Possibly silly question: if I am entering a program and I have turned on alpha lock mode, how do I turn it off?
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WP-34S: Alpha lock
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Post: #3
07-07-2013, 08:34 PM
 Manual 3.0 page 71 of 118 says something about H P.FCN ALPHA for off and on, but I haven't played with it enough to figure it out.
Post: #4
07-07-2013, 08:36 PM
Yeah, that's it. H-shift P.FCN, then use up or down arrow to point to alpha-off or alpha-on. There might be an easier way... ▼
Post: #5
07-07-2013, 09:36 PM
When in programming mode, f-Enter puts you into input mode. By default you would be entering one character per line. However, by hitting f-Enter a second time you enter alpha lock mode, where you get to enter 3 characters per line. This is indicated by the fact that the alpha instruction in the display is followed by a single quote. However, once I entered this alpha lock mode, I have not figured how to get out of it. I can turn off input mode, but if I enter input mode again, it is automatically in alpha lock mode. How do I put it back in a state where you are entering single characters per line again and there is no single quote following the alpha instruction? ▼ ▼
Post: #7
07-08-2013, 10:36 AM
Well, I can't duplicate my odd issue this morning and it seems to be working. So, I don't know what was going on last night. I was working with the physical hardware and several times while in programming mode, as I was entering an instruction, the calculator would suddenly say "Reset" and pop me out of programming mode. I would just go back into programming mode as if nothing had happened and continue. What causes that message to happen? ▼
Post: #8
07-08-2013, 10:52 AM
Marcel, "Reset" is always bad news. Something must be awry with your device. The message occurs when the watchdog kicks in or when an invalid instruction is executed which causes a branch to the reset code. It might be a hardware problem as well. What is the battery level reported? Can you reproduce the behavior after the execution of the SLOW command? ▼
Post: #9
07-08-2013, 11:11 AM
The battery level is 2.9 I have not been able to reproduce anything but I got a flurry of them last night when I was fiddling around with alpha mode. I had just entered a long program and been playing with it and I had not had any problems at all. It was only when I started making modifications to the program and was struggling with alpha mode that I started getting occasional resets. I have tried to retrace my steps this morning, but things seems working. All of the resets happened in programming mode. I've never had one when using the calculator otherwise. I am not 100% certain whether it was all of the resets, but I do know that several of them happened either as I entered a catalog or when I was in a catalog and hit a key to jump to a position in it. If it starts happening again, I will do a SLOW command see if I can detect any change in behavior. ▼
Post: #10
07-08-2013, 02:03 PM
Thanks. Real software on real hardware is always a challenge. The resources on this machine are quite limited: 2 KB of persistent RAM, 4 KB of volatile RAM, 128 KB of flash (program) memory, all run from two coin cells. Power management is a real chore...
Post: #11
07-07-2013, 08:38 PM
Now maybe I see your problem. When you enter Alpha Lock mode, the H-shift P.FCN no longer brings up the choices. In this instance just press F alpha and it will exit alpha lock mode. ▼
Post: #12
07-07-2013, 08:39 PM
I'm playing with the emulator...I HAVE to get one of these awesome machines soon! ▼
Post: #13
07-08-2013, 02:59 AM
Quote: Good point! I sent an email to Eric and got no answer. Is he still selling these machines? ▼
Post: #14
07-08-2013, 03:39 AM
Build your own! Get yourself a 30b, ask Eric for an overlay (or two), ask Gene for a cable, download the software, and you are there! If you are in Europe (Schweiz?) I may help you with the programming. I know people who are good at modifying the hardware if desired, too. ▼
Post: #16
07-08-2013, 07:52 AM
I'd very much like to, but since the arrival of my little baby girl my free time has become extremely limited (although she *might* like to assist me as she always wants to help when I fix something...). And I'm definitely not equipped (eyes and tools) for SMD soldering, which would be required for getting the timer/stopwatch functions to work. I once did manage to re-solder an HP-42S memory chip, but that chip was already in place ;-)
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