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HP 41 Keyboard Overlays available finally!
11-30-2014, 11:07 PM (This post was last modified: 10-27-2020 11:51 PM by Michael Fehlhammer.)
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HP 41 Keyboard Overlays available finally!
This post has been updated on October, 26th, 2020; changes were made in chapter "shipping" (please read!), and six new overlays have been added (see links to photos in chapter "pictures").

One of the outstanding features of the HP 41 certainly is its USER mode that provides total customizability of the keyboard. Many powerful modules – think of the CCD module, for example – came with a keyboard overlay to make use of that.
Today’s great enhancements for the 41 mainly originate in the monumental opus of Angel Martin, who created several modules with hundreds of functions each. These modules cry out for specific overlays, and consequently Angel designed them and produced and offered us overlay stickers.
The main drawbacks of these stickers are: You need original overlays as a carrier. And the procedure of affixing the sticker precisely isn’t that easy.

After several unsuccessful attempts we (that is the print studio involved, a student that is good at DTP programs and me) managed to cut and print HP 41 overlays.
A water jet cutting technique was used, laser cutting proved to be inadequate.
The print color is UV resistant and even gets better when exposed to sunlight.
Abrasion strength seems to be quite good, but we have no long-term experience, of course.

Known imperfections:
- The overlays are a little thicker than the originals; that unfortunately means that you hardly can install 2 overlays in a row. Apart from that the plastic material is of similar quality and flexibility as the originals.
- The precision of water jet cutting is worse than what is achieved with punch machines.
From front view that is hardly visible, especially when the overlay is installed onto the calculator, but you can see it when looking at the rear side.
- Some overlays feature a tremendous lot of symbols; the spacing between the keys runs short, to maintain legibility the size of the symbols can’t be further reduced. The print studio guy has the difficult task to position the blank overlay extremely accurate, otherwise parts of the labelling might vanish in the key cutout. Deviations of about one tenth of a millimeter are inevitable, however. That should not affect the perceptibility of letters, but it can result in a “damaged” color key rim which borders the key only on three sides. Angel’s overlay designs use key rims very often.

The overall quality of the overlays is said to be quite good.
At least I received positive feedback from my beta testers ( thank you! ) Angel Martin, Diego Diaz, Monte Dalrymple, Jean-Francois Garnier and Raymond del Tondo. So please ask them about their impressions.

About price, availability, shipping, payment:

When ordering a single overlay that already has been designed by us for printing, the price per overlay is US-$ 8.50; ( € 7.50 in Europe ), minimum order quantity is 3 overlays. From 10 on there is a small discount: $ 8.- ( € 7.- ) per piece.
In the first few production runs we printed 20 different flavors, see the list below and the photos. While supplies last – and I expect them not to last for long – I can ship almost immediately.

Then we have to keep a record of preorders. Minimum quantity for a new production run is 50 overlays, no less than 6 of a kind. I will try to keep you informed about the preorder state of affairs.
We are approaching Christmas holidays, so please don’t be disappointed if there is a delay now and your order might be processed only in early January.

Of course we can print any other HP 41 overlay, even your very individual overlay. You just have to provide a good quality image of it, and then we’ll create the template for the print studio from it. You’d have to pay $ 50.- for that once. Of course therefore it’s worthwhile to order a larger quantity of an all-new overlay; you may contact others who are interested as well and establish a collective order.

Shipping:
UPDATE October 2020:
Shipping internationally has become more difficult and expensive recently. Most countries do not longer allow any goods to be sent in a registered letter, which was the method of choice by far up to now.
Only "documents" are allowed in a letter.
Now these overlays are flat and lightweight, maybe we can consider them being documents? I could try to send them as a letter if the customer wishes, but successful deilvery is not guaranteed.
A package with tracking information is very expensive, from Germany to the USA for example about 35 EUR ! There is a way to send it as a parcel (normally not tracked) with tracking information as an additional option, that is about 15 EUR, but it takes over 30 days since it is sea mail instead of air mail!
I would be happy to receive your thoughts and tips about that.
A collective order would make sense.

Method of payment:
Paypal only.

Pictures:
( Hopefully popular! ) overlays built so far: ( Links to photos of the overlays ):

AECRom Program Generator
Zenrom_MCED
Zenrom_Alpha
Plotter Module
Ram Editor RAMED
Rom Editor HEXEDIT
CCD Module
Assembler ( modern version )
David Assembler ( classic version )
Hepax ( classic version )
HP 16C Emulator
HP 16C Emulator Martin-McClure
PowerCL Launcher
PowerCLExtreme Launcher
SandMath
SandMath 2
SandMatrix
HP 41Z Keys
Polynomial Calc
Polynomial Calc NewVersion
3dVectorCalc
Diagnostic Module for 41 CV, CX
Diagnostic Module for 41C
FormulaEval
AutoComplete XEQ+
WarpCore
PolynROM
PowerCL_Launcher_White
PowerCLExtreme_Launcher_White

Ordering procedure:
You may place your order by sending me a PM ( private message ) here.
If you have questions, better ask them publicly in this thread, because I assume that the answer might be of general interest.
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Messages In This Thread
HP 41 Keyboard Overlays available finally! - Michael Fehlhammer - 11-30-2014 11:07 PM
HP 71 Overlays - Dave Frederickson - 03-11-2015, 02:01 AM



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