HP-71 Compu-LS module

[twa14]

I have found a discussion on the above module in forum archive 19. I have this module (bought it in 1988!) but it has always annoyed me that the module was not setup to use the Math rom for solving linear equations and various other Matrix routines. There are apparently members who may have a printout of the code which I could use as I also have some unused EEPROMS. The discussion on Archive 19 was between a "Mike" and a "Forrest Switzer" who may have a digital copy of the code printout. If anyone knows how to contact either of the above or have any information on COMPU-LS I would be glad to have it.

Thanks in advance

Tom Walsh

[Valentin Albillo]

Hi, Tom:

Sorry, I have no information whatsoever about the module you mention, I'm replying simply to offer my advice that you should never post your e-mail address in clear, plain text, lest many bots will harvest it and sell it for good (bad, more like) with the unwelcome result that tons upon tons of spam or worse will be sent forever to this address of yours.

I would suggest that you edit your post immediately to remove the plain text address and either replace it with a machine-unreadable image or better, ask people to send you a private message which you can read/reply in this forum without disclosing your real e-mail address.

Have a nice weekend.
V.
.

[Dave Frederickson]

The overlay for the COMPU-LS module is in the Emu71/Win overlay set. http://hp.giesselink.com/Emu71/Kmlpc/EMU71_Overlays.7z

[twa14]

Thanks to both of you for the information, now to try and get a printout of the ROM!

[Dave Frederickson]

(03-06-2017 11:31 AM)twa14 Wrote:  Thanks to both of you for the information, now to try and get a printout of the ROM!

Hi Tom,

Can you make an image of the EPROM using ROMCOPY? That would make it easier to remove any file protection.

Dave

[twa14]

Hi Dave

I'll have to get rid of the cobwebs first as I have not used any of my old HP equipment for some time. I did try to break into the rom about 10 years ago using one of the lexfiles and with some help from Joe Horn but failed to gain access. I will try it over the next few days and get back to you. My 9114B battery pack is acting up. I replaced the battery in 2008 but have not used the drive since then, its now refusing to charge. Apparently I need the drive to get EMU71 to work.

[twa14]

Hi Dave again

Can you tell me what kind of hardware do I need to make a ROMCOPY?

[Dave Frederickson]

(03-06-2017 10:00 PM)twa14 Wrote:  Can you tell me what kind of hardware do I need to make a ROMCOPY?

A 9114 disc drive, 82161A tape drive, or ideally a PIL-Box. The software for the PIL-Box will produce an image of a disc that can be distributed and archived. ILvlif can produce an image from a disc or tape.

Dave

[twa14]

I have the 9114B\71B\HPIL but I have to replace the 9114B battery. If you could explain the procedure I will do my best to produce the ROMCOPY. This has annoyed me for years as I can't remember if, when I bought the ROM from Martin & Co., it was possible to order a configuration which worked with the Math ROM. I now envisage running it via EMU71 and would love to see the Basic code of the module for the first time! Can you give me some tips on using the LEXfiles to gain access. Its so long ago since I last tried I have forgotten everything.

Regards

Tom Walsh

[Dave Frederickson]

Hi Tom,

First ROMCOPY will need to be loaded into your 71. You will need either a PC running Windows XP or older with a floppy drive (not USB) or a PIL-Box. I recommend Jean-Francois' PIL-Box.

Once you have an image of the EPROM the protection can be removed. Removing the protection from a file in RAM is easy, but removing the protection from a file in ROM might be a little tricky.

Dave

[Christoph Giesselink]

(03-06-2017 07:50 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Can you make an image of the EPROM using ROMCOPY? That would make it easier to remove any file protection.

Hi Dave,

sorry I don't agree with you. A copy with ROMCOPY may destroy the original checksum or will add a checksum which isn't inside.

I personally prefer most times the original data, even if they are wrong or inaccurate. And it doesn't matter if the data are measuring values, data send to a printer or in our case a ROM image.

With the original data you can convert these data into every wanted format, because you still have all information. In the case of ROMCOPY you may loose the checksum information and so you aren't able to recover the original data.

You suggested to use a 9114 disc drive or a 82161A tape drive to make a ROMCOPY when you don't have a PIL-Box. But how you can use ILvlif to make an image without a PIL-Box?

Even if you have 9114 disc with the data, do you still have a PC with a disc dive and an operating system which can read a LIF disc?

So IMHO the alternative to a PIL-Box is the HP82164A HP-IL/RS232 interface or the HP82973A HP-IL interface card.

[twa14]

Thanks for the information Dave, I just ordered a new 9114B battery from Microbattery in Florida. I'm in the Netherlands so it will probably take a week or 2 to get here. Is the ROMCOPY lexfile on the CHHU disks? I have those (somewhere). I will be trawling the forums in the meantime in an attempt to bring myself up to date. Thanks for your help. I have an old DELL Dimension 9200 running DOS6.2 in a virtual machine which at the moment I use for Lotus 3.1 and it has a floppy drive. Is this suitable?

Regards

Tom Walsh

[Dave Frederickson]

Hi Tom,

Hmmm. Christoph makes some good points.

I don't think the checksums are a critical issue as I believe the only thing that looks at them is the Service ROM, and a brain cramp made me think that ILvlif worked on the PC's drive.

The preferred method for dumping ROM's is either a PIL-Box or RS-232 interface. In lieu of those, ROMCOPY could still be used or the raw data could be dumped to a data file on the 9114. We're still faced with the issue of how to get the data into the PC.

There are a couple of utilities on the 9845 Project website that come in handy, specifically HPDir and Fdio. These will allow you to read/write LIF discs and images, but the floppy disc controller in your PC needs to be capable of low-level access. You can test your FDC using Dave Dunfield's TestFDC. Your FDC needs to pass the Double-Density test at 250kbps.

Then the data file dump can be converted to binary and along with a few tricks, loaded into Emu71 where the protection can be removed.

This sounds like a lot of work, and it is without a PIL-Box or FRAM71. If you like, I can offer to convert the EPROM.

Regards, Dave

[twa14]

Hi Dave

I am going to purchase a PIL_BOX From J F Garnier. I have just received a reply to my query and I hope to complete the transaction today. If I fail to get the deed done thereafter I will send the ROM onto you. I presume you are in the US?

Regards

Tom Walsh

[Dave Frederickson]

Hi Tom,

Excellent! The PIL-Box makes the whole process much simpler. Basically it is as follows:
1. Dump the EPROM using the procedure in the Emu71/Win doc
2. Convert the ROM image to an IRAM image by adding the IRAM identifier using a hex editor
3. Load the IRAM image into Emu71
4. Remove the file protection using UNSECURE and UNPRIV LEX

I'll prepare a detailed procedure.

Regards, Dave

[twa14]

Thanks Dave

I have just made the payment, as soon as it arrives I will get back to you.

Regards

Tom Walsh

[Dave Frederickson]

Here's the detailed procedure:

Code:

1. Dump the EPROM using the procedure in the Emu71/Win manual.
    a. Connect the PIL-Box and run ILPer.
    b. Enter the example dump routine for the HPIL ROM.  Substitute the name of the first file in the EPROM for "HPILROM" in line 20.
    c. Execute DISPLAY IS :1
    d. Run the program.  This should produce 2048 64-nibble lines in the printer area.
    e. Copy and paste the dump to a text file named EPROM.txt
    f. Convert the text file to a binary file using DMP2ROM from the Filetool package on the PC Utilities webpage.  Execute DMP2ROM EPROM.txt EPROM.bin.
    g. Verify the dump using TITANCHK from the Emu71/Win webpage.  Execute TITANCHK EPROM.bin.

2. Convert the ROM image to an IRAM image.
    a. Open EPROM.bin using a hex editor.
    b. Overwrite the first 4 bytes of the file with the IRAM identifier "B3DDDDDE".  This is also called the Stand Alone Module ID in the IDS.
    
3. Load the IRAM image into Emu71/Win.
    a. Run Emu71/Win.
    b. Edit the Port Configuration and add a 64K RAM module to Port1.
    c. Turn on the emulator and execute FREEPORT(1) to create an IRAM.
    d. Turn off the emulator.
    e. Open then Port Configuration window for Port1, select the RAM device and right-click.
    f. Select Load Memory Data... and open EPROM.bin
    g. Turn on the emulator and CAT :PORT(1).  You should see the EPROM catalog.
    
4. Remove the file protection.
    a. Execute UNSECURE filename where filename is one of the protected files
    b. Using UNPRIV LEX from LEXFL1 in the SWAP archive, execute UNPRIV filename.
    c. Repeat a-b for all protected files

Dave

[twa14]

Thanks Dave

Printed off and waiting on PIL-BOX from JF Garnier.

Regards

Tom Walsh

[Christoph Giesselink]

(03-09-2017 08:50 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Here's the detailed procedure:

Code:

1. Dump the EPROM using the procedure in the Emu71/Win manual.
    a. Connect the PIL-Box and run ILPer.
    b. Enter the example dump routine for the HPIL ROM.  Substitute the name of the first file in the EPROM for "HPILROM" in line 20.
    c. Execute DISPLAY IS :1
    d. Run the program.  This should produce 2048 64-nibble lines in the printer area.
    e. Copy and paste the dump to a text file named EPROM.txt
    f. Convert the text file to a binary file using DMP2ROM from the Filetool package on the PC Utilities webpage.  Execute DMP2ROM EPROM.txt EPROM.bin.
    g. Verify the dump using TITANCHK from the Emu71/Win webpage.  Execute TITANCHK EPROM.bin.

2. Convert the ROM image to an IRAM image.
    a. Open EPROM.bin using a hex editor.
    b. Overwrite the first 4 bytes of the file with the IRAM identifier "B3DDDDDE".  This is also called the Stand Alone Module ID in the IDS.

3. Load the IRAM image into Emu71/Win.
    a. Run Emu71/Win.
    b. Edit the Port Configuration and add a 64K RAM module to Port1.
    c. Turn on the emulator and execute FREEPORT(1) to create an IRAM.
    d. Turn off the emulator.
    e. Open then Port Configuration window for Port1, select the RAM device and right-click.
    f. Select Load Memory Data... and open EPROM.bin
    g. Turn on the emulator and CAT :PORT(1).  You should see the EPROM catalog.

4. Remove the file protection.
    a. Execute UNSECURE filename where filename is one of the protected files
    b. Using UNPRIV LEX from LEXFL1 in the SWAP archive, execute UNPRIV filename.
    c. Repeat a-b for all protected files

Dave

From my long experience dumping ROM images some additions to Dave's part 1.

As Dave told earlier, some ROM's are protected. This ROM's cannot be read with the build in PEEK$ command. To fix this, replace the internal POKE and PEEK$ command by installing the POKELEX file. This replace the POKE and PEEK$ commands by a version don't care about any protections.

But how to get the size and name of the image?

In my example I plugged in the JPC ROM into PORT slot 3:

With SHOW PORT

>SHOW PORT
0.05 16384 2
3 32768 2
4 16384 2
0 4096 0
0.01 4096 0
0.02 4096 0
0.03 4096 0
2 32768 0

I see that the module in slot 3 has a size of 32768 bytes (=32KB).

With CAT :PORT(3)

>CAT :PORT(3)
NAME S TYPE LEN DATE TIME PORT
JPCF05 LEX 25992 02/26/17 20:54 3

I see that the name of the 1st file is "JPCF05".

Insert this information into the ROMDMP BASIC program:

>LIST
10 DIM A$[64]
20 A=IP(HTD(ADDR$("JPCF05"))/256)*256 ! start address of JPC ROM to transfer
30 FOR I=0 TO 32*32-1 ! length of ROM (here for 32Kb)
40 A$=PEEK$(DTH$(A+I*64),64)
50 OUTPUT :1 ;A$
60 NEXT I

RUN the program:

>RUN
B3DDDDDEA405346403530202802E00450262207151BC01E10F6F05C00000E804
A0DE00611D14327520924957B2EB27F25630931A3495144CA4025D25D45E5549
...

A LIF image with

>PCAT :HD
ROMCOPY LEX 1727 02/14/11 19:08
POKELEX LEX 257 02/14/11 19:08
ROMDMP BASIC 168 02/14/11 19:08

ROMCOPY, POKELEX and the BASIC ROM dumping template ROMDMP is attached.

Don't forget to save the unmodified file EPROM.bin after step 1.g. to a safe place. This is the original image code of the module manufacturer which should exactly behave like the original ROM.

To the result of the

"g. Verify the dump using TITANCHK from the Emu71/Win webpage. Execute TITANCHK EPROM.bin."

step. All modules sold by HP, I checked so far, had correct checksum(s). If 3rd party manufactures really added correct checksums to there image depends on the manufacturer. A valid checksum is not necessary for a proper operation of the module. So the JPC ROM's from the Paris chapter have no valid checksum inside.

BTW, SLOAD until v3.0.9 from the HPTOOLS package has a bug the linker option "CHecksum <Symbol name> <Hex addr> <Hex addr>". If <Symbol name> pointing to an odd address, the calculated checksum is wrong. The bug has been fixed in the original SVN repository at 2010-08-03, so further releases of the package should not contain this bug any more.

Finally, there's an easier method in Emu71/Win to add an IRAM image to the memory configuration

Referring to the Emu71/Win manual 9.1.1.2.2 Combo box "Size"

you can choose "Datafile" at top of the RAM size list instead of choosing the RAM size itself and enter the name IRAM image name EPROM.bin in the Filename section. This creates a RAM module with the neceassary size from the IRAM image and finally load the image into the allocated memory.

This replace the steps

b. Edit the Port Configuration and add a 64K RAM module to Port1.
c. Turn on the emulator and execute FREEPORT(1) to create an IRAM.
e. Open then Port Configuration window for Port1, select the RAM device and right-click.
f. Select Load Memory Data... and open EPROM.bin

[twa14]

Thanks for the information Christoph, J.F Garnier has informed me that the PIL-Box has been shipped so I should have it today or tomorrow. I will keep you informed of progress via the thread.

Regards

Tom Walsh