Re: What is your holy grail? (maybe a tad long) Message #27 Posted by Dale Reed on 1 Oct 2011, 1:45 p.m., in response to message #1 by Keith Midson
As for a "collection" -- mine is mostly Voyagers. They're not particularly minty (except 15C LE, 12C AE, of course), but I like the ones I have. I mostly need to fill in on missing manuals (10C owner's handbook and the various advanced functions manuals).
But my holy grail is to be able to build my own calculator -- to gain the skills/tools in programming, part selection, PCB layout, case design/construction, etc., to make a calculator that does what I want.
I 'grew up' with an HP-25, but I like the continuous memory, the feel, the layout and the functions of the 11C, 15C, 16C. When I saw the 35S, I thought 'Great, HP is doing a CALCULATOR!' It's nice, but it's not a 15C.
I've also read here about folks wanting the 35S to have USB or SD Card, or some means of upload/download. I've read about the WP34S and using the tools for flashing a 20b or 30b (or 12C+ / AE or 15C LE). Got a 30b and a cable (thanks, Gene!) and will be loading it up over my vacation....
I read about the 41 series, including the blanknut.
I recently built my own sound-effects box (a display-less MP3 player with a LOUD speaker amp on board and files on an SD Card), so I've got a little bit of microcontroller programming and PCB design under my belt. Just a little.
So my RPN calculator is my next project.
I like the landscape layout of the Voyagers, and I look at my cellphone with a slide-out QWERTY (QWERTZ or AZERTY for some of you) keyboard.
If I were going to make a "blank" keyboard Voyager (or buy one, say a NW250AA#ABA OPT 001?), it would have the ENTER key horizontal (like my beloved HP-25) in the center of the bottom row, the spacebar position. Now I could use the keyboard / display of my "calculator" in an alpha mode for other things that need alpha input. And it would have USB and/or MicroSD, maybe a lithium-ion battery charged by the USB port. The holy grail of BYOC (build your own calc) hardware....
So I am following the discussions of the WP34S firmware with interest. Likewise the DIY5 hardware discussions, and the comments on various LCD displays. Thank you all for "teaching" me -- without really trying.
If I 'finalize' my candidate keyboard layout, I'll post it here. I've followed several recent discussions about which keys should be primary vs. shifted, and I think I've got a good layout FOR ME based on how I would use it.
For those who are interested, I'm currently working with a 4-line 20-character display and a Freescale MCF51JM128 (plenty of SPIs and has USB OTG). Just because I'm familiar with it.
With BYOC hardware, you can do yer own dang layout! And a lot more, if you've got USB, MicroSD, MP3 codec or whatever...
Sorry this is a bit long. But 'you asked'!
Dale
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