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+--- Thread: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? (/thread-8399.html)
Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - lemontea - 05-25-2017 09:27 PM
If I get some kind of null modem cable (haven't typed those words for 30+ years...) can I "hot sync" (haha) between a 50g and 48G?
So that I can load "apps" onto the 50g via SD Card, and then transfer to the 48G?
So then I don't have to go and dig up my old computers with serial ports (somewhere in storage, if they even work) and even then not sure if the software works. Or should I just go and spend a day finding those old computers (PowerPC-based Macs with USB ports)?
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - Eric Rechlin - 05-26-2017 12:08 AM
I have to admit that I'm pretty surprised you have no computers with USB ports, because a USB to RS-232 adapter would be the easiest solution.
Without USB, you can do this with an SD card, an HP 48 serial cable, and one of my HP 50g serial cables (not presently available but I'll make a new batch soon).
Use the SD card to load the 48 software from the PC (strange would you have a computer with an SD card reader but no USB port) onto the 50g. Then transmit via serial from the 50g to the 48G. If it's a binary file, you'll have to use some variation on OBJFIX to fix the header for the 48G, and if it's an ASCII file (User RPL source code) you'll need to do the character translation.
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - lemontea - 05-26-2017 01:33 AM
(05-26-2017 12:08 AM)Eric Rechlin Wrote: I have to admit that I'm pretty surprised you have no computers with USB ports, because a USB to RS-232 adapter would be the easiest solution.
Without USB, you can do this with an SD card, an HP 48 serial cable, and one of my HP 50g serial cables (not presently available but I'll make a new batch soon).
Use the SD card to load the 48 software from the PC (strange would you have a computer with an SD card reader but no USB port) onto the 50g. Then transmit via serial from the 50g to the 48G. If it's a binary file, you'll have to use some variation on OBJFIX to fix the header for the 48G, and if it's an ASCII file (User RPL source code) you'll need to do the character translation.
Hi Eric - No I didn't mean I have no computers with USB right now! (Maybe 10 years from now that would be the case?!) But what I have is a MacBook and usually sync software, especially legacy software, wouldn't work on Mac OS X. I do not have Windows at the moment, and I can't run Windows either on my Mac because I stopped paying Parallels (the virtual machine for installing non-Apple x86 OS) every time to "upgrade" whenever I upgrade my OS.
(My old Macs in storage are on PowerPC and would run classic MacOS 9.x so probably they can use the original HP 48G software for Macintosh.)
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - Eric Rechlin - 05-26-2017 04:29 AM
You don't need sync software. Just get a USB to serial adapter and use it with a null modem adapter and your HP 48 serial cable. All you'll need on the computer side is terminal software that speaks Xmodem or Kermit (I'm sure that exists for macOS) and you can pretend like it's 1993 all over again!
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - pdo - 05-26-2017 12:41 PM
(05-26-2017 04:29 AM)Eric Rechlin Wrote: You don't need sync software. Just get a USB to serial adapter and use it with a null modem adapter and your HP 48 serial cable. All you'll need on the computer side is terminal software that speaks Xmodem or Kermit (I'm sure that exists for macOS) and you can pretend like it's 1993 all over again!
You could take a look at Hoppi (http://www.cloudycat.com/hoppi) for Kermit communications between macOS and HP48/49/50 calculators.
Paul (author of Hoppi)
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - John Colvin - 05-26-2017 06:28 PM
How about using the IR on both calculators to transfer files? Takes longer and uses
batteries but you don't need a cable.
RE: Can use 50g to save/load programs on 48G? - brickviking - 05-26-2017 10:06 PM
(05-26-2017 06:28 PM)John Colvin Wrote: How about using the IR on both calculators to transfer files? Takes longer and uses
batteries but you don't need a cable.
That was my first thought when I looked it up last night, but it seems that the IR "language" that each speaks is different enough that neither will talk to the other, though they'll both talk happily to a printer. The 50G speaks IRdA, but the 48G doesn't seem to. A shame that.
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