In the palm of your Amiga


An Amiga in the palm of your hand? Not quite, but the diminutive Psion mini computer is the perfect little brother. Together they let you take the Amiga experience out on the road.


We're going to have to admit it - there's not going to be a true Amiga portable, notebook or whatever any time soon. Much as it might be handy to have such a light weight Amiga, its custom chip-set technology doesn't lend itself to a low power Amiga. The PAWs machines might be more accurately called 'lugables' rather than true portables.

That's not to say there isn't a way to work on the move. It's just that such a solution would have to be based around a machine that is truly portable and this machine then needs to be linked to the Amiga in some way. The expensive option is to use a PC notebook and link it to the Amiga to share the data. A better option that's both a hell of a lot cheaper and a lot smaller than even a notebook comes in the form of the British developed Psion palmtop computer.

Inexpensive


It might seem odd that we'd be covering another computer platform in CU Amiga but in this case the Psion can be a very useful thing when coupled with the Amiga. The tiny Psion3, 3a and 3c and Siena models are also relatively inexpensive and like the Amiga have multitasking operating system built-in. This palmtop description isn't an exaggeration either, these units fit into a pocket and run for many hours off a set of two AA batteries. Often called 'organisers' which sadly understates the worth of these machines, the Psions have built-in networking capability and a serial port. Couple this with the PC serial cable and some superb shareware software on the Amiga and we have more than just a tenuous link, the Psion can be made a part of your Amiga. Psions have some built in software such as a spreadsheet/ database, word processor, spell checker/ thesaurus, agenda/ organiser, alarm clock, world time, calculator and even a nice little Patience card game. And it's got a built in sampler too. These packages aren't limited to use only on the Psion, the data created by them can be accessed on the Amiga. Especially useful in the case of the word processor.

Psion shareware


Psion software isn't limited to the standard provided packages, it also has its own shareware scene which means you can obtain software for the Psion (usually off the Internet) and load it on via the serial cable. I've got quite a bit of software loaded onto my 2Mb Psion including a map/guide to London, PsionMan MCP clone, terminal package, 3D tank game, Boulderdash clone, off line Web browser, sample editor and more.

Given that the Psion can do all of that and on the move, how do we use it with the Amiga? Well you need a package called AmigaNCP. This is a full networking package for the Amiga which works rather like Parnet. With Parnet you reference a remote device by prefixing is name with NET:. To look in RAM: on the other machine you examine NET:RAM/ instead. AmigaNCP is exactly the same except the device is NCP:. The filesystem on the Psion is based on MS-DOS which means it's limited to 8.3 filenames. Its drives also look like MS-DOS with single letter designations. A: and B: are the RAM/ROM card slots (yes the Psion has two), while M: is the internal memory, like a RAM: drive in the Psion's battery backed internal memory. This is where all the applications and data are stored that aren't present in its ROM.

Up and running

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Installing AmigaNCP is quite easy via the installer script provided but there is a file called NCP.config which will need to be configured by hand. Type the following lines into the AmigaDOS shell; 
SetENV NCP.config "DEVICE=serial.device UNIT=0 BAUD=19200"

then;

Copy ENV:NCP.config ENVARC:
Change the number after BAUD to 9600 if you have a Psion 3 and not a 3a, 3c or Siena. All you need to do now is plug in the cable to the Amiga and the Psion and run the software. You run it by clicking on AmigaNCP-FileServer or AmigaNCP-FileSystem. Use the first to allow the Psion to access your Amiga and the second to access the Psion from your Amiga. Note that the link cable has nice 25 and 9 pin connectors on the end, superb for the Surf Squirrel. Plug it in to the Surf Squirrel and alter the DEVICE to squirrel serial.device. Don't feel tempted to change the baud rate to higher than 19200 unless you're the lucky owner of Psion's latest '3c' or 'Siena' which can handle up to 57600 baud. Once the Amiga side is sorted out, you'll have to select Remote Link from the Psion's 'Special' menu. Toggle the remote link to On and change the baud rate to the maximum allowed which should match the value in NCP.config. A warning with the link cable and the 3/3a, the Psion powers the line driver (the box in the middle of the cable) and so battery life is reduced when in use.

Is all in order?


To test it's all working, get a directory of NCP: as there should be an icon called Psion on your Workbench. You can also use the Shell or a directory utility such as Directory Opus. In the NCP: drive you should see all the Psion's drives listed. Enter the M/ drawer and you see the directories in the Psion's main backup memory. You can copy files to and from your Amiga and Psion with ease. This is in fact how you install Psion software obtained on disk or from this month's massive archive of Psion software on the covermounted CD. Now to test the Psion side of it, enter the Word application. Type some text and then choose Save As from the menu. Cursor down in the file requester to Disk. Cursor right through this until REM:: appears. You'll be able to move through your Amiga drives like this. Once the drive is chosen cursor down to the filetype and change it to text, fill in a file name and save. Bang, the ASCII file will appear on your Amiga on the chosen drive. Nifty or what?



Psion Amiga Shell


There's another trick which can be performed with the Psion and a link cable. When the remote link is enabled on the Psion, choose install with Psion-I again. Change the drive to C: and install the comms application ... a little secret terminal package hidden away on a ROM drive. Turn the remote link off. Set your Amiga's serial prefs to 19200, RTS/CTS etc. Run the comms application and also set it up for 19200 baud, RTS/DTS and leave all the other handshaking options off. Now on the Amiga, make sure you have AUX: mounted. There may be a mountfile of this name in Devs:Storage/Dosdrivers. Mount this by using Mount followed by the full path to the AUX mountfile. Next, type Newshell AUX: and miraculously you should have an AmigaShell open on the Psion in the Comms package. You can do anything on this shell that you can do on a shell running on the Amiga. Run programs, fetch directories etc. A practical application of this would be to have a modem connected to the Amiga on auto-answer. If there's a newshell AUX: active, you'd be able to use the Psion and its modem accessory to dial in to your Amiga and control it remotely via a Shell. Psion modems also interface to cellular phones for the ultimate in portable communications. At the moment the Psion has no TCP/IP stack (Internet software) of its own but this is apparently coming. There's already Email and WWW clients (though for offline use). Most of us would find the Psion useful as a go between, as a little piece of the Amiga in a pocket. Until the Amiga gets truly portable this is the way it will have to be. However, in the meantime it's still a partnership made in heaven coupling both the best of desktop and palmtop computing.

Find out more


Palmtop is a substantial bi-monthly magazine dedicated to this little machine. It's well worth a look if you want to find out more about it, especially if you're interested in developing your own tools for use with your Amiga. You can phone them on 01869 249 287 or E-mail them.

Mat Bettinson - Technical Editor of CU Amiga

The Psion Palmtop range
Psion recently announced two new palmtops in their range which should be available by the time you read this. The Psion 3c is a slightly enhanced 3a model with faster communications (57600 baud versus 19200) and infra-red capability. The infra-red function allows 3cs and Sienas to 'beam' data between each other. At the time of writing, Psion were continuing with the policy of shipping the cable only with the expensive link software. Psion suppliers Clove may be able to advice on a cheaper solution that doesn't involve the expense of the PC software. The 3a's cable has a line driver making it more expensive. The Siena is the really new baby, however. This cut down 3a is considerably cheaper and smaller. The screen is half the size of the 3a - the other half of the lid is occupied by a numeric keypad. The main keyboard itself is smaller too. It still has the basic suite of powerful software and facilities though, despite its reduced price and the fact that it looks like a more traditional 'organiser'. Unfortunately because of the reduced screen size, it's very likely that much of the existing Psion shareware software won't work. While this isn't as impressive as the bigger models (not that any of them could be described as 'big') it does offer an even better value option for those who just want the word processor and organiser features. It's a shame it doesn't have the brilliant 3a/c spell checker though. Unlike the 3a, the Siena doesn't have any slots for static RAM and flash RAM cards. These would normally be used as drives to store data and such forth but since the intention is to connect the machine to your Amiga, storage and the lack of the card slots isn't a serious problem. There is an add-on unit which adds an external slot if this capability is necessary. It's likely that commercial software which will work on the Siena in the future will be provided on PC MS-DOS floppy disks where as for the 3a, special ROM cards were used. Even with no 2Mb version, the Siena packs a punch in an even smaller package.