Technical Notes

Common Connection Problems

The most common reasons PalmConnect will not link to the Zoomer are:

• You selected File Transfer on your PDA instead of File Linking
• Incorrectly set preferences
• Lack of available serial (COM) port
• Unusual COM port configurations or addressing.

Don't use File Transfer:
On your PDA, in the File Manager, under the Connect menu there are two options: File Linking and File Transfer. File Transfer is a special feature of the Geos o/s which allows for batch sending or retrieval of files. It is NOT used by PalmConnect. Make sure you choose File Linking.

Setting Preferences:

• Make sure you've set the same baud rates on both PalmConnect and the PDA, and that you have selected the Serial Cable option on the PDA for communication.
• Make sure that the COM port you've selected on your PC is available
• Reassign your COM ports so that internal modems, etc. are on COM3, to allow COM2 for communications.

Determining COM Port availability:

Basic test: If you can communicate successfully with an external modem or similar device on a particular port, and you're sure of its ID, you should be able to communicate with PalmConnect.

DOS 5 and 6.x contain a utility called "MSD" which allow you to look at the status of ports, interrupts, and other hardware. Run this to ensure that you have a COM port available. By default, COM ports 1 and 3 share the same interrupt (IRQ), making COM3 undesirable for PalmConnect. If you must use COM3, edit the interrupts to put COM3 on a different interrupt.

There may be jumper wires or DIP switches which need to be set to activate or de-activate a device, or other complications relating to the system interrupts. Consult you hardware manual for working with your system's interrupts.

If you only have one available serial (COM) port on your machine (e.g. portable computer with one port for a mouse, or one port for mouse and one dedicated to internal modem) you will either have to add a serial port or work without the hardware mouse. A keyboard mouse feature is provided by Geos for this condition. Please see technote: "No Mouse in PalmConnect".

Note:
If you have made a successful connection on the PalmConnect side, but the remote drive button reads the same name and drive as your PC, you have selected a COM port which is already dedicated to another device. Devices, i.e. modem or mouse, will return a sufficient signal for PalmConnect to connect! On PalmConnect, go back to Preferences>Connect>File Linking and choose another available port. Make sure that you get an "OK" button by cycling values for the COM port and baud rate preferences. (See also the technote: "PC Sees Itself".)

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