HP-41 Infinity - a Tulip4041 teaser ...

[ThomasF]

(09-27-2024 09:13 AM)floppy Wrote:  Nice.
What could be a "customer journey"?
a) I buy an HP41C on eBay (nothing except this part); the cheapest hardware available
b) I connect a tulip to my HP41 (a fully system I could buy anywhere)
c) I make the setup on the HP41 (4x memory modules, X-Function modules, ROM whatever in a port). > the setup is kept accross any taking out of the HP41 and any reconnect into CV or CX would gives errors because X-function was there in the CX etc.
d) in case of a tulip malfunction on another HP41 (a CV, a CX), a re-setup can be made on a PC or in the new CV/CX machine
This "journey" is a possibility of an user type (persona "lazy dude").
Or everything is still in the study phase and the target use behaviour has still to be defined?

Yes, the Tulip board and software is still in early developing phase and how the final "system" will look like or behave is not yet defined.

• The main purpose of the board is to emulate hardware not previously possible, e.g. it will include the IR module and HP-IL (over USB). The Wand has also to some extend been emulated in the software.
• Support for modules is also proven to work, both ROM's and RAM (both normal and X-Memory), and backup of e.g. X-Memory in flash works.
• But there are still questions unsolved, e.g. moving from one calculator to another.
  How should RAM be copied? E.g. the main RAM resides in the calculator and is not directly accessible from the Tulip board - it needs a "module" with code that can take a backup of RAM and save it, and in a new calculator a restore function must be called.
• Some setup can be done automatically - e.g. finding the amount of memory, type of calculator, modules plugged in etc. but nothing that has been implemented so far.
• I have several boards and moving the setup from one to another works (using a PC), and I'm using both a C, CV and CX with them (but I don't move RAM between the devices, yet).
  

When more people starts to test and develop on the Tulip development board, I think most of these questions would be discussed and solved to create something very useful for anyone with a HP41 system - and I think that simplicity and robustness must be a key goal - you should not need to be a developer to use the Tulip when we get there.

Cheers,
Thomas