My new WP34S

[Jeroen]

The WP 34S is really a nice project, an my unit exceeds my expectations. All parts, cables etc had been sitting in a drawer for about a year (if I remember correctly) but my fear of soldering kept me from completing it. Now it's finished! Especially the clock is much more accurate than I had expected, the RTC is off by approximately 0 seconds on 48h... For people who are interested in what parts I had used for the clock:

Crystal: Micro Crystal MS1V-10
Capacitors: 2x Yageo VVS-SMD COG 50 V 10 PF G0603

I only wonder how often I could reflash the firmware/how many write cycles it can handle.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

If I'm not mistaken Atmel guarantees a few ten thousands write cycles to flash, so don't worry! The limited endurance of flash memory was the main reason why there are no programmable commands to write anything to flash because that would allow to wear out the chip in a programmed loop. Manually flashing anything to death (be it the firmware or the user flash areas) seems next to impossible.

[Walter B]

Quote:

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I only wonder how often I could reflash the firmware/how many write cycles it can handle.

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Don't be afraid - it will survive some 10,000 flashes (see p. 83 of the printed manual).

d:-)

[Jeroen]

Walter and Marcus, thank you for informing me about and reassuring me on the flash cycles! (And sorry I had missed their being mentioned in the nice PDF-handbook on page 73 as well, I should take my time to read that manual and the additional documentation ...)

Another thing: I am surprised to find how quickly I can burn through the available programming steps (I have used 66 on a simple (no checking/adjusting for numbers smaller than or equal to zero) program to calculate an odds ratio and its confidence interval from a classical cross table), so I suppose I would might use the not-_full .bin file to keep some more space for my own stuff? Or is the number of steps I take for this rather simple task just excessive, and should I focus on acquiring better keystroke-programming skills (I know I could save some space by not giving myself textual feedback or storing less intermediate results, but still)? I suppose I should read the recommended HP42S manual first.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

Just practice! If the number of steps left for solving a problem is sufficient and as long as your program actually solves the problem it should be considered a success. If space is a problem, go back to the drawing board and optimize your solution.

Don't get rid of the library! The programs therein are educational and useful. You can simply delete the ones you're not interested in.