Anyone going to RetroFest 2025?

[amenjet]

Thanks for the heads up Andrew. I'd love to come along see some of your Psion stuff at the Retrofest in Swindon. I've seen your YouTube videos but there's nothing like seeing them for real.

My plan is to have half Casio things and half Psion, so there should be lots of Psion bits and bobs. If there's anything you want to see in particular, let me know, there's probably room.

[1333david]

I'm a great fan or Casio things as well so that will be good too.
For the Psion, I’d be interested in seeing the Psion recreated, your voice synthesizer, the transparent cases you produced for datapacks and any other Psion related stuff really. I’ve used my Psion 2 Organiser since the mid 1980s. I have a printer and comms link, but have never seen or used many of the other accessories. I have the Psion Series 3 and 5 but have not seen a Psion 1 or netbook in the flesh. I have recently been interested in the Industrial Psion Organisers and only briefly saw the P250 in use on my trips to Marks and Spencer food hall in the late 80s early 90s (and using JAPE of course).

I also noticed you have a Psion Workabout in one of your videos. I was looking to get one of these and ended up with this Blackroc version.

Blackroc Workabout.jpg

Unfortunately, I can’t use it as I don’t have a charger and I know very little about it. I know it’s based on series 3mx with a smaller screen but I’ve no idea how the printer works and it doesn’t seem to have a memory card slot. It has a battery pack containing 5 AAA batteries stuck together which I was thinking of replacing with a PP3 connector to use 9v Li ion rechargeables but not sure whether that is a good idea or not. I can find very little info on the internet about this machine. I believe they were used alot by traffic wardens.

IMG_20250408_140803.jpg

All the best,
Dave[

[amenjet]

I'm hoping to bring everything, fortunately they are all small, compared to Unix workstations anyway, so it should all fit. I was planning on bringing the Workabout and attaching it to the Psion 1 as in the video. I don't know much about them, really, they are based on the Series 3 I think, which I have had, but they have hinges... I think the Nicads are for the printer current, you could use NiMH as replacements, they are close-ish for charging.

I'm away from home at the moment so can't have a look.

I have a netbook as well, so will try to remember to bring that as well. I also have a P250, but I swapped the ROM for a standard Psion one, so I'm not sure what it is now.

See you there...

[thesourcerer]

I have chargers for the workabouts, if you want one. Also P250s which I haven’t changed the ROM in, since they will automatically boot into XP mode with the Info &Y2K datapack. Once installed in the A drive they work identically to the XP. When removed both B & C slots can be removed, and the Info pack is only required after a cold boot (or flat battery etc.).
I am pretty sure a pp3 Lithium battery would be fine for the printer, as with the Psion printers.