The HP 34E Ir with PANAMATIK ACT

[Harald]

I finally got round to taking a couple of pictures of the almost finished HP 34E:

Here is where I installed the IR diode:


Can't wait for an overlay, but I only need part of it - thanks to Ignazio who sent 93% of the keys Can you tell which ones were missing and what they were replaced with?


And here the 34E has printed a program, hopefully I won't need to post a video as proof:


And there is one special feature:


It is only usefull in combination with this:



So now I don't have to open the calculator every time Bernhard reacts to a feature request or bug report

[Geoff Quickfall]

Wonderful!

A few questions.

How did you reseal the keyboard after removing or cutting the heat stakes?

Do you flash with the ACT attached to the PCA?

Can you take a picture of the four contact points emanating from the jack?

Which four wires are you using from the USB flash cable to the stereo jack?

Cheers,

Geoff

Edited: Oops, not stereo jack.

[Dave Frederickson]

Very nice, Harald!

Just last week I found on eBay a complete 34C "for parts". I'm considering modifying my 25E Ir, too. As the resident expert on USB cable adapters, what's the part number for the cable you used? With that type of plug I believe it's important to plug it into the calculator before pluging in the USB end, correct?

Dave

[Harald]

Unfortunately my solution to resealing the keyboard only works once per keyboard.
I simply cut the tops off the heatstakes and remove the PCB. When I have put it back, I insert a soldering iron into the part of the heatstake that remains. That pushes some material on top of the PCB. If you use the right size soldering iron this will be strong enough and the keyboard won't feel any different to an original one.
But there won't be enough material left to do this a second time.
If you want to try this methode, I'd advise to practice with a keyboard you don't care about too much.

(09-23-2015 04:44 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Do you flash with the ACT attached to the PCA?

Yes, I flash with it connected. This is no problem if you wire everything correctly and don't power the calculator while you do it.

(09-23-2015 04:44 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Can you take a picture of the four contact points emanating from the jack?

Which contact points are you talking about? The ones inside the calculator? There is not much left to see as I glued everything in place.

(09-23-2015 04:44 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Which four wires are you using from the USB flash cable to the stereo jack?

Data, Clock, GND and Vcc. Make sure Vcc is the last one to connect on the Jack. I had a mishap with this as there will be incorrect connections while you are inserting the connector.

Cheers,
Harald

[Harald]

(09-23-2015 04:44 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Very nice, Harald!

Just last week I found on eBay a complete 34C "for parts". I'm considering modifying my 25E Ir, too. As the resident expert on USB cable adapters, what's the part number for the cable you used? With that type of plug I believe it's important to plug it into the calculator before pluging in the USB end, correct?

Dave

The cable is my WP34s flash cable prototype which I hacked from an old USB to RS485 adapter. But any USB to UART cable should do.

The USB needs to be plugged in first, the Calculator after starting Bernhards flash tool. This is necessary because of the way he gets into the bootloader.
You have to take care that Vcc is the last connection to be made on the jack. If this isn't the case you can (and will, as I found out the hard way) damage Bernhards ACT.

[Dave Frederickson]

(09-23-2015 05:44 PM)Harald Wrote:  The USB needs to be plugged in first, the Calculator after starting Bernhards flash tool. This is necessary because of the way he gets into the bootloader.
You have to take care that Vcc is the last connection to be made on the jack. If this isn't the case you can (and will, as I found out the hard way) damage Bernhards ACT.

So Vcc is the tip of the plug. When plugged in it will sequentially contact Tx, Rx, and Gnd. I recall that the 41CL has a similar issue. I think I'll choose a different connector.

Dave

[Geoff Quickfall]

Would not the VCC tip be the last connection to be made. That is the one closest to the jack insulator opposite to the tip?

That would allow all three connections as they pass each gate/connector on the female receptacle to be data only and not voltage until completely plugged in.

Or is my ignorance of electrical engineering missing something, a VERY real chance of occurring ;-)

Geoff

[Harald]

(09-23-2015 07:40 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Or is my ignorance of electrical engineering missing something, a VERY real chance of occurring ;-)

Geoff

No Geoff, you are right, the tip passes through all contacts on the way in. Therefor you don't want that to be Vcc. Vcc is the last one on the conmector.

[Dave Frederickson]

(09-23-2015 07:40 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Would not the VCC tip be the last connection to be made. That is the one closest to the jack insulator opposite to the tip?

That would allow all three connections as they pass each gate/connector on the female receptacle to be data only and not voltage until completely plugged in.

Or is my ignorance of electrical engineering missing something, a VERY real chance of occurring ;-)

Geoff

Perhaps I read Harald's post incorrectly. If Vcc on the plug is the last to connect to the jack then I don't see any issues.

Dave

[Geoff Quickfall]

Ahh?

Wasn't thinking about the internals of the female end. Good point.

Geoff

Harold, yep, standard keyboard repair, done that on some voyagers, one way fix as you say. Maybe I will try that with a dead 67 set of keys.

By the way, very sweet looking. P.m. Sent.

Geoff

[Harald]

(09-23-2015 11:06 PM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Harold, yep, standard keyboard repair, done that on some voyagers, one way fix as you say. Maybe I will try that with a dead 67 set of keys.

I am pretty sure the 67 keys won't fit

[Geoff Quickfall]

Haven't measured, too bad.

Talking to Eric and he may be able to make up some vinyl 67 overlays for the 25. Will save opening up a good keyboard.

Geoff

[rprosperi]

(09-23-2015 03:56 PM)Harald Wrote:  Can you tell which ones were missing and what they were replaced with?

At last another HP calculator with 3 dif colored shift keys! Until now, I think only the 67, 34C (real) and 1 other (?) were the only ones I believe..

[Harald]

(09-24-2015 10:56 AM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Haven't measured, too bad.

Talking to Eric and he may be able to make up some vinyl 67 overlays for the 25. Will save opening up a good keyboard.

Geoff

Bernhard has plans for an overlay as well.

And luckily I had a bad keyboard that needed opening anyway.

[Harald]

(09-24-2015 11:34 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(09-23-2015 03:56 PM)Harald Wrote:  Can you tell which ones were missing and what they were replaced with?

At last another HP calculator with 3 dif colored shift keys! Until now, I think only the 67, 34C (real) and 1 other (?) were the only ones I believe..

Inganzio was missing the "R/S" and "h" keys. So I used an "R/S" key from a 25 and relabled the shifted function, and for the "h" key I used a 37E "n" key.

[PANAMATIK]

(09-24-2015 11:40 AM)Harald Wrote:  

(09-24-2015 10:56 AM)Geoff Quickfall Wrote:  Haven't measured, too bad.

Talking to Eric and he may be able to make up some vinyl 67 overlays for the 25. Will save opening up a good keyboard.

Geoff

Bernhard has plans for an overlay as well.

And luckily I had a bad keyboard that needed opening anyway.

Indeed, a very talented friend of mine is working on the overlays. Today I got the first design draft. There will be an overlay for HP-29C, HP-34C and HP-67. It will be vinyl type like the WP3xS overlays. Because I don't have experience in overlays I'm not sure if it will be the right material. I'm sorry for the long time it needs. If there is another source for overlays in the US, I would appreciate that, you will be happy to get the overlay easily by your national post.

Harald, this is the best HP-34E ever produced. Congratulations! The position of the LED is very clever and looks very nice, and you can use the charger plug. Good idea! I will withdraw my recommendation for the middle position in the next manual version.

Bernhard

[PANAMATIK]

(09-23-2015 05:44 PM)Harald Wrote:  The cable is my WP34s flash cable prototype which I hacked from an old USB to RS485 adapter. But any USB to UART cable should do.

The USB needs to be plugged in first, the Calculator after starting Bernhards flash tool. This is necessary because of the way he gets into the bootloader.
You have to take care that Vcc is the last connection to be made on the jack. If this isn't the case you can (and will, as I found out the hard way) damage Bernhards ACT.

The ACT Flash Update tool pulls the TX line to low level. When the ACT is powered up it reads the TX line and if low enters the boot loader waiting for data. Therefore GND and TX must be connected before VCC is applied, otherwise the boot loader reads high level at startup and immediately starts the calculator. When I designed the boot loader I thought about waiting TX going low for some 100 ms at each power up, but I decided that the 0.00 must appear immediately after moving the On/Off switch to behave exactly like the original calculator.

If contacting VCC first, the ACT will not be damaged, but appears to be damaged, because it never enters the boot loader.

Bernhard

[Harald]

(09-24-2015 11:42 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Harald, this is the best HP-34E ever produced. Congratulations! The position of the LED is very clever and looks very nice, and you can use the charger plug. Good idea! I will withdraw my recommendation for the middle position in the next manual version.

Thank you! I am not sure if I'd remove the recomandation. I would probably add a second option.
Being able to use the charger is a questionable advantage, as most likely it is the reason the calculator needed an ACT replacement.
And also installing the diode this way is more difficult. The hole for it has to be drilled at an angle because of its position in the slanted part of the calculator. Not everyone might feel comfortable with this.

(09-24-2015 11:42 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  If contacting VCC first, the ACT will not be damaged, but appears to be damaged, because it never enters the boot loader.

Well, while the ACT wasn't physically damaged, on mine I managed to erase the bootloader by not having the order of the connections right.

[PANAMATIK]

(09-25-2015 07:58 AM)Harald Wrote:  

(09-24-2015 11:42 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  If contacting VCC first, the ACT will not be damaged, but appears to be damaged, because it never enters the boot loader.

Well, while the ACT wasn't physically damaged, on mine I managed to erase the bootloader by not having the order of the connections right.

I'm not sure whether you managed to erase the boot loader, because I forgot to test it, when I reprogrammed your ACT. The boot loader protects itself and normally cannot be erased. If the LED flashes only very short at power up, then the boot loader is still present but immediately starts the calculator each time because of the wrong order power up sequence. Only if the calculator doesn't start up any more then something has been erased.

IR printing:

Well, you are right, placing it in the middle by just drilling two small 0.8 -1 mm holes is still the most easy and minimal invasive way to install the printing diode. Nevertheless your placement looks industrially perfect and is a second alternative.

Bernhard

[PANAMATIK]

(09-24-2015 11:34 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  At last another HP calculator with 3 dif colored shift keys! Until now, I think only the 67, 34C (real) and 1 other (?) were the only ones I believe..

HP-67CX!