HP Forum Archive 20

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How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #1 Posted by Michael O. Tjebben on 12 Sept 2011, 7:11 p.m. Wow! It has been years since I've posted to this forum, I got so busy with a new job, and the birth of two wonderful girls (5 years ago, twins) that I just barely keep up with everything. In fact, my account with the hpmuseum had expired. Recently, however, my father (nearly an octogenarian) and I were revisiting our HP calculator collections, and we got to talking about our interest in the WP-34S. I did some digging through the hpmuseum archives and the wiki4hp, and we decided we'd each like to buy an hp-30b and convert them to wp-34s'. However (and please correct me if I'm wrong), it appears that the overlays that make the hp-30b "look" like a wp-34s are currently not available. Are more coming? I could not find anything that lets me know if such is true. And the cable seems difficult to obtain (dependent on poor Gene Wright who is probably SWAMPED!). Is there another source? We don't want to burden him further (especially since I prefaced this with my own acknowledgement that life can get BUSY!). I'm gathering that *maybe* one can buy some other calculator (hp12c?, others?) that has the cable and that can be used for the 30b? Is such true? I guess, in addition to asking about the overlay and cable, I'm asking for assistance that might help any newby who wishes to help-him/herself: Is there some place that the status of overlays and cable could be posted so that those of us that are interested in such could keep checking and not keep asking? My best wishes to the group! Though many of us get distracted by other things for a time in life, there remains a latent interest in HP calculators that can be rekindled with little effort... And, as most of you know, that can become a sort-of obsession... -Mike

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #2 Posted by M. Joury on 12 Sept 2011, 8:26 p.m., in response to message #1 by Michael O. Tjebben Hi Michael, I recently returned to this forum after a hiatus of some years. Just in time to see all the info about the WP-34S. I now have an HP-20b and an HP-30b both converted over. It isn't hard but you do need the cable. The cable is only available from Gene at this time. It can be used on the HP-12C+, the new HP-12C 30th Anniversary Edition, the new HP-15C LE, the HP-20b, HP-30b, and the HP-10bii+ (did I miss any?). However, it does not come with any of these machines. The overlays are not available at the moment and Eric is apparently waiting for a back-ordered blade to the cutter he uses to produce these overlays. I vaguely remember that the blade may be available sometime this month (or was it October?). Anyway, they should be available in the future, just not right now. As for flashing the HP-30b to a WP-34S, once you have the cable get hold of Tim Wessman's instructions on flashing the 20b. I hope this provides you with some of the answers to your questions. Cheers, -Marwan

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #3 Posted by gene wright on 12 Sept 2011, 8:51 p.m., in response to message #2 by M. Joury Well, I mailed 6 cables today and have 3 more to go out tomorrow. If you want a cable, just let me know. Now... if it continues to grow, don't worry. I will be suggesting alternatives to HP directly! :-) Meanwhile, here is the link for flashing a 20b/30b/etc: Flash!

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #4 Posted by Walter B on 13 Sept 2011, 1:54 a.m., in response to message #3 by gene wright ... and if you want to know it all, find it here :-) Feedback is appreciated, especially from so called "newbies" (should be called veterans instead, shouldn't you?). Walter

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #5 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 13 Sept 2011, 1:55 a.m., in response to message #3 by gene wright Just to add to the confusion. We are in the process of creating an updated (bug fixed) release which will render any stored code or data invalid, so use the wp34s_asm tool to salvage what you have created. The release will hopefully be available before I go to SD next week.

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #6 Posted by Michael O. Tjebben on 13 Sept 2011, 7:32 a.m., in response to message #5 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Gentlemen: Thank you all! I had, in fact, previously found the links -to the EXCELLENT information- you have included, but nonetheless appreciate them again. My biggest difficulty was ascertaining whether there was more than one source each for the labels and cables. It had appeared that there was only one source for the labels and that source had run out (Eric). It seems I understood correctly (from my multiple searches) on that discovery. I had also thought the cable might be available for one of the other calculators and could be used for the 30b, but Marwan helped correct me about that. We will happily wait on the labels. In the meantime we would like to obtain the cables, and dare I say two? One for me and one for my father? (I hesitate in asking for two, based on my previous acknowledgement that Gene must be SWAMPED. If that is the case, even one cable would be fine - we'll just share that when we visit each other on a reasonably regular basis. I am just thinking that two would be most useful, especially in light of Marcus comment that periodic flashing may be necessary to keep up with feature enhancements and bug-fixes.) I will send a check or paypal to Gene. I can contact him directly offline... Again, thank you! -Mike

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #7 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 13 Sept 2011, 9:53 a.m., in response to message #6 by Michael O. Tjebben Even after flashing the cable is useful as a means to transfer programs and data between the emulator on the PC and the device. All the stuff we are putting in libraries needs the cable to get into the calculator.

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #8 Posted by Michael O. Tjebben on 14 Sept 2011, 7:51 p.m., in response to message #7 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Do you know if one MUST have Windows-XP to run the Atmel SAM-BA program (to program, specifically, the hp30b)? I realize that there are discussions that one probably has to use an RS-232 port under XP, though a USB-to-Serial converter might work under XP if that converter happens to have the FTDI chipset. But none of these variations work under anything but XP? (like Vista, Windows-7?) What about SAM-BA for linux? Or XP-running in a VMware or Vitual Box Virtual machine?

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #9 Posted by Gerry Schultz on 14 Sept 2011, 8:59 p.m., in response to message #8 by Michael O. Tjebben No, Samba 2.10 runs fine under Windows 7 and I used an ES-U-1001-R100 USB-to-RS232 adapter. I've updated my WP-34S twice now with no problems. Gerry Edited: 14 Sept 2011, 8:59 p.m.

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #10 Posted by M. Joury on 14 Sept 2011, 10:03 p.m., in response to message #8 by Michael O. Tjebben Just make sure that you have one of the versions confirmed to run under Windows 7. I, personally, could never get SAM-BA to work under Win 7.

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #11 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 15 Sept 2011, 2:23 a.m., in response to message #8 by Michael O. Tjebben Running XP in a virtual machine that grants direct access to the USB bus is working fine. I'm using Parallels on a Mac for this.

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #12 Posted by Michael O. Tjebben on 15 Sept 2011, 7:38 p.m., in response to message #11 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Thank you all! Though I don't have the cables yet, I was able to test the usb-to-serial adapter and even got it working with Vista. (I searched the forum for more information from Gerry Schultz, which pointed to a post he did regarding Bart (from the UK) getting it working under Vista, I found Bart's instructions, and that worked for me too...) I'll bet it will all work well. If not, I'll use the Windows-7 Virtual machine on my MacBook Pro. -Mike

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #13 Posted by M. Joury on 13 Sept 2011, 10:13 a.m., in response to message #6 by Michael O. Tjebben If you want to make it easier on Gene just have him send 2 cables to one of you and then hand deliver it to the other. No extra work for him <g>. Cheers, -Marwan

Re: How to keep up regarding WP-34S? Message #14 Posted by Graham D. Wilson on 13 Sept 2011, 1:44 p.m., in response to message #3 by gene wright Hi Gene The forum doesn't allow me to email you my request for a cable, so I am unable to make contact. Can you email me at gw[at]gw.org.za so I can send you my postal details? Many thanks

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