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From: Michael Heinz on 27 Aug 2007 19:02
On Aug 27, 4:33 pm, "John H Meyers" <jhmey...(a)nomail.invalid> wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:57:02 -0500, Michael Heinz wrote:
> > The HP48gx uses a non-standard serial port to communicate.
>
> What (aside from the connector) is non-standard?
>

That's what I was referring to.

> The "HP48 I/O Technical Interfacing Guide" (48techni.pdf)
> contains complete specs, including a pinout diagram
> for the original Mac serial connector
> (didn't I once see Mac cables being sold,
> for Macs which had serial I/O and serial printer ports?)

As I mentioned, Macs haven't had serial ports of any kind for at least
ten years. IIRC, they replaced the keyboard, mouse, printer and serial
ports with USB in 1996 or so - at the same time they stopped including
floppy drives. I'm sure that Macs from 1995 and before still exist
someplace, but Translucent Amoeba is using a new Macbook, so that's
not a factor.

Thus my emphasis on the idea that he would need a serial-to-USB
converter to talk to an HP-48.


From: John H Meyers on 27 Aug 2007 20:44
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:02:58 -0500, Michael Heinz wrote:

>> What (aside from the connector) is non-standard?

> That's what I was referring to.

Well, the idea was never to plug anything directly into the calc,
except for a cable that was meant for the purpose,
and the other end of cables meant for the purpose
was what the PC (or Mac) world of that time
then regarded as standard (and often came with
yet another adaptor to transform even that into a 25-pin end,
to mate with the oldest standard of them all).

Current USB<->serial adaptors also usually
terminate in the same "DB9" connector type
as the last decade of PCs which had serial ports.

I've tried some USB<->serial adapters with my PC
as an experiment to get an idea whether they would work;
one of their problems on my PC was that they
would appear as "COM5" (or higher), while old
communication programs would have some limitation
such as "radio buttons" specifying COM1 thru COM4.

I've since learned that one can change the COM port
assigned to the USB device driver within Device Manager,
although the USB adaptors didn't come with
any instructions which revealed that.

Despite having found out how to change the COM port number,
however, I've never been able to get my adaptor to talk to anything
using Windows (it could of course be just that it's not a good adaptor,
or that Windows isn't up to the task, or that it's the device's fault).

I hope that this works out better on that new Mac.

Otherwise, think like Rube Goldberg (see links below):

Mac <-> SD card <-> borrow an HP50 <-> buy serial cable <-> HP48 (with OBJFIX :)

http://www.anl.gov/Careers/Education/rube/
http://rube.iscool.net/

How to get OBJFIX into the HP48 (if it isn't already there)
is left as a separate challenge.

Wait a minute -- can the Mac itself use IR as a "serial port"?
(some PCs were once able to do that); if so,
Mac <-> use serial over IR (2400 Baud?) <-> HP48

[r->] [OFF]
From: Raymond Del Tondo on 28 Aug 2007 00:41

"John H Meyers" <jhmeyers(a)nomail.invalid> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:op.txquzrhunn735j(a)hp6735j.ia.mum.edu...
> On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:02:58 -0500, Michael Heinz wrote:
>
> [..USB-Serial..]

There were various c.s.hp48 and/or hpmuseum forum articles
about this topic last year (2006), and I already left my comments
back then;-)


> Despite having found out how to change the COM port number,
> however, I've never been able to get my adaptor to talk to anything
> using Windows (it could of course be just that it's not a good adaptor,
> or that Windows isn't up to the task, or that it's the device's fault).
>
Seems you have the wrong adaptor.
I have the Sitecom CN-116 US-Serial adapter
http://www.sitecom.com/drivers_result.php?groupid=8&productid=137&USB%20to%20serial%20adapter&CN-116

which works perfectly with my ThinkPad to connect to my HP-48GX.
Apart from that it's very compact in size.


> I hope that this works out better on that new Mac.
>
Sitecom provides drivers for Mac OS 8.x - 9.x and X ,
so there should be no problem.


At least for the real HP-48, you don't need any blown-up HP connection
software.
There exists a variety of communication programs for PC and Mac,
like KERMIT, which provides KERMIT transfer protocol,
and other terminal programs which provide X-Modem protocal transfer.

Once you have the USB-Serial driver up and running,
just start the terminal program and there you go.

Of course it may help to read at least the readme;-)

HTH

Raymond


From: John H Meyers on 28 Aug 2007 01:02
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:41:25 -0500, Raymond Del Tondo wrote:

> I have the Sitecom CN-116 US-Serial adapter
> http://www.sitecom.com/drivers_result.php?groupid=8&productid=137&USB%20to%20serial%20adapter&CN-116
>
> which works perfectly with my ThinkPad to connect to my HP-48GX.
> Apart from that it's very compact in size.

I have little one-piece units
(no cable between "business ends"),
but that's a nice-looking adaptor,
nice-looking complete set of drivers (incl. OS X),
interesting that it needs an "Installer update for IE7"

> Of course it may help to read at least the readme ;-)

It's embarrassing to say, but I can't read
(that's why I'm always just writing :)

Thanks a lot for the link and info;
you are always most helpful,
and a scholar, and a gentleman.

-[ ]-
From: Raymond Wiker on 28 Aug 2007 01:10
"Raymond Del Tondo" <RDelT(a)gmx.de> writes:

> At least for the real HP-48, you don't need any blown-up HP connection
> software.
> There exists a variety of communication programs for PC and Mac,
> like KERMIT, which provides KERMIT transfer protocol,
> and other terminal programs which provide X-Modem protocal transfer.

I installed minicom + rzsz - this gives me X-, Y- and Z-MODEM
support. I'm not sure if I need KERMIT as well (it would certainly not
be my preferred option, as it's the slowest).
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