ACT available

[Dieter]

(07-19-2015 09:10 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  You now will access the A-E keys by f prefix hold down together with a first row button and it works perfectly, although single handed use will get more difficult.

How do you access the lowercase labels a – e ?
On a 67/97 this is [f] [A] ... [f] [E].

Dieter

[PANAMATIK]

(07-19-2015 12:54 PM)Dieter Wrote:  

(07-19-2015 09:10 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  You now will access the A-E keys by f prefix hold down together with a first row button and it works perfectly, although single handed use will get more difficult.

How do you access the lowercase labels a – e ?
On a 67/97 this is [f] [A] ... [f] [E].

Dieter

Very easy. Just press [f] then another [f] together with the first row button. This does also work with LBL A-E and LBL a-e etc.

Bernhard

[BobVA]

Installed the new ACT in my HP-25 and I'm now the very happy owner of an HP-25E IR!

Really a lot of fun - I'm looking forward to settling down with the manual and working through it, just like when I bought my first HP-25 in 1975.

And how do you tell a happy ACT upgrade owner? Simple - feature requests!
Bernhard, if you ever tinker with the IR printing code, an emulation of the HP "Normal" print mode would be extremely useful to me, either as a separate mode or as a power-up selection of what the current "Trace" flag does.

Thanks again for making this fantastic chip available!!!

I'm going to see if I can find a more modern case in the camera aisle of a big-box store, but anyone have any specific recommendations?

Regards,
Bob

[rprosperi]

(07-20-2015 12:31 AM)BobVA Wrote:  Installed the new ACT in my HP-25 and I'm now the very happy owner of an HP-25E IR!

Really a lot of fun - I'm looking forward to settling down with the manual and working through it, just like when I bought my first HP-25 in 1975.

And how do you tell a happy ACT upgrade owner? Simple - feature requests!
Bernhard, if you ever tinker with the IR printing code, an emulation of the HP "Normal" print mode would be extremely useful to me, either as a separate mode or as a power-up selection of what the current "Trace" flag does.

Thanks again for making this fantastic chip available!!!

I'm going to see if I can find a more modern case in the camera aisle of a big-box store, but anyone have any specific recommendations?

Regards,
Bob

Woodstock cases are readily available on eBay, usually fairly cheap. Or ask in the classified area, maybe a member has an extra one.

Unless maybe you don't like the old-school look...

[BobVA]

Quote:Unless maybe you don't like the old-school look...

I do have a couple of old Woodstock cases, but I was thinking there might be something smaller and perhaps more rugged, similar to the HP-35S clamshell style.

[PANAMATIK]

(07-20-2015 12:31 AM)BobVA Wrote:  ...
Bernhard, if you ever tinker with the IR printing code, an emulation of the HP "Normal" print mode would be extremely useful to me, either as a separate mode or as a power-up selection of what the current "Trace" flag does.
...
Regards,
Bob

I will have an eye for refining the IR printing, which actually implements only the manual mode and trace mode. Implementing printing needed lot of code size and there is not much left now. But I will give it a try. And I will make Print X and Paper Advance programmable in the next HP-25E IR and HP-29E IR version. Get your update kit ready.

Bernhard

[BobVA]

(07-20-2015 10:10 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Get your update kit ready.

Bernhard

I'll skip ahead to that chapter at once!

[vido]

I received my new ACT earlier this week, and took some time today to replace the ACT of my old HP-25.

Wow, just wow. This really renews the subject. All of a sudden, my HP-25 has permanent memory, is much faster, and there are lots and lots of funny options, not mentioning the memory multiplied by 100, essentially.

The ACT daughter board had a small issue with what looks like a extraneous drop of solder joining two of the pins, but this was easily fixed.

I also made a mistake by first soldering the 5 pins connector for the USB link, only realizing later on that this made the calculator impossible to close because of the vertical space taken. I had to desolder it, which is a bit painful on such a small board and aging eyes. I ruined one of the 5 pins in the process, so I'll just replace that socket with another one later on, no big deal. I should have read the documentation entirely before doing that, or maybe it would be a good idea to add on the small printed matter which comes with the USB stuff "do not solder the 5-pin connector do the new ACT board !"

Also, in the documentation, there is a reference to some code to enter in register 0 in order to activate the "continuous memory" thing, I didn't have such code, but still got the "continuous memory" activated, so I guess that part of the documentation is obsolete ?

The IR LED was very easy to set, I also added a small 2-pins connector inside the case in order to make future disassembly of the machine easier. If you grind some space in the internal indents, the connector gets a natural position inside. Although I don't have a working IR printer (yet), I could verify that the LED is correctly activated when printing things by using my digital camera (which is sensible to that IR color, and shows the LED illuminating when a signal is emitted).

I have yet to play with the firmware update features (5-pins connector ruined means I'll be delayed just a little while until I grab a replacement one), because I'd really like to see my HP-25 behaving like a HP-35, for example. By the way, I'm looking forward to the vinyl stickers which will make this comfortable.

In summary, it is a very impressive achievement, and a real pleasure to use and discover !

[PANAMATIK]

(07-21-2015 10:38 AM)vido Wrote:  I received my new ACT earlier this week, and took some time today to replace the ACT of my old HP-25.

Wow, just wow. This really renews the subject. All of a sudden, my HP-25 has permanent memory, is much faster, and there are lots and lots of funny options, not mentioning the memory multiplied by 100, essentially.

The ACT daughter board had a small issue with what looks like a extraneous drop of solder joining two of the pins, but this was easily fixed.

I also made a mistake by first soldering the 5 pins connector for the USB link, only realizing later on that this made the calculator impossible to close because of the vertical space taken. I had to desolder it, which is a bit painful on such a small board and aging eyes. I ruined one of the 5 pins in the process, so I'll just replace that socket with another one later on, no big deal. I should have read the documentation entirely before doing that, or maybe it would be a good idea to add on the small printed matter which comes with the USB stuff "do not solder the 5-pin connector do the new ACT board !"

Also, in the documentation, there is a reference to some code to enter in register 0 in order to activate the "continuous memory" thing, I didn't have such code, but still got the "continuous memory" activated, so I guess that part of the documentation is obsolete ?

The IR LED was very easy to set, I also added a small 2-pins connector inside the case in order to make future disassembly of the machine easier. If you grind some space in the internal indents, the connector gets a natural position inside. Although I don't have a working IR printer (yet), I could verify that the LED is correctly activated when printing things by using my digital camera (which is sensible to that IR color, and shows the LED illuminating when a signal is emitted).

I have yet to play with the firmware update features (5-pins connector ruined means I'll be delayed just a little while until I grab a replacement one), because I'd really like to see my HP-25 behaving like a HP-35, for example. By the way, I'm looking forward to the vinyl stickers which will make this comfortable.

In summary, it is a very impressive achievement, and a real pleasure to use and discover !

Congratulations for your successful HP-25E ACT replacement. This is the first "new ACT" in the far east.

Thanks for giving this hint, to add a printed notice. Although it is written in the manual not to solder it into the circuit, it can be easily overread, and will be part of the delivery from now.

If you are lucky, you ruined only pin 1 of the connector, which is not needed for updates. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Vinyl overlays are still in the early process of design. There will be an HP-34C, HP-67, and HP-29C overlay. But I don't think that they are reusable after having been attached once.

Thanks for your wonderful feedback.

Bernhard

[Dave Frederickson]

(07-21-2015 03:15 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Vinyl overlays are still in the early process of design. There will be an HP-34C, HP-67, and HP-29C overlay. But I don't think that they are reusable after having been attached once.

Maybe non-adhesive overlays would be worth considering, like the ones Michael Fehlhammer made for the 41: HP 41 Keyboard Overlays available finally!

[Harald]

I am now the proud owner of my first HP 34C - Thanks to Bernhard and his ACT.
I have always liked the Woodstocks much better than the Spices and am really happy I can now have a Woodstock 34C.
Since I never had a 34C before there will be lots of questions. The first one is: Does the 34C not preserve the stack when it is turned off? I know the 25C doesn't, but the 29C partly does. So I thought the 34C might also do this. But my brand new Woodstock 34C doesn't and I am wondering if that behaviour is correct.

Thanks again to Bernhard for sacrificing so much of his time to for this project!

[rprosperi]

(07-23-2015 09:35 PM)Harald Wrote:  Since I never had a 34C before there will be lots of questions...

The full 34C manual (in color) is included in the MoHPC USB Drive collection; from p.19

"Continuous Memory means the program memory, all 21 storage registers, and the display mode stay " on" when your calculator is turned off. You can
store your favorite program (or programs) for days or weeks!"

[PANAMATIK]

(07-23-2015 09:35 PM)Harald Wrote:  I am now the proud owner of my first HP 34C - Thanks to Bernhard and his ACT.
I have always liked the Woodstocks much better than the Spices and am really happy I can now have a Woodstock 34C.
Since I never had a 34C before there will be lots of questions. The first one is: Does the 34C not preserve the stack when it is turned off? I know the 25C doesn't, but the 29C partly does. So I thought the 34C might also do this. But my brand new Woodstock 34C doesn't and I am wondering if that behaviour is correct.

Thanks again to Bernhard for sacrificing so much of his time to for this project!

The HP-34C manual describes which data is preserved:

Quote:When you turn your calculator off, the following information is retained:
• All programs that are loaded into the calculator.
• Contents of the storage registers.
• Display status (FIX, SCI, or ENG, and number of displayed
digits).
Regardless of where you stopped in a program , the calculator returns to
line 000 (top of program memory) when you turn it on again.
Numbers in the stack , LAST X, and trigonometric mode status (DEG,
RAD, or GRAD) are not preserved when you turn the calculator off.
Also, all flags and pending subroutines are cleared.

The Flash "Continuous Memory" of the Woodstock HP-34E does preserve exactly the same data.

The HP-29C does retain also the X register, because it holds a copy of the X register in external RAM, while the stack Y,Z,T registers are stored only in the ACT and not in external RAM. Again the new ACT HP-29E preserves exactly the same data, including the X register.

I wish you a lot of fun with your new woodstock HP-34C

Bernhard

[PANAMATIK]

Bug report ACT V1.04:

I have been reported, that in fast speed mode there will be randomly keystrokes missing, although the button is pressed normally. This does not happen in normal speed mode. I can confirm this behaviour.

A reliable keyboard response is an essential part of a calculator. I try to find the issue and I will inform you, a soon as an update is available.

Thanks again for feedback of any kind.

Bernhard

[Harald]

(07-25-2015 09:57 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Bug report ACT V1.04:

Thanks again for feedback of any kind.

Bernhard

Hi Bernhard,

I didn't find as much time as I would have liked to play with my 34E,
but there are two things that I noticed:
1.) The serial number is not shown correctly. This is because you are not using the right most digit (because the
spices have only 11 digits) But I guess it would make sense to use the 12th digit for the serial number.
2.) Although I don't have the stopwatch function, I can still access stopwatch mode - then I have an unresponsive calculator that shows 0.0000.

Harald

[PANAMATIK]

(07-25-2015 10:35 PM)Harald Wrote:  

(07-25-2015 09:57 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Bug report ACT V1.04:

Thanks again for feedback of any kind.

Bernhard

Hi Bernhard,

I didn't find as much time as I would have liked to play with my 34E,
but there are two things that I noticed:
1.) The serial number is not shown correctly. This is because you are not using the right most digit (because the
spices have only 11 digits) But I guess it would make sense to use the 12th digit for the serial number.
2.) Although I don't have the stopwatch function, I can still access stopwatch mode - then I have an unresponsive calculator that shows 0.0000.

Harald

Hi Harald,

The actual HP-34E version should just emulate the HP-34C without extras. I planned to integrate the stopwatch function and Infrared Printing into the HP-34E firmware in the future. Obviously I forgot to disable the "enter stopwatch" key sequence.

The HP-34E Serial Number display will be corrected in the next version.

Thanks for your feedback.

Bernhard

[Harald]

And one more thing I cant make sense of:

I tried to test the numerical integration. I wrote a very simple program:
h LBL B
f COS
h RTN

and then tried to integrate by entering lower limit, enter, upper limit, "f" "integrate" "B".
But whatever limits I choose I get -4.4296 e-33 as a result...

Am I making a mistake somewhere? I don't have a real 34c to verify this.

[Katie Wasserman]

(07-25-2015 11:24 PM)Harald Wrote:  And one more thing I cant make sense of:

I tried to test the numerical integration. I wrote a very simple program:
h LBL B
f COS
h RTN

and then tried to integrate by entering lower limit, enter, upper limit, "f" "integrate" "B".
But whatever limits I choose I get -4.4296 e-33 as a result...

Am I making a mistake somewhere? I don't have a real 34c to verify this.

I don't think so. On a real 34C I get the right results doing exactly this.

[PANAMATIK]

(07-25-2015 11:24 PM)Harald Wrote:  And one more thing I cant make sense of:

I tried to test the numerical integration. I wrote a very simple program:
h LBL B
f COS
h RTN

and then tried to integrate by entering lower limit, enter, upper limit, "f" "integrate" "B".
But whatever limits I choose I get -4.4296 e-33 as a result...

Am I making a mistake somewhere? I don't have a real 34c to verify this.

Oops, this is a big bug. I got also wrong results. Thanks for reporting.

But sunday morning is a good time for hunting bugs. I fixed it and integration is working now! I take time for some additional tests and will send you the new version today.

Thanks for making my sunday mornings exciting.

Bernhard

[PANAMATIK]

Update 1.05 available!

I released the ACT Version 1.05

1.) Keyboard is responsive also in fast mode.
2.) HP-34E Integration works.

You can download the update files from the previously posted link.

Thanks for waiting for this update!

Bernhard