Hi all,
I've been working on a new project for the HP-41 in order to provide HP-41 <> USB connection.
As a first step I found the unidirectional coms between the HP-41 and the printer to be a good starting point before going further to bidirectional coms.
So far I've developed the module code to handle the 82143A printer ROM and Peripheral interface chip (Helios) in its basic format and transfer the bytes to be printed through the USB (serial interface) to a PC where a slightly modified terminal program shows the printing in a text window.
The USB cable is attached to a standard module shell containing a modified Clonix-like device. Is uses the same Prolific chip for the USB <> serial conversion as it's used in the USB programmer for the Clonix and NoV's module family, so ther'll be no need for further driver installation.
The module is also re-configurable using the same Clonix USB progammer to allow upgrading and/or repurposing for future bidirectional comms use.
Now it comes the difficult part (at least for me): Which platform to use when developing the PC side of the interface?
My programming skills are very limited when it comes to object oriented languages.
So far I've just built the small GUI for the ClonixConfig utility in Visual Basic under .NET; and some testing for this USB > HP41 adapter using Python 2.7(and Boa Constructor).
Further more, serial interfacing is not one of the most popular application nowadays so I've found fery few examples out there to learn from.
I assume that there must be some very good programmers in here, and would like to get advice on the preferred platform and (if possible) some examples of serial interface data handling. :-)
Ejoy your toys!
All the best from Caribbean Sea.
Diego.