Undocumented Palm Info v2

Please see the bottom of this document for registration info

CONTENTS:
- Dot commands
- Alternative grafitti strokes
- Developers backdoors
- Resetting
- Easter eggs
- Built-in apps
- Networking
- Palm OS 3 & P3 information
- Bugs
- Tips
- Software solutions
- Hardware

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Key:
For all OS: *ALL*
For OS1 only: *1*
For OS2 or higher: *2+*
For Palmpilot Pro: *PRO*
etc.
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Dot Commands: *ALL*
You can create shortcuts for long sentances or words in the Prefs app. Then, to use this feature, you enter the shortcut stroke (see your manual) and enter the shortcut. eg 'sig' for your name and email address. This is, of course, mentioned in the manual, but the following shortcuts are not. To use them you enter the shortcut stroke, then double-tap, and then the number.
CAUTION! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
.1 Enter debug mode with halt. Debugging information is sent to the Pilot's serial port. Soft reset to exit.
.2 Enter debug mode and continues the app. Debugging information is sent to the Pilot's serial port. Soft reset to exit.
.3 Disable auto power-off.
.4 Flashes user name and unique ID number. This number is used in the Windows registry as part of the flag to install new apps.
.5 Erases user configuration and clears the hotsync log, but does not clear your data. Attempting a re-sync will download your information as duplicate records. Hard reset to prevent this.
.6 Displays the ROM's revision date. The original Pilot shows "1/9/96, 10:41 am". The PalmPilot shows "2/18/97, 5:08 pm" The 2mb upgrade shows "6/8/98, 5:56 pm" The true P3 shows "3/5/98, 11:03 am"
.7 Toggles the battery mode between NiCad and Alkaline. Adjusts the battery meter on the App screen.
.x .t .s .i These four exist, but I am not sure what they do. I don't recommend tryinq them yourself, as I did (foolishly), and suffered a hard reset shortly after. I am now certain of the use of ".i". If you usually turn off Beam Receive in Prefs, but you quickly want to turn it on again to receive data, then enter this shortcut. It is safe to use!

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Alternative Graffiti Strokes: *ALL*

Letter: Alternate Stroke:
B -"3" in the letter area
D -Skip the initial down stroke just start at the bottom left.
-Lowercase cursive "L", started from the right
E -Use straight lines, like a sideways "W"
-Write a lowercase "e". Sometimes it helps to
exaggerate the tail to make a Theta symbol.
G -"6" in the letter area
-Exaggerate the circle part, and do a small finish line.
Make sure that the left stroke doesn't cross the curved stroke.
L -Draw the down stroke with a
slight slant to right, like a backslash.
P -Skip the initial down stroke, just start at the bottom left.
R -Skip the initial down stroke,
just start at the bottom left.
-Exaggerate the final diagonal stroke, a little more horizontal.
V -Draw a "V" from the right to
left, without the ending tail.
X -Draw a backwards Graffiti "K", like a right-facing fish.
Y -Draw a sideways Graffiti "K",
like a single loop starting at the top right.
-Draw a number 8 in the letter area.
4 -"C" in the number area, or a
left bracket
5 -"S" in the number area
9 -"h" in the number area
? -Dot then T. Think of it as a lazy dot-questionmark
ß -Dot then B. Similar to original

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Developer's Backdoors:- *ALL*

- The HotSync app on the palmpilot has a time-out feature that can be turned off. Start the HotSync app and simultaneously hold the up and down buttons, then tap in the upper-right corner of the screen. A pop-up message will say "Developer's Backdoor: DLServer Wait Forever is ON". No idea what it does

- Backdoor #2 is similar: Start the HotSync app and simultaneously hold the up and down buttons, then tap in the lower-right corner of the screen. You'll see a list of some low-level communication values and statistics.

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Resetting the Pilot: *ALL*

The first 2 are documented in the manual, the 3rd is not.

-Paperclip in the reset hole. Also called a Soft Reset. No data is lost.

-Do a soft reset, and hold down the Power button. This is a Hard Reset. All data is blown away after answering "Yes" to a confirmation prompt.

- Do a soft reset, and hold down the Up button. This will do a Soft Reset, but will not execute the startup code of the installed applications. Sometimes a badly written program will refuse to be deleted from memory - doing this reset will let you pry it loose from your Pilot.

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Easter Eggs: *ALL*

- Developer Team Credits: Go to the Memory App (Info option in the Applications app on the Palm III). Place stylus on the top of the screen and press the down button. You'll see a scrolling list of names and the title: "Development Team Credits"

- Picture of two people: Start the Giraffe game. (If you have it) Hold your stylus in the lower right corner, then press the page up button.

- Drive C Error: Start the Giraffe game. Hold your stylus on the top of the screen, and press the page down button.

- Dancing Palm: Start the Giraffe game. Tap the help button, then draw the "#" character.

- Taxi Cab: Go to Preferences, General Tab. Draw a small circle, counter-clockwise, on the screen right above the calculator silk-screen button. If done properly, you should see an Easter Egg appear. Now, hold down the page down button in any application (you might need to exit the Prefs app, some have reported this) and draw a line from the middle of the Graffiti input area to the left edge of the screen right between the applications and menu silkscreen buttons. This works exactly the same for the Palm OS 3. Also, as I finished writing this and waited a few seconds the Taxi sped across my screen totally unprovoked. So it seems that this Easter egg is also time related.

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Built-in apps:- *ALL*

- In ToDo or Memopad, you can start a new entry by just starting to write. No need to press the New button!

- If you repeatedly press the Date Book button, the view will change from day to week to month. This also works with Address, ToDo list and Memopad, except it changes between categories. Also, if you map the Mail app to one of the buttons (or the Calc icon on the silkscreen, as I do) it will change folderb. This was not mentioned in the handbook oddly enough.

- Not sure if this is mentioned in the handbook, but if you tap the Applications button on the app screen usinq OS:
1 + 2, it will return to the last app you were using.
3, the current category will change to the next category alphabetically.

- In datebook, pressing the scroll up / down buttons advances to the next / last page.

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Networking:- *PRO & 3*

(The manual tells you that a PPP connection can be established using the Palm OS, but the only software that can utilize it is 3rd party software.)

- In the Network log, entering ? will give a list of commands, that can be used instead of the usual connect / disconnect buttons

- This is a very useful tip that everyone should know but very few do. If you change the usual phone number from, say, '02492150', to '00' in Network properties, a connection will be attempted through the serial cable without looking for a modem.

- Controlling your PC *PRO & OS3*

There is software for the PC and other platforms that allows users to view another computer remotely. This can also apply to the Palmpilot using PalmVNC. You can dial the computer from anywhere using your Palmpilot, and then browse it and use any software you want! You can have the power of Excel on your Palmpilot...
You enter text into the PC apps by copying text on your Palmpilot, selecting 'Send clipboard' in PalmVNC, and then selecting Paste in the menu of the PC app.

To Get This Working in Windows95:
1. Go to www.orl.co.uk/vnc
2. Download the PC 'vnc' software and install it.
3. This is presuming PalmVNC is installed on your Palmpilot. Set up PalmVNC with the IP address the same as the PC's. An IP address you can use is 192.168.1.2 Exit PalmVNC. Go to Prefs: Network and create a new service. Call it 'Windows 95 PPP'. Leave username and password blank, and enter the phone number as "00".
Click on Details and do the following:
Untick IP address as automatic and enter: 192.168.1.2
This IP address should be the same as the one on the PC.
Next click Script and enter the following:
" Send Cr:
Wait for: CLIENT
Send: CLIENT SERVER
Send Cr:
End "
Click Done. The Palmpilot is now set up.
4. Setting up the PC:
Select Network properties from the Control Panel and select Properties for TCPIP. Enter IP address the same as the one on the Palmpilot. If there is an IP address here already, change the one on the Palmpilot instead. Leaving it as Automatic does not appear to work.
WARNING: CHANGING THE IP ADDRESS IN WINDOWS WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO CONNECT TO ANY OTHER COMPUTERS. IE. NO INTERNET! YOU MUST CHANGE THE IP SETTINGS BACK TO AUTO IF YOU WANT THE INTERNET BACK!
5. Connecting the two:
On the palmpilot, go to Network in Prefs and get ready to press Connect. On the PC, run the VNC software in the background as if a network computer was going to access it. Make sure that Hotsync is quit. Load the Direct Cable Connection software included with Windows 95. Set it up to access the host on the Com port connected to the pilot cradle.
Press Connect on the Pilot and Finish on the PC. The pilot should be executed first. All going well, it should connect to the PC. Any dialogue boxes should be clicked "Ok" and nothing entered.
6. Running PalmVNC:
Load Palm VNC and click on Connect. After a while you will be happily controlling your PC with your Palmpilot!
Troubleshooting:
If you can't get the Pilot to connect to the PC in the first place, it is most likely that the IP address is not setup properly. The PC must have a set IP address (not 'Auto'), and the Network Prefs on the Palmpilot must have the IP address the same as the PC.

- This may seem a bit obvious, but the best way to disconnect from a connection is to press the green power button. This is easier than having to go to the Network tab in Prefs and clicking Disconnect (which is said to be less dependable).

- Have total control over your modem! If you have an external modem without a volume control, that you use with both your PC and your Palmpilot, you may have noticed that Windows95 does not allow you to turn off or even turn down that irritating connection noise (you know, it sounds like a car in a trash condenser). If you go to Prefs: Modem on the Palmpilot you can select the volume you want to hear it at, or you can turn it off completely! The simplicity of the Palmpilot wins again over the incredibly complicated PC-way of doing things!

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Palm OS 3 information:- *3*

- Most 3rd party applications will work on the P3. However, if an app refuses to work, or acts strangely, it may be because of different fonts in OS 3.
For example, TGTelnet will run on OS 3, but is unusable as the font it uses is not available. Some older versions of "Doc" (see lib1.zip) will work fine, but one font is not available; the typewriter-style font. It's a shame, as I used it quite a lot to view docs.
Also, applications that make use of the built in apps (Memopad, ToDo, etc) may encounter problems. An example is when Palmscape attempts to look in the MemoPad for a HTML document. It immediately resets (sometimes it doesn't; don't ask me why!). Some others work fine, such as cBasPad (as far as I know).
Another problem encountered is with hacks written with only OS 1 + 2 in mind. A favourite hack of mine, Battery Control Panel (lib1.zip), will reset when you try to view the graph. I don't want to test which hacks work or don't, as this is fairly risky. In general, unless the hack is specifically written for an OS, treat it carefully. If you encounter time-keeping problems, it may be because of a hack.

- OS 3 performance: Having upgraded to 2mb of memory and OS 3 from a Palmpilot Personal recently, I have noticed some improvements in speed. One is quite obvious in the Hotsync operation using Palm Desktop 3. I have not tested this yet, so I don't know if Hotsync 2 on the Palmpilot has the same speed increase with the new Desktop software. Another notable increase is in the "Blobs" app (see lib1.zip). It may be because of the increased memory, but it now runs smoother and faster. I did encounter the odd bug when I first installed it, but none since.
And with more free memory, less problems are encountered with Tiny Viewer. With only 480k on the Personal, time was wasted when loading images as 'space had to be allocated' and then uncompressed (if they were compressed). With lots of free memory, all this is nearly unneeded and the images load very quickly. Plus, there is less of a chance of an error occuring when viewing the image. The clock on my Palmpilot Personal was not very reliable, and used to lose about 5 minutes either way every week or so. Sometimes it would lose a day or two also! Thankfully, I have encountered none of these problems with OS3.

- Palm computing have seen the light and removed the Giraffe game from the P3. In older Pilots this game was not removable in any way. Except now there are two new permanent apps in the P3; Expense and Mail. (You had the option of installing Expense with the Personal and Professional.) Mail is very handy, especially if used with TGPostman.

- P3 hardware: The new P3 has quite a few hardware enhancements. The new ergonomic look makes it look truly like the mean machine that it actually is. And the new pen has a better grip and feel than the old-style lumps of grey plastic. Furthermore, if you fiddle with it a bit you'll see that you can remove the top and use the small bit of plastic inside as a paperclip to reset! Very oddly, this was not mentioned in the P3 manuals. Maybe because they thought that existing pilot owners would want a replacement stylus if they knew about it...

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Bugs: *ALL!*

There have been some minor and not-so-minor bugs in the past OS's. Here are the noticable ones.

Calculator (OS 1.0): the calculator in the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 has a display bug. You can see it by subtracting 0.1 from 1.1 on your PalmPilot. You should get 1.0, but the display shows a total of 0.1. And if you add 2 to that result, you'll get 3 instead of 2.1. What gives? The number is actually calculated correctly, but displays incorrectly. You can remedy this by downloading SlimCalc, which replaces the built-in calculator with a patched version of the program.

Application button (OS 1.0): an annoying bug in the Pilot 1000 and 5000 means that pressing one of the application buttons launches the program that you just used instead of the one you selected. Upgrade to OS 1.0.6 to fix this.

Tap Bug(OS 2.0): Some people noticed that their recognition had gotten poor when writing grafitti, and a reason for this was discovered when using one of those apps that displays what you write in the grafitti area. It was noticed that there was a 'tail' on the stroke entered. I can't remember why this happened, but it was software related. It seems that the OS 2.0.4 patch fixes this problem.

Capitalization (OS 1.0 and 2.0): sometimes, the PalmPilot stops the user from capitalizing letters. The origin of this bug is unknown, although it may be the result of an errant application. The solution is easy: run the memory program. It resets part of the PalmPilot's OS, allowing it to capitalize again.

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Tips:-

- Controlling your TV, VCR, HiFi, etc.
It is now quite simple to achieve this on your Palmpilot even if you don't have a pilot with an IR port. One piece of softwore and hardware, Widget, gives you control of any device that accepts IR, except that you have to buy the device before you can try it out. Presumably because the device has its own IR port, it will work on the older pilots aswell.
Other software available is Remote, which uses the built-in IR port in the P3 and the upgrade. It is very simple to use and very customisable. It works by recording the data that is sent by your remote, and then retransmitting it. Bear in mind for this procedure to work you must enable Beam Receive in Prefs. It took me a while figure that one out.

- Installing apps easier on your PC:
When you first install the Desktop software (versions 1 & 2), *.prc and *.pdb files are not assigned to any program, and when you want to install a program on your pilot you have to load instapp and navigate through loads of menus. But this can be easily fixed. Simply open any window. Go to "view; options...". Select the FileTypes tab and select "New Type..."
In "Description of type" enter "Palmpilot PRC file". In the "Associated extension" field enter ".prc".
Select "New" in the "Actions" area.
In the "Action" field enter "Open"
Select c:\pilot\instapp.exe (or wherever instapp.exe is found) in the next field. Click OK to close all the windows.
Repeat this process again to set up PDB files. (Replace "prc" in the instructions above with "pdb")
When you next download a pilot app or database, double-click on the file to install it! Easy!

- Usually, when you draw the stylus from the bottom of the screen to the top, Grafitti help appears. You know this. However, if you first tap the silk screen (punctuation shift) before you do this, the Punctuation Grafitti help will appear! Handy if you forget a stroke (which happens to me often...).

- You can use all of the grafitti area below when writing the following characters:.
- a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w
- q, y and z are unreliable,
- x doesn't work.
How about that for useless info!

- Having used Grafitti heavily for almost a year now, I can write quickly and easily on the Palmpilot. However, the silk screen is a little worn down as a result of this, and accuracy has suffered a little. An example is the confusion between 'q' and 'g', which it sometimes prints accidentaly. No doubt you may have noticed this mistake in this doc. It is hard to see this mistake when using QED, as 'g' and 'q' look almost the same (because of the dotted underline). The solution (to prevent this happening) is to place a strip of thin masking tape over the Grafitti area. This protects the screen and also gives a more authentic pen-on paper feel when writing. There is also less slipping of the pen. Now they tell me!

- Recovering from a crash:
At least once in your Pilot-using life, you will suffer a hard reset. This is never a good thing, as you lose data in all your 3rd party apps, and if you have a lot of apps you may forget what some of them are!
Of course, prevention is better than cure, but a hard reset cannot be prevented, most of the time. You should follow these tips. Most are common sense:
- Never reset unless you have to.
- If an app proves to be unstable, don't use it unless you really have to.
- Use the Dot commands very carefully! Some can seriously screw up your Palmpilot!
- Prepare a back-up kit: make a list of all software and documents you have, and put all the original .prc and .pdb files in the same place. Then if you do lose your data, it can be corrected quickly. (Memopad, Contacts, etc are backed-up at every Hotsync, so these can be restored automatically)
- Be careful with software designed for another OS, eg. an app tested only on OS3, and you are running OS2.

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Software Solutions: *ALL*

Many Palmpilot users know about most of the following software, but new users have to find these things out somehow!

- Total Internet Access:
If you have a Pilot Pro or a P3, you will probably have tried the Mail app. Unfortunatly, it only receives email when you Sync with a PC. There is also no official web browser supplied. There is, of course, software that will fill this gap. I am definitely in favour of freeware, so all the following are free (for the time being, at least....) See the list below:
(you need a P3 or PP Pro to get the following software to work as the TCPIP stack of these devices is needed)

- TGPostman - This works alongside the original Mail program to connect to a POP, IMAP, etc. server to download or send your email without going near your PC or the Hotsync button! (Free) There is one problem; if you get mail from your server via TGPM and then Hotsync, the new mail disappears! A possible solution is to move this new email to a the Filed folder, or use shareware such as MailCleaner.
- Proxiweb - This web-browser uses revolutionary server-side image processing to provide fast graphical browsing of the net in 2-bit grayscale. Forms, tables and frames are supported and it contains all the features you would expect from a web browser, such as cookies. (Free)
- Multimail Discovery - This is an all in one email solution. It has all the features of Mail and TGPostman, but you cannot sync the email with your desktop as it is a standalone app. (Apparently free)
- Newspad - Download newsgroups and read them offline. (Free)
- PalmIRC - Chat on IRC channels on your Palmpilot. (Free)
- Fax - Send text faxes from the clipboard or Memopad. (Free)
- PalmVNC - Actually control a desktop PC or Unix from anywhere in the world using your P3! See the Networking section above. (Free)
- Pilottalk - Chat with another Palm device running this software. (?)

Get the above software from collection1.zip!

- Graphics & image manipulation:
You have probably seen the ImageViewer app and some ImageViewer files on the net, and you have probably thought "That's useful, but it's shareware".
Well, there is a way of getting the usefulness of the ImageViewer format for free! Download the PC software (Convert, Preview, Compress) from the ImageViewer website. You now have the PC software for free, so all you need is the software for the Palmpilot. This is in the form of Ken Shiriffs Tiny Viewer. This is similar to the original ImageViewer, but has less features and is free! And what you have in the end is a totally free alternative to ImageViewer. You can compress these files using either the PC software or Image Cmprsr, by Shiriff also. There is also an app, Snapshot, that takes screenshots directly on the Palmpilot and saves them in Image Viewer format.
But what about creating graphics? There is a lot of software available that will handle vector images and bitmaps. I am very much in favour of distributing software as freeware, or at least cheap shareware, so many of the apps mentioned here
- Palmdraw - Beta vector drawing app. It's main advantage is that it can export and import Windows draw files.
- Qdraw - Similar to Palmdraw, except without the import/export features. It does havg a few more tools however.
- Qpaint - Bitmap editor with virtual canvas. It has similar tools as qdraw.
- Doodle - Ability to sketch only, but has many different shades, pen types, widths, etc. that makes it quite powerful.
- Dinkypad - OK, it's shareware, but it is a very popular and powerful bitmap editor, with a good filing system and PC software for copying your drawings to your PC.
- HDSketch - Again, shareware, but this is excellent! It has lots of features, and also PC software that works with the Palm Desktop software to swap files between the PC and the Pilot.

- Document editing & filing:
The most practical use of the Palmpilot is in information storage. Huge documents can be stored easily in Doc format, using any of a number of viewers. Obviously you have a viewer if you are reading this! :-) but these documents can be created and edited on the Palmpilot easily. (This document was created and written completely on a Palmpilot; as a result my grafitti area is in a shitty state)
Free software such as Cspotrun and Zdoc will allow you to view *and* edit docs, and have some pretty good features as well! Alternative software such as QED will do the same and more, and is the one shareware app I use a lot. (I'm registered, BTW...)
TealDoc is a very popular shareware app that supports images and tags, for more useful docs! These docs cannot be edited on the Palmpilot, however, and there are at the moment no free viewers for this filetype, so it may be slow to catch on, unlike the original very-popular text-only file format.
PC software such as MakeDoc (dos), MakeDocW (Windows) and QEX (Windows) will convert text or html files to .prc files for viewing on the Palmpilot. QEX goes one step further by converting docs created on the Palmpilot into text files for PC viewing and editing. Handy.

- Games & Fun:
Ok, I have a lot of games on my machine, and some are very addictive! They are great for taking a break from a lot of work (eg. writing this!). My favourite is Pilotmines, available in English or German. It is just like the Windows version, and is great fun! It is better than the Palm computing version as it has a bigger board and a timer with a High Scores table.
Pocketlife and Tinylife are excellent versions of the Life software available on Mac, PC, Unix, etc. are interesting to play around with and see what patterns you can come up with!
PocketChess is well worth installing also as the computer opponent is actually quite good. Not Bigblue or anything, but not bad for a small device! Dotty, Misslecmd, Pegs and SFcave are all excellent additions to any Palmpilot, especially SFcave, which is a very original action game. You control a ribbon that has to make its way through a cave that gets narrower and narrower... You control it with only one button. All the above games are free, so why not install them now? They can all be found in collection1.zip.

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Hardware:

Want to know what lies behind this screen?
- Dimensions: 11.7 x 7.9 x 1.6 cm, 156g
- Processor: Motorola DragonBall
- Battery: 2 x AAA
- Battery usage:
10 hours backlight on and serial port active.
16 hours playing reptoids or chess, or using vt100, no backlight.
2-3 days always on, using memopad.
31 days in a cradle (serial port DSR line terminated to 3K Ohms.)
230 days off (sleeping) and unconnected (e.g. shelf life).
- Memory: Depends on model. Anything from 128k to 8mb or possibly higher
- LCD screen: 160 x 160 pixels with 4 grayscales* and touchscreen layer.
*currently, PalmOS does not allow the use of four grayscales in apllications except apps that leave the OS and use their own icons, titlebars, etc. eg. Proxiweb and ImageViewer.

Optional Extras:

- Palm modem - clips on to the bottom of your Palm device and runs off two AAA batteries @14.4kb

- Talelight - Attaches to Hotsync connectors on the bottom of your Palm device, and can be used for alarms.

- Widget - IR port attached similarly like the Talelight. Really for Palm devices without the built-in IR port, and can be used as a remote control with software.

- Keyboard - The Newton keyboard can also be used on the Palmpilot using an adapton and (free) driver software.

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Is there any other information that you think should be mentioned here? Drop me a line and tell me at the address below. Feedback is welcomed

Also, if you have any questions at all, ask me. Remember, if there is more than one answer to a question, it's not a stupid question!

Most software mentioned in this document can be downloaded onto your Palmpilot from the web address below. There you will find libs 1 thru 5 of software, and 'collection1.zip' which contains 4mb of Palm software and docs! These zips can be stored on your computer, or installed directly onto your Palmpilot using Proxiweb!

Written entirely on a P3 using QED & the excellent Smartdoc

Now, if you would possibly like to make a donation to my fund to get a new Palm VII, in recognition that you downloaded and read this document, then you are very welcome! Please consider making even a tiny donation in any currency to me, then I will be extremely happy and will put your name up on my website to congratulate yourself. How about that. You can if you want make payment by check to the address below, or securely "Buy" the software at http://www.palmcentral.com THANK YOU!

©David Brookes 1998/1999.
web: http://welcome.to/dbnet
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~seadancer/
email: brookes@ireland.com
address: Parkholme
Youghal
Co Cork
Ireland
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If millions die in plague and murder,
True happiness lies
Beyond your fries and happy burger"
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