HP 15c CE - New firmware update officially available!

[Harald]

(07-26-2024 12:05 PM)RPNerd Wrote:  

(07-26-2024 10:25 AM)Divasson Wrote:  The Calculator Store sells to the UK

Thanks. Order placed, even if it's going to be an expensive cable with €17 for shipping plus VAT and customs duty my end (mumble mumble damn Brexit mumble...)

I am visiting the UK in early September and could bring cables with me. I would have to know in time to get them shipped from Spain.

[ijabbott]

Many thanks for the firmware update, and many thanks to TheCalculatorStore for supplying the cable. My HP-15C CE was badly affected by the key-bounce problems to the point where it was totally unreliable for use in any serious calculation. I have had no key-bounce problems at all since applying the 120ms update.

[ijabbott]

(07-25-2024 03:58 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  Thanks very much indeed.

What's the story for those of us with Mac, and/or Linux systems, but no Windows?

The SAM-BA 2.18 software is available for Linux. However, I haven't had any luck with it yet on my system, so I used Windows instead.

[cdmackay]

(07-26-2024 10:13 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  The SAM-BA 2.18 software is available for Linux. However, I haven't had any luck with it yet on my system, so I used Windows instead.

thanks Ian; what was the problem, do you remember?

[rprosperi]

(07-26-2024 10:13 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  

(07-25-2024 03:58 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  Thanks very much indeed.

What's the story for those of us with Mac, and/or Linux systems, but no Windows?

The SAM-BA 2.18 software is available for Linux. However, I haven't had any luck with it yet on my system, so I used Windows instead.

I've never tried any Linux version of SAM-BA, so this may not apply at all, however the older Windows version of SAM-BA was intended for use with Serial cables (as was used for HP-20/30/WP-34S) and is totally incompatible with the new USB cable. Possibly, the same is true with the version you're using, I just don't know, though I too would probably assume Windows 3.18 was functionally compatible with the Linux 3.18 version.

[cdmackay]

thanks Bob, Ian. I'll give it a go when I have a moment, and report.

[ctrclckws]

Thank you Moravia and team for providing the new 15C CE and updating it.
Thank you Divasson for building and making available the cable to connect to the computer.

I just wish that on my system, the initial SAMBA screen showed everything needed.

I just updated 2 of 3 15C CE's and one 12C that I keep in 16C mode.
The third 15C CE is at a remote location so it will have to wait.

[Steve Simpkin]

Could someone who has the HP-15C CE and cable make a backup of the memory and post the resulting backup file here (may have to change the extension to .txt). Preferably with one or more programs in memory. I am curious about the internal structure of the file. Thank you.

[Roland57]

I updated my 15CE yesterday without any problems - thankyou to all who contributed to this update (cable, software, description).

Unfortunately the key-bounce-problem is not solved, it still exists !
That even 120 ms delay does not solve the problem is a strong hint, that there is a *mechanical* problem with the keyboard.

Roland

[Divasson]

(07-28-2024 12:58 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Could someone who has the HP-15C CE and cable make a backup of the memory and post the resulting backup file here (may have to change the extension to .txt). Preferably with one or more programs in memory. I am curious about the internal structure of the file. Thank you.

You can find an explanation of what we've found here (lower part of the webpage):

Backup instructions with file analysis

[Divasson]

By the way - now with backup and restore (and the possibility of creating "software pacs"), the battery cover screw is a (legally imposed) nuisance - and if you travel frequently by airplane, you cannot take the screwdriver with you!

so we have created a 3D printed cover that fits tightly to the calculator:

Voyager battery door

[Tanis64]

Updating one of my two HP 15c CE yesterday with out any problems, thanks to Divasson for the great cable and Moravia for releasing that new firmware.
For me the 120ms fix works
Next week i will update my second Hp 15c CE, when i'am in the office.
If i find the time i willtry it from one of my Linux-Systems running there.

[Steve Simpkin]

(07-28-2024 02:06 PM)Divasson Wrote:  

(07-28-2024 12:58 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Could someone who has the HP-15C CE and cable make a backup of the memory and post the resulting backup file here (may have to change the extension to .txt). Preferably with one or more programs in memory. I am curious about the internal structure of the file. Thank you.

You can find an explanation of what we've found here (lower part of the webpage):

Backup instructions with file analysis

Thank you!

[Eddie W. Shore]

I'm so glad I was able to buy the cable around the first update. The update to the new firmware went smoothly.

[fossy]

(07-25-2024 05:59 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(07-25-2024 03:58 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  What's the story for those of us with Mac, and/or Linux systems, but no Windows?

It's not a satisfying answer, but this will run in Parallels and other high fidelity Windows emulator/runtime systems. To my knowledge it has not been tested under Wine yet, but I assume it will work fine, it's a very minimalist command line program and should have no issues.

Neither the SAM-BA...exe nor the VoyagerSave.exe work with wine!
But both look for me to work with VirtualBox running WinXP (SAM-BA) or Win7(VoyagerSave.exe). I can not test it yet, because I'm waiting for the Cable...

I would be interested in the protocol the HP15c_CE in ON/[f][ENTER] will talk to VoyagerSave.exe.
So it would be possible to bulid a program to realize it.
Does any body know about or know some how know about?

Fossy

[borjam]

(07-29-2024 11:42 AM)fossy Wrote:  I would be interested in the protocol the HP15c_CE in ON/[f][ENTER] will talk to VoyagerSave.exe.
So it would be possible to bulid a program to realize it.
Does any body know about or know some how know about?

It should be possible. There are plenty of microcontroller flashing programs, even open source, for Linux. They should work without much effort.

But the devil is in the details. Is it possible to have some technical documentation not limited to "run this specific program"?

[Gene]

(07-28-2024 01:51 PM)Roland57 Wrote:  I updated my 15CE yesterday without any problems - thankyou to all who contributed to this update (cable, software, description).

Unfortunately the key-bounce-problem is not solved, it still exists !
That even 120 ms delay does not solve the problem is a strong hint, that there is a *mechanical* problem with the keyboard.

Roland

The unit is likely under warranty. I would suggest you return it.

While there have been reports of multiple units showing issues the manufacturer is not seeing any signs of trouble with these units - nothing beyond a few random ones.

These are the identical physical units to the current 12c so if they hardware had a problem, the much larger 12c sales should be showing a problem signal but they are not.

Anecdotes are hard to diagnose - returned units help a company SEE a problem.

I’m sorry yours is having a problem ! Please return it ! :-)

[Roland57]

(07-29-2024 02:32 PM)Gene Wrote:  The unit is likely under warranty. I would suggest you return it.

While there have been reports of multiple units showing issues the manufacturer is not seeing any signs of trouble with these units - nothing beyond a few random ones.

These are the identical physical units to the current 12c so if they hardware had a problem, the much larger 12c sales should be showing a problem signal but they are not.

Anecdotes are hard to diagnose - returned units help a company SEE a problem.

I’m sorry yours is having a problem ! Please return it ! :-)

I would exchange the device if it were my work horse for day-to-day use. But it is just a collector's item, it works with careful treatment and is in the showcase 99.9% of the time. I shy away from the effort. And after all the reports on the problem, I believe that the manufacturer has enough information about the problem.

Roland

[chromos]

(07-25-2024 01:03 PM)chromos Wrote:  ... I've been testing the new firmware for several hours now and so far no key bouncing. So maybe the 120 ms will be enough to solve the problems with the keyboard (100 ms in the unofficial firmware was much better than the original one, but not enough)...

After four days of normal use, I just want to note that there hasn't been a single key bounce yet.

[ijabbott]

(07-27-2024 11:04 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(07-26-2024 10:13 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  The SAM-BA 2.18 software is available for Linux. However, I haven't had any luck with it yet on my system, so I used Windows instead.

I've never tried any Linux version of SAM-BA, so this may not apply at all, however the older Windows version of SAM-BA was intended for use with Serial cables (as was used for HP-20/30/WP-34S) and is totally incompatible with the new USB cable. Possibly, the same is true with the version you're using, I just don't know, though I too would probably assume Windows 3.18 was functionally compatible with the Linux 3.18 version.

The 3.x versions won't work at all, I think, not even on Windows, because they don't support the SAM4L. But I was trying to get the Linux version of SAM-BA 2.18 to work. It's quite old, and I was trying to get it to work on an up-to-date Linux distro, so that probably has something to do with it. It might work better on a few years old distro.

Anyway, the problem I'm having is that I run ./sam-ba_64, select the USB CDC COM port, "/dev/ttyACM0" (which is the one created when the HP-15C CE was put into firmware update mode) in the dialog box, select the board type "sam4l-ek[not factory programmed]", and press the "Connect" button… and then it locks up.

The output on the terminal I run ./sam-ba_64 from is as follows:

Code:


-I- Waiting ...
-I- TCL platform : Linux
-I- SAM-BA CDC 2.18  on : linux
-I- Connection : /dev/ttyACM0 (target(comType) = 0)
-I- Board : sam4l-ek[not factory programmed]
-I- Traces Level : 4
-I- target(handle) : file5
-I- sourcing board description file /home/ian/sam-ba_cdc_linux/tcl_lib/at91sam4l-ek/at91sam4l-ek.tcl
Read device Chip ID at 0x400E0740 --- get 0xffffffffab0a07e1
-I- Found chip : at91sam4l_1 (Chip ID : 0xffffffffab0a07e1)
-I- Loading applet applet-flash-sam4l4.bin at address 0x20002000

EDIT:

I've only managed to trace the problem as far as running the chip's "init" applet command (0x00) in this part of the GENERIC::Run function in "tcl_lib/common/generic.tcl" (called from GENERIC::Init):

Code:


    if {[regexp "linux" $samba_os]} {
         set result $cmd
        while {$result != [expr ~($cmd)]} {
            if {[catch {set result [TCL_Read_Int $target(handle) $appletCmdAddr]} dummy_err] } {
                error "Error polling the end of applet execution"
            }
        }

It doesn't seem to return from that "TCL_Read_Int" command.