WP 34S Owner's Manual released

[Walter B]

Hi all,

here it is - finally: http://wp34s.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wp34s/doc/Manual_wp_34s_3_1.pdf?revision=3214 .

180 pages full of information :-) Still with three shift keys ;-) May be worth printing now (no more preliminary). Enjoy!

Walter

Edit: Compare with the first you've seen in SF: http://wp34s.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wp34s/doc/ENTER_20b_1_11.pdf?revision=2&pathrev=2 .

Edited: 28 July 2012, 12:35 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

[Paul Dale]

Very nice.

- Pauli

[Les Koller]

Walter, I have been seeing a lot of WP34S topics on here lately and never read them, I guess because I didn't have one. Well, for some reason, I clicked and downloaded the manual this time. Then, I found the emulator. This is an awesome piece of work! I looked around but couldn't find any answers (maybe because I am just a little high from the pain killers I am taking? No kidding) But is this also an actual physical device that one can buy? If so where to order, how much to order, etc. Thanks! While waiting for you to read and answer, I'll be checking the archives for the pertinent information also.

[Walter B]

Les, please read the first two paragraphs of p.6, then the bottom of p.5. Then use the hyperlink to App.A and you'll have got all the necessary information :-)

[Walter B]

In plain text: You'll basically need an HP-30b. Then add a small number of accessories specified in App.A, first page. And there you go :-) Or you buy all readily assembled and flashed as specified on p.5.

[Les Koller]

Walter, thanks so much for the info!! I DID find all the links and instructions you mentioned. The emulator is awesome! It will take me about a month to come up with the necessary funds (I am a school teacher on summer break right now, hence no income). This is going to be one of the sweetest, most powerful calculators I've ever seen. And I love seeing so much functionality in a machine W/O graphing ability. I very rarely use the graphing portion of any of my 15 or so calculators with the ability. Thanks for a great emulator, and I will be ordering in about a month.

[Mark Scheuern]

I skipped over the WP-34S topics when I first came here, too, and when I did start reading about it I had a similar "You've got to be kidding! This is amazing!" moment of revelation. I love mine. Be sure to see Ciaran Brady's Beginners Guide, too.

If you decide to make your own 34S, HP-30b donors are really inexpensive. I bought several a while ago and ended up keeping one as a 30b because they're quite nice calculators on their own, too. A vendor on Amazon has them for $16.99 right now.

Edited: 28 July 2012, 7:27 a.m.

[Les Koller]

Mark, just downloaded the pdf you mentioned. Wish I had learned about this calculator a month or 2 ago. I have purchased 2 TI-92 (a reg and a +), a 49G, and a couple of TI-basics for my collection. Would trade it all now for a 34S!

I'll have to buy one...I am afraid I would burn the house down with a soldering iron (well, not really, but bet I'd cook the calculator, no kidding).

[Walter B]

Quote:

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Wish I had learned about this calculator a month or 2 ago. I have purchased 2 TI-92 (a reg and a +), a 49G, and a couple of TI-basics for my collection. Would trade it all now for a 34S!

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In contrast to the museum rooms, in the forum premises the decoration changes every once and a while though not very hastily ;-) Sorry for having discussed the WP 34S for only 3.5 years here, in parallel to its development.

Seriously, there is no need for soldering unless you want to use the real time clock for stopwatch functionality or printing.

[Les Koller]

OK I wish I had known about it 3.5 years ago. :) It is an amazing looking beast, what I can tell from the emulator. Unfortunately, I only found these forums about a month or so ago.

[Walter B]

Better late than never :-)

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

Les, 3.5 years ago, WP 34S was more of a dream than reality. To learn more about its history have a look at the presentation I gave at the HHC 2011 conference: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/files/HHC2011/wp34s-HHC2011.pdf/download

[Mark Scheuern]

I'm pretty un-handy with a soldering iron, too, so I haven't done any hardware mods yet, just the re-flash and the labels (and putting the labels on was far easier than I expected). Getting the hardware goodies is a nice advantage of buying a pre-made 34S and the price is certainly fair, though it's great without the clock and IR printing, too.

Edited: 28 July 2012, 10:30 a.m.

[Harald]

Looks like I will be blocking the printer for a while on Monday :)

Cheers,
Harald

[Walter B]

Wait it!

I got messages about a few errors today (no matter how long one waits for answers, there will be always at least one person late). :-( Sorry. Stay tuned.

[Walter B]

Here we are: http://wp34s.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/wp34s/doc/Manual_wp_34s_3_1.pdf?revision=3220 .

Enjoy!

(Now I wait for the next person finding an error ;-)

[Harald]

Is it safe to print now? ;)
I'll wait a few more days to be sure... :)

[Walter B]

It got another revision and a pretty complete parameter check. I'd say it's safe now. But no other human work is as perfect as the wheel ;-)

[Walter B]

See the respective thread.

[fhub]

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See the respective thread.

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But request!=implementation ;-)

[Walter B]

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But request!=implementation ;-)

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You're right in theory. In real life, however, ... ;-)

[Walter B]

... in build 3226: it contains 1/2 and IDIV now :-)

Edited: 3 Aug 2012, 4:39 a.m.

[Walter B]

FYI, two isolated errors have been corrected in build 3226 on p.7 and p.121. New manual build = 3227. I apologize ...

[Christopher Johnson]

Walter,

Awesome job you have done on the manual. Thanks for the hard work. I was looking at the manual(3227) page 67. The table lists BACK being accessed with h P.FCN BACK n should this not be CPX h P.FCN BACK n There are a few more of these in the table. Just wondering.

CJ

[Paul Dale]

There is no CPX h P.FCN anymore.

- Pauli

[Christopher Johnson]

Ah, ok. Missed that one. I am running 3160 on the calc, it still has this. I am running this older version because the new font introduced in 3170 has a funky R which causes less characters to be displayed in alpha. Is this font still being used?

CJ

[Paul Dale]

The small font R is the same as 3170 -- i.e. one pixel wider than 3160 firmware. The large font R is unchanged. Seems like a fairly trivial reason to avoid subsequent bug fixes (of which there have been several). Even with the poor dot matrix display, one pixel doesn't seem like a lot at least to me.

Each to their own of course.

- Pauli

[Walter B]

Christopher,

You can't know the whole story, but the mayor part of it can be easily seen : Please look at the two fonts provided.
A) Subscripts extend below the bottom line in small font only.
B) Subscripts appear frequently in CONST.
A + B did lead to an internal discussion whether small font would be appropriate within CONST. This required proper readability for all letters used in CONST which caused e.g. an improved R.

And I agree with Pauli on his statement about the relevance of one pixel in this terrific display. YMMV

Edited: 5 Aug 2012, 6:00 p.m.

[Christopher Johnson]

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And I agree with Pauli on his statement about the relevance of one pixel in this terrific display.

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For me it is not one pixel less it causes there to be one less character in the display of messages. The more characters in the display the better to convey your message. Not a big deal. Just an observation. Thanks for the explanation and the great work on the 34s.

CJ

[Earl Kubaskie]

I've been away from the forum for a while, ans it seems you folks have been busy!

Now I'm looking forward to a package in my mailbox, and it has me wondering... does the group have any sort of a count of how many WP 34S units exist, purchased direct and home-modified?

[Paul Dale]

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does the group have any sort of a count of how many WP 34S units exist, purchased direct and home-modified?

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No.

- Pauli

[Earl Kubaskie]

Darn - oh, well, I am really looking forward to it. Many thanks to you and Walter for the amazing job you have done on the project. It's almost like expecting my original HP-45 so many years ago.

[Walter B]

Thank you :-) Sure you will enjoy it.

[Harald]

There is one number I have. There are about 35 (have to look up the exact number) WP34S out there, that have been modified with my board. And I would expect that to be just a tiny fraction of the total amount of WP34S's

I supose Eric should have a much better overview, as there should be roughly one overlay per calculator.

[Paul Dale]

That is more than I expected!

- Pauli

[Harald]

A lot of people seem to have more than one WP34S ;)

[Reth]

Let's count them - I've got 2 plus 2 extra sets of stickers. I guess all WP34S owners follow this forum.

[Harald]

Ok, I have four. Two of them with USB, Li-Ion battery and IR printing, one with IR printing and USB and one unmodified one. My dad has two, one unmodified an on with IR printing USB and power over USB.
And I have three spare 30Bs and two spare overlays.

[John Abbott (S. Africa)]

I have two, both with crystal and IR printing. Also have two spare overlays.
John

[Mark Scheuern]

I have two and made a third one which I gave to a friend.

[Etienne Victoria]

Two overlayed V2.2 in my daughter's hands. Never could reclaim them to migrate them to V3 :-)

2 USB Li-Ion IR overlayed V3 with Li-Po

1 USB Li-ion V3 which has the display half-broken and shifted legends below keys (yuk...) : I use it to experiment. Currently working with an iPod shuffle battery.

1 spare non overlayed Hp-30B : the only one I flash with the specific cable.

Etienne

[Neil Hamilton (Ottawa)]

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Two overlayed V2.2 in my daughter's hands. Never could reclaim them to migrate them to V3 :-)

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I would have to consider that a great success!!

[Etienne Victoria]

Agreed!

My only gripe with this is that they use their 34S as a great scientific calculator but don't program them except for the SLV use.

A great scientific calculator for school use IMHO.

Etienne