HP Forum Archive 14

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Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #1 Posted by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) on 9 Mar 2004, 8:16 a.m. Mar 09 , 2004 Does anyone know whether HP48GX Keyboard overlays are/can still be manufactured for custom applications ? If no longer manufactured , where would it possible to find some " blank " ones ? Examples of such type of overlays can be found here after on eBay : http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3665403163&category=55808 and http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3802120842 Thanks in advance for Information. Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte antoine.m.couette@club-internet.fr

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #2 Posted by James M. Prange on 9 Mar 2004, 9:40 a.m., in response to message #1 by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) I doubt that anyone still manufactures or markets them, but HP used to market a package of blank matte finished overlays, including 3 each of opaque (sort of beige-colored) and translucent (practically transparent, actually, except for the matte finish), plus one translucent with the left and right shifted alpha keys that don't appear on the faceplate printed on the bottom. I doubt that many would be willing to part with theirs, but keep an eye on eBay; I have seen them show up there. According to the HP partsurfer for the 48SX/S, the model number is 82220A. Although marketed for the 48SX/S only, they also fit the 48G series perfectly, and I believe that the shifted alpha keys are identical. I suppose that you could always make your own, or someone with the right CNC equipment could make very nice ones easily enough. Regards, James

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #3 Posted by Jeff on 9 Mar 2004, 1:18 p.m., in response to message #1 by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) About a year and a half ago I decided that I needed a custom overlay for an application on my 48GX. I first contacted hp to see it they still sold the blank overlay kit that James described, which they of course did not. HP Calculator Support could not even provide me with dimensions or any details about the overlays. (At this time, they still sold the GX, mind you.) They referred me to SMI (who I believe makes the TDS Cogo cards), stating that they make overlays for their products and might be able to give me dimensions or other help. So I contacted SMI, they were very helpful. They sold me three of their overlays (customized for their application) at a very reasonable price, and gave me the name of the company that actually produced the overlays for them. I used the overlays I got from TDS as the basis to produce a bitmap graphic of my custom overlay. I also contacted the company that produced the overlays for TDS. The were also very helpful, but as I suspected, they were not in a position to produce one or two overlays for a single user. They were set up to supply many overlays for a commercial enterprise. Costs would have been in excess of $1000 for 50, I only needed one or two. So I gave up on that plan and perfected the graphic image of my overlay. I found it was possible to produce pretty good looking overlay images on plastic transparency material in a color laser printer in the exact size, but never found a good way to cut out the overlay and keyholes. I also tried painting over the overlays I got from SMI to create a blank, and running them through a laser printer, but that didn’t work either. My next step, which I have not gotten around to doing, will be to contact local printers and/or label makers and/or sign makers to see if they can produce them for me. Perhaps one of them will have the CNC equipment James mentioned and will be able to do it easily. The above story is of course little help to you, sorry. About all I could offer would be to e-mail a bitmap image of a blank overlay that you could use to design yours in case you could find somebody to produce them for you. Let me know and I will send the image.

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #4 Posted by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) on 9 Mar 2004, 1:35 p.m., in response to message #3 by Jeff Hello Jeff , Yes Please , if you can send me the " image " , that will be another entry point for me to continue my research . If you can also let me know your e-mail address , just in case , it will be great . Thank you again for your renewed help , and Best Regards Kermit antoine.m.couette@club-internet.fr

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #5 Posted by MARC on 9 Mar 2004, 2:22 p.m., in response to message #4 by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) I did the same as JEff told. I bought 4 SMI overlays, painted 2 of them with plastic white painture, and then with a PILOT I wrote my own apps on it , I know is not pretty, but very functional.

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #6 Posted by Iqbal on 9 Mar 2004, 5:35 p.m., in response to message #5 by MARC Try Jason Look. He makes them. You can email him at jylNO@SPAMhgea.org Take out the NOSPAM.

Re: Where can I find Keyboard overlays for HP48 GX ? Message #7 Posted by Robert Graulich on 10 Mar 2004, 2:46 a.m., in response to message #3 by Jeff Hi Jeff, I am also looking into this. Please send the bitmap image to graulich@synopsys.com. Robert

HP48GX overlays : thanks to all + let us keep one another informed Message #8 Posted by Antoine M. " Kermit " Couëtte ( France ) on 11 Mar 2004, 7:24 a.m., in response to message #7 by Robert Graulich Mar 11 , 2004 To everybody , thanks for your kindness in helping me finding a solution to have HP48 Overlays made for custom applications . I contacted all the people I was advised to do so , and I am currently expecting a few more answers . I know that at least Jeff and myself are working on the same subject . So let us keep one another informed if anybody can find a suitable and realistic solution . Kermit antoine.m.couette@club-internet.fr

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