HP Forum Archive 20

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Need An Intro to WP34S Message #1 Posted by Les Wright on 26 Oct 2011, 5:34 p.m. Hi all, I have been relatively inactive for sometime but am back more now. I am interested in learning about the WP34S but feel I am coming way to late to the party. I was wondering if someone can point me in the direction of how to get started--the hardware requirements, where to get the cable, how to flash the memory, keyboard overlays, etc. I don't want to pester the group with a lot of newb questions that would have been already answered for me had I been more regular here for the past two or three years. TIA, Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #2 Posted by robertoataulfo on 26 Oct 2011, 5:44 p.m., in response to message #1 by Les Wright WP34S Start

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #3 Posted by Les Wright on 26 Oct 2011, 6:02 p.m., in response to message #2 by robertoataulfo Thank you! That is easier than I thought. Assuming I can get a programming cable (I will contact Gene on FB and ask him), is it a serial port connection only? I have one of those USB-serial converters, supposedly one of the better ones, but I could never get it to work. Failing that, I think I have an old laptop around with XP and an RS232 port. I do prefer the simplicity of USB, though. I also see that The Calculator Store in Europe seems to sell pre flashed kits without the cable. Looks expensive (especially with shipping and duty to Canada), but they do reflash for free, even though the return shipping costs add up. Is it worth it? Thanks, Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #4 Posted by robertoataulfo on 26 Oct 2011, 6:13 p.m., in response to message #3 by Les Wright Serial Questions

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #5 Posted by Les Wright on 26 Oct 2011, 6:33 p.m., in response to message #4 by robertoataulfo Thanks! But I must admit the nuances of the USB-Serial conversion just sail over my head. I know that as one actually interested in wp34s I should be more tech savvy, but I am not. Looks like I was wise to keep that old laptop with the RS-232 port. Otherwise, if I am serious I will look at buying one pre-flashed. That said, I really would like a cable so that I can reflash my 15C LE once the PSE and other bugs are fixed in firmware...

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #6 Posted by Jeff O. on 26 Oct 2011, 9:17 p.m., in response to message #5 by Les Wright See here too for info. I recommend at least trying to flash it yourself. Should be doable with your XP machine with a real serial port. Wp34s will probably get pretty stable at some point, but there will likely still be occasional updates. ...

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #7 Posted by Les Wright on 27 Oct 2011, 12:30 p.m., in response to message #6 by Jeff O. Alas, I just took a closer look at that old XP machine, and it doesn't have a female RS-232, only a male parallel port (old printer port, basically). Anyone have success with a parallel-to-serial converter? Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #8 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 27 Oct 2011, 12:43 p.m., in response to message #7 by Les Wright Forget it! If you can find a PCMCIA card with a COM port you are fine. Why not just buy an FTDI equipped USB/serial converter?

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #9 Posted by Egan Ford on 27 Oct 2011, 1:19 p.m., in response to message #8 by Marcus von Cube, Germany You're assuming that old XP machine has USB ports. :-) Les, what is your current modern machine? If Mac, you do not need XP. You can flash from the Mac via a USB-to-Serial device from FTDI. And they can be had for ~$14 US.

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #10 Posted by Les Wright on 27 Oct 2011, 1:29 p.m., in response to message #9 by Egan Ford Is this the sort of thing you are talking about?: FTDI Cable On TAS And, Egan, thank you for remembering, even though I haven't been regular here for awhile. I do indeed use Macs. I am glad to hear that the flashing is doable and the converter cables are cheap, available, and seem to work. Now, to write Gene about the programming cable... Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #11 Posted by Egan Ford on 27 Oct 2011, 3:19 p.m., in response to message #10 by Les Wright That should work. If you really want to play it safe then get this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ETE9GO. That is what I purchased and used with my MacBook Air with OS/X 10.6.8. I have been able to flash via OS/X (and Wine, you'll have to install Wine) and to also use the Emulator (also with Wine). I should probably write a 34S for Mac users page on one of the Wiki's.

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #12 Posted by Michael Kussmaul on 27 Oct 2011, 5:27 p.m., in response to message #11 by Egan Ford Yes please!

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #13 Posted by Les Wright on 27 Oct 2011, 8:45 p.m., in response to message #11 by Egan Ford I just wanted to share that I do have a USB-Serial converter cable with the Prolific chip-set. On installing the most recent driver from Prolific the cable is recognized fine in XP in a VMWare Fusion VM on my Mac. Regrettably, I don't have any old serial port hardware, not even a mouse, with which to test. Could this work, or has the general experience been that it has to be FTDI? Indeed, for all I know the technology can be similar or identical, albeit under a different brand. Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #14 Posted by Les Wright on 27 Oct 2011, 10:54 p.m., in response to message #13 by Les Wright Disregard this. I just read in another thread that it won't work. "Anything but Prolific" seems to be the advice. If anyone has different experience, please let me know. Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #15 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 28 Oct 2011, 3:22 a.m., in response to message #14 by Les Wright Les, you can try the serial commands between the calculator on the emulator? It may well be that only the original SAM-BA software from Atmel has problems with the (probably counterfeit) Prolific chip sets. MySamba could be much more robust in this respect.

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #16 Posted by Les Wright on 28 Oct 2011, 10:01 a.m., in response to message #15 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Thanks Marcus, I will look into how to do that. At the moment, there is no huge rush. The calculator won't be here for awhile and I haven't heard back from Gene yet about getting a cable. That gives me lots of time to experiment with the port commands in the emulator. I will look at the documentation and see how that is done, and will return with any questions. Thanks, Les

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #17 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 28 Oct 2011, 12:07 p.m., in response to message #16 by Les Wright If you want to learn the I/O commands you can run the emulator from two different directories: Just create two icons and change the working directory. Then install com0com to emulate a pair of com ports which are internally tied together. Now edit wp34s.ini in both directories to reflect the virtual com ports.

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #18 Posted by Neil Hamilton (Ottawa) on 28 Oct 2011, 1:22 p.m., in response to message #17 by Marcus von Cube, Germany What a cool trick!

Re: Need An Intro to WP34S Message #19 Posted by Egan Ford on 26 Oct 2011, 9:49 p.m., in response to message #1 by Les Wright The info above is a good start, but I'll add: MySamba.exe has been easier for me to use for flashing and it works from Linux and OS/X via Wine. I have been able to flash using USB to Serial (FTDI-based) without issue from Windows/XP in a VM on OS/X. Based on others feedback any FTDI-based USB to Serial should work. I'd hold off until after the fork. 3.0 is about to be released and it will have a different overlay. Unless you want the older overlay then 2.2 is feature complete. Reflashing after initial flash is much easier. Esp. with MySamba.exe. It takes me about 30 seconds to update to a newer version. 20b looks better, 30b feels better. There is a Windows emulator for the 34S if you want to test drive first. It also runs with Wine.

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