Using PsiWin with IrDA (aka. How to get your EPOC device to link to Windows Me using Infrared
Last Update: 8th May, 2001
Preamble:
When I decided that I wanted to see if I could get an Infrared (IR) link working on my home PC (now running Windows Me) and my new work laptop (running Windows 2000), I had some practical obstacles to get around first. The current build of my PC at home is based around an ATX-type
motherboard which has 2 COM ports and 1 Parallel port built-in as standard. However one of these COM ports is used for an external modem and the other gets used for my Psion/PsiWin link. The whole attraction of
using IR with these platforms is the 'quick access' it potentially gives you compared with, say, PsiWin (I'll explain what I mean by this shortly) and so the idea of having to plug and unplug my PsiWin connection (I leave one of the excellent POD docking stations permanently set up on my desk at home) would make
it pointless. Hence I decided that I needed to install some extra COM ports on my machine - and this is what has caused most of the delay in writing this article!
In the old days, adding COM ports to your PC was relatively straightforward. You went out and bought yourself a new ISA COM port card, fiddled about with the
jumper settings on it until they all agreed with the spare I/O addresses and IRQ's on your PC, plugged it in, switched the machine on - and then spent the best part of the day trying to get Windoze to cooperate with the new card (and/or anything else it took a dislike to). Unfortunately these days it's
not quite that straightforward. Everything is PCI-based these days. The one legacy ISA slot I have on my motherboard is used to hold my old (sorry 'legacy') Umax Astra 600S SCSI card. Okay, so my scanner may not be the
latest high resolution, USB model - but there's nothing wrong with it and it works fine. No problem I say, I just go and get myself a PCI COM port card. Right...? Wrong! The whole reason that it's taken me well over a month just to write this preamble is because it took my local computer store over a month to source a PCI COM port card! Seems you can't get them for love nor money (well, £40 in my case). This despite the fact that all modern PC's made these days are stuffed full of PCI slots... Sheesh!
Installing the Infrared adaptor:
| Once I'd actually gotten hold of a nice new PCI COM port card, it installed without any pain at all (as you might expect of a PCI card). Albeit that it set itself up as COM5 and COM6 - but this may have had something to do with the fact that I'd been fiddling around with the IR adaptor (and hence IR virtual COM ports) which might've confused the machine slightly.
Anyway with the new COM ports now installed, the next step was to install the IR device itself. I've been using my old Parallax Research 'LiteLink' (aka PRA9500A) serial port device. These don't appear to be available any longer - however, I imagine that any currently available serial port IR adaptor will install in the same way. Go to Control Panel on your PC and select the 'Add New Hardware' icon.
Windows will initially do a search for Plug & Play compatible hardware - which any Serial adaptor isn't. When it then asks you if you want it to search for the device, select 'No' and instead select 'Infrared device' from the list it shows you. |
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Click 'Next' again and it'll take you the list on the left. I needed to install both a 'Legacy serial Infrared device' (it then presents you with a list of Serial port type IR device - on which mine was listed) and the 'Infrared COM port or dongle' (choose the 'Generic Infrared Serial Port or Dongle').
This second part installs a set of 'virtual' Infrared COM ports onto your machine. These were completely different to the new physical COM ports I'd already installed on the machine and appear to be something that Windows Me adds to give you 'virtual' COM port access to the adaptor.
They're certainly necessary if you want to use PsiWin over Infrared - as PsiWin can only communicate using the COM ports (that appear to be) installed on your machine. |
| When you now look at your System's Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Device Manager) and click on the 'Ports', you find all your actual COM ports (COM1, 2, 5, and 6 in my case - don't ask me why!) and a new 'Virtual Infrared COM Port'
You'll now almost certainly need a reboot to make sure that your system can see the new device successfully (don't forget to plug it in if you haven't already). On most devices there will be an LED which'll blink when your system restarts to show you that all the hardware is working correctly and that Windows Me knows that the device is there.
Once re-booted you can check to see if Windows can detect your Psion's Infrared connection by switching the Psion's Remote Link (Ctrl+L) on to Infrared at 115200 baud and pointing it at your Infrared adaptor. Assuming that it's working, you should have an Infrared connection icon appear in your Systemtray and a new Wireless Link icon appear on the desktop: 
You can't do anything directly with the icon (although see plBeam below) but it shows that the Infrared part of the link is working... |
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Using PsiWin over the Infrared link:
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Once you've got the Infrared link up and running you'll probably have to reboot your machine again before PsiWin will see the new Virtual Infrared COM port (don't forget to change the speed in PsiWin from 'Maximum attainable' to 115200). You might even have to re-install PsiWin before it'll see the new COM port. In my case however (using the latest PsiWin v2.3.2 - available as a free download from Psion's web site) PsiWin 'saw' the new port as soon as I stopped and restarted it (the program that is - not the machine...).
As you can see, PsiWin 'saw' the Psion at the end of the new COM port, started analysing it's files for changes... |
| ... and then started quite happily backing up!
So there you go. It is possible to use PsiWin with an IrDA connection from Windows Me to your Psion. So would I recommend it for frequent use? Well in all honesty... No. In spite of improvements to both Windows and to PsiWin, an Infrared link will never be as stable or as fast as a plain old Serial cable. Unless you have a strong reason for not being able to use a Serial cable connection, you can't beat plugging your machine into a docking station (or just the cable) and letting it do its stuff...
Having said all that... Something happened recently which has made me re-think my desktop connection strategy, keep the Infrared adaptor permanently plugged in, and consider buying one of POD's new style docking stations that allow Infrared communication whilst the machine is still docked. Read on...
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plBeam is a program recently released by PsiLoc.
PsiLoc are a relatively new company on the EPOC scene. They're based in Poland (although their web site is in English too!) and they've been writing some innovative software.
plBeam is a nag-free shareware (US$19.95) program which installs on ER5 machines (5mx, revo, mako, MC218, etc.) and allows your machine to use the IrOBEX standard through it's IR port. So what, you say? Well apart from improving your machine's ability to communicate with Palm and PocketPC machines, it means that you'll also be able to beam directly to and from Windows Me and Windows 2000 - i.e. no PsiWin required at all!
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So how does this work in practice? Well once you've installed plBeam, there's an option to let it take control over the standard 'Infrared send / Infrared receive' silkscreen button on your machine.
(It'll automatically recognise if you want to communicate with another EPOC machine as normal and allow for this - so no need to worry about that.)
The nice thing about this is that 'beaming' to and from your Windows desktop (or wherever) becomes totally painless |
| If you decide that you want to transfer a file from your Psion to your PC, you just point your machine at your PC's Infrared adaptor, select the file(s) you want to send and press 'Infrared send' as though you were beaming to another EPOC machine... |
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Your PC should then 'twang' obligingly at you, set up the Infrared link icons, and ask you if you'd like to accept the file... |
| ... and as soon as you click 'Yes' on the PC, the file gets sent from the Psion... |
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... and gets received on the PC. Totally painless - and all this could happen without PsiWin ever being installed on your machine.
Makes you think, doesn't it...?!? |
| Similarly - if you want to send a file from your PC to the Psion - just point your machine at the Infrared adaptor and press the 'Infrared receive' silkscreen button.
This'll set up the Infrared link with the PC as before. |
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Now select the file that you want to beam to the Psion and either drag it onto the new Wireless Link icon or right click on the file and select 'Send to / Infrared recipient'.
This'll start the file transfer... |
| ... which in turn is shown being received on your Psion. Again, totally painless.
This is what I meant by the 'Quick access' holy grail reference I made at the very beginning of this article.
The ease with which you can transfer files in this way (i.e. without having to start PsiWin up and suffer its occasional instabilities) makes this a very nice alternative. |
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So there it is. If you've got any thoughts, ideas, tips, experiences, or questions you'd like to share - drop me a line at 
.
Martin
