HPTalx 1.3.0 HP 49g+ README
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Table of Content

0. Preamble
1. About this document
2. The HP 49g+ Calculator and HPTalx
3. Preparing the Kernel for USB Serial support 4. Loading the USB Serial Kernel Module 5. Finding the ttyUSB device used by the HP 49g+ 6. Connecting HPTalx to your HP 49g+ Calculator 7. Speed issues with HP 49g+

0. Preamble

HPTalx Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Bruno Barberi Gnecco. HPTalx Copyright (C) 2001 by Bruno Barberi Gnecco and Alen Kovac HPTalx Copyright (C) 2005 by Bruno Barberi Gnecco and Rafael Ostertag Icons Copyright (C) 2000 Hewlett Packard and Jean-Pierre Bergamin

This is HPTalx, a HP Calculator<->PC communications program for Linux, initially written by Bruno Barberi Gnecco, extended by Rafael Ostertag and released under the GNU Public License; see the COPYING file for further information. Use it at your own risk; the authors are not responsible for any damage from its use or misuse.

You can get the latest version of HPTalx at

http://hptalx.sourceforge.net

1. About this document

This file describes how to make the HP 49g+ Calculator communicating with HPTalx. The procedure described herein works well with Linux Kernels 2.6.x and has been tested with a Linux Kernel 2.6.11.11. There might be slight differences when using HPTalx with 2.4.x Kernels.

2. The HP 49g+ Calculator and HPTalx

The HP 49g+ Calculators are connected to the PC via USB. Thus, HPTalx relies on the facilities provided by Linux to make the USB connection behave as it were a serial communication port.

Therefore, HPTalx needs the Linux Kernel Module usbserial. This Kernel Module provides a way to let HPTalx access the HP 49g+ via ttyUSB devices.

3. Preparing the Kernel for USB Serial support

NOTE 1: This section will not describe how to compile a Linux Kernel. This

        would go  beyond the scope of  this document.  Please  read the README
        file  provided with your  Kernel Sources,  or see  the manual  of your
        Linux Distribution for details about compiling a Linux Kernel.

NOTE 2: This instructions are for version 2.6.x Linux Kernels. 2.4.x Kernels

provide the same functionality, but are configured slightly different.

Compile your Kernel with USB Serial support. Using 'make menuconfig', you will find this option under 'Device Drivers' -> 'USB Support' -> 'USB Serial Converter support'. In there, mark 'USB Serial Converter support' to be compiled as module and select the option 'USB Generic Serial Driver'. Now proceed configuring your Kernel according to your needs, and compile and install it.

4. Loading the USB Serial Kernel Module

Logged in as root, type on a terminal

# modprobe usbserial vendor=0x3f0 product=0x121

This will load the usbserial module into your Kernel and provide the ttyUSB* devices in /dev/. In case you do not have udev(8) running, those device nodes have to be created manually. Please consult the usb-serial.txt file in the Documentation/usb/ directory of your Kernel Sources on details about creating those device nodes.

5. Finding the ttyUSB device used by the HP 49g+

To find the ttyUSB device node your HP 49g+ Calculator is using, plug the data cable into the calculator and a USB port, then turn on your calculator. On a terminal, type

$ dmesg

This can be done as ordinary user. It should produce an output similar to the one showed below

        [...]
        eth1394: $Rev: 1224 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
        eth1394: eth1: IEEE-1394 IPv4 over 1394 Ethernet (fw-host0)
        Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
        FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
        parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
        parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778),irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
        usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
        usbserial_generic 1-1:1.0: Generic converter detected
        usb 1-1: Generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0

The last three lines in the example are the ones you have to look for. They state 1) that a new USB device has been found, 2) usbserial takes care of this device, and most important 3) the device, which is your HP 49g+, is attached to a ttyUSB node. To configure HPTalx later, you need to know the ttyUSB port number, which is the one after 'ttyUSB' as shown on the last line of the above example. In this case, it is '0'.

6. Connecting HPTalx to your HP 49g+ Calculator

Starting with the HP 49g Calculator models, HP added native XModem support to their calculators. However, HPTalx 1.2.0 does not support the XModem Protocol. So make absolutely, positively sure you launch the Kermit Server on your HP49g+ Calculator as explained in the README file accompanying this package.

Now it is time to configure HPTalx for using the ttyUSB node. Select 'File|Setup' to display the Setup Dialog. There, in the Setup Dialog, choose 'USB (ttyUSB)' in the 'Connection Settings' frame. The next step is to tell HPTalx, which ttyUSB port has to be used for communicating with the calculator. This is achieved by entering the ttyUSB port number you get from the dmesg(8) command as described in the above section.

7. Speed issues with HP 49g+

While testing HPTalx, I came across a speed issue with HP 49g+. Neither the upload speed to the calculator nor the download speed from the calculator were satisfying. This issue was resolved after a ROM Update to the latest version, which was version 2.0 at the time of this writing. Unfortunately, you cannot use this release of HPTalx to update your calculator ROM, so you still need a friend with a M$ Windoze box.

Another speed issue: The download from the calculator is much faster than the upload to the calculator. But I guess you can live with that as a trade-off being able to transfer data between your HP 49+ Calculator and Linux. Please let me know if you find a solution to this issue.

$Id: README.hp49gplus,v 1.1.2.4 2005/07/19 11:31:03 guengel Exp $