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hewlpac · 03-28-2018, 03:33 PM

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6q6c0eqyheerjw...c.jpg?dl=0

Couple of quick pictures of calculators repaired with Harold's board. Now have to find a use for top row of extra buttons for the 34E!

teenix · 04-25-2018, 06:24 AM

Hi all,

There might be a bug in the latest PIC code for the MultiCalc kit and Haralds Classic Upgrade.

For those that have one of these kits, please don't upgrade the PIC code from the PC emulator program. Doing so may cause a communications failure between the PIC and PC. If so, the PIC will require a full reprogram with a PIC programmer to fix the problem. The actual calculator should still work however.

I have removed the PIC code from the current CCe33.zip download until I sort out the problem.

My sincerest apologies

cheers

Tony

Harald · 04-26-2018, 12:32 PM

(04-25-2018 06:24 AM)teenix Wrote: Hi all,

There might be a bug in the latest PIC code for the MultiCalc kit and Haralds Classic Upgrade.

For those that have one of these kits, please don't upgrade the PIC code from the PC emulator program. Doing so may cause a communications failure between the PIC and PC. If so, the PIC will require a full reprogram with a PIC programmer to fix the problem. The actual calculator should still work however.

I have removed the PIC code from the current CCe33.zip download until I sort out the problem.

My sincerest apologies

cheers

Tony

It would be interesting to know how the emulators get used. Have most people updated at least once, or are most of the boards still running the firmware they were delivered with?
Do the emulators get used at all, or did they simply get a place in the collection?

If anyone has a bricked unit, please let us know and we can reprogram it.

Cheers,
Harald

hewlpac · 04-26-2018, 01:52 PM

Both my Multicalc units and Classic boards could not be upgraded without using a programmer. not sure if I was making an error but all are working fine now. I have not loaded the latest version with the 97S though (not sure I need the I/O capability)

mfleming · 04-26-2018, 03:15 PM

I think my Classic board was last updated around the beginning of April. New distributions were being posted frequently enough that I decided to wait until things settled down a bit. Fortunately I procrastinated long enough that I saw your warning first! Thanks for that, and post again when the issue is resolved.

~Mark

Harald · 04-26-2018, 03:49 PM

(04-26-2018 03:15 PM)mfleming Wrote: I think my Classic board was last updated around the beginning of April. New distributions were being posted frequently enough that I decided to wait until things settled down a bit. Fortunately I procrastinated long enough that I saw your warning first! Thanks for that, and post again when the issue is resolved.

~Mark

Well, I only recently spotted a problem and reported it to Tony. Unfortunately can't reproduce it now. Most of my boards I updated regularly and there never was a problem going from one version to the next. It must be an incombatibility of earlier and later versions that causes the problem. So far I have not managed to track down and older version that can't be upgraded with the latest firmware...

mfleming · 04-26-2018, 04:02 PM

I did encounter an update problem a month or two ago that had me in a bit of a momentary panic. I think I resolved the problem by forcing (through shift-Write) a full software update. Perhaps just a flash glitch now and then?

Nigel (UK) · 05-24-2018, 07:45 PM

I received my board from Harald yesterday: here it is installed in what looks like a HP-55...

[Image: hp55_smaller.jpg?dl=1]

...but is actually the case and keys of a HP-55, with the display board of a HP-45 inside it.

(Be reassured that the HP-55 was completely dead, and only the display board of the HP-45 was working. No working classic calculators have been harmed in the making of this beast!)

Another thing that may strike you is the power switch: the calculator is "on" although the switch is set to "off". The switch of the HP-55 is too long to work with the HP-45 display board. The HP-45 switch needs to be sanded in order to fit through the slot in the HP-55 keyboard, but when installed the calculator was always on - the switch couldn't turn it off. Replacing the contact in the HP-45 switch with the contact from the HP-55 switch bent to fit inside it has given a working switch, except that "off" and "on" are interchanged!

One possible bug: putting a small number (e.g., 0.00123) in the x-register and pressing "f" "1" (H.MS->HR) gives a blank display until the calculator is turned off and on again. Otherwise, fantastic! Thank you, Harald and Tony.

Nigel (UK)

teenix · 05-24-2018, 11:29 PM

(05-24-2018 07:45 PM)Nigel (UK) Wrote: One possible bug: putting a small number (e.g., 0.00123) in the x-register and pressing "f" "1" (H.MS->HR) gives a blank display until the calculator is turned off and on again. Otherwise, fantastic! Thank you, Harald and Tony.

Nigel (UK)

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for pointing this out. That bug looks like it was there from day 1, and didn't appear to cause any problems. Anyway, I have fixed it and uploaded a new cce33.zip

cheers

Tony

**rprosperi** · 05-24-2018, 11:32 PM

Hmmm... less than 4 hours from initial bug report to new version posted for download.

Careful Tony, folks will become spoiled and start to expect quick fixes Wink

teenix · 05-25-2018, 02:11 AM

(05-24-2018 11:32 PM)rprosperi Wrote: Careful Tony, folks will become spoiled and start to expect quick fixes

Luck of the draw that time Smile

It was a strange bug. It would only appear when a HP code line executed under a certain condition, otherwise things ran fine.

These bugs are very hard to find so to try and work with them, awhile back I created a small monitor program. This can capture every HP instruction that the PIC executes, plus program counter and register values and then I can compare the output to the PC emulator.

After narrowing down the problem, I checked the source for the PC emulator and it had a small piece of code that the PIC didn't have. Once put in, all was ok.

cheers

Tony

mfleming · 05-25-2018, 02:16 AM

Speaking of code changes, what was the nature of recent updates to the HP-25/25C emulator downloads?

~Mark

teenix · 05-25-2018, 03:08 AM

(05-25-2018 02:16 AM)mfleming Wrote: Speaking of code changes, what was the nature of recent updates to the HP-25/25C emulator downloads?

~Mark

If I recall, just some minor text errors I found in the program listing when generated by the code editor.

cheers

Tony

Harald · 05-25-2018, 10:00 PM

(05-25-2018 02:11 AM)teenix Wrote:
(05-24-2018 11:32 PM)rprosperi Wrote: Careful Tony, folks will become spoiled and start to expect quick fixes

Luck of the draw that time

It was a strange bug. It would only appear when a HP code line executed under a certain condition, otherwise things ran fine.

These bugs are very hard to find so to try and work with them, awhile back I created a small monitor program. This can capture every HP instruction that the PIC executes, plus program counter and register values and then I can compare the output to the PC emulator.

After narrowing down the problem, I checked the source for the PC emulator and it had a small piece of code that the PIC didn't have. Once put in, all was ok.

cheers

Tony

Hi Tony,

I hope this is an easier bug:
The menu items on the HP97 are mixed up. "tr" is program mode, "NN" is run, not sure about the rest, as I am currently not connected to the PC and can't print.

Cheers,
Harald

teenix · 05-26-2018, 10:52 AM

(05-25-2018 10:00 PM)Harald Wrote: Hi Tony,

I hope this is an easier bug:
The menu items on the HP97 are mixed up. "tr" is program mode, "NN" is run, not sure about the rest, as I am currently not connected to the PC and can't print.

Cheers,
Harald

All done, new upload available

cheers

Tony

Harald · 08-23-2018, 10:08 AM

The firmware seems pretty stable now and there haven't been any updates since June.
I just updated the model list in the first post, as Tony has managed to squeez in many more models after my original post.

Cheers,
Harald

albertofenini · 04-01-2019, 03:58 PM

Dear Harald,
it may seems a little O.T. but it was worth asking,
do you know of any company you may have met in the process of making this emulator
that could reproduce a logic board PCB ? Like the 65 one ?
Thanks for your reply
Alberto

Harald · 04-01-2019, 06:34 PM

(04-01-2019 03:58 PM)albertofenini Wrote: Dear Harald,
it may seems a little O.T. but it was worth asking,
do you know of any company you may have met in the process of making this emulator
that could reproduce a logic board PCB ? Like the 65 one ?
Thanks for your reply
Alberto

Hi Alberto,

What do you mean by reproducing? Do you want a copy of the original board? Just the bare PCB so you can populate it with original components? Or are you talking about a designing a new PCB with modern components that is a drop in replacement for the 65 PCB?
I would imagine there are companies out there that can take all the dimensions of an existing pcb, and make a 1:1 copy. But I guess this only makes sense in large quantities. If one board is all you need, it is probably cheaper by far to just buy an original board.

Cheers,
Harald

albertofenini · 04-01-2019, 06:49 PM

Hi Harald
I mean having a copy (or more than one but not many) of the original PCB,
which i would populate with my spare parts.
I agree that it would probably be cheaper to buy one rather than making a lot of copies,
but where can I buy it ?
Maybe reproducing a dozen of copies is not that expensive, what do you think ?
take care !

ijabbott · 04-01-2019, 09:56 PM

(04-01-2019 06:49 PM)albertofenini Wrote: Hi Harald
I mean having a copy (or more than one but not many) of the original PCB,
which i would populate with my spare parts.
I agree that it would probably be cheaper to buy one rather than making a lot of copies,
but where can I buy it ?
Maybe reproducing a dozen of copies is not that expensive, what do you think ?
take care !

There are companies such as JLCPCB who can do that for very reasonable prices, but you need to upload gerber files describing the PCB layout. That means you need to manually transcribe the original PCB layout into a CAD package, which may be tricky and/or a lot of work.