HP Forum Archive 21

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Getting 71B Lex files Message #1 Posted by ebsanford on 17 Mar 2012, 9:43 a.m. Hi everyone. I'm a bit new here so forgive me if I ask a stupid or worn out question. But while attempting to resurrect my collection of old HP calculators, I have hit a roadblock regarding access to LEX files. Though I can find 71B archives on the Internet and can ftp them onto my Mac/Windows desktop, I'm lost for a strategy on how to get them onto any media that works for the 71B. Presently, I do have working hardware for magnetic card strips, mini digital tape, and 3.5" floppy (via HP-9114B). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Barry Sanford

Re: Getting 71B Lex files Message #2 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 17 Mar 2012, 12:36 p.m., in response to message #1 by ebsanford The best way is to get an HP-IL interface for your Mac i. e. a PIL Box by J.-F. Garnier: http://www.jeffcalc.hp41.eu/hpil/index.html

Re: Getting 71B Lex files Message #3 Posted by Egan Ford on 17 Mar 2012, 2:03 p.m., in response to message #1 by ebsanford Both Linux and DOS are capable of reading and writing LIF diskettes (on bare-metal, not in a VM). If you can find an old DOS machine you can use LIFUTIL. There is also a lifutils (C source) for Linux. Another alternative would be the PIL-Box (USB to HP-IL).

Re: Getting 71B Lex files Message #4 Posted by ebsanford on 23 Mar 2012, 4:49 p.m., in response to message #1 by ebsanford Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm presently waiting for delivery on a USB/floppy drive that supposedly supports the old DS/DD format. I've been working on the C code of some Linux LIF utilities and have them ported to the Mac and working with LIF images on disk. The next step will be getting the LIF images copied to a physical floppy in the correct format. In the meantime, I have another question. I have a FORTH/ASSEMBLER ROM (5061-7234) that seems to be defective. Whenever I enter the the >FORTH command to go into FORTH mode, I get either an immediate MEMORY LOST message or an HP-71 FORTH 1A message that hangs indefinitely. I've tried all INITs, battery pulls, etc. to reset things but nothing seems to help. Is this a defective ROM or is there something simple I'm missing here? C programming I can do, but I'm totally new to the 71B's FORTH environment.

Re: Getting 71B Lex files Message #5 Posted by Egan Ford on 25 Mar 2012, 11:52 a.m., in response to message #4 by ebsanford Quote: Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm presently waiting for delivery on a USB/floppy drive that supposedly supports the old DS/DD format. I've been working on the C code of some Linux LIF utilities and have them ported to the Mac and working with LIF images on disk. The next step will be getting the LIF images copied to a physical floppy in the correct format. Please let me know if you get the Mac working with the USB floppy drive for LIF util. The utils work fine with images on the Mac, but not the floppy drive.

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