[HP-41] Today is Clonix-41's X Anniversary... :-)

[bhtooefr]

(12-21-2013 07:36 AM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  One thing I have against USB is that a handheld device cannot act as a controller. There is USB OTG that allows peers to be connected together, but what originally got me into the HP-41 was that HPIL allowed it to connect to and control and take data from many lab instruments at once (31, although I've never gone over 6, using the HP82169A HPIL-to-HPIB interface converter). USB cannot compete in that way. I do have two HP82161A tape drives but have not needed them in years, as I have not lost memory in the 41 since I was new at synthetic programming in the late 1980's. I also have the 82162 HPIL printer but I usually use a big parallel Epson printer instead, going through the FSI-164 (which is like the 82164A) or 82165A interface adapters.

It's worth noting two things.

First off, USB OTG simply adds a line to negotiate between host and device mode, and in host mode (which does need a special cable to get pure host mode), you can hang a hub off of a USB OTG port (if the USB stack on the host supports hubs).

Second, I was thinking of a different usage model entirely - your usage model would be best with a real HP-IL module. The usage model I was thinking of was HP-IL simulation for interfacing with a computer, reducing the cost of entry into the HP-41 platform - the cheapest HP-IL module I see on TAS is $230, and then you'd need a PIL-Box for file exchange, and that's the cheapest route for file exchange in both directions I think. For that matter, it's $180 for a wand, if you only care about getting things into the calculator.

That said, I wonder how hard it'd be to port the HP-IL firmware to the USB-41 and look to the 41 like an IL module, and to look to the computer like a PIL-Box.