DLPilot Usage

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DLPilot is designed to not require any documentation of its own. Rather, it is for the most part a "slave" to whatever disk client you choose.

Compatible disk clients

  • TS-DOS
  • TEENY
  • WP-2 Disk client
  • Booster Pak (TS-DOS)
  • POWR-DOS
  • TINY

TS-DOS on a Mombo, Rex, or Remem is an excellent solution.

If you don't have a ROM solution, TEENY is the sensible alternative.

Getting Connected

To plug your Palm to Model T, you need an adapter that bridges the 9-pin female adapter on your Palm cradle or cable to the 25-pin female port on your Model T. That means your adapter should be 25-pin male to 9-pin male, wired straight-through.

Note: the connection must be "straight through." DO NOT use a crossover cable like the Club100 "Complink" cable. Your Palm cradle is wired like a modem (DCE) not a terminal (DTE). The Complink cable is designed for connecting a Model T to another terminal (your PC). So, it is inappropriate for this purpose.

You may need an adapter AND a gender changer depending on what adapters you have laying around.

Usage

Install dlp.prc by whatever means you normally install Palm applications. On Linux, I use pilot-xfer. On Windows, you probably use Palm Desktop "Install."

Following install, look in your applications and launch the icon that looks like a Model 100.

Click the "ON" button. This turns on the serial port power on your Palm. It won't work if you don't click the ON button. Yeah, yeah, but sorry, I find this amusing and am unlikely to change it.

If you are using a WP-2, make sure to select the <coded>Laptop Model drop-down to pick the WP-2 selection.

At this point, you should be able to completely remote control DLPilot from your Model T. You can save files to DLPilot and load them back to your laptop by following the TS-DOS documentation.

Viewing .DO files on your Palm

So, you've transferred a .DO file to your Palm and you want to look at it or edit it on the Palm. You can use SiEd from the Files section of the DLPilot Yahoo group.

DO files are converted to/form PalmDOC format on the fly by DLPilot while using your disk client. Any document reader software that supports the PalmDOC format (which should be all of them) can view the files.

NOTE: DO files from a WP-2 are not the same as DO files from a M100. DO files from a WP-2 may not be viewed on the Palm. Your best bet with the WP-2 is to convert the files to .DA files, and save those to the Palm.

Converting Files to/from .pdb Format

In order to transfer files to your Palm, they must be in the Palm Database (pdb) format. Further, to use with DLPilot, the files must be PalmDOC files. This is a special binary format for representing files > 4K on the Palm as a single pdb.

For Windows, Steve Adolph reported success using the TiBR converter:

TiBR Converter (Windows)

For Linux, you can use txt2pdbdoc:

txt2pdbdoc

Transferring .pdb Files from Palm to PC

For Linux, this is straightforward. You simply use pilot-xfer.

For Windows, you use the Palm Desktop and do a Hotsync. (TBD: step by step instructions)

Manipulating Files on Palm

You may need a file manipulation program on your Palm. I believe you can use it to mark files for Hotsync. Also, you can use it to transfer files to other Palms over the IR link, or transfer .pdb's to a flash card if your Palm supports it.

nosleep's FileZ