Palm OS/Garnet and Vista/Win 7
How to hot sync a Palm OS PDA with a Windows 7 computer.
Since the release of Vista and now Windows 7 there has been issues with hot syncing palm OS devices. This is a driver issues and not a software compatibility issue for USB connections and is only pertains to computer with 64 bit registries.
If your computer is 32 bit then you should be able to hot sync normally no matter which connection method you use.
Since companies like Access(the new owners of Palm OS), Aceeca and others have a vested interest in supporting Palm OS/ Garnet and seeing that new PC computers are now Win 7 which default to 64 bit we can assume the the 64 bit drivers are on the way. In the mean time If your computer or laptop is Vista or Win 7 and is 64 bit then you have some options to use until the 64 bit USB drivers are available.
1) Blue tooth If your palm is Blue Tooth capable then you set up a BT connection to your computer using blue tooth and hot sync no problem. If your computer is not blue tooth then there are blue tooth dongles available. This is my favorite method and as such have not really had not really had problems.
2) Serial if your palm has serial connection then you can connect to your computer through a serial port and the hot sync works. If you computer does not have a serial port(most laptops) then you can get a serial to USB cable and connect to your computer through the usb port and it works (go figure ). If your PDA is not serial check with the manufacture to see if a Serial connection is available.
3) Virtual PC XP Mode: ( I have not actually tried this yet and and can not confirm that it works). Windows 7 has a free add on that will allow you to create a virtual XP machine. It is has been reported that you can hot sync Palm OS USB in Virtual mode. Note this may only be available for the business and ultimate version of Win 7.
All of the above solutions are only stop gap and every one should contact your Palm providers to pressure them to build the necessary 64 bit USB drivers ASAP. I use win 7 and (Vista for that matter) and really like them. One can assume that with in 2 Years windows users will be all using Win 7. Though the benefit is not as obvious as other recent PC improvements 64 bit is here to stay and will soon be the new standard. Nor can I recommend that we all go back to serial connection just to hot sync.
To summarize if you want to buy a new computer and you need to support palm OS devices then then it is possible but for the time being you will need to consider some work around. Should you put off getting win 7 or usb palm devices I say no. We do need the usb 64 bit driver sooner than later.
About 2 weeks ago I switched to Windows 7 as I assumed at first impression was that win 7 is the good from Vista with some of the bad Vista fixed.
The navigation features are nice, I like the way that you can set up your favorite menu in computer which makes it easy to find you important folders fast. I like the way that my computer and my Network are in one place.
Windows found the drivers for most of my hardware on installation. Though some of the issues that I had with the 3 years ago in Vistas are the same but then they had the same solutions. The strangest problem I had was Win 7 used some generic drivers for my sound card and though every test I tried said that my sound was working I had no sound. The solution was to find out which sound card from the store where I bought it, I then contact the manufacture for the correct sound drivers. When I contacted the manufacturer they informed me that they did not have the driver for my sound card but suggested that I use the Vista drivers which worked, now I have sound. Another problem which came from the Vista days was something in my video card conflicts with my computer’s sleep capability, the problem being if I put my computer to sleep then it won’t wake up. My solution is the same as before which is to turn off the sleep capability on my computer. I still use the setting that turns off my screen after a short period (30 minutes).
Even though at first look one would recognize the windows look and feel there are subtle differences between the old XP and the new windows 7 which makes you know that window 7 ( and Vista) is not window XP and like vista before I like it.
It that time of the year when we start getting ready for the survey season. Over the last two seasons there has been many changes to the procedures and the support tables for both the BC and the Alberta silviculture survey methodologies. As a result of these changes both the SAP BC and the SAP Alberta programs have been revamped in preparation for the 2010 silviculture survey season.
There is a new sap update for July 1 09. The biggest change includes the BCTS Genus upload tool. The new genus upload is compatible with the new BCTS schema and is included in SAP.
Recently clients have been asking for site indexes accurate to the 1 decimal place. There is July 1 letter sized reports which will accommodate this however you will need to do a minor update to the back end database. If this feature is important to you then you please contact me and as for instructions.
There has not been any significant changes to the hot sync program
since the last June first update.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been cleaning up the Sap BC version of the SAP program. The new update deals with several issues that came up after the 05/01/09 release. The following issues have been covered.
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Some people have reported that the PDA version of the program was getting very slow. This problem would get worse with use ie: the more times data was uploaded then the slower the program would get. This problem was caused by improper cleaning of the tables during hot-syncing which meant certain tables were getting larger every time you hot-synced. To fix this problem use the HT sync 09 Patch.
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Some people may have had problems printing out the standard calculation single report. This is fixed with the SAP 09 Update.
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The SAP reports have all been cleaned up with some reformatting etc. Pick the size of reports you like and update your reports
After an afternoon surfing the web, this is probably an over simplified version of what I think is happening. There are two threads that are going on, one is Palm the company and the other is Palm OS.
First in 2006 “Palm” the company” sold “Palm OS” to a Japanese company DBA Access. Palm then changed their focus to the smart cell phone industry, notice the Treo, then the Centro and soon to be released Pre. The Pre will be based on a “WEB OS” operating system not the palm OS. However, there has been a recent announcement that that there will be a special program available for the pre which will allow it to run legacy Palm OS application.
If you go to the US web site it is hard if not impossible to even order a PDA then only a Tx. The Canadian site still offers E2 and Tx (if the I phone is any example then it could take up to 2 years to get the Pre in Canada). So if you are in need of a “Palm device” they may still be available for a few months.
Over the years the Palm company has fallen behind in the industrial strength PDA market. The color screen has always been an issue in the out doors and the extra cases etc required to make them strong enough to with stand the Western Canadian environment were a hassle.
There are other companies that make industrial strength Palm OS PDA. Two years ago I came across the Meazura made by Aceeca. The Meazura have proven to rugged enough and reliable for our purposes. They have backup chip and and a back up program (which is extra). Combine this with excellent support from Aceeca.
So is Palm OS dead may be Mark Twain said it best when he wrote ” The News of My Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated”
Welcome to the West Creek Silviculture support site. 
This year I am adopting a new Blog format which I am hoping will promote a sense of community between the various players in the Silviculture community. Keep posted as more features comes on line.
