HP Forum Archive 21

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WP34S, first impressions Message #1 Posted by Andres Capdevila on 24 Mar 2012, 3:55 p.m. I finally received my WP34S, cable, xtal and overlay. It took less than a week but it seemed much longer to me ;-) Haven't installed the xtal and capacitors yet, wanted to play "stock" for a while. Re-flashing it with ver 3 (full) went flawlessly (I still keep and old computer with an actual RS232 interface for this type of tasks). Overlay installation didn't go that well, I ruined it, but because I know myself I had ordered two sets and the second time went better, almost perfect. The key top labels was a very easy task (using tweezers of course). I'm surprised with all the efforts put into this project, this has been an excellent work, congratulations to the entire team. My only problem so far is that the calculator is crashing (freezing altogether) from time to time when doing simple calculations (nothing fancy or elaborated), I wasn't able to find any pattern yet :-(, I realize this is still a beta code, I'd just like to know if someone else is experiencing it or just me. The only way I found to recover it is either a battery pull or pressing the reset button in the back, I've tried almost all the combinations of [on]+[any other key] with no avail. Thank you in advance.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #2 Posted by Harald on 24 Mar 2012, 4:12 p.m., in response to message #1 by Andres Capdevila Did you flash with the latest revsion or with the file included in the zip file? I had similar problmes with that one. This is where you find the latest file: http://wp34s.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wp34s/trunk/realbuild/

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #3 Posted by Andres Capdevila on 24 Mar 2012, 4:37 p.m., in response to message #2 by Harald Ooops, you are right, I didn't flash the latest revision... my bad. Thanks!

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #4 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 24 Mar 2012, 6:49 p.m., in response to message #3 by Andres Capdevila I apologize for having put an unstable built into the release ZIP file. I should update it.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #5 Posted by Andres Capdevila on 24 Mar 2012, 7:33 p.m., in response to message #4 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Oh, no problem, I should have checked first. It hasn't crashed so far since I updated the FW. :-) Thank you!

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #6 Posted by Paul Dale on 24 Mar 2012, 7:37 p.m., in response to message #5 by Andres Capdevila Unfortunately, there were a couple of slightly less than stable versions. The current firmware seems pretty stable. - Pauli

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #7 Posted by Andres Capdevila on 24 Mar 2012, 7:52 p.m., in response to message #6 by Paul Dale Compared to the 35s (BTW, I already put it away!) I can consider the WP34S totally bug free! I already tested the program that didn't work on the 35S (due to the jump backward in the program when using Solve) and this one passed the test! Thank you!

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #8 Posted by Paul Dale on 24 Mar 2012, 7:57 p.m., in response to message #7 by Andres Capdevila The bugs in the 34S will be different to those in the 35s. - Pauli

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #9 Posted by Walter B on 24 Mar 2012, 8:00 p.m., in response to message #8 by Paul Dale They are ;-)

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #10 Posted by bill platt on 24 Mar 2012, 8:17 p.m., in response to message #1 by Andres Capdevila When I read that I have to put in a capacitor, I blanched. But I understand from you that it isn't required?

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #11 Posted by Walter B on 24 Mar 2012, 8:22 p.m., in response to message #10 by bill platt It's an option - you will need it for an exact real time clock. See TICKS, TIME, etc. in the manual.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #12 Posted by Harald on 24 Mar 2012, 8:23 p.m., in response to message #10 by bill platt No, you don't have to do the crystal modification. As far as I know the only features you can't use without the modification are the stopwatch and comunication to other 34s' or the PC.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #13 Posted by Walter B on 24 Mar 2012, 8:29 p.m., in response to message #12 by Harald Quote: the only features you can't use without the modification are the stopwatch and comunication to other 34s' or the PC. The latter isn't true. Please see pp. 108f of the manual for a procedure.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #14 Posted by pascal_meheut on 25 Mar 2012, 1:13 a.m., in response to message #13 by Walter B Even the stopwatch works without a crystal but it is not very accurate.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #15 Posted by Paul Dale on 25 Mar 2012, 1:14 a.m., in response to message #14 by pascal_meheut The released image with stopwatch support won't run without an installed crystal. - Pauli

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #16 Posted by pascal_meheut on 25 Mar 2012, 3:59 a.m., in response to message #15 by Paul Dale Quote: The released image with stopwatch support won't run without an installed crystal. - Pauli You mean someone in the team destroyed part of my hard work? Oh my... Fortunately, it is easy for a beginner to recompile a better image itsefl :-) Edited: 25 Mar 2012, 4:00 a.m.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #17 Posted by Paul Dale on 25 Mar 2012, 4:00 a.m., in response to message #16 by pascal_meheut No, Marcus removed the non-crystal support from the stop watch images. - Pauli

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #18 Posted by pascal_meheut on 25 Mar 2012, 4:20 a.m., in response to message #17 by Paul Dale Quote: No, Marcus removed the non-crystal support from the stop watch images. - Pauli I know, I was just joking.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #19 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 25 Mar 2012, 6:10 a.m., in response to message #18 by pascal_meheut It was just a convenience decision to have more than the 'official' build which does not include the stop watch. I thought it might be useful to have it but for space reasons, the non XTAL option had to go. ;-)

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #20 Posted by Dominic Richens on 25 Mar 2012, 7:18 a.m., in response to message #13 by Walter B Could I not make a crystal-less stopwatch calibration mechanism similar to the serial port one? It would require a bit of code and a byte of flash space to store the calibration constant.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #21 Posted by pascal_meheut on 25 Mar 2012, 8:16 a.m., in response to message #20 by Dominic Richens Quote: Could I not make a crystal-less stopwatch calibration mechanism similar to the serial port one? It would require a bit of code and a byte of flash space to store the calibration constant. I had planned to work on it and it still on my list. The problem was the lack of free flash space. But it is also possible to insert the calibration constant in the firmware by editing the .bin file. If you want to implement a calibration function, feel free to do so and to contact me by email to talk about it.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #22 Posted by Les Wright on 30 Mar 2012, 2:41 a.m., in response to message #13 by Walter B Quote: The latter isn't true. Please see pp. 108f of the manual for a procedure. I can confirm this since I do it all the time. Until the release of the Qt-based emulator for Mac, I had no problem sending RAM contents back and forth between Windows-based emulator and the calc. Now with the Mac emulator I can easily do likewise--indeed, the interface is even simpler as one selects the serial port in Preferences, whereas under Windows one has to create a wp34s.ini file containing the name of the COM port. Right now, the only glitches I encounter seem related to the Mac emulator's older firmware. For example, if I compile a state file using a wp34s.dat created by the Mac emulator as a "seed", the revised wp34s.dat file ceases to be readable by the Mac emulator, though it works fine in the Windows emulator with much newer firmware. I am looking forward to Pascal compiling and posting a newer version to Sourceforge.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #23 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 30 Mar 2012, 2:44 a.m., in response to message #22 by Les Wright This is the main reason to keep the classic Windows emulator alive. It should be always the same revision as the firmware. The Qt based emulators typically lag behind.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #24 Posted by pascal_meheut on 30 Mar 2012, 4:23 a.m., in response to message #23 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Quote: This is the main reason to keep the classic Windows emulator alive. It should be always the same revision as the firmware. The Qt based emulators typically lag behind. I can perfectly make an automatic build and probably even an automatic upload for the Qt emulators.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #25 Posted by Marcus von Cube, Germany on 30 Mar 2012, 4:38 a.m., in response to message #24 by pascal_meheut I ask you kindly to build more often, be it automatically or manually. The problem is that the release ZIP files should match each other's version. Maybe you upload the current builds somewhere else (just create a folder below the emulator directory for the most recent builds). I will keep you posted on any updates to the release binaries. I do them typically after a major bug had surfaced and has been fixed such as recently the bug in the solver causing a crash.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #26 Posted by pascal_meheut on 30 Mar 2012, 4:42 a.m., in response to message #25 by Marcus von Cube, Germany As I said, it is very easy for me checkout & build the 3 distributions for any svn version. Just let me know when you want me to. So far, the Qt emulator had a beta status in my mind. Once it is really used, we should move to a build/distribute production model. Edited: 30 Mar 2012, 4:43 a.m.

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #27 Posted by fhub on 30 Mar 2012, 10:34 a.m., in response to message #25 by Marcus von Cube, Germany Quote: I ask you kindly to build more often +1 ;-)

Re: WP34S, first impressions Message #28 Posted by Les Wright on 30 Mar 2012, 12:02 p.m., in response to message #27 by fhub Quote: +1 ;-) Me 2!

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