HP 50G - Any way to increase the IR TX/RX range?

[rprosperi]

(09-17-2015 12:02 AM)Sukiari Wrote:  Apologies if this has been covered before. I looked on the forum here and used a Google search as well, and came up dry. I confirmed by my own tests that the HP-50G's IR range is extremely poor compared to the HP-48 series but I wonder why? Is the IR diode in the 50 weaker than the one in the 48? Does the IR window on the top of the calc perhaps attenuate all the IR? What's the secret behind this issue, so we can fix it?

Offhand, is there a handy way to make the printer advance a line right from the calculator? Could any 82240A/B experts chime in? If I could write a program to do this I would be very happy.

Many thanks, it's nice to participate in a forum with such a level of mathematical, technical, and calculator knowledge.

The 48 series machines use an older IR technology which goes by many names, most commonly Red-Eye. It was designed for more casual consumer use, so the range and angle are more flexible.

The 50g uses IRDA, a later standard which generally supported higher transfer rates (though not much higher on these machines), better auto-negotiation of data-rates, etc. but in many products they reduced useful range in order to meet these other parameters. It's unlikely you can do anything to change this enough to make a difference.

For advancing the printer, I would imagine sending an object containing carriage-returns should do that, but have not tested so.