Seeking Local Help with WP34s

[BarryMead]

(03-28-2016 07:28 PM)lcwright1964 Wrote:  I have no idea what an FTDI rail is.

Les:
FTDI is a company (Future Technology Devices International) who make many of the USB to serial cables and the chips that power them. Some of these cables (the ones recommended to flash the WP34s) have a built in voltage regulator that converts the 5 Volt native USB power down to 3.3 Volts. The 3.3V cables that include this regulator, have enough current (10 milliamps) to power the calculator in addition to converting the USB interface into a serial interface with 3.3V logic levels. This regulated 10mA 3.3V power coming out of the FDTI cable is what mfleming was referring to when he said to "power the calculator from the FTDI 3.3V rail". He means remove the calculator's batteries and use the +3.3V power coming out of the FTDI cable to power the calculator instead of the batteries.

I hope this helps, Barry