This might interest HP41 owners

[steve]

The following file was produced by my PC. It is a listing of a fairly random program :-)

The program was "printed" by the HP41 out of an IR printer interface and captured by the PC.

The most important things for me is that:

1) It converts all the nasty RCL [ type of instructions into RCL M (the append gets changed to R as per the ZenROM)

2) It prints characters like sigma and not equal.

3) It decodes alpha strings so that you can figure out how to enter them again :-)

The file is located at http://www.wantree.com.au/~shodges/BCD2.rtf

The file is in RTF format because the characters come from all over the place. The font used is Courier New.

[Paul S.]

How was this accomplished? I take it you have some IR receiver interface connected to the PC (like the old Hook uP). Likely you just print the program out on the 41 and then presumably you run some software/driver on the PC that either writes the data to a file for subsequent processing with another program that does the formatting, or perhaps it's the same program?

I am curious how you did this. What hardware, software, and where I might find it, etc.

[steve]

This was the result of a PRP of the HP41 code. The program translates the listing into an RTF file.

The code can also receive binary information from the HP41 (via code similar to the program that was listed) and produce barcode.

My next tricks are to:

1) successfully drive the wand from the PC

2) compile and decompile HP41 code

3) read data from HPIL

4) write data back via HPIL

(in increasing order of difficulty)

This is just a bit of fun I'm having in my spare time.

[Chris Catotti]

You said:

"This was the result of a PRP of the HP41 code. The program translates the listing into an RTF file.

The code can also receive binary information from the HP41 (via code similar to the program that was listed) and produce barcode."

What is a 'PRP'? 'RTF' means Rich Text File. Again, what software and/or interface was running on the personal computer that was able to capture the data from the HP-41 IR Printer Module. How may I obtain software or the knowledge to reproduce your results?

[steve]

PRP is the command on the HP41 to print a program listing. In this case I am printing via the IR Printer interface.

The code is rather fragile at the moment. I'll be releasing it as soon as it's stable.

[Marwan Joury]

This thread motivated me to go back and look at some work I had been doing with the HP41/IL/Serial interface. I have now gotten some *REALLY* simplistic code working that will take a program listing from a HP41 (PRP) and read it via the serial port. The listing may also be saved as a text file. I am also able to read a "binary" file using OUTP and save it and then send it back to the HP41 using INP. To make this all work you need a HP41, a HPIL interface, a Serial interface, and the Extended IO module. If anyone is interested please send me a note and I will give you more details. I am also quite willing to give you the code (VBasic) on the condition that no support or warranty of any sort be expected.

Marwan Joury

[Chris Catotti]

I am very interested! I already have the described hardware. Please contact me. Best Wishes, Chris Catotti.

[Dan Grelinger]

I believe that PRP is the "print program" command of the HP-41 printer function set, in this case, from the HP-41 IR printer module.