Psion »   USB-Serial Connectioon Series 7 Psion

Hi - can any kind soul help please? I am trying to connect my new Series 7 to my laptop and bought a USB-serial conector. Didn`t work and am thinking of binning that and buying another from Clove (more expensive). Has anyone experience of this ever more common problem (I would imagine anyway)? Other alternative is infra red but doesnt look like my laptop (Sony Vaio) has infrared connected, so I`d have to buy an adaptor! Very frustrating but I`m sure there must be a solution. HELP!!!

OK, well I touched on this in my reply to your other Series7 forum post (). You`ll find many posts about Chris Handley`s superb FastBackup, mostly on a couple of dedicated threads - these trace the inception & development of this application, which was first mooted by Chris on PsionPlace and then gradually developed by him in discussion with users, here, and the detailed feedback of an informal group of Beta testers. Reading these would give you some idea of the amount of work Chris has put into his foremost Epoc application and his painstaking attention to detail, in both its power & efficiency and its intuitive ease of use. However, this isn`t necessary, as FastBackup is now a robust and mature poduct which has undergone a huge amount of testing.
Basically what it gives you is a standalone backup system for your Psion, by using non-volatile Compact Flash to store your backup(s). Instead of relying on PsiWin backups, which require PC access, you can make a backup whenever you want (especially useful when travelling). By the same token, if you accidentally delete a file or suffer a serious machine problem, you can retrieve a file in seconds or recover from even a complete hard reset, in a minute or two, rather than wait till you`re back at your PC.
All you need to do is visit http://www.freepoc.org and download the latest version. If all you want is to maintain a complete backup of your Psion`s `C` (internal RAM) drive then, simply install FastBackup (to your `D` drive), launch it and set your backup drive; do read the informative Help file but, thereafter, all you have to do is hit `Backup` each time and let the program do the rest. There are more sophisticated settings, if needed, for selective backups and various user options, but one of the beauties of FastBackup is that all these complexities are hidden from the novice or straight forward user (indeed, many difficult program tasks and clever programming `tricks` are completely belied by its simple exterior!). There are other, commercial CF backup programs available, but FastBackup is at least their equal and, importantly, still actively supported. Oh, and one other thing - FastBackup is very, er, fast!
The only regrettable thing is that FastBackup wasn`t developed and released five or more years ago, in Psion`s heyday - it would have been adopted by a much bigger user-base and probably rescued many a catastrophic data loss or user error. Chris would probably have been knighted, by now!
Psions are generally very reliable machines but any computer, let alone one which is running 24/7 (even when nominally `switched off`) and relies on volatile memory for critical data storage, should be backed up if the loss of any or all of its data would be anything more than a trivial inconvenience. So basically, backup your Psion or deserve everything that may, just may, happen, one day!... right, I`ve gone on at too much length, here (i.e. off-topic)!
Go and get Psioning, Ken!...
Regards, Lewis

Well, it may well be that your problem is the same one that I, and others, have encountered with some Vaios, which is unrelated to the Clove adapter, per se; in which case, Clove may find it difficult to help. It was in anticipation of this possibility that I`ve tried to establish your specific machine:
So, third time lucky, which model Vaio do you have, Ken?
In any event, with the USB-serial adapter unplugged from your PC (adapter drivers still installed), try the following:
1. Goto Windows `Control Panel`; double click `System`; in the System Properties panel select the `Hardware` tab; click on `Device Manager`
2. In Device Manager, expand the `Ports (Com & LPT)` category, to display all the currently assigned COM ports.
3. Within Device Manager, locate the new item(s) which should appear when you plug the adapter in - probably just one, something like `Serial USB Port`. If your installation has gone `pear shaped` like most people`s, then you`ll have a yellow exclamation warning by one (or more) and you`ll see that the COM port number(s) are duplicated elsewhere in the list - which is the cause of all the grief! If so, proceed as follows:
4. Right Click over the device with the yellow exclamation and select `Properties`; select the `Port Settings` tab and then click on the `Advanced` button. In the Advanced box, click on `Com Port Number` and a drop down list should appear. Select a new number in the higher range, which is not `in use` - say, 200, if available. This should avoid any future clashes with the Bluetooth Manager, though you may prefer to assign a lower port, if available, like COM1 or COM2, traditionally used by PsiWin on older PCs with a couple of 9-pin serial ports.
5. Click `OK` to close this dialog box and `OK` again. Repeat this for any other of the adapter`s COM ports (probably none), setting it to, say, 201, if not already allocated (you might as well do this, even if not flagged).
6. These reassigned COM port(s) should now be reflected in the Device Manager list. Close Device Manager and Control Panel, and try removing and reinserting your adapter and, hopefully, Windows will now see it. Ensure PsiWin is set to use the COM port you have just assigned to the serial link adapter (MyPsion>File>Properties>Connections) and, if `MyPsion` is running, with your Series7 attached (and its serial cable link enabled), they should connect (the horizontal line icon in the System tray will become wavy and the `CopyAnywhere` icon will apppear).
If this fixes your problem, then the trouble will have been caused by a bug in the Vaio`s Toshiba Bluetooth Manager, which assigns COM ports to Bluetooth devices, without Windows flagging them as `in use`, hence the subsequent conflicts.
If the above does turn out to be the case, then I`d retry your original serial-USB adapter and see if it now works...
Hope this helps.
Regards, Lewis

Right - SUCCESS! Followed your instructions. In Device Manager `Ports (Com & LPT)` category, there were 3 items: (1) Bluetooth communications port (com8); (2) ECB Printer Port (LPT1); (3) USB Serial Port (Com12). Uninstalled the Bluetooth driver, then right-clicked on (3) and changed Com Port to Com1 and amended bit rate to 115200 to match Psion/Psiwin - it the detected my Psion! Just completed a synch with Outlook and it even recognised my Task categories which was impressive.
So grateful for your help and I`ll definitely use the Forum again when I`m stuck with something else (for good or bad) - many, many thanks, Regards, Ken (a re-vitalised Psion user).

You can set FastBackup to be run automatically by CronTab; see the built-in Help for more details [Emoticon not found]