[WP-34S] Cable and flashing options for Mac users

[jebem]

(01-24-2015 08:58 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  The underlying point here is that if one is going to offer advice then one should be well informed. Jebem didn't perform the proper research before diving into his DIY project.

• He was unaware that Harald's boards even existed. If he had read Katie's article he would have learned of them. This is evidenced by the fact that he was unaware of the prices, not having read Harald's original post, despite the recent link.
• He was unaware of the availability of the pogo connector parts, despite the fact that they were right under his nose in the Museum Classifieds.
  

At the beginning of this thread Jebem jumped in and offered his solution as the only show in town. The result was John had to deal with a cheap Chinese adapter with bad documentation. If Jebem hadn't been so eager to toot his own horn and offered alternatives then perhaps this thread might not be so long.

The main reason why this thread is so long is because your continued small talk about the alleged virtues of a commercial product and your tentative of finding faults in my project design.

Can it be improved? Sure!
There are no perfect products and no absolute truths, and that's why the wheel is being reinvented as we go. Otherwise we would still living in the stone age.

My simple project design is based on more than 40 years of solid electronics experience from different fields, and it is oriented to those people able to understand it, build it, and improve it.

My project is not for everybody. You need minimum experience on electronics before trying such projects.

John is one of these people, as are others that have contacted me in the past, able to understand a schematic diagram and implementing it on their spare time.
John have used good practices commonly used in the electronics field to build and debug the issues found. Nothing special when you are into electronics.

We have been sharing our experiences here. That should be the main driving reason of being a forum member.

For the other people that just wants to get the calculator flashed and do not want to spend time (and big fun) building it, I'm afraid there is no solution, because as far as I know, there are no ready made cables.

Repeat after me: There are no ready made cables!
As good as Harald's board can be, it is not a full solution, and the person building a serial cable with it can still find the same kind of the reported issues.
Again, nothing that we can't handle when you have a minimum knowledge in the field.