34C Thousands seperator

[Mike]

Is there a way to change the thousands seperator on the 34C? I have checked the manual and don't see any mention of it. The one I have has the european (decimal point) for the thousands seperator.

Thanks,

[Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)]

Hi;

I rmember one fact that may help you figure it out.

I had a classmate that owned one HP34C before buying a new HP41C. I remembered his 34 appeared to be dammaged: everything worked fine, but [STO][ENTER] selftest return Error 9. He sent his USA original to Hewlett-Packard do Brasil and, a few weeks later, there she was... with a comma as radix mark. He called me and showed me the new 34C, "comma", instead of "dot".

It seems it's an internal choice. I did not open the calcualtor at that time, but I believe if it is not made with a jumper, it only can be accomplished with a new display driver OR a complete CPU, if it is internal.

Hope this info help you.

Cheers.

[Thibaut.be]

Yes, i think that on late spices a jumper did the job... I currently have a 37E opened, I'm gonna check if there is something that helps...

[Luis]

Yes, sure thee is a (very small) jumper on the Power PCB (the electronic board where the battery cables go to). With jumper: USA dot format; without it, European comma. Depending on your HP-34C (or any 30 series)you have different ways to diassembly that. Please take a look at http://www.hpmuseum.org/collect.htm#variations. There are some explanations about the two type construction. I would suggest to do it if you're electronic skilled or, at least, patient. Anyway, handle it carefully!!
Good luck!
Luis

[Tony Duell]

There is a soldered-in link on the PSU converter board, close to where the flexiprint connects this board to the rest of the machine. I _think_ it's shorted for US format, open for European (all machines seem to have been made with the link fitted, and it was cut on those sold in Europe).
There's another link alongside it that seems to be something to do with test/diagnostics -- if it's in the wrong state, the machine won't power up at all.
If you are used to fine soldering, you might try fiddling with the links.

[Katie]

Here are a couple of pics that I took of different Spice versions/models and marked the connector to cut to make the decimal point European (install a jumper to make it US).

http://www.wass.net/repairs/Spice1.JPG

http://www.wass.net/repairs/Spice2.JPG