- Dead Psion Revo Plus

- Re: Do Mobile Phones Transmit Remote Signals

- Slightly off-topic: USB to serial adaptor

- Re: The Digest V1 # 928

- Re: The Digest V1 # 928

- Malaysian netbook problem,

- HTC Universal, Available,

- HTC Universal

- Ref: Psion gold card modem reacts only with "OK"

- RE: Malaysian netbook problem,

- RE: USB-Serial adapter

- Psion and GoogleMail

Date: 14 May 2006 10:27:38 +0100
From: Morten Andersen <address truncated>
Subject: Dead Psion Revo Plus

It has been a few years since I last used my Revo Plus, and when now trying to charge it, it would not take charge (only green light, not red). But it was not possible to turn it on when running on the adapter, either. It was dead. I tried to charge it over night, but it didn't help. Someone who knows whether it is possible to turn it into life again?

M. Andersen

--

Date: 14 May 2006 21:31:11 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Do Mobile Phones Transmit Remote Signals

Dear Gary,

<< If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, 
call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold 
your cellphone about a foot from your car door and have the person at 
your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone 
on their end. Your car will unlock. >>

This is only possible when (a) the signal is within the frequency 
range of the spoken voice and (b) when the signal isn't damaged by 
the selective filtering of mobile phones. As we're able to hear the 
spoken word (unless we're completely deaf, of course) it means that 
we should normally be able to hear the remote lock/unlock signals 
that comes from our keys (or, in my case, a card). I doubt whether 
any of us has ever heard them as the early remote locking systems 
used infrared and modern ones RF signals. Well outside the frequency 
range of our voices - whether speaking or singing. In other words, 
these signals won't be transmitted via mobile phones.

As an aside (1) : It's a bad idea to use signals within the frequency 
range of the spoken word for a remote locking system as you can 
easily record them using any cheap voice-memo recorder. Play them 
back and you've got easy access to the car you're interested in (to 
steal it's contents or the car itself).

As an aside (2) : The selective filtering I refer to above is used to 
keep the data volume down to manageable levels using psycho- acoustics. The human mind is able to reconstruct a badly transmitted 
voice in the same way that we're able to understand that "wrd" is a 
typo and should be "word". The filtering of mobile phones take 
advantage of this by deliberately filtering frequencies out and 
encoding some frequency ranges less accurately. Result is a signal 
that's far from CD quality but contains sufficient information for 
the human brain to decode it into clearly spoken words. The practical 
advantage is that you don't need a high bandwidth to transmit a voice 
digitally.

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands

Date: 15 May 2006 08:10:32 +0100
From: nic
Subject: Slightly off-topic: USB to serial adaptor

Slightly off-topic: USB to serial adaptor.

Reply to: Ian Chapple <address truncated>



>> I would like to be able to connect my Garmin eTrex GPS unit to my Windows

laptop, but of course this does not have a serial port. Has anyone
successfully done this using a USB-Serial adapter, and if so, which
adapter have you used? There seems to a lot of different models available,
at vastly differing prices, but I don't want to buy one that doesn't work.
<<

I connect my Garmin Foretrex 201 to my laptop using the USB 2.0 to serial
adaptor from Cables Unlimited.



I first bought this one in England:

http://www.ptronix.com/eshop/2440.htm



then this one in the USA.  I bought it at MicroCenter in Boston but I found
it online for you here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1
104139

or here it is cheaper

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail~dpno~519300.asp



The Cables Unlimited one (bought in the USA) is smaller and connects
directly to RS232 without a cable.



When I installed the one I bought in England, I had a message saying that a
file was missing but I made a search, found it, installed it and it worked.



Are you in London?



nic

N 51°29’22.4”

W 0°09’56.8”

TQ 274 783

Date: 15 May 2006 08:42:12 +0100
From: Anthony Cartmell <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 928

> Subject: Do Mobile Phones Transmit Remote Signals
> Someone sent me this little tidbit.  Is it true?

No, this can't work.

Your car key uses coded short-range radio waves. Your mobile phone uses 
different frequency radio waves, and different encoding of the data (which 
is usually sound waves of you speaking). I think mobile transmissions are 
encrypted too, so people can't listen in to your conversations.

You could use a mobile to remote dial a tone-dial phone, if you ever 
wanted to, as that uses sound waves.

Anthony
--
www.fonant.com - hand-crafted web sites

Date: 15 May 2006 08:46:30 +0100
From: Anthony Cartmell <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 928

> Subject: Do Mobile Phones Transmit Remote Signals > Someone sent me this little tidbit.  Is it true?

Google "cell phone car key"

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_unlock_door.htm http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/phonelocks.html

Anthony
--
www.fonant.com - hand-crafted web sites

Date: 15 May 2006 13:07:46 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Malaysian netbook problem,

Answer to: David Norminton

Re.: Malaysian netbook problem - The mBook has got the system files in ROM and not in RAM which means that when you do a hard reset all the system software is gone as well (as opposed to the 5MX etc.). You will need a CF card with the system software OS.IMG which will restart your mBook and reinstall the operating system. This has been discussed recently (I believe) and a little search in the digest will give you the sources from where to download the OS.IMG file. I have got one fixed on my CF card and can send you the copy if you need it.


Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 15 May 2006 13:07:47 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: HTC Universal, Available,

Answer to: nicole

Re.: HTC Universal - A small correction. Look at allaboutsymbian website and you will find a tremendous amount of free and very cheap programs, smaller and larger, for the Symbian platform. You can find similar for other platforms as well.

To: All

Re. Available - I stil have lying in my office :

-  a S5 original in working order
-  a Psion travelmodem for the 3C or 3MX
-  a Psion 3link parallel printer interfacen/
-  a modem Gold Card V34+Fax for the 5MX or M/Nbooks
-  a 56K travel modem with GSM infrared for 5/7 series or M/Nbooks, only needs a cable.to connect to the phone line

Any interest, email me.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 15 May 2006 13:18:48 +0100
From: nic
Subject: HTC Universal

Reply to: Vlad A <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 927

> nic wrote on 11.05.2006 13:42 Uhr:
> N 51°29¹22.4²
> W 0°09¹56.8²

Yes! somewhere in Chelsea, probably on your balcony :-) Google Earth is
awesome...

Exactly, in Chelsea.  Yes, I agree about Google Earth.



nic

N 51°29’22.4”

W 0°09’56.8”

TQ 274 783

Date: 15 May 2006 22:29:28 +0100
From: Thomas F. van der Zijden <address truncated>
Subject: Ref: Psion gold card modem reacts only with "OK"

Dear all,

First, my thanks go to Itamar and Marcus on the subject "weird modem". Marcus, I did indeed try to send AT to the modem - it reacts with OK, which is good and then ATDT345, on which it also reacts with OK. That last thing is not good. If it were a computer, I would think that I formatted its hard disk... the hardware is not dead, but it does not react anyway (except for "OK").

Itamar, thanks for your offer, but Christoph Pulster saved the day again (as usual <g>) and today I found a brandnew modem in my mailbox. Thanks a lot, Christoph !

I am still grateful for any suggestions, as I do use the modem a lot and I would not want to have this problem again. In fact, for the countries I regularly stay in I have a local ISP and I still find that to retrieve e-mail, a modem is more efficient and cost effective than commercial WLAN networks.

Itamar, I am back in Belgium by the way. Did you know that we have a local Symbian (and other PDA) meeting in a pub in Antwerp every first Friday of the month ? Next time when you are in Bruxelles... :-)
It is very nice and if anyone wants location details, just drop me a line.

Yours truly,

Thomas van der Zijden

Date: 16 May 2006 13:05:40 +0100
From: K81010 <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Malaysian netbook problem,

Dear Itamar - thank you so much for your reply to my query about rebooting the Malaysian Netbook. It worked - how on earth would I even have known about os.img files without your help. I have learnt from this what a useful resource the digests are and have added the database to my Psion. I still cannot synchronise it with a PC although can with a 7 - I assume there must be a loose contact in the machine

Thanks again and best wishes  David

Dr David Norminton

Answer to: David Norminton

Re.: Malaysian netbook problem - The mBook has got the system files in ROM and not in RAM which means that when you do a hard reset all the system software is gone as well (as opposed to the 5MX etc.). You will need a CF card with the system software OS.IMG which will restart your mBook and reinstall the operating system. This has been discussed recently (I believe) and a little search in the digest will give you the sources from where to download the OS.IMG file. I have got one fixed on my CF card and can send you the copy if you need it.


Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 16 May 2006 23:40:16 +0100
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: RE: USB-Serial adapter

Ian Chapple wrote:-

} I would like to be able to connect my Garmin eTrex GPS unit } to my Windows laptop, but of course this does not have a
} serial port. Has anyone successfully done this using a
} USB-Serial adapter, and if so, which adapter have you used? } There seems to a lot of different models available, at vastly } differing prices, but I don't want to buy one that doesn't work.

When I bought a laptop without serial ports Ian, I bought a Belkin.  A pile of rubbish, that like many others from Belkin never worked with a Psion or a GPS.  Later I bought a cheaper and smaller one from Clove. It works everytime (apart from when windows plays up!) with my Garmin eMap and all my Psions.

Always plugged into the laptop (no desktop now), with Copyany on the taskbar for instant clipboard copying with my Psion 7.

Alan

Date: 17 May 2006 11:02:40 +0100
From: Rolf Vonau <address truncated>
Subject: Psion and GoogleMail

Hi all,
I could set up Thunderbird for GoogleMail, but my S7 doesn't react with the same settings.
Is there a possibility to get and send emails from the Psion S7 with GoogleMail?
If it's possible, pls tell me the settings.

--
Best Regards
Rolf