Series 3a

There are 2 posts tagged Series 3a (this is page 1 of 1).

Making a Psion Series 3a/c/mx USB power cable

After my previous success recovering data from my old Psion Series 3a palmtop, I decided I needed to bring some of the cables into the 21st century. While batteries usually last weeks with the Psion, using it on my desk was frustrating as it powered down after 5 minutes to save battery power. Therefore I decided the first cable to work on was the mains adapter and what better way to update it than make it a slim ultra-portable cable powered by USB – I could then use USB wall plugs, my MacBook Pro or even a humble USB power bank to power my Psion. Time to get out my wire snippers and wait for the soldering iron to warm up!
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Psion Fever – Breaching a digital data island

I recently decided to dig out my old Psion 3a palmtop from a storage box at home and I’ve been somewhat obsessed with it lately. When deciding to chuck something away, the tidy- living guru Marie Condo asks “Does it spark joy?”. So I looked at my 25-year-old obsolete Psion and thought yes… Yes it does, it sparks considerable joy.

Ahead of its time

The Psion was way ahead of its time with many features that the iPhone has only just recently received in the last 5 years or so. Features such as copy & paste, file management, printing, multi-tasking and all powered by 2 AA batteries! Something that is incredibly refreshing is the flexibility of the OS – just about anything can be tweaked with a specially written Assembly driver which is a huge contrast to the iron-clad security of iOS. This flexibility might also just be its salvation from an e-waste recycling future.

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