HP97 The journey begins

[Dreato]

Couple comments on the HP41 and using HP 67 programs on a 41. This is probably a repetition of other posts on this site, but it's my personal experience.

1) I've repaired and sold a few HP 41s and the 41 card reader. The HP41 series continued the HP trend that started with the spice series to "cheap out" on manufacture and assembly. The assembly required no soldering or gold plated pins. Just flexible circuit boards with bare spots pressed against each other for contact. Sometimes just cleaning these contacts will restore a 41, sometimes not. Not surprisingly, NiCd battery corrosion was also a problem. If it was bad, the flexible PCB could be beyond rescue. This PCB connected the 4 module ports and the battery contacts. There are folks who sell replacement flexible PCBs for the 41.

2) The card reader was designed to save and load programs for the 41, and added circuitry to read and translate HP67/97 programs to execute in the 41. The translation ROMs are built into the card reader. There's not a 1:1 equivalency for all the 67/97 functions, so new 41 instruction are added to make the 41 operate 'like' a 67/97. The 41 display will tell you when the translation is taking place, and when it's complete. This is a 'one way street'. You can't edit the program on the 41 and save it to a card to run on a 67/97. Won't work. I assume that HP built the compatibility for 67/97 programs to ease the transition to the new platform, so users wouldn't have to re-enter their favorite programs.

Regards,
Dave