiving of files which are no longer on the Series 3. Type HELP BACKUP at the RCom command prompt for more information. + Switches are commonly used with DOS type commands to specify particular options for the command that they follow. See your DOS manual for more information about switches. About Backup ============ Backup uses a separate backup scheme to the one built into the Series 3a System screen. Backup does an incremental copy of the Series 3 drives. The first time you perform a backup, all files on the specified drive are copied to the PC; in later backups, only files that have changed since the previous backup are copied. + Backup works out which files to copy by the file dates and sizes, not by the "archive" (or "modified") file attribute. + Backup backs up and restores hidden and system files, maintaining these file attributes. If the backup area specified does not already exist on the PC, it is created automatically. If you have copies of Series 3 files in your backup area on the PC which no longer exist on your Series 3, Backup archives them into an @ARCHIVE subdirectory of the backup area. This ensures that the backup area on the PC contains an exact copy of files on the Series 3 drive(s), without losing any other files that were present in the backup area when the backup was initiated. For example, files in the backup area C:\S3BAK\I would be archived into C:\S3BAK\I\@ARCHIVE If you ever had to restore the files that you have backed up (which you would do with the RESTORE command that is described later), the archive area would be ignored. Printing information from the Series 3a ======================================= To print information from your Series 3 to a printer attached to the PC, you use the RCom program called RPRINT.EXE that is copied to the PC as part of the RCom installation process. RPRINT.EXE must be run from the DOS command prompt, not the RCom command prompt. RPRINT.EXE is initially set to use LPT1 as the port to which the printer is attached, COM1 as the port to which the Series 3 is attached, 9600 as the Baud rate for printing and 2 seconds as the Activity timeout. The following example prints a Word document from the Series 3 to a printer attached to the PC. 1.Make sure that the DOS prompt (not the RCom prompt) is displayed on the PC and that the `Remote link' option on the Series 3 System screen is set to `Off'. 2.Type RPRINT to run the RPRINT.EXE program using the default (initial) settings. 3.Select the `Printer setup' option on the Series 3 System screen (the `Printer' option on the Series 3a) and set the `Printer device' to `Serial'. Then press Tab on the `Serial characteristics' line and set the `Baud rate' to the `Baud' that you used on the command line to run RPRINT.EXE. Press Enter. 4.Select the `Remote link' option on the `Special' menu and set `Remote link' to `Off'. Press Enter. 5.In the Word application, open the file you want to print. 6.Use the `Print setup' option to set the `Printer model', for example to `General'. Modify the page layout, if you need to. 7.Use the `Print' option to print the file. 8.Press Control-C on the PC when you have finished with RPRINT.EXE. If you do not wish to use RPRINT.EXE with its default settings, you can enter the port to which the printer is attached on the RPRINT command line and use the following switches to change the other RPRINT settings: /P to set the PC port to which the Series 3 is attached /B to set the Baud rate for printing /T to set the Activity timeout For example, to print to a printer attached to the PC port LPT2 from a Series 3 attached to COM2 at a Baud rate of 4800 with an Activity timeout of 4 seconds, you would type: RPRINT LPT2 /PCOM2 /B4800 /T4 Alternatively, you can edit the RCOM.INI file (which is stored in the directory in which you installed RCom) from which RPRINT.EXE takes its default settings to include the settings that you wish to use. + You can use the /Q switch on the command line to run RPRINT.EXE to suppress printer status messages. If RPRINT.EXE reports printing problems, try reducing the `Baud rate' for printing to 4800 on the PC (on the command line to run RPRINT.EXE) and on the Series 3 (in the `Printer setup' dialog) before printing the file again. For more information about the RPRINT.EXE program, see the README.TXT file in the \RPRINT subdirectory of the directory in which you installed RCom. Using RCom commands =================== To run the RCom command line: 1.Make sure that the `Remote link' option on the Series 3 is set to `On'. 2.Display the Rcom command prompt as described earlier. You can now enter RCom commands to transfer information between the PC and Series 3. You can also use the Series 3 menu options to control the link from the Series 3; when you select a disk on the Series 3, the PC's disk drives will also be shown with their drive letter preceded by REM:: ("REM::" stands for "remote"). The examples that follow assume that the RCom command prompt is already displayed and that RCom Setup is using the default letters to represent drives on the Series 3 (I: for the Series 3 Internal drive, L: for the SSD drive A:, and R: for the SSD drive B:). Using RESTORE to copy backed up files back to the Series 3 ========================================================== You can use the RESTORE command to copy files that you backed up to the PC back to the Series 3. This example restores backed up files from the backup area C:\S3BAK\A on the PC to an SSD in the Series 3's A: drive: 1.Type RESTORE C:\S3BAK\A L: + You can use the /F switch on the RESTORE command line if you wish to format the Series 3 disk before restoring the files from the PC. Type HELP RESTORE at the RCom command prompt for more details of the switches that you can use with the RESTORE command. Using EQUALISE to restore missing files ======================================= You can use the EQUALISE command to make the contents of a directory on the Series 3 the same as the contents of a directory on the PC, and vice versa. You might wish to do this to restore files that you have deleted from your Series 3 without having to restore all the files in your backup area on the PC. This example makes the files in the \WRD directory of an SSD in the A: drive of a Series 3 the same as those in the C:\S3\WRD directory on a PC: 1.Type EQUALISE L:\WRD C:\S3\WRD + You can use the /S switch on the EQUALISE command line if you wish to make the files in subdirectories of the specified directory the same. In the above example you would type: EQUALISE L:\WRD C:\S3\WRD /S + The EQUALISE command compares files by file name, size and date. You would normally equalise files between a directory on the Series 3 and its backup area on the PC to restore missing files. If you use EQUALISE to make two directories equal in other situations, be careful not to have different files with the same name in each directory because the file with the most recent date will overwrite the other file. Using COMPRESS to reclaim space on a Flash SSD ============================================== If you use Flash SSDs, you may wish to use the COMPRESS command to reclaim space on a disk when it becomes full. This example compresses the information on a Flash SSD in the Series 3's A: drive: 1.On the Series 3, close down any open files on the SSD. 2.Type COMPRESS L: C:\TMP 3.When prompted, type Y to confirm formatting the Flash SSD. This copies all the files on the SSD in the Series 3's A: drive to C:\TMP on the PC, formats the SSD and then copies back all of the files from C:\TMP. + You can use the /N switch with the COMPRESS command to turn off confirmation of formatting. Type HELP COMPRESS for more details. 4.Type DEL C:\TMP\*.* /D /S to delete the copies of the files on the PC. (The /D and /S switches on the DEL command line are used to delete files in subdirectories of the specified directory, and then remove the subdirectories themselves.) Since files on the Flash SSD are copied to the PC as part of the COMPRESS process, you can do a backup of files on the Flash SSD at the same time as compressing the disk by specifying your normal backup location on the COMPRESS command line. For example, if you normally back up to C:\S3BAK on the PC you might use the command: COMPRESS L: C:\S3BAK\A to compress files on the Flash SSD in the Series 3 A: drive and update the backup copy of the files in the C:\S3BAK\A backup area at the same time. About COMPRESS ============== COMPRESS is similar to performing a BACKUP, FORMAT, and RESTORE on the specified drive; it does not reclaim the space taken by deleted records in Database and Agenda files. To reclaim the maximum amount of space: open Database and Agenda files on the Series 3 and use the 'Compress file' option to compress them before using the RCom COMPRESS command. (Note that the 'Compress file' option cannot compress files stored on Flash SSDs; you must copy them to the Internal disk.) COMPRESS, unlike BACKUP, copies the whole disk by default; it does not copy just the files that have changed. + You can use the /R switch on the COMPRESS command line if you wish to copy just the files that have changed since the last backup to the backup area on the PC before formatting the disk. Type HELP COMPRESS at the RCom command prompt for more details. Important: If you have only deleted one or more entries in a database or agenda file since the last backup or compress, the deleted entries will reappear after the compress process when you use the /R switch. This is because COMPRESS cannot tell that the files have changed since the last backup, and so will not copy them to the backup area on the PC. This means that the original copy of the files will be restored to the Series 3, complete with the entries that you had deleted. COMPRESS, like the BACKUP command, cannot copy open files to the PC. You may therefore wish to use RCom's XSTOP command to stop programs that have open files on the Series 3 drive, before entering the COMPRESS command. Type HELP XSTOP at the RCom command prompt for more information. Copies of files on the PC are not deleted automatically when the COMPRESS process is finished. If files already exist in the PC directory that you specify on the COMPRESS command line, they are overwritten if they have corresponding files of the same name on the Series 3, and are moved into an @ARCHIVE subdirectory if they do not. This ensures that an exact copy of the files on the Series 3 drive is restored after the compress process. About RCom commands =================== RCom has a number of DOS commands which perform similarly to their DOS counterparts, for example COPY, DEL, FIND, PATH and XCOPY. + RCom's DEL command allows you to delete files in subdirectories and remove the directory tree. To do this, type the /S switch at the end of the DEL command line to delete files in subdirectories, and then type the /D switch to remove the directory tree. For example, type DEL L:\WRD\*.* /S /D to delete all the files in the \WRD directory on the drive represented by the letter L:, including those in subdirectories, and then remove the directory tree L:\WRD\*.* + RCom reports errorlevels after each command. You can use the DOS-standard IF command (i.e. IF ERRORLEVEL...) to test the success or otherwise of the previous command. The values returned are not quite the same as in DOS - in general the only values returned are 0 for success and 1 for failure. RCom also has the following commands which are not equivalent to any DOS commands: Command Usage BACKUP Backs up a drive on the Series 3 to the PC. (This command is not the same as the DOS BACKUP command - see earlier for more information.) COMPRESS Copies a (Flash) SSD, formats it and then copies the files back. This reclaims the space used by deleted files. EQUALISE Makes the files in two directories the same by copying missing/updated files between the two directories. For more information, see earlier. QUIT Quits RCom, even in nested batch files. XABB Displays, sets or removes command abbreviations. XR Displays or recalls the command line history. XRECALL Displays or recalls the command line history. XSERVER Makes RCom enter the server mode. XSTAT Displays the remote link status and sets the errorlevel. XSTOP Stops programs that have open files on a Series 3 drive. XWAIT Waits until the remote link is established between the Series 3 and PC or until a specified time. The non-DOS file copying commands like BACKUP and EQUALISE use XCOPY's functionality in order to copy files. To see a list of the switches (options) supported by the RCom version of XCOPY, type HELP XCOPY at the RCom command prompt. RCom can run batch files of commands. These will usually look just like DOS batch files - they may even be DOS batch files as RCom's commands are so similar to DOS commands. + RCom commands can be run from an ordinary DOS batch file. For example, the line RCOM /W/C DIR I:\*.* in a batch file will run the RCom command prompt, wait for the link to be established (the /W switch), perform a directory listing of the Series 3's internal drive and then exit RCom (the /C switch). Type RCOM /H at the RCom command prompt for help on command line switches. For a full list of available commands, type HELP at the RCom prompt. For details about a specific command, type help and then the command name, for example, type HELP XCOPY for help on the XCOPY command. When you have finished with RCom and 3Link ========================================== 1.Type EXIT at the RCom command prompt to exit RCom. 2.Turn off the link on the Psion computer. On the Series 3, select the `Remote link' option from the `Special' menu on the System screen of the Series 3 and set the `Remote link' line to `Off'. It is important to do this otherwise: You will have less internal memory available on your Series 3. You will waste battery power whenever the 3Link lead is connected. When 'Remote link' is 'On' and the 3Link lead is attached, the Series 3 uses several times more power than normal. Advanced users - customising RCom ================================= You can edit the RCOM.INI file from which RCom and RPrint takes its default settings to customise the way that RCom works. It is copied to the PC as part of the RCom installation process and is stored in the root of the directory in which you installed RCom. You can also create a batch file of RCom commands called AUTORCOM.BAT in the root of the directory in which you installed RCom to change RCom settings. For example, you might wish to use the XABB command in the AUTORCOM.BAT file to set up command abbreviations that you like to use. RCom will automatically run this file after it has taken its default settings from the RCOM.INI file. You can edit the RCOM.INI and AUTORCOM.BAT file with your DOS editor. See your Windows, program editor or DOS User Guide for details of how to do this. If you wish to use RCom with two different setups, for example, you can create another copy of RCom in a separate directory on your PC. You must copy the following files from the original directory in which you installed RCom into the new RCom directory: RCOM.EXE AUTORCOM.BAT RCOM.INI RCOM.RSC RPRINT.EXE (if you wish to run RPRINT with a different setup) You can then edit the RCOM.INI and AUTORCOM.BAT files in the new RCom directory and specify a different setup for RCom than the one used in the original directory. RCom will then run with different setups, according to which directory you run it from.