HP41C with Rp Pico attached

[ThomasF]

(06-01-2023 05:24 AM)blackjetrock Wrote:  

(05-31-2023 08:01 AM)ThomasF Wrote:  Emulating modules is one achievement, but with USB connection a lot of other interesting possibilities might also be possible ...
I.e. maybe emulating the card reader or Wand to insert/save programs into the 41 from a PC

Thinking about it, as the hardware is in the module, and the module is being emulated then it might be possible to emulate hardware like the card reader as well. If the amount of processing isn't too much. This does all of its emulation and tracing in firmware.

Andrrew

Hi Andrew,

Yes, that was my thought too. I've done similar emulations on other mobile devices, so I think it should be possible.
I.e. the Wand is quite "simple", and emulating that up to 16 bytes are available to be sent shouldn't be that hard to implement, dividing a program into 16 bytes chunks and feed them to the emulation of the module.
But, I've not seen any commented listing of the Wand ROM, so it might take a while to decode the processing, emulating the hardware connected to the module ...
If successful we could then use a battery powered Pico or similar device with WiFi or Bluetooth, and it should be possible to wireless transfer programs to the 41 - a dream come through!

With the Card Reader it would also be possible to send program from the 41, but that's another story ...

Another possibility would be to emulate X-Memory, and enable the Pico to send or receive programs to be stored in the XM, ie use the XM as a dual port memory - allowing a PC to read and write to that memory in realtime. The layout of the XM filesystem is well known, so that might be an easier approach (but not as fun as emulating hardware IMHO).

For me it sound like a very interesting thing to dive into, and I have already ordered some Pico's to play with ...
Just wishing that time was something you could order online as well ...

Cheers,
Thomas