Finally released!
When I announced in my first post here the availability of a new "ACT chip" for january 2015, I estimated right, but I really didn't know how many work there was still ahead of me from the first prototype to the usable product that not only I could use. And I appreciate the patience, that you had, waiting for this little new part related to the old HP calculators. And also many many thanks to some participants, who gave me a calcuator for testing or gave their knowledge and positive response.
After the prototype, which just restored the original function, and seemed to be complete, I couldn't resist to add new features, up to the limit of the possibilities of ROM and RAM of the PIC processor I used. This costs me many days of developing and debugging. And forced me to write an adequate documentation, which needed some more days or weeks, not least because I wrote it in english, which is not my primary language. Now after all this is done, I feel also a relief that all what I could do is done for the first step. The next step will be analyzing the hardware and firmware of the HP-97 or other calculators for which I really liked to have time, but don't have it.
I will receive the ACTs from my manufacturer on monday and, other than announced before, I decided to ship them now internationally, because on all woodstock calculators I tried, they did work well electrically. Only software issues must be solved to use them also in HP-29C and probably other models, which are not yet supported. I really enjoy and sometimes don't really believe it myself, that this chip can work in a way, that even I cannot see from outside, whether there is the original or the replacement ACT inside.
Here is what you get.
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You can find a download link for the manual and the Quick Guide at:
http://www.panamatik.de/html/hp_calculat...r_kit.html
After reading you can decide, whether you want to order one of it. There is a "Standard version" and an "Extended version" especially and only for the HP-25.
If you are asking why the price for this little circuit is more than a new modern HP calculator, I can only tell you that it is not a mass product and I would liked having made it cheaper, but I cannot produce it by myself and I don't know the real demand for it.
Im very busy in working now on other projects, that were behind, not at last because of my work for the ACT. But it was very satisfying at all and there are still many options for the future.
Thanks for your interesting comments and posts all around here. And I hope I made something that is fitting in all this here.
Bernhard