On Jan 10, 2014, at 7:32 AM, ARD wrote:
But you could not add a card reader to
a TI58 to make it into a TI59 (and I always thought it was a pity there
was no TI59-C).
Agreed on the TI59-C!
A friend of mine who owned a TI-58 ordered a TI-59, decided it was not
suitable, and returned it. Somehow his TI-58 was subsequently able to
read magnetic strips. I assume somewhere down the line, someone came to
be in the possession of a TI-59-shaped m ag card piggy bank?
Would they? I thougth the card slots were in the bottom case of the TI59,
which means this could have been swapped over too. The result would eb
aTI59 somewhere with no card slot.
The logic board would have to be changed too, the card reader IC and the
324 op=amp (read amplifiers) is only on the TI59 board, and IRIC the TI58
doesn't even have the pads for them.
In other words, all that was left of the original TI58 was the top case
and keys :-)
Right, there was no official way to add a card reader? :-).
You couldn't even buy the card reader module as a spare part and fit it
in, as I said the logic PCB was totally different..
Of coure the HP41 could _later_ be expanded with
the extended memory
modules, but those were not avaialble when the machine first came out. So
you would probably not have considered those.
Had I paid much attention to the four ports on top of the machine, I
might have. But you are right.
Weh nthe HP41 first came out (1979 IIRC) there was no extended memroy module.
There was the HP41C, which had, IRIC, 64 'regiusters' (each of 7 bytes)
of user RAM (+the system RAM for the stack, alpha, etc).You could add up
to 4 more memroy modules, each giving another 4 registers. Of course each
module took up one of those ports.
HP then came out with a quad module (added the full amount of 356 extra
registers) and the 41CV, which had all that memory built-in . You could
not add any more memeory than that. You could, of course, add ROM
moudles, pritner ,card reader, etc.
Extended memroy, needs a Extended Funcitons/Memroy module to be useful,
this will work in any HP41C or CV. It adds a lot of useful functions
(including some string handling) and some ore RAM, which is not used to
sotrte programs or data in the normal way, but rather as a file-based
system. You cna save programs as files in extended memory, but you cna't
(officially) run them wihtout copying them back to main RAM. You can
creat data files in the extended RAM too, but they're not as easy to sue
as normal data registes).
Onvc you have the extended fnctions/memroy module, you can then add up to
2 mroe extended memroy modules.
The HP41CX is abscialyl an HP41CV with the extended funcitons/memory
mdoule and the time module built in. And some more fucntions not on any
module. Yo ucan add 2 extneded memroy modules to that too.
Incidentalyl, never try to
print non-normalised numbers on an HP97. The print routine gets confused
ans leaves the pritnhead turend on for too long. The result is a
burnt-out head.
!! Good to know. Thank you! Pretty sure my Dad had use of an HP-97 at
one point, but I think it has long since gone back to the university.
Oh well...
The TI59 uses a BP1A battery pack which is 3 AA
NiCd's in a plastic
housing. No other internal electronics.
The pack I have, so I can probably get the plastic housing open. Are
they plain AA ni-cads, or do I need to order cells with solder tabs?
Never mind, I?ll find out when I get there.
I think there are metal conenctor strips and the contactsa for the
cacluator spot-welded ot the calles. You may have room for hte taggest
cells
-tony