Using Pilot With ECCO
Frequently Asked Questions

There is detailed information on Pilot operations with ECCO in ECCO’s Help file. Select Help from the main menu in ECCO. Additional help is available in the user’s guide on the ECCO CD. For specific instructions about Pilot, please consult the U.S. Robotics Pilot users guide supplied with your Pilot.

There are 2 on-line discussion groups for Pilot users that are monitored by ECCO Technical Support. They can be found on CompuServe (Go ECCO) and in our Usenet News Forum at forum.netmanage.com ( IP address: 156.27.201.7).

If you use PalmPilot 2.0, please see the Last Minute Updates at the end of this FAQ for important information about the upcoming ECCO 4.01.1 release.

  1. What is a conduit?
  2. Can I define how I want my Pilot to Sync with ECCO?
  3. Is there anything I should do before synching my Pilot?
  4. After I hard reset the Pilot my Calendar/Date Book won’t sync.
  5. How can I get specific information on what happened during the HotSync process?
  6. HotSync does not start.
  7. Memos I add in the Pilot don’t sync to my ECCO file.
  8. I have duplicate Phonebook sub-items (notes) after synching.
  9. How can I install add-on apps and system upgrades to my Pilot?
  10. After synching my Pilot with my ECCO file I have noticed some new columns and folders in my ECCO file.
  11. How do the fields from my ECCO phone book map to my Pilot address book?

1. What is a conduit?
The Pilot has four primary applications that ECCO can sync with, and a conduit that synchs each application. They are the date book which synchs with ECCO’s Calendar, the address book which synchs with ECCO’s phone book, the Memo Pad which synchs with the Pilot Memos Notepad and the To Do List which synchs with ECCO’s To-Do’s folder, in the Ticklers section of the calendar. Each application has a conduit, which is a dll file that tells ECCO and the Pilot how to talk to each other.

ecaddc1.dll: ECCO Phonebook to Pilot address book

ecdatc1.dll: ECCO Appointments to Pilot date book

ecmemc1.dll: ECCO Pilot Memos Notepad to Pilot Memo Pad

ectodc1.dll: ECCO To-Do’s to Pilot To Do List.

2. Can I define how I want my Pilot to Synch with ECCO?
In ECCO, select Tools/Pilot HotSync Options from the main menu.

(Detailed information on the different options is available in ECCO’s online Help)

3. Is there anything I should do before synching my Pilot?
We recommend either a hard reset of the Pilot or setting up the HotSync options to Full Synch/Clear Pilot Data for all four conduits for the first synch. (please see question #4 regarding hard reset) Please note that either of these actions will remove any data that is currently in the Pilot. If you have valuable information in your Pilot do not use these methods.

4. After I hard reset the Pilot my Calendar/date book won’t synch.
After a hard reset the Pilot initializes itself by writing data to it’s apps. The app that does not initialize is the date book. You have to manually initialize the date book. Power up the Pilot and on the screen tap Applications, then date book, then tap the date book screen a few times to initialize it.

5. How can I get specific information on what happened during the HotSync process?
HotSync manager creates a log file called hotsync.log. It gives specific details about all of the synchs made including errors that occurred during the synch. The log file is updated each time you synch. It is located in the folder ECCO creates for each user. For example, if your Pilot UserName is Fred there will be a folder called C:\ECCO\Pilot\Fred. (If you are running the Pilot Desktop with ECCO it will be in C:\Pilot\Username folder). This file can be opened in a text reader such as Windows Notepad. You can also use Start/Find from the Windows Taskbar and find hotsync.log. If more than one file is found use the one with the most recent date.

Following are some typical notations you may see in the HotSync.Log file:

Communications Error: Not connected. (2402)

This error (24XX) usually indicates a problem with Comm port or port speed settings. In HotSync Manager select Options/Setup and select the correct Comm port. Adjust the speed settings starting with 9600, until you find the fastest setting that works.

HotSync Error: Unknown error. (F002) Conduit Disabled.

This message means that one of the four apps was disabled in the HotSync Options. You can control these settings in ECCO by selecting Tools/Pilot HotSync Options from the main menu.

Double Modify on ECCO item 1431 (dup 426), duplicated each copy on Pilot and ECCO. ECCO item text: Pick up Laundry

This is a note in the Pilot Address Book that was changed in the Pilot. The item listed will be duplicated in your ECCO file. (See Item # 8 below)

Protocol Error: Unknown error. (4001)

This means a communications error of some kind. It usually refers to a port speed setting that the HotSync Manager can’t resolve or it is set to "As fast as possible". In HotSync Manager select Options/Setup and adjust the speed settings starting with 9600, until you find the fastest setting that works.

Protocol Error: Pilot file could not be opened. (4004)

This message means that Pilot couldn’t access your ECCO data file. Make sure ECCO is running before you synch and that you haven’t renamed or deleted your ECCO file or moved it to a different directory

6. HotSync doesn’t start.
I get a message on my Pilot that says:

"The connection between your Pilot and the desktop could not be established.."

That is usually caused by either an incorrect Comm Port or Speed setting in the HotSync Manager. In HotSync Manager select Options/Setup and select the correct Comm port. Adjust the speed settings starting with 9600, until you find the fastest setting that works.

7. Memos I add in the Pilot don’t synch to my ECCO file.
Any memos added to the Pilot Memos App must have a category assignment in order for them to synch to your ECCO file. To assign or change a category in the Pilot go to Pilot Memos, tap a memo to select it, tap Details to bring up the details window, tap the Category drop-down menu and assign or change the category for that memo.

8. I have duplicate Phonebook sub-items (notes) after synching.
Any sub-items of an ECCO Phonebook entry appear as Notes in the Pilot Address Book. If you make changes to those items in the Pilot they will be duplicated in your ECCO file. This Only affects ECCO sub-items.

9. How can I install add-on apps and system upgrades to my Pilot?
The U.S. Robotics Pilot allows the installation of add-on applications and system upgrades. When using ECCO as your Pilot synching mechanism, you must use USR’s Pilot Install Tool and HotSync Manager to do this. If you are running ECCO 4.01 the instapp program will be in your ECCO/Pilot directory. If you are running ECCO 4.01.1 the Instapp program will be in the Pilot Desktop directory, typically C:\Pilot.

NOTE: Some systems may have either instap11.exe or instapp.exe. Both should work in the manner described.

  • Installing Pilot Add-ons (.prc files) using the Pilot Install Tool

    1. Launch instapp11.exe or instapp.exe In Windows Explorer or a similar utility, browse to the file instapp11.exe. Double Click on the file icon to launch the program. You can also create a shortcut to launch the program from a menu or from your desktop. Instructions for creating shortcuts can be found in Windows Help.
    2. When the Pilot Install Tool loads you will need to identify the User Name to use when synching and the name and location of the add-on (prc file) to load. If you have previously hot synched your Pilot your UserName will appear in the drop-down menu, if you have not you will need to exit and establish a HotSync UserName by synching your Pilot with an ECCO data file. Once you have successfully synched your UserName will appear on the list.
    3. Once you have selected your UserName from the list you need to select a prc file to install. You must provide the path and filename for the prc file (example: c:\ECCO\Pilot\upgrade.prc). You can either manually type in the path and filename or use the Browse option to select a file.
    4. When you have selected a file click the Install button. The Pilot Install Tool will flag that file to be installed the next time you HotSync. At this point you can either Exit or Install another prc file.
    5. You can install multiple prc files with a single sync. To install multiple prc files repeat step 3 for each additional file.

    The next time you HotSync the add-on applications will be loaded into the Pilot.

10. After synching my Pilot with my ECCO file I have noticed some new columns and folders in my ECCO file.
The synching process creates a number of columns and folders that represent data from the Pilot. There are folders that may not be present in your ECCO file so the Pilot creates them in order for it to fully synch its available data. Following is a brief description of some of the new folders the Pilot creates.

Pilot Archive: When checked, the item is not synchronized with the Pilot.

Pilot No Notes: When a top level item (TLI) has the column checked no subnotes are synchronized to the Pilot. This column is also automatically checked during the synchronization process if more than 4 KB of data is detected for one TLI, including subnotes.

Pilot Memos: Items in ECCO with this column checked are sent to the Pilot as memos and appear in the Pilots Memo app. Items added to the Memo app in Pilot will appear in this notepad after synching. (please see note #3 above)

PhoneBook Category: Items in ECCO with this column checked are sent to the Pilot as Address Book items. The values in this column reflect the category assignments in the Pilot.

Main #: This is a Pilot field that is created as a folder in ECCO and appears as a column in the ECCO Phonebook.

Pager #: This is a Pilot field that is created as a folder in ECCO appears as a column in the ECCO Phonebook.

To Do Category: This is a Pilot field that is created as pop-up list folder in ECCO.

Priority: This is a Pilot field that is created as a numeric folder in ECCO.

Custom 1: This is a Pilot field that is created as a text folder in ECCO.

Custom 2: This is a Pilot field that is created as a text folder in ECCO.

Custom 3: This is a Pilot field that is created as a text folder in ECCO.

Custom 4: This is a Pilot field that is created as a text folder in ECCO.

The four Custom fields can be renamed in either the Pilot or in ECCO and can used to store any text data. The fields names and the data in those fields will be synched.

11. How do the fields from my ECCO PhoneBook map to my Pilot AddressBook?
This section deals only with ECHO's default fields. If you have edited or deleted any of the ECCO default PhoneBook fields your configuration may differ. Also, user created fields will not be synched automatically.

Last name, First name: ECCO will capture these fields from the Pilot and create Lastname,Firstname in your ECCO file. ECCO's Name field is one data item and will appear in the Last name field in Pilot. We are not able to parse this field when going from ECCO to Pilot.

Title: Synchs with ECCO's Title field

Company: Synchs with ECCO's Company field

Phone # fields: The Pilot has eight fields you can select from, only 5 of which can be used for each entry, this is a limitation of the Pilot. We can not add additional fields.

ECCO Work # = Pilot Work

ECCO Home # = Pilot Home

ECCO Fax # = Pilot Fax

ECCO E-Mail = Pilot E-mail

ECCO Alt # = Pilot Other

ECCO Main # = Pilot Main (This folder is created in ECCO by Pilot the first time you synch)

ECCO Pager # = Pilot Pager (This folder is created in ECCO by Pilot the first time you synch)

ECCO Cell # = Pilot Mobile

Address fields: The Pilot only has the capacity to store 1 set of address fields. ECCO can have multiple address fields (Home & Business are the defaults for ECCO). Since we can only sync one set, ECCO uses the default address to use when printing selected by the user to determine which fields to sync.

Address: Synchs the Default Address 1 & Address 2 fields from ECCO

City: Synchs the default City field from ECCO

State: Synchs the default State field from ECCO

Zip: Synchs the default Zip field from ECCO

Country: Synchs the default Country field from ECCO

Custom 1-4: These fields are native to the Pilot. The first time you synch those fields will be created in your ECCO file. They will accept any text data.

Last Minute Updates

ECCO Pilot 1.1 and PalmPilot 2.0 support.

ECCO 4.0 was one of the first products to sync with the Pilot using version1.1 of the HotSync Manager. NetManage installed the new HotSync Manager to insure ECCO users would have the correct version for syncing. Starting with ECCO Pro version 4.01.1, ECCO will only install the ECCO/Pilot conduits, and will no longer install any U.S. Robotics components. This means that you'll have to have the Pilot Desktop installed in order to use ECCO with the Pilot or PalmPilot. In the past, NetManage Support requested that you uninstall the Pilot Desktop, and then install ECCO 4.0. This was done to make sure the correct version of HotSync Manager was installed. This process is no longer necessary.

What does this mean to you?

In order to install ECCO 4.01.1 with PalmPilot support you must have Pilot Desktop 1.1 or higher installed on your system.

It is up to our customers to make sure they have the correct version of HotSync Manager. This can be obtained from U.S. Robotics and should be installed wherever your Pilot Desktop is installed. If you are using the PalmPilot with ECCO 4.01 and you want to update your system to the latest Pilot conduits, contact ECCO Technical Support to obtain the PalmPilot update patch.

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