Re: Personal Triumph Message #7 Posted by James M. Prange on 4 Dec 2004, 8:16 p.m., in response to message #4 by Ed Look
No, not an adapter to hook up a 49g+ to any 48 series, or even
(via wire) another 49g+, a 49G, or a 48gII. As far as I know, the
49g+ can connect only to a USB host (PC, Mac, etc.), or another
IrDA device (including another 49g+, and presumably a 48gII). Note
that it can't connect to any other USB device either. Also note
that the 48 series' "Serial IR" doesn't work with the 49g+'s IrDA.
Of course the 49g+ can also send to a RedEye printer, such as the
82240A and 82240B, and some Martel Instruments models, although
the range is greatly reduced from what the 48 series could use.
Note that INPRT on a 48 series isn't able to capture the 49g+'s
RedEye printing signal either.
A few people have been writing about making the 49g+'s USB host
port able to also function as a USB device port, but I don't know
whether they'll ever succeed. Another idea is to use the SD card
port for communications, but again, that's still just an idea (as
far as I know).
The adapter that I meant (HP part #F1633-66001) is for connecting
the 49G (not 49g+) 10-pin to 10-pin cable (HP part# F1633-66000)
to a 48 series calculator; both of these came with my 49G. The
cable connects two 49Gs, or with the adapter, a 49G to a 48. Later
49Gs also came with an adapter (HP part# F1906-66000) from the
10-pin cable to a DB-9 connector, and perhaps a longer cable (HP
part# F1633-66050).
Another of these adapters plus a 10-pin to DB-9 cable (HP part#
F1897-66000) came with the free ROM upgrade package for my 49G.
With the adpater, this cable also works with a 48 series.
The 10-pin to 10-pin cable with an adapter on each end is
convenient for connecting two 48 series via wire.
By the way, my F1633-66000 cable is about 28 inches (0.7 metre)
long. If someone has a 10-pin to 10-pin F1633-66050 cable, I'm
curious as to how long it really is. My thinking is that they
probably would have made it about the same length as the
F1897-66000 cable, about 60 inches (1.5 metre).
There are also adapters that allow connecting a 4-pin 48 series
cable to the 49G's 10 pin connection, but I don't have one of
those.
See Joe Horn's Cable
Table for more information on "Genuine HP" cables and
connectors for these calculators.
hpcalc.org probably has
instuctions for making your own cables, but adapting whatever
cables you already have or making a new one shouldn't be
difficult; only four wires are involved. Basically you want the
Signal Ground pins on the calculators connected, the Transmit Data
pin on each calculator connected to the Receive Data pin on the
other, and the cable's Shield connected to the Shield pin on one
or both calculators. DC ground loops aren't a problem because the
shield pin on the calculator is isolated from the calculator's
ground by a capacitor. I expect that leaving the cable's shield
completely disconnected would still work in most cases.
In case anyone is wondering about the 49G having a 10-pin
connection instead of the 4-pin connection, the extra pins are
intended for connection to an overhead projector display. These
used a card slot on the 48 series, but of course the 49G lacks any
card slot, so the signals are on the extra pins on the port. These
extra pins aren't used for RS-232 compatible connections.
Whether there'll be an overhead projector for the 49g+, I don't
know. Both HPComm and Conn4x can do "screen captures" (using
PRLCD), which, together with a projector for a PC, have some of
the functionality of the overhead projector accessories. It seems
to me that it would be simple enough to write a 49g+ program that
would do a PRLCD every time that the calculator finished what it
was doing and was ready to take another keystroke. Offhand,
vectored ENTER comes to mind. Now, if someone were to write a
program for a PC that would watch for these to arrive at the USB
port and automatically project them, that would add some more
functionality.
Note that with XModem Server, Conn4x can operate the calculator
remotely, much like using a Kermit remote host command with the
calculator in Kermit server mode. The remote stack display in
Conn4x is text only with optionally the character translations.
I suppose that someone who knows what he's doing could write a
program for the computer to pass information between a USB port
and a COM port, or between any two ports, for that matter. Maybe
someone's already done this. But for transferring between
calculators, I just use my PC as a place to store files received
from one calculator before sending them to another calculator.
Note that I can open two separate instance of Conn4x, with one
connected to a 48GX and the other connected to the 49g+ for
example, and then just drag and drop (or copy and paste) between
the two windows. Of course the variables have to be compatible
without editing, so transfers between a 49 and a 48 have to be
"text" mode, at the least. This also leaves a copy of the file in
my Windows %temp% directory.
A similar technique with HPComm, or perhaps one instance of HPComm
and one of Conn4x, might work, but I haven't tried it.
Regards, James
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