HP 41 Wand 82153A malfunction

[Bill Smith]

just recently began to reinvigorate my HP 41 system, contemplating moving many programs to mass storage and emulation. a key component is my 82153A optical wand which was bought used several years ago. at best, it seems to work only intermittently now, and will not entirely scan even a short program. just changed the batteries.

i know that wiggling the connector seems to help, but not enough. are there better ways to clean the connectors? have others experienced this problem with the wand?

i almost always get wand light, but frequently cannot list CAT 2 successfully.

suggestions appreciated.

regards

was

[Wayne Brown]

I've had occasional problems with my wand on one of my HP-41s. It has the same problems you describe--working intermittently and sometimes improving when the connector is wiggled. In my case, it works better in some of the 41's ports than in others. The worst problems are with port 4; since that's the card reader port, it's gotten much more use (and wear) than the others. Apparently the wand is more sensitive to a loose-fitting port connection, because it shows the problem much more often than any of my other plug-in devices. Try moving the wand to another port.

Also, I've found that when the wand behaves this way, it can get the 41 into a state in which it seems to function normally but can't recognize the wand properly in any port. So now, anytime the wand gives me trouble, I unplug it and plug it in again, then do a master reset (the ON-BACKSPACE and MEMORY LOST variety) before trying again. That often helps.