A newcomer from France (edited)

[Mark]

Hello, and a happy new year to everyone,

As a newly registered member, I would like to introduce myself : I have been visiting the HP museum since 1996, regularly peeking at the forum. To say the least, reading you all is very instructive, I learn a lot.

I've been working in the field of embedded electronics and real-time systems for 15 years, and switched to IT security (less exciting to me) some years ago.

Some of my hobbies are centered around old scientific and measurement equipment, tube / transistor radios, 8-bit processors (presently working on a 6502-based desk calculator) and of course, speaking about calculators : I collect them.

Edit : I forgot to mention that HP calculators are special to me : the first I got was a broken -and quickly fixed- 21, and the last one I bought was a 15C LE...

I began almost 35 years ago, starting with electronic machines, going on with mechanical devices and slide rules. What a lot of fun... I did some mistakes also, they're part of the learning process.

In advance, please forgive me : I'll probably be more a reader than a contributor... but whatever I can contribute to, it'll be a pleasure ! My only problem is, as for many of us, time :-)

Regards,
Marc

[rprosperi]

(01-06-2015 06:44 PM)Mark Wrote:  Hello, and a happy new year to everyone,

As a newly registered member, I would like to introduce myself : I have been visiting the HP museum since 1996, regularly peeking at the forum. To say the least, reading you all is very instructive, I learn a lot...

Welcome Mark, thanks for the introduction and background, quite similar to many of us, especially the "I collect them" part.

It has been my experience, echoed by many others, that you will get far more out of these forums by participating, than merely by reading. Do not fear that you may make a small mistake, we all do on occasion, and as you've likely seen, someone will jump in with a correction in no time.

Hope to see your comments soon.

[Mark]

(01-06-2015 07:37 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(01-06-2015 06:44 PM)Mark Wrote:  Hello, and a happy new year to everyone,

As a newly registered member, I would like to introduce myself : I have been visiting the HP museum since 1996, regularly peeking at the forum. To say the least, reading you all is very instructive, I learn a lot...

Welcome Mark, thanks for the introduction and background, quite similar to many of us, especially the "I collect them" part.

It has been my experience, echoed by many others, that you will get far more out of these forums by participating, than merely by reading. Do not fear that you may make a small mistake, we all do on occasion, and as you've likely seen, someone will jump in with a correction in no time.

Hope to see your comments soon.

Hello Bob,

Thank you very much for your reply ! It makes me remember about a very beautiful sentence I read on a French forum which said "Knowledge grows up provided it is shared". ("la Connaissance s'accroit quand on la partage")

So, here's a few more about me : Already as a kid I dismantled everything I grabbed, I've always wanted to know what goes on under the hood. To me, calculators and computers are especially amazing since they're the only machines in which we can -literally- embed some part of of our mental processes.

Among my heroes are Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, Nikola Tesla, Alan Turing, and so on... as a student, days after being given that broken HP21 by a friend, I discovered in the classroom the HP9100 that my IT teacher had teared into pieces because it stopped working. I was astonished : a calculator made up of discrete components ! What a wonder. To the others it was just junk, those were the microprocessor days.

I was able to get some boards (ROM, microcode, flip-flops...) which I preciously keep, and I'm still dreaming of a complete machine. I've read the Osborne patents again and again, and so many other patents. All of that definitely triggered what I'm still doing : trying to preserve whatever I can. That's why HP calculators were the first I collected, soon to be joined by TI, Casio, Sharp, Odhner, Friden... and now slide rules :-)

My favorite HP is -err, not so easy ! Is it the 9810, or the 67 -and what about the 11C, and the 25 ? They're all special :-) as are the other brands.

...and, speaking of what's going on under the hood : "to better understand it, build it". The 6502 RPN homemade calculator I'm working on is based on Charles R. Bond floating-point library (first tribute) and the hardware I built with great help from Garth Wilson 6502 site (second tribute). The 80's technology is attractive because you can control each single bit. -please forgive me, I'm away from HP.

Some of my friends say I'm nuts, now you understand why. I'd rather say I'm assembly-twisted :-)

Marc

[Marcus von Cube]

Bonjour Marc (ou Mark ?) !

(01-06-2015 08:42 PM)Mark Wrote:  The 80's technology is attractive because you can control each single bit. -please forgive me, I'm away from HP.

I started in the late seventies / early eighties with programming. So I know very well what you are talking about. Interestingly, the old technology isn't totally gone. Many embedded systems run on - ahem - scarcely powered micro controllers such as the 8051 or 6502. A Z80 is pure luxury.

If you step up a little you enter the ARM world. I did it with the WP 34S project, a replacement firmware for the 20b/30b series of HP calculators. Controlling (and saving) bits was a common task during the hardware development process. You'll find out for yourself if you browse the forum.

[Mark]

(01-06-2015 09:35 PM)Marcus von Cube Wrote:  Bonjour Marc (ou Mark ?) !

(01-06-2015 08:42 PM)Mark Wrote:  The 80's technology is attractive because you can control each single bit. -please forgive me, I'm away from HP.

I started in the late seventies / early eighties with programming. So I know very well what you are talking about. Interestingly, the old technology isn't totally gone. Many embedded systems run on - ahem - scarcely powered micro controllers such as the 8051 or 6502. A Z80 is pure luxury.

If you step up a little you enter the ARM world. I did it with the WP 34S project, a replacement firmware for the 20b/30b series of HP calculators. Controlling (and saving) bits was a common task during the hardware development process. You'll find out for yourself if you browse the forum.

Guten Abend Marcus,

You guessed it right, it's Marc -I chose Mark as some kind of pseudo for some irrational reason and also because I really like English language.

Besides that, I'm quite aware that these 8-bit processors are still here, as embedded controllers. I practiced much of the popular ones and was a Z80 fan before understanding and fully enjoying the 6502. After that, I tried everything I could put hands on -even did VAX assembler some day, believe it or not. I was young and crazy.

I've read about the WP 34S from the very beginning, it is an impressive achievement ! I have a 20b but not enough time... Some of my old machines have been waiting for restoration for more than 10 years.

I'd better switch to "Not remotely HP Calculators". Is it possible to establish a link from a thread to another ?

Marc

[Katie Wasserman]

(01-06-2015 10:41 PM)Mark Wrote:  I'd better switch to "Not remotely HP Calculators". Is it possible to establish a link from a thread to another ?

Welcome to the HP Forums! I can move this thread if it becomes less about HP calculators and more about early micros. However introducing yourself here is just fine. So I'll leave it alone for now.

[vk6ti]

Bonjour Marc,
welcome to the forum, I am sure most of us share the "pulling apart and re assembling" heritage, some with modifications and some with unsuccessful results, but I guess that's why we are here.
I don't get the chance to post much technical stuff as I consider my self almost inept in calculator electronic field, It's been over 30 years since I did electronic engineering, and have been left behind, only limiting myself to tubes, transistors, and the odd flip flop, op amp etc. thus I only consider my self a HP collector.(not a dealer)
but I will have the odd post or reply, putting my 2 cents worth in, for what it is worth.
I have found the members here very helpful and informative, and encourage
your input

Ray

[PANAMATIK]

Welcome Mark,

Im also a newcomer here. And I work with embedded controllers. 6502 was my second micro, programmed without compiler in machine code, very long ago.

I know still many opcodes for example LDA #00 A9 00 and return 60.

Bernhard

[walter b]

Bienvenue Marc, it's certainly the proper forum you're on. Since you read it for long there's almost nothing I can tell you what you didn't find out yourself. When I started reading it, I did learn a lot from experts like Karl Schneider or Valentin Albillo (to name just two). I can only recommend their contributions - probably you know them already. Enjoy!

d:-)

[BobVA]

Welcome Marc!!

Your bio is probably 90% interchangeable with many of ours!

(01-07-2015 01:26 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  I know still many opcodes for example LDA #00 A9 00 and return 60.

But as Bernhard's example points out, we may be spaced out along the time axis. Rather than op-codes I remember the Hollerith codes for "(" and ")". A keypunch with those exotic symbols directly on the keyboard was *much* too valuable to be entrusted to undergraduates

Bob

[Mark]

Hi,

To all of you, thank you very much for your warm welcome ! Indeed, as Walter wrote, much people here are kind of familiar to me.

Hoping I soon have the opportunity to contribute -but before that I'll quickly put me on the waiting list for "The Book"...

Marc