Psion Connectivity

To connect a Psion to a modern computer, you will require:

A Psion RS232 cable:
- For the Series 3, this will be a Psion Link cable.
  
  Psion 3 Series 3-Link connector
- For the Series 5, this will be a slimline “Honda” connector.
  
  Psion Series 5 “Honda“ connector
- Both terminate in a 9-pin D-sub RS232 connector.
A USB-to-RS232 adaptor:
- This must be able to support DSR/DTR hardware control and not many on the market do. Look for products with a Prolific Technologies PL2303 chip. I use this one. Mac users will need to install the driver software available for free from the Mac App Store.
  
  PL2303-based usb-to-serial adaptor cable
Optionally, a 9-pin D-sub gender changer.
- The Psion cables have female D-sub connectors. If your USB RS232 adaptor also has a female connector, you’ll need a male-to-male gender adaptor to connect the two cables.

macOS

Series 3

For the Series 3, I use Psion’s MS-DOS oriented MCLINK running within a DOSBox-Staging instance.

You can install DOSBox-Staging using Homebrew: brew install dosbox-staging.

You will need to adjust DOSBox-Staging’s config file, $HOME/Library/Preferences/DOSBox/dosbox-staging.conf. In the [serial] section, edit the line prefixed serial1 to read:

serial1 = direct baudrate:19200 realport:cu.PL230G-USBtoUART10

The value immediately after realport: will depend on the specific USB serial adaptor you have connected to your Mac. Run ls /dev/cu* to list all such devices currently connected. You may see others, such as AirPod Bluetooth adaptors.

At the end of the file, in the [automount] section, you can automount a local folder, eg.:

mount c /Users/smitty/Psion/

Finally, to run MCLINK automatically, add the very end:

c:\mclink -p1 -b19200

This assumes you have placed MCLINK.EXE in whichever folder you have just mounted as the MS-DOS C: drive.

Series 5

For the Series 5, I use Reconnect.

Alternatively, if you prefer the command line over a GUI, it is possible to run plptools. For broad instructions, see the Linux section, below, but you will need to replace step 2 with:

git clone https://github.com/jbmorley/plptools

This contains code modified to ensure building on Apple Silicon-based Macs. Additionally, insert these two steps immediately before step 5.

brew install coreutils readline pkg-config libtool automake gettext macfuse
EXPORT PATH="$(brew --prefix coreutils)/libexec/gnubin:$(brew --prefix m4)/bin:$PATH"
EXPORT CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix gettext)/include -I$(brew --prefix readline)/include" LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix gettext)/lib -L$(brew --prefix readline)/lib"
./bootstrap --skip-po etc.

Linux

Series 3

Run Psion’s MS-DOS based MCLINK under the MS-DOS emulator DOSBox-Staging. Follow the instructions for macOS, above, but note that the serial adaptor will appear not as /dev/cu.{something}``but as ``/dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyACM1.

Series 5

For the Series 5, I use plptools.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libreadline-dev pkg-config gettext autopoint libfuse-dev libattr1-dev
git clone https://github.com/plptools/plptools
cd plptools
git submodule update --init --recursive
./bootstrap --skip-po
./configure
make
make install
- The ncpd daemon is installed into /usr/local/sbin so make sure this is in your $PATH, or copy /usr/local/sbin/ncpd to a directory that is in your $PATH
Connect your USB serial adaptor to your computer and to your Psion.
Power on the Psion and hit Ctrl-L to check that Remote Link is enabled.
ncpd -s /dev/ttyUSB0
plpftp

Running plpftp this way takes you into its interactive mode: use standard Unix file navigation commands like ls, cd and mkdir to move around the connected device’s file system.

To transfer a file from the Psion, run GET {psion file name} {computer file name}.

To transfer a file to the Psion, run PUT {computer file name}. Files are stored with the same name.

Note

plpftp doesn’t appear to handle file paths when using GET and PUT, so you will need to moved to the correct upload/download directory before attempting to transfer your files.

Enter bye to exit plpftp.