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-- HP 48G Interfacing? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=618)

Does anyone know if its possible to somehow make an HP 48G graphing calculator and a Visor talk? Or know of any other cool things one could do with a Visor/ HP48G combo?

I don't know myself, but I was hoping to do the same thing, in particular, I'm trying to print to my HP Infra Red Printer with my Palm device but can't seem to find any software that will let me do this, any suggestions would be great.

Gil

Well, it would be cool if you coud beam the rom over and have an 8 meg Visor G. I do know that on HP/UX systems that HP has an emulator for HP 12/15/? series calculators. The 48 GX has a 256k rom, and a 48 SX has a 128k rom.

I guess I could see setting up a way to transfer data to the HP to let it crank away on data. However the HP 48 G/GX is a 4 Mhz 4bit processor that's overclocked on a 2 Mhz bus (I think, it's somewhere in that vicinity). The 48 S/SX is 2 Mhz. Since both the HP and the Visor have universal remote control programs written for them, I assume they can both talk to each other with the appropriate programs.

What is a dragonball? It's 16 Mhz, and I presume it's 16 bit. The Visor should run rings around the HP 48 processor wise.

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As far as printing to your HP Infrared Printer there is software out there. I think it's caller IRPrint, and costs $20 or $30. Look on palmcentral.com.

I think it would be cool to somehow capture a graph from the HP48G and beam it over to the Visor via the IR port and then be able to incorporate that plot into some DOC file on the Visor. I've had my HP48G+ for about 6 months and have just now had the chance to play with it. I just interfaced the computer with it and DLed some programs. Trying to figure out the TV Remote program for it. Always looking for ways to make my toys communicate with one another. ;-)

Volker (or anyone else),

I just got an HP 48G a couple of weeks ago when my TI got stolen. Where are you downloading software from? I would love to check out some programs...

Thanks.

Jeff.

Try these sites http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~aschoorl/ as a start. If you go to HP's calculator web page they have links to their archive and many others with tons of programs. Also if you search Yahoo! you will find tons of pages. Note that you have to have a serial cable to download the software.

Keep me posted if anyone figures out how to do this. It should be easy to use an xmodem type program or a terminal program to do this assuming you can make the correct cables.

Educalc (R.I.P.) used to have some goodies disks (I think there were at least 8 of them) with games, utilities and all sorts of stuff for the HPs. Keep in mind that the HP 48 SX an 48 GX are not completely compatible with each other. Especially with Saturn assembly programs. Some of the port addresses are different. Also, games for the SX run a little too fast for the GX sometimes.

As a person who has a 6 year old GX (which is a replacement for a 2 year old SX that was eating a set of batteries every week) I agree that they are great devices (especially when you take thermodynamics, statistics, or just about any math related class)

Have the serial cables gotten any cheaper? They used to be about $60. I haven't loaded any programs into my 48 with a home built cable I made in eons. Keep in mind that the pin spacing is goofy and it's really hard to find a socket that will fit it properly.

BTW, what's your version letter? Mine's a P (type in VERSION and hit enter to find out). I guess they've fixed the bugs that were in ROM by now.

there used to be directions on the internet on how to make cables. I used to know a guys (3 yrs ago) who would make one, garuntee it for 1 yr. and fedex it to you for about $24. Try cruising some search engines and you can find directions and/or a cheap place to buy a cable.

I've got version HP48-R. I picked up the serial cable (no software) at the local Purdue Bookstore for $25. No need to buy the software as the current version of hpcomm can be obtained on the net for free. I started out with a TI-81 my sophomore year in high school and moved to the TI-85 my senior year. I picked up the HP-48G+ my Junior college year on clearance for half-price. ;-) Just now getting into its abilities. Looking for good Electrical Engineering programs. Would be nice if you could get a Linux Springboard for the Visor, then DL some Unix HP48 emulator and run some of the HP programs on the Visor. ;-)

I bought a 48GX when they first came out and I was in college. I've been out of the loop. What is a 48G+ or a 48G-R?

How do they differ from the gx's?...

The GX is more "advanced" than the G+. The G+ doesn't have expandeable slots but does have 128k built-in RAM. Besides not having expandeable card slots, I think it's the same as the GX. HP48-R is the ROM version of a specific HP48G. R is the most recent version.

Actually, HP or TI would be very smart if instead of releasing their ROMs in PalmOS format, they would sell a springboard module which would give the Visor the same capability as a high-end graphics capability. They could sell it for like $50 a pop and probably make a good chunk ;-) ...

The best place to go which I recently discovered is http://www.hpcalc.org, by far one of the best sites around. The communications package that works well with the HP48 Series, is HP48 Explorer, a Windows Explorer type interface using the server mode of the calculater. An excellent program.

Hope that helps,

Gilligan