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Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:16 am
by HPMike
The printer module is missing some commands, notably PRTON, PRTOFF and RESETP are missing and when executed result in NONEXISTENT. Also missing are MAN, NORM, TRACE and DELAY. All these commands are present in a real IR module when installed in an HP41C. The PRTOFF command is particularly important to allow programs that normally direct their output to the printer to send it to the display instead when a printer is not present. The only way to run these programs is to unplug the printer module from the active modules list. There are probably other omissions, but it's way past my bedtime, so I'll leave it at this for now. Please fix this ASAP.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:42 am
by bernouilli
The printer module is in fact the module from the hp82143a printer. That’s why it doesn’t contain the commands you list. Those commands are in the IR printer module (hp82242a). However this module is not supported by the dm41x right now. You get a warning if you try and plug it. It may get supported in a future release.

Man, norm and trace are switches on the actual hp82143 printer, and the delay can be set the the dm41x setup menu.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:39 pm
by HPMike
bernouilli wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:42 am
The printer module is in fact the module from the hp82143a printer. That’s why it doesn’t containt the commands you list. Thoses commands are in the IR printer module (hp82242a). However this module is tôt supported by the dm41x right now. You get a warning if you try and plug it. It may get supported in a future release.

Man, norm and trace are switches on the actual hp82143 printer, and the delay can be set the the dm41x setup menu.
This makes no sense at all. The module should emulate the IR Printer module, not the hp82143a printer. This is the way the DM42 works, because it is using the IR printer and not the plug in printer. Commands like PRTOFF are critical operations that need to be available on the calculator. Otherwise, there is no way to clear flag 55 so that programs that normally print to the IR printer, can print to the display instead using AVIEW and VIEW when the printer is not available. And, no, you cannot clear flag 55 manually with the CF 55 command. The only way to do this is to unplug the printer module in Settings every time you run a program with VIEW and AVIEW without the printer being present, which is very cumbersome.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:50 pm
by bernouilli
I agree with you, however, I just explained why the commands like PRTOFF aren’t available.
Right night, and until the module hp82242 is supported, the only way I see is to unplug the printer module when needed.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:59 pm
by HPMike
bernouilli wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:50 pm
I agree with you, however, I just explained why the commands like PRTOFF aren’t available.
Right night, and until the module hp82242 is supported, the only way I see is to unplug the printer module when needed.
Yes, I know that, but this is extremely cumbersome. Please expedite implementation of the IR module.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:19 pm
by HPMike
Furthermore, the IR printer lacks a MAN, NORM, TRACE switch, so the only way to implement this is with those commands included in the module. Again, this calculator prints via IR, and it should work exactly the same way as the DM42.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 5:03 pm
by bernouilli
It seems that the printing modes TRACE, MAN, NORM and PRTOFF can be managed using flags 15, 16 and 21. As written on the dm41x manual :
https://technical.swissmicros.com/dm41x ... l/#si_view

Flag 21 is to enable/disable printing and flags 15/16 are used to set the printing mode.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:01 pm
by HPMike
bernouilli wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 5:03 pm
It seems that the printing modes TRACE, MAN, NORM and PRTOFF can be managed using flags 15, 16 and 21. As written ont the dm41x manual :
https://technical.swissmicros.com/dm41x ... l/#si_view

Flag 21 is to enable/disable printing and flags 15/16 are used to set the printing mode.
Flag 55 must be cleared in order to disable printing, and it is not a user controlled flag, so CF 55 does not work. When the printer module is active, Flag 55 is set. The only way to disable printing is to execute PRTOFF, which clears Flag 55. Again, AVIEW and VIEW do not work when Flag 55 is set, so programs do not pause to display results on the calculator.

There are many programs that will not work properly when the printer module is active, but the printer is not present. For example, try running program POLY in the MATH PAC module, and see what happens.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:53 pm
by HPMike
I looked at the DM41X User Manual, page 6, and there is no information on flag settings for the various printer modes. Instead, it directs you to the HP-82162A Printer manual, which has no information on this topic. I figured it out by trying different flag settings, and recommend that the DM41X User Manual be revised to include this information as follows:

MAN Manual Print Mode flag 15 clear and flag 16 clear

TRA Trace Print Mode flag 15 set and flag 16 clear (or set)

NRM Normal Print Mode flag 15 clear and flag 16 set

Having said this, it is a lot easier to do this with commands like MAN, NORM, TRACE which are part of the IR Printer module 82242A.

Re: Missing commands in Printer module

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:12 pm
by dlachieze
My understanding is that the printer module included in the DM41X is based on the 82143A printer module code modified to drive the DM41X IR hardware and not on the 82182A 82242A IR module code because the source code of the 82143A was published as NOMAS by HP while the source code of the 82182A 82242A IR module is not available.

It may be possible to add new functions such as MAN, NORM, TRACE, PRTOFF to the current DM41X printer module to manage the printing flags but this needs to be confirmed by the m-code gurus who modified the original 82143A module code.

[edited to fix the correct IR module reference]