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Hi all,

I've populated the 97 board. It takes about 5 hours.

Tomorrow I'll verify the input/output pin setup and then program it in stages for testing. The first thing I hope to see is a little test LED flashing.

cheers

Tony

(11-07-2021 09:07 AM)teenix Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all,

I've populated the 97 board. It takes about 5 hours.

Tomorrow I'll verify the input/output pin setup and then program it in stages for testing. The first thing I hope to see is a little test LED flashing.

cheers

Tony

Excellent! My two 97 are waiting...
What's your hourly wage? :)

(11-07-2021 09:07 AM)teenix Wrote: [ -> ]I've populated the 97 board. It takes about 5 hours.

Fantastic!!

Amazing!

Nice work!

I like where you put the 97S port. That's clever.

Hi all,

We have a heart beat.

There are 100's of bits that can be used to set up the internal hardware of the PIC CPU chip and out of all of those, I had just one of them wrong in the new software. It took all afternoon to find it - frustrating.

Anyway - onward :-)

cheers

Tony

Super Teenix !

(11-09-2021 07:24 AM)teenix Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all,

We have a heart beat.

There are 100's of bits that can be used to set up the internal hardware of the PIC CPU chip and out of all of those, I had just one of them wrong in the new software. It took all afternoon to find it - frustrating.

Anyway - onward :-)

cheers

Tony

Well, progress at least!

Hopefully it was the 5th or 6th pin, and not the 97th or 98th, lol...

Amazing work Tony, almost there...

Nice work!!

Keep up the amazing work !

Hi all,

Things are progressing. So far the new circuit board seems ok.

I had to import some code from the previous dual processor system, so after re-writing some of it for the new single processor, sorting out some bugs and recalibrating the printer code, the display, keyboard, printer (with programmable speed and intensity), continuous memory and card memory seems to be working now.

I'll check the card read/write code and attach the reader circuit board tomorrow. This has slightly different code to work with the new setup, so I'll see what fun that brings.

cheers

Tony

Very exciting!

Hi all,

I had a bit of trouble with the card reader, but it appeared to be because of the transferring of code from the other processor to this one. The sense chip operates from different IO pins on this processor and I found a bug there. Also the code works in a different way in the new processor because it has to work independent of the printer and vice versa. As such, a few variables that were used in the card process did not work anymore but once they were altered the card read/write seemed to come to life.

It is a bit difficult to test this part of the board. It looks like the motor coupler slips intermittently so it will need replacing and I'm not sure if the single magnetic card I have works properly or not. If they play up unnoticed, it can lead to a long chase into complex code for faults that may not exist.

Still some testing to go and once that is complete, I will add code for the IR printer and 97S interfaces.

I think HP probably designed the whole 97 in less time than it has taken me to do the main board, but it has been a trip.

cheers

Tony

(11-13-2021 01:00 AM)teenix Wrote: [ -> ]I think HP probably designed the whole 97 in less time than it has taken me to do the main board, but it has been a trip.

I wasn't there, but I'd guess that HP had more than 1 Tony on the project, and for them, that was their main job, not a hobby. So they may have got it done quicker, but I'd say they don't really have that much on you. Keep up the good work; we may not say much, but we're plenty impressed.

(11-13-2021 03:30 AM)rprosperi Wrote: [ -> ]Keep up the good work; we may not say much, but we're plenty impressed.

Yes, really!

(11-13-2021 01:00 AM)teenix Wrote: [ -> ][...] and I'm not sure if the single magnetic card I have works properly or not.

Maybe somebody - preferably in your "neighbourhood" (i.e. Down Under) - can donate you the one or other magnetic card for further testing? Would be great!

Andi

I'd be able to send down a couple more cards. I'd need to know quickly, I'm in the process of packing up house and moving interstate.

Pauli

(11-13-2021 10:32 PM)Paul Dale Wrote: [ -> ]I'd be able to send down a couple more cards. I'd need to know quickly, I'm in the process of packing up house and moving interstate.

Pauli

Hi Pauli,

Many thanks but if you're moving I won't disturb you, I know what that is like :-)

I did furniture removals for a job once, worst ever. My hat is off to the people that do it but I wouldn't go back there again.

cheers

Tony

I'm happy to send a bunch of cards (both written and blank to provide various kinds of samples) if you're willing to wait for a shipment from NY. If so, just PM me your mailing address and I'll mail them Monday. I know there was some kind of COVID-forced suspension in shipments to Australia from here and though I think it has been lifted, I imagine the backlog is slowing things down.