HP-41C HP-IL REMOTE & LOCAL commands

[rprosperi]

(06-06-2018 07:43 AM)J-F Garnier Wrote:  

(06-06-2018 02:08 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  The docs for the 41 IL modules was weak, especially for the Extended IO and Devel ROMs. No help there....

There is a whole section about the auto and manual modes in the HP82160 manual (p.46 english ed.).

In the code from Sylvain, AUTOIO is not strictly mandatory (the code would run fine in MANIO), but I always advised to use AUTOIO unless there is a special need (°). SELECT is needed, to select the destination of OUTA. It could be omitted here if the interface is the first device but the general sequence is:
AUTOIO "HP82164" FINDID SELECT
and there would be a difference here between MANIO and AUTOIO if the 82164 is not the 1st device in the loop. The explanation is somehow hidden in the HP82160 manual, page 53 :-)

(°) One need (and the only real one I encountered) is to use the printer functions (PRA, PRP, LIST, ...) to print to a non-printer device such as the HP82166 GPIO/converter (or DOSLINK in ILPer).

J-F

Yes, that section does describe the modes clearly, at a high (operational) level, but nothing about how this occurs at lower (HP-IL frame) levels. When using more than simply 1 tape drive and 1 printer with the 41, I was always frustrated that there was no way to see what occurred at lower levels. Eventually I got the Devel ROM which provided a (frustrating to use) loop scope, but I had moved on to the 71b so never really pursued it enough to grasp it all.

As Sylvain suggests, a frame-by-frame breakdown of each high-level command is the best way to understand and use them, and I always thought such documentation should have been provided by HP, even if only in a separately purchased "advanced" manual or something similar.

Thinking more about the example above, the sequences likely would have differed if there were more than 1 device connected, but still I always thought things were more 'different' at lower levels.

Since I have a choice (for play) I'll stick with the 71b for HP-IL use.