Flashing a WP34s with a Mac

[Philippe Cairic]

It just doesn't seem to work. I have one of Harald's USB converters and adapted one of Gene's cable with it.
The chip is recognized by the system, which seems to indicate that it was soldered correctly ;-)

However, the flashing tool doesn't seem to be able to communicate with the HP-30B.

I am now the proud owner of two "bricked" HP-30Bs. I know they might still be resuscitated, but I think I need a Windows machine for that.

Has anyone succeeded to flash those babies with a Mac yet? Anyone?

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

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Has anyone succeeded to flash those babies with a Mac yet? Anyone?

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http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv020.cgi?read=205296

http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv021.cgi?read=218630

HTH

[pascal_meheut]

Yes, I managed to make to do it sometimes but it has been unreliable for reasons beyond my comprehension since the beginning, especially as the same code works fine on Windows & Linux.

So using a virtual Windows system in Parallels is your best bet. You could also try Linux in VirtualBox if you want to use only free software but I cannot guarantee it will work.

[sjthomas]

The only success I've had is running Windows XP in a Parallels environment.

[Egan Ford]

Works fine for me:

0.  cd ~/.wine/dosdevices; ln -s -f /dev/tty.usbserial-FTFTXBQO com4 (use correct /dev/tty.*)

1.  Connect cable.

2.  Turn ON 34S.

3.  Press and hold ON, then D S S (D 6 6), then release ON. Calc will turn off.

4.  Press and release ON.

5.  Flash with MySamba (wine mysamba.exe, use com4).

6.  Press and release reset button on the cable.

7.  Disconnect cable.

8.  Press ON.  Check VERS and BATT. 

Edited: 21 Dec 2012, 12:47 a.m.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

The problem is to find a working Wine version. There is a professional offering (Crossover) but you find a lot of info about the open source version. But you'll need to compile it yourself (Which I have yet to do).

[Roland Kaufmann]

Hello Marcus,
you can install wine (1.4.1, don't know how recent it is) via
http://www.macports.org/

Hope this helps,
Roland

[Egan Ford]

The MacPorts wine is keep current. That is the version I have used with Intel OSX 10.5-10.8.

sudo port install wine

Not all the dependancies are available as binaries. IOW, Xcode should be installed. If running Xcode 4.x you'll need to download and install the CLI development tools from Apple's web site. Both links are provided at macports.org. You may also need X11--I have not seen or tried a non-X11 version of wine.

Clearly a Mac native flashing utility would be appreciated, however, I have found for various embedded programming needs that wine often works. Worse case I have a VM with Windows XP. XP is thiner than 7 or 8 and appears to work with just about every programming tool I have.

[chris m.]

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Clearly a Mac native flashing utility would be appreciated, however, I have found for various embedded programming needs that wine often works. Worse case I have a VM with Windows XP. XP is thiner than 7 or 8 and appears to work with just about every programming tool I have.

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There is a native utility available at the project site - or are you looking for something else? I've flashed two without problems using it.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp34s/files/FlashTool/

[Philippe Cairic]

I tried with that native utility and that's what doesn't work.
I used Harald's USB-RS232 TTL converter board.

I am tied up right now, but my plan is to try and use another 3.3V TTL cable that I know works well (I use it with some Arduino clones) along with the HP connector and the buttons on a breadboard.

I just hope the two unresponsive HP30Bs that I have now are still alive.

[Walter B]

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I just hope the two unresponsive HP30Bs that I have now are still alive.

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Most probably they are. Please see pp. 182-183 in the most recent v3.1 manual.

d:-)