x10 palm

3COM Palm Users:
DON'T BUY THAT EXPENSIVE DO-IT-ALL REMOTE!
(or ... The 3COM Palm Pilot's OTHER Use At Home)
by Gordon Cunningham

Well, I recently found a piece of software which turns your 3COM Palm Pilot or Palm III unit (or a newer unit - lucky you) into a trainable remote control. So if you have a Palm unit and a bunch of gear needing IR remote controlling, Pacific Neo-Tek has a piece of software for you.

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I keep wondering why no one has come up with a decent, inexpensive ($20) PC IR emitter system, just so we can use the PC as an extensible, intelligent controller for our A/V systems, etc. I mean, I have 4 or 5 old 486 machines here just begging for something to do. The answer is, I suppose, that none of the big boys can figure out how to make money off it. This is, for me, the missing link in my HA gadgets collection today. Of course it would help if electronic A/V components had some way to be controlled and submit feedback of their status. Dream on...

I've looked at a number of new handheld devices that are ostensibly copies of the Palm Pilot. The new $499 Philips' Nino looks good, till you start adding battery recharging every 4-8 hours. And it's way too expensive for use just as a remote! It does run Windows CE, though. In my book, however, that's not necessarily a plus. ;-)

I have a 3COM Palm III lent to me by my employer. I've come to know and love my Palm III. Things like auto-syncing to my MS Outlook applications, email, little PalmOS apps that save huge amounts of time, etc. (It's a great little device for those times I don't need a full-blown PC.)

OmniRemote uses the internal IR emitter on your Palm III unit (they said it couldn't be done) and is programmable. You can design your own screen layouts, and for the older Palm Pilots you can get the OS3.0 upgrade module from 3COM or a coming-soon IR emitter module from Pacific Neo-Tek that'll plug into the Palm's comport. The software will even turn itself upside down so you can use the Palm with the IR emitter on the bottom and all the buttons will be right-side up.

I downloaded the demo v1.12 software ( http://www.pacificneotek.com ) which runs for 15 days and lets you train only the TV buttons on the screen templates included. For $20 you can register the software online and plug in the registration code for full capabilities. I haven't done that yet.

Simple to install if you use the Palm Desktop sync software. Drop the software into the regular Palm install directory and choose to install it from your Palm Desktop. The next time you sync the Palm unit, you'll have the new OmniRemote software on your Palm unit!

I loaded the optional templates and started training my unit immediately. It doesn't come with any codes - it learns them all from your existing remotes. I like this approach for one very good reason: you can train the channel buttons to work your TV tuner, while training the volume buttons on the same screen to work the A/V receiver. A multi-function remote with no wasted buttons! You can purportedly write macros - multiple keystrokes - into a single button, though I haven't done that yet. I should though - would be great to turn the monitor and the receiver on with a single button push.

The nice thing about this software is that you design your own screens and buttons. Yes, you can put all your functions on one screen if you want. And the Palm III isn't half bad at recognizing finger taps. Look, ma, one hand!

I think it's great that the Palm III, which I use for a lot of my day-to-day MS Outlook info and synchronization, can now also become a remote control for my A/V gear. Imagine - and this will be available shortly - one device that you can use for remote control, your phone, reminders, appointments, calendaring, sending email, paging, etc. Boy, will my hip be happy! (I'm referring to Qualcomm's coming PDQ - a cell phone built around the Palm Pilot. But I digress.)

CAVEAT: My Palm III internal IR emitter works out to about 6 feet from my Pioneer TV/monitor. Beyond that I'm going to have to get the soon-to-be-released OmniRemote hardware module. For other Palm units, you might need the 3COM OS 3.0 upgrade card, which has a more powerful IR emitter on it, or the OmniRemote emitter hardware from Pacific Neo-Tek.

Well, so far I'm almost hooked. I'm almost ready to fork over the $20 for the software to keep it running on my Palm III. Other features and limitations:

Oh, I'm still looking for the ultimate end-all remote control system for under $100. I can dream, can't I?

By the way, another company is also publishing remote control software on the Palm Pilot market, though I haven't checked the software/hardware out (I didn't like the stand it comes with):