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I read somewhere that there were some trics to try with the HP-67. Someone even called this "synthetic programming fo HP-67". As I never heard details of this subject I would like to know where I can find some more concrete information on this.

Thanks

Several people who frequent here have 15 or so magnetic cards they will make available if you ask for them.

These include cards with lots of words stored in the registers, one is a Coca-cola commercial that plays out over the screen, another is an HP Poem about early calculators, etc.

Gene

Hi, José;

I read here (I do not own neither the HP67 nor the HP97) that any attempt to print these characters WILL BURN THE PRINTER HEAD (HP97, of course). Also that switching the calculator OFF and ON quickly will allow some strange "trash" to appear in the display, sometimes entire words.

Well, I would try Gene's suggestion to ask for the cards with these "fellows' already trapped. And DO NOT TRY TO PRINT THEM...

Cheers.

Hoax or not hoax ????????????????

Hello, I have the magnetic cards for the HP67/97 series of calculators (thanks Gene) and would be willing to copy them for anyone who is interested. Just drop me an email.

Hi, Fred;

no place for Hoax here, my friend. I read about these here and I do not have an HP97 to try. I may, if needed, try to find the post (among many others) in the archive and bring it back. Only if needed.

Is there anyone else in here that can add some more info?

Cheers.

Of course, the original post was for the HP-67 and there is no danger there of printing these out. :-)

However, these "letters" and effects are formed from Non-Normalized-Numbers (NNNs). If one tries to print them out, you can kill the HP-97 printer. Details can be found in the old PPC Journal.

If you don't have the CD ROM versions of the PPC Journal, shame on you! :-) You can get it from Jake Schwartz's calculator page for a very small fee. It's great.

Gene

I, too, have a set of the cards (thanks, Gene - these have been languishing on my "catch up to it someday" pile) and can copy them for those who need them. Send me an email. I think that one of the 15-20 or so cards I have does not work, but the others do.

Dan

I just would like to understand how printing numbers can "burn" or "kill" the printer head ??????

Hi;

I should not be writing this, but I believe I am not completely wrong. Otherwise, please, correct me.

Again, I do not own an HP97, but I understand that printing numbers will never burn or kill the printhead; otherwise, if you think that NNN (Non-Normalized-Numbers) are numbers out of the range 00002 to 10012, then they are probably in the range 10102 to 11112, what is logically acceptable if we think ASCII code, not BCD. Please, consider that I do not have any idea if this is possible or not, I'm just thinking about electronics, HW, SW and the burning head.

If the calculator (HP97) does not offer the standard input for these "numbers" (A16 to F16), then many things can happen if they appear in any register. Even "burning" or "killing" the printhead when one attempts to print them, and it may happen as a consequence of (for example) not turning off the head "burners" (resistors). As the NNN are not expected, the printhead controller may simply fail. Agree?

The "head burning" is a fact, and some guys in here have had the (sad) experience of seeing this happening.

Cheers.