Links & FAQ's
After Boris's original PSION Organiser Forum became inaccessible in spring 2020. The following links are to web-sites and archives provided by long time users , enthusiasts and contributors. All acknowledgements are given.
Jaap Scherphuis web archive contains a collection of most of the documents and programmes for the Psion Organiser. Including a web-based emulator and datapak file editor that I find particularly fantastic.
Boris Cornets original Organiser II Forum is now inaccessable
Yves Martin a Canadian Enthusiast created this new PSION Organiser II Forum
Boris Cornet (RIP) was the administrator of the original Organiser II Forum which became inaccessible in 2020 and has since been replaced with this new one. The first forum grew out of the original PSION2.org Web-Site set up by Dave Woolnough with help from Jaap Scherphuis and Boris (details below). It contained the first on-line collection of Organiser documents, articles and software as could once be seen in this archive link.
A legacy Boris Cornet left to all PSION Organiser users is Psi2Win the windows based comms link server. The last version Build 304 containing my requested Print Option allowing users to print or create PDF documents printouts direct from their Organiser.
Boris suggested using build 303 windows installer and then placing the Psi2Win.EXE build 304 file in that directory. The links opposite are to the original archive. The files are included below in case the original links are broken.
Download installation instructions and Builds 303 and 304 from the Comms Link Page (here)
Another Windows Communications Server ORG-Link_V2 can be downloaded from the link below..
Olivier Gossuin (here) - A Belgium enthusiast has created these.
microUSB CommsLink, RamPak_256k, FlashPak_512k, microUSB Power Supply. Unfortunately his 'shop' is now closed so if you get a change to purchase any of these items then I suggest you do so.
An eBay PSION Store where all Oliviers items are available fully encased and ready for use; along with other Organiser goodies.
Get ORG-Link details (here)
Frequently Asked Question from PSION2.org
Frequently Asked Question from PSION2.org
So you have an Organiser II, but what is it really?Well, if it's a CM then it is the most basic form of Psion Organiser available. It has 8k of memory and limited expansion capabilities! It is possible to upgrade the memory to 16k by grafting a surface mount memory chip onto the PCB, but as for the expansion - forget it. You will never be able to use 128k DataPaks! You may only be able to transfer the smallest of programmes to your CM from your PC/MAC due to a lack of memory!
You may have a XP, but is it really an XP?... Psion released an updated version of the XP and called it the LA! Confused? You should be by now. It seems that the original XP was not good enough for the USA market - it had to be beefed up. The memory was increased to 32k, but both the XP and LA look the same and are labelled identically.
Well, maybe you have a LZ. There are 2 versions of this little beasty. The plain old LZ which is just a 32k machine, and, the not quite so plain LZ64 (sometimes referred to as the LP), easy to work out that this is a 64k version of the basic LZ.
It seems there have been numerous versions of Organiser operating system. You can tell which operating system is in your machine by visiting Jaaps models page here.
Tip when changing batteriesMikesan (RIP) a member of Boris's original Organiser II Forum posted this tip.After changing the battery on your Organiser, place a diary entry at that date and time. Then in the future you have an exact record of how long the batteries are lasting.
How long does a battery last on a PSION Organiser IIThe short answer is a long time, on a rarely used Organiser you can measure it in years. To be more precise you need to know a little about how it manages the power. It was designed to operate under a wide range of conditions with supply voltage from the battery or external source varying between 5.5 and 11 volts.
The most drain on the battery is when writing to a Datapak. The Republished Technical Reference Manual explains.. Writing to a datapack will cost considerable battery power and is very slow. The power to access a Datapak is normally at 5V but is raised to between 12V and 21V when writing to the EPROM (depending on size and type of EPROM).
The LCD requires surprising little power. Power to the display it is not required when the Organiser is off, and when on is regulated to 5 volts +/- 5 percent with a load of typically 1 ma
Other considerations.When the Organiser is switched [ON] a 'Low Battery Test' is performed. This tests that the battery voltage is over 5 volts. If it is NOT then the BATTERY TOO LOW message is displayed for 4 seconds and then it switches off again. When left off, the Organiser keeps time by automatically switching on every 34 min 8 sec, updating the time and switching off again. Users will hear their Organiser 'click' as it switched on and off again every ½ hour or so.
WAKING UP FOR AN ALARMThe Organiser II maintains the system time while switched off. The machine switches on every 2048 seconds (34 minutes 8 seconds), updates the system time, and checks if an alarm is due in the next 34 mins 8 secs. If not it switches off again. If there is an alarm due is sets the system services ready to 'ring' the alarm.
AUTO SWITCH OFFTo save power if the Organiser is idle it automatically switched off (switches to low power mode). The time before the machine switches off is normally set to 5 minutes. See below or The Republished LZ Programming Manual page 57 shows a method of deactivating this auto switch off.
How can I disable or change the auto-switch off?Normally the organiser switches off after not being used for 5 minutes.
POKEB $007C,0 :REM no auto turn offPOKEB $007C,255 :REM restore auto turn off
The standard switch-off time can be set by POKEW $20CD,T% where T% is the length of time in seconds (default is 5 mins=300 secs).
How do I change the battery without losing data?The data in pack A: is held in RAM, which means that without electricity, the data will be lost (data on Datapaks and Rampaks will not be lost however). It is possible to swap batteries fast enough that there is enough charge to keep the data, but this is not very reliable (don't get paranoid: it works 99.9%). The best thing to do is to connect the organiser to a mains adaptor while you carry out the switch.
Nevertheless, here are a few tips on how to swap batteries without an adaptor:Switch the organiser off.Open the organiser, removing the case and battery cover.Remove rampaks (if you trust them), just in case.Put the replacement battery as near as possible, and in the correct orientation.As quickly as possible flip out the old battery and insert the new one.Be careful not to touch the ON key while you swap batteries, as this would drain power.
What is the Developer Kit?This is a DOS PC program that emulates the organiser. It also allows full screen editing of programs, and has many debugging features. Several useful small utilities are included for making and reading datapaks. It does not support the use of machine code or user defined graphics. You can find more details (here).
Why does my organiser click every so often?The organiser must keep track of the time even when switched off. The hardware is such that it can only be off for 34 minutes (actually 2048 seconds) before it needs to switch on again to update the internal clock. So every 34 minutes it switches on, does the timekeeping, and immediately switches off again. The organiser always clicks when it switches on.
Can the organiser cope with the year 2000?The LZ can, but the CM and XP models cannot..... There are some ways to fix this problem:The easiest workaround is to set the clock to one of the years 1978, 1989 and 1995 like the year 2023 has 365 days and starts on a Sunday.... It is also possible to use the OPL instruction POKEB $20C5,121 to manually set the clock to the year 2021. Normally this address holds a value between 0 and 99 denoting the current year. When the year is then displayed it will look strange (19:>1) but the weekdays are correct. The year would have to be updated the same way every new year.The best thing to do is to install Jaap's y2k-patch which you will find in the DevPACK.ZIP (here).
I've forgotten my password! What can I do?If you have an LZ or LZ64 then it is possible to set a system password. If you have activated it, then every time you switch on the Psion you have to type the password in before you can use it again.
If you have forgotten your password, there is no way to bypass it. The only thing you can do is temporarily remove the battery! You will of course lose all the data in A: when you do this, but you lose the password too.
You can have a password set, but not activated. Now it does not ask for the password when starting up, but it will ask for it when you (or someone else) tries to change the password. If you have forgotten the old password and want to change it to a new one then you don't need to remove the battery. The following OPL command will remove the old password completely:
POKEB $7FD6,0
For more information on passwords and Notepad passwords Jaap has a passwords page here
My organiser just says 'TRAP' and some letters and numbers. What can I do?This is a TRAP error. This occurs when the processor encountered an illegal machine code instruction, in other words, the machine has crashed. This often happens when developing a machine code program, but it occurs in other situations as well. For example one cause is excessive static electricity.The only way to return the organiser back to normal is by performing a cold boot: i.e. remove the battery, press the ON key to get rid of all remaining electric charge in the machine, and then replace the battery again. You will of course lose all information in pack A: (time, diary, and alarm settings, and any files or programs in pack A:). There is a slight chance to avoid data loss: remove the battery for a very, very short time. If you are lucky, the organiser will only boot warm, but don't count on that! Thankfully the TRAP error is not very common when using the organiser normally.
My organiser says "PACK?" or something that I don't understand and I can't access the main menu. What can I do?If your organiser is a POS model, you'll have to convert it to a normal organiser. If not, the organiser is currently running a program. Try pressing the Escape sequence (ON followed by Q). If that won't help, you will have to perform a cold boot by removing the battery and pressing ON while the battery is not fitted. Of course you will lose all data in main memory (pack A:) by doing so!
You may have a XP, but is it really an XP?... Psion released an updated version of the XP and called it the LA! Confused? You should be by now. It seems that the original XP was not good enough for the USA market - it had to be beefed up. The memory was increased to 32k, but both the XP and LA look the same and are labelled identically.
Well, maybe you have a LZ. There are 2 versions of this little beasty. The plain old LZ which is just a 32k machine, and, the not quite so plain LZ64 (sometimes referred to as the LP), easy to work out that this is a 64k version of the basic LZ.
It seems there have been numerous versions of Organiser operating system. You can tell which operating system is in your machine by visiting Jaaps models page here.
Tip when changing batteriesMikesan (RIP) a member of Boris's original Organiser II Forum posted this tip.After changing the battery on your Organiser, place a diary entry at that date and time. Then in the future you have an exact record of how long the batteries are lasting.
How long does a battery last on a PSION Organiser IIThe short answer is a long time, on a rarely used Organiser you can measure it in years. To be more precise you need to know a little about how it manages the power. It was designed to operate under a wide range of conditions with supply voltage from the battery or external source varying between 5.5 and 11 volts.
The most drain on the battery is when writing to a Datapak. The Republished Technical Reference Manual explains.. Writing to a datapack will cost considerable battery power and is very slow. The power to access a Datapak is normally at 5V but is raised to between 12V and 21V when writing to the EPROM (depending on size and type of EPROM).
The LCD requires surprising little power. Power to the display it is not required when the Organiser is off, and when on is regulated to 5 volts +/- 5 percent with a load of typically 1 ma
Other considerations.When the Organiser is switched [ON] a 'Low Battery Test' is performed. This tests that the battery voltage is over 5 volts. If it is NOT then the BATTERY TOO LOW message is displayed for 4 seconds and then it switches off again. When left off, the Organiser keeps time by automatically switching on every 34 min 8 sec, updating the time and switching off again. Users will hear their Organiser 'click' as it switched on and off again every ½ hour or so.
WAKING UP FOR AN ALARMThe Organiser II maintains the system time while switched off. The machine switches on every 2048 seconds (34 minutes 8 seconds), updates the system time, and checks if an alarm is due in the next 34 mins 8 secs. If not it switches off again. If there is an alarm due is sets the system services ready to 'ring' the alarm.
AUTO SWITCH OFFTo save power if the Organiser is idle it automatically switched off (switches to low power mode). The time before the machine switches off is normally set to 5 minutes. See below or The Republished LZ Programming Manual page 57 shows a method of deactivating this auto switch off.
How can I disable or change the auto-switch off?Normally the organiser switches off after not being used for 5 minutes.
POKEB $007C,0 :REM no auto turn offPOKEB $007C,255 :REM restore auto turn off
The standard switch-off time can be set by POKEW $20CD,T% where T% is the length of time in seconds (default is 5 mins=300 secs).
How do I change the battery without losing data?The data in pack A: is held in RAM, which means that without electricity, the data will be lost (data on Datapaks and Rampaks will not be lost however). It is possible to swap batteries fast enough that there is enough charge to keep the data, but this is not very reliable (don't get paranoid: it works 99.9%). The best thing to do is to connect the organiser to a mains adaptor while you carry out the switch.
Nevertheless, here are a few tips on how to swap batteries without an adaptor:Switch the organiser off.Open the organiser, removing the case and battery cover.Remove rampaks (if you trust them), just in case.Put the replacement battery as near as possible, and in the correct orientation.As quickly as possible flip out the old battery and insert the new one.Be careful not to touch the ON key while you swap batteries, as this would drain power.
What is the Developer Kit?This is a DOS PC program that emulates the organiser. It also allows full screen editing of programs, and has many debugging features. Several useful small utilities are included for making and reading datapaks. It does not support the use of machine code or user defined graphics. You can find more details (here).
Why does my organiser click every so often?The organiser must keep track of the time even when switched off. The hardware is such that it can only be off for 34 minutes (actually 2048 seconds) before it needs to switch on again to update the internal clock. So every 34 minutes it switches on, does the timekeeping, and immediately switches off again. The organiser always clicks when it switches on.
Can the organiser cope with the year 2000?The LZ can, but the CM and XP models cannot..... There are some ways to fix this problem:The easiest workaround is to set the clock to one of the years 1978, 1989 and 1995 like the year 2023 has 365 days and starts on a Sunday.... It is also possible to use the OPL instruction POKEB $20C5,121 to manually set the clock to the year 2021. Normally this address holds a value between 0 and 99 denoting the current year. When the year is then displayed it will look strange (19:>1) but the weekdays are correct. The year would have to be updated the same way every new year.The best thing to do is to install Jaap's y2k-patch which you will find in the DevPACK.ZIP (here).
I've forgotten my password! What can I do?If you have an LZ or LZ64 then it is possible to set a system password. If you have activated it, then every time you switch on the Psion you have to type the password in before you can use it again.
If you have forgotten your password, there is no way to bypass it. The only thing you can do is temporarily remove the battery! You will of course lose all the data in A: when you do this, but you lose the password too.
You can have a password set, but not activated. Now it does not ask for the password when starting up, but it will ask for it when you (or someone else) tries to change the password. If you have forgotten the old password and want to change it to a new one then you don't need to remove the battery. The following OPL command will remove the old password completely:
POKEB $7FD6,0
For more information on passwords and Notepad passwords Jaap has a passwords page here
My organiser just says 'TRAP' and some letters and numbers. What can I do?This is a TRAP error. This occurs when the processor encountered an illegal machine code instruction, in other words, the machine has crashed. This often happens when developing a machine code program, but it occurs in other situations as well. For example one cause is excessive static electricity.The only way to return the organiser back to normal is by performing a cold boot: i.e. remove the battery, press the ON key to get rid of all remaining electric charge in the machine, and then replace the battery again. You will of course lose all information in pack A: (time, diary, and alarm settings, and any files or programs in pack A:). There is a slight chance to avoid data loss: remove the battery for a very, very short time. If you are lucky, the organiser will only boot warm, but don't count on that! Thankfully the TRAP error is not very common when using the organiser normally.
My organiser says "PACK?" or something that I don't understand and I can't access the main menu. What can I do?If your organiser is a POS model, you'll have to convert it to a normal organiser. If not, the organiser is currently running a program. Try pressing the Escape sequence (ON followed by Q). If that won't help, you will have to perform a cold boot by removing the battery and pressing ON while the battery is not fitted. Of course you will lose all data in main memory (pack A:) by doing so!
These republished notes are taken from the 'meet them' pages of the web-siteThe original ORG2.COM later to be replaced with PSION2.org web site was launched by Dave Woolnough in October 1996 and was dedicated to the Psion Organiser II range of hand held computers. In the summer of 1997 Jaap Scherphuis joined as Software specialist and soon became fully responsible for maintaining the web-site on a day-to-day basis. In Spring 2002 Boris Cornet volunteered to take over as site maintainer/editor and later that year launched the Organiser II User Forum.
The web site was deemed necessary because since the introduction of the Series 3 / 3a / 3c / 5 and Siena, Psion PLC has almost ceased their support for the Organiser II, the 'Psion Organiser II Homepage' was created to correct this situation!
Considering that more than 500,000 series II Organisers were produced, there must be many people still using this wonderful machine.
The World Wide Web pages were for those of who would not give up the old, but very trusty CM, XP or LZ. There you could find information and software for the complete range of Psion Organiser II computers.
I hope, those of you who visit these pages will contribute information and not only download programs but also add them as well, programs which you have either written or acquired. Without your help these pages may not survive! Dave
The web site was deemed necessary because since the introduction of the Series 3 / 3a / 3c / 5 and Siena, Psion PLC has almost ceased their support for the Organiser II, the 'Psion Organiser II Homepage' was created to correct this situation!
Considering that more than 500,000 series II Organisers were produced, there must be many people still using this wonderful machine.
The World Wide Web pages were for those of who would not give up the old, but very trusty CM, XP or LZ. There you could find information and software for the complete range of Psion Organiser II computers.
I hope, those of you who visit these pages will contribute information and not only download programs but also add them as well, programs which you have either written or acquired. Without your help these pages may not survive! Dave
I have been interested in computers since the late 70's! My interest started with the introduction of the microprocessor. I followed the development of this amazing device and as my interest grew I just had to own one. In 1979 I purchased a MOS technologies KIM 1 6502 evaluation kit. This 'kit' consisted of a large PCB which included a hex keypad, six digit seven segment LED display, 1Kb of memory and a TTY output for the more sophisticated programmes! It was only programmable in machine code and to be honest, at that time, I didn't even know what a memory map was let alone a mnemonic! I soon grasped the essentials an began writing a number of machine code programmes. I eventually progressed on to a Nascom 2 which really was a kit...of parts. This I built and had great fun with, programming in BASIC and Z80 machine code.
Then came the introduction of the Sinclair Spectrum, you could say that I sort of regressed a bit in computer terms but the Spectrum was a great little computer and I thoroughly enjoyed using it. I wrote many programmes, mainly utilities but also a few games, again mainly in machine code.
My next computer love was and still is a Psion Organiser XP shortly followed by a LZ64. Then came the Amiga which I just used and never really programmed.
Finally I purchased a PC and have been upgrading it ever since.
I work for Hughes Electrical on permanent contract to Home Electrical Direct as a Internet Development Manager but I am, by trade, a TV engineer and until fairly recently (2 - 3 years ago) I travel the North Suffolk & South Norfolk Waveney Valley countryside in the East Anglia region of the UK each day servicing TV's, Video's, Satellite receivers & computers, together with all other domestic electronic goods. The redirection in my career happened as a direct result of a stroke of shear luck; I bumped into the Hughes managing director one day we ended up discussed my interest in the Internet and web site creation. Soon after that conversation I was moved to the marketing department of Hughes Electrical where and eventually on to HED - david.w@hed.co.uk
I am 49 years of age and have a beautiful wife, daughter and son; who is PC and Sony PlayStation mad and following in my footsteps training as a Graphic Designer.
The information resource of these web pages was always planned even before I became connected, but my dream only became reality when the medium of the Internet finally arrived.
I have many commercial web sites under my belt http://www.hed.co.uk and associated sub-sites & http://www.hughes-tv.co.uk and numerous other sites which are indirectly associated with HED. Why not visit my personal site http://www.dave-woolnough.co.uk, I am available for web site/page design if you would like to contact me with your ideas/requirements, I would be most pleased ;-}
Then came the introduction of the Sinclair Spectrum, you could say that I sort of regressed a bit in computer terms but the Spectrum was a great little computer and I thoroughly enjoyed using it. I wrote many programmes, mainly utilities but also a few games, again mainly in machine code.
My next computer love was and still is a Psion Organiser XP shortly followed by a LZ64. Then came the Amiga which I just used and never really programmed.
Finally I purchased a PC and have been upgrading it ever since.
I work for Hughes Electrical on permanent contract to Home Electrical Direct as a Internet Development Manager but I am, by trade, a TV engineer and until fairly recently (2 - 3 years ago) I travel the North Suffolk & South Norfolk Waveney Valley countryside in the East Anglia region of the UK each day servicing TV's, Video's, Satellite receivers & computers, together with all other domestic electronic goods. The redirection in my career happened as a direct result of a stroke of shear luck; I bumped into the Hughes managing director one day we ended up discussed my interest in the Internet and web site creation. Soon after that conversation I was moved to the marketing department of Hughes Electrical where and eventually on to HED - david.w@hed.co.uk
I am 49 years of age and have a beautiful wife, daughter and son; who is PC and Sony PlayStation mad and following in my footsteps training as a Graphic Designer.
The information resource of these web pages was always planned even before I became connected, but my dream only became reality when the medium of the Internet finally arrived.
I have many commercial web sites under my belt http://www.hed.co.uk and associated sub-sites & http://www.hughes-tv.co.uk and numerous other sites which are indirectly associated with HED. Why not visit my personal site http://www.dave-woolnough.co.uk, I am available for web site/page design if you would like to contact me with your ideas/requirements, I would be most pleased ;-}
If you look through the Psion FTP archive you can't help but notice that a large proportion of the programmes are written by Jaap Scherphuis. Many of his programmes are written in machine code which is Jaap's unique trademark as master programmer of the Psion Organiser II.
Jaap was born on the 22nd January 1972 in Utrecht, Holland. Between 1974 and 1978 he lived in Horsham, West Sussex, which is the reason that he says; "I don't have one of those awful Dutch accents, now." After finishing school in Holland, Jaap returned to England again, to study for a maths degree. He is currently completing his D.Phil (Ph.D) in Number Theory at Worcester College - Oxford, England.
Jaap's interest in computers started when he was given a Sinclair ZX81. In his own words; "I started programming immediately, and soon moved on to programming in machine code with the help of an excellent book by Toni Baker. My ZX81 then turned into a ZX Spectrum."
His first contact with a Psion was when his father bought a model CM in 1987 or so. Jaap had to do the programming for him! He says; "I got my own Psion, an LZ64, in early 1989 as a present for doing well in my school exams, and I have never stopped programming since!"
Jaap's other interests include: collecting puzzles, mainly those of the Rubik's cube type. He is also very interested in magic, and a great fan of Jerry Sadowitz who published one of his own tricks.
To see how to program your Organiser in machine code visit Jaap's Psion Machine Code Tutor web page.
In the summer of 1997 Jaap Scherphuis was invited to join the Psion Organiser II Homepage team as Software specialist and soon became fully responsible for maintaining the pages on a day-to-day basis
Jaap was born on the 22nd January 1972 in Utrecht, Holland. Between 1974 and 1978 he lived in Horsham, West Sussex, which is the reason that he says; "I don't have one of those awful Dutch accents, now." After finishing school in Holland, Jaap returned to England again, to study for a maths degree. He is currently completing his D.Phil (Ph.D) in Number Theory at Worcester College - Oxford, England.
Jaap's interest in computers started when he was given a Sinclair ZX81. In his own words; "I started programming immediately, and soon moved on to programming in machine code with the help of an excellent book by Toni Baker. My ZX81 then turned into a ZX Spectrum."
His first contact with a Psion was when his father bought a model CM in 1987 or so. Jaap had to do the programming for him! He says; "I got my own Psion, an LZ64, in early 1989 as a present for doing well in my school exams, and I have never stopped programming since!"
Jaap's other interests include: collecting puzzles, mainly those of the Rubik's cube type. He is also very interested in magic, and a great fan of Jerry Sadowitz who published one of his own tricks.
To see how to program your Organiser in machine code visit Jaap's Psion Machine Code Tutor web page.
In the summer of 1997 Jaap Scherphuis was invited to join the Psion Organiser II Homepage team as Software specialist and soon became fully responsible for maintaining the pages on a day-to-day basis
Born 19-06-61 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria Passed away 2012 age 51 due to a heart attack while hiking in India.
Boris Cornet - In Spring 2002 Boris volunteered to take over as site maintainer/editor - in his meet them page he wrote; After finishing school in '79 I began studying computer science at the University of Vienna. Boris explains; "After 2 years of hauling punch cards, I decided that being a computer nerd was not what I wanted to do for a living. So I moved to West Berlin and became part of the squatting scene. I discovered the Psion Organiser II when I was studying (media-pedagogic) again in the mid 80'ies. Somebody approached the Students' Job Board' asking for BASIC lessons - I got the job, and was confronted by an enthusiastic Organiser II fan who wanted to gain control over his Cyber Pocket Assistants.
I immediately fell in love with the Organiser II - which is a truly amazing piece of technology: so much potential and so small! I struck a deal for my work - one XP for me, and the lessons for (almost) free. From that day on, the Organiser II has become a constant part of my life: It replaced my calendar, wristwatch and notebook. I wrote several programs including a word processor and a filing system with folders etc. I even programmed my XP in bed! - and I still believe the Organiser II is the only handheld which can be programmed comfortably in bed.
Later the interest in the Organiser II was partially replaced by the Amiga 1000 which was fascinating because of its graphics potential - remember VGA wasn't even invented at that time and the 8086 was the state-of-the-art processor for mess-DOS machines then.
But disaster struck - on one doomed night, somehow a mysterious power defect not only blew up my Organiser but also wiped all the data on my packs! At that very moment I learned the importance of backups the hard way (haven't we all? Dave). That was the end of a long-term hobby - at least that was what I thought at that moment. And so it was, until...
Meanwhile I left Berlin (still "West-") because of what I call the "final wall tantrum (der endgültige Mauer-Koller)" just a few months before the wall finally went down (history does play tricks on you sometimes).
Back in Innsbruck, I convinced the Tyrol branch of the Austrian Traffic Security Board (KfV) of doing road accident statistics via computer instead of counting numbers on printouts. That's how I got the job I'm still doing today (I call it computersitting or computer occupation-therapy whereas most people would say network administration or even determining). I also do Clipper and Visual Basic programming and geographical information systems are a new challenge.
...one day someone asked me if I knew as solution to a problem:
An automated speed display (primarily an educational device) is hired to schools etc. The idea was to store the data in a rough trade removable device capable of recovering after all sorts of misuse. I checked the market, but my first idea kept being the best solution: the good old Organiser II! So that’s how I came back into business. The project almost died because Psion PLC had ceased support for the Organiser II. If I hadn't found Dave & Jaap’s marvellous Psion Organiser II CM, XP & LZ homepage the handshake lines would have driven me nuts."
Well, Boris' biographic history is certainly a clue to his favourite hobby:
"The Museum of Abandoned Technologies (under construction)".
Boris continues; "80'ies computers - remember those films - were mainly noisy and expensive. Some of those forgotten machines fill up my cellar. All of them are fully functional (although the performance is sometimes painful - especially when watching the IBM 6120 booting for 5 min! and then trying to connect to its former owner for at least 3 more min.)"
DONATIONS ARE WELCOME!
Another hobby is skiing (no wonder: the next ski resort is 5 min. walk from my door).
Boris has been invited to join the Psion Organiser II team as technical adviser. His duties include answering your questions and queries and of course Boris will be adding to the growing number of Organiser II web pages.
You will find Boris hanging out on the BBS Chatline or your are most welcome to contact him by email. Feel free to quiz him regarding all aspects of the Organiser II.
Boris Cornet - In Spring 2002 Boris volunteered to take over as site maintainer/editor - in his meet them page he wrote; After finishing school in '79 I began studying computer science at the University of Vienna. Boris explains; "After 2 years of hauling punch cards, I decided that being a computer nerd was not what I wanted to do for a living. So I moved to West Berlin and became part of the squatting scene. I discovered the Psion Organiser II when I was studying (media-pedagogic) again in the mid 80'ies. Somebody approached the Students' Job Board' asking for BASIC lessons - I got the job, and was confronted by an enthusiastic Organiser II fan who wanted to gain control over his Cyber Pocket Assistants.
I immediately fell in love with the Organiser II - which is a truly amazing piece of technology: so much potential and so small! I struck a deal for my work - one XP for me, and the lessons for (almost) free. From that day on, the Organiser II has become a constant part of my life: It replaced my calendar, wristwatch and notebook. I wrote several programs including a word processor and a filing system with folders etc. I even programmed my XP in bed! - and I still believe the Organiser II is the only handheld which can be programmed comfortably in bed.
Later the interest in the Organiser II was partially replaced by the Amiga 1000 which was fascinating because of its graphics potential - remember VGA wasn't even invented at that time and the 8086 was the state-of-the-art processor for mess-DOS machines then.
But disaster struck - on one doomed night, somehow a mysterious power defect not only blew up my Organiser but also wiped all the data on my packs! At that very moment I learned the importance of backups the hard way (haven't we all? Dave). That was the end of a long-term hobby - at least that was what I thought at that moment. And so it was, until...
Meanwhile I left Berlin (still "West-") because of what I call the "final wall tantrum (der endgültige Mauer-Koller)" just a few months before the wall finally went down (history does play tricks on you sometimes).
Back in Innsbruck, I convinced the Tyrol branch of the Austrian Traffic Security Board (KfV) of doing road accident statistics via computer instead of counting numbers on printouts. That's how I got the job I'm still doing today (I call it computersitting or computer occupation-therapy whereas most people would say network administration or even determining). I also do Clipper and Visual Basic programming and geographical information systems are a new challenge.
...one day someone asked me if I knew as solution to a problem:
An automated speed display (primarily an educational device) is hired to schools etc. The idea was to store the data in a rough trade removable device capable of recovering after all sorts of misuse. I checked the market, but my first idea kept being the best solution: the good old Organiser II! So that’s how I came back into business. The project almost died because Psion PLC had ceased support for the Organiser II. If I hadn't found Dave & Jaap’s marvellous Psion Organiser II CM, XP & LZ homepage the handshake lines would have driven me nuts."
Well, Boris' biographic history is certainly a clue to his favourite hobby:
"The Museum of Abandoned Technologies (under construction)".
Boris continues; "80'ies computers - remember those films - were mainly noisy and expensive. Some of those forgotten machines fill up my cellar. All of them are fully functional (although the performance is sometimes painful - especially when watching the IBM 6120 booting for 5 min! and then trying to connect to its former owner for at least 3 more min.)"
DONATIONS ARE WELCOME!
Another hobby is skiing (no wonder: the next ski resort is 5 min. walk from my door).
Boris has been invited to join the Psion Organiser II team as technical adviser. His duties include answering your questions and queries and of course Boris will be adding to the growing number of Organiser II web pages.
You will find Boris hanging out on the BBS Chatline or your are most welcome to contact him by email. Feel free to quiz him regarding all aspects of the Organiser II.
Launched by Boris on 5th October 2002 - became inaccessible in the Spring of 2020. The forum was nearly lost when Boris passed away in 2012 as he had all the access codes and passwords. It was rescued by a member MikeSan who took over the administrator role until he became ill in the spring of 2020 when it finally became inoperative. As of January 2021 - Scott Richards a PSION Facebook Group Member is trying to reinstate it. In January 2021 Olivier opened a new Organiser II forum (here)
Salvaged from the Original ORG2.com website
Salvaged from the Original ORG2.com website
Psion II LZ Repair
Sadly some LZ64's suffers from a persistent and quite irritating whistle, which James believe comes from ageing capacitor.
Finding out the sizeYou can find out what the size is of a program pack or datapack by looking at the number on the chip. There should be a number on it that starts with the digits 27. The other two or three digits indicate the size of the memory (in KiloBits!); 64 for 8k, 128 for 16k, 256 for 32k, 512 for 64k and finally the odd number 011 for a 128k pack.
Remember that program packs can be purchased at a reasonable price from the ebay store The Powerful Pierre. Which will leave your unsized Datapak for storing data.
Datapak Erasing Service
Datapak Erasing Service
Contact Martin to register interest and exchange postal addresses.
Terminology in this context
Stamped = £1.29 First (or 96p Second) Class Large Letter Stamp.
Erase = EPROM pack is subjected to a cycle of infrared ultra violet light.
Formatted = This term is reserved for the erasing of data and the preparation of a Flash Datapak or RAMpak which can be undertaken by the user so are not part of this process.
Jiffy envelope (maximum A5) addressed to Martin and stamped with Large letter stamp. Back of this envelope has senders address and marked content = computer memory. It is the thickness of the envelope that makes it a Large Letter (Small letter maximum thickness 5mm. Large letter maximum thickness 25mm so keep the packs flat.).
Contents of jiffy envelope sent for processing
Stamped - self addressed jiffy envelope (maximum A5)
Order chitty (see below)
Maximum 4 EPROM Datapaks laid flat, wrapped in paper, taped in to a 'flat block'.
1 unattached £1.29 First Class Large Letter Stamp (or eBay [Buy it now] payment) to cover expenses.
Process options
Erase only - The EPROM Datapak will be dismantled (to protect any labels) and subjected to two Erase cycles in a PSION infrared Datapak formatter. Packs will be reassembled and returned unsized.
UNMAKE - Use the Comms Link and PSION's UNMAKE to copy the pack image onto a PC and split into its constituent parts ready to send to the email address on the Order Chitty.
UNMAKE & Erase - Combine the two processes above.
MAKE (program pack name) Use the Comms Link to MAKE a program pack on to an unsized pack. Pack size must be large enough to receive the program pack image which must be available from Jaap's archive here
Order Chitty Contents (example)
Order Chitty Contents (example)
Psion Organiser II users who would like to comment or are looking for further information or instructions can leave a message for Martin