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HP Releases Hackable ARM-Based Calculator

Posted by Soulskill on from the turning-tools-to-toys dept.

mikeselectricstuff writes "HP's 20b business consultant calculator isn't the sort of thing that would normally interest the average Slashdotter, but HP has released a Devkit for it, including schematics and source for a sample application, and they appear to be actively encouraging people to re-purpose it. Maybe the engineers thought a business calculator was just too boring for their hardware? The calculator is based on an Atmel ARM chip, and it has a bootloader and JTAG interface to allow user applications to be written and downloaded, turning a boring calculator into anything you can do within the constraints of the hardware."

22 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But how do I embed the calculator in my arm? Knife and some glue?

  2. More Companies Should Do This by Marillion · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of course most customers will use this as is. I'm thankful that HP isn't so paranoid of what their niche customers might do. The right of people to tweak products to suit their needs is a right that needs to be preserved.

    --
    This is a boring sig
    1. Re:More Companies Should Do This by thermian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Its not exactly as if someone can harm HP, or any other hardware company by repurposing their calculators, so yes, more companies should do it.

      I suspect what they are hoping is that tech types will play, the calculators name will be thrown around the water cooler, and procurement will find requests to purchase on their desk.

      Which is, of course, all well and good.

      --
      A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
    2. Re:More Companies Should Do This by ettlz · · Score: 3, Informative

      When it comes to calculators, I don't think HP have ever been at all bad in that respect. It's not for nothing that their calculators are something akin to the "workstations" of their class: there's always been loads of documentation out there for the HP 28, 48, etc. plus a metric ton of third-party software. A HP graphic calculator can expect to be "re-purposed" any number of times in its useful life (which is a very long time) as part of normal use.

    3. Re:More Companies Should Do This by Tacvek · · Score: 4, Informative

      I mean consider that the HP49g+ has 3 compilers and deompilers built-in, as well as a debugger for UserRPL and SystemRPL. I also believe it may be the only calculator with an SD card slot. (The hp50g is just a slight hardware revision to the HP49g+, although the keyboard is significantly improved, and the use of 4 AAA is also a notable improvement.)

      Consider that it is the hardware platform for the DC-50 [http://www.pssllc.com/] surveying data collector, and it is clear the calc can be re-purposed.

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
    4. Re:More Companies Should Do This by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Of course most customers will use this as is. I'm thankful that HP isn't so paranoid of what their niche customers might do. The right of people to tweak products to suit their needs is a right that needs to be preserved.

      Considering HP has made available the code to a number of their calculators to allow emulators to run on various platforms, such as WinCE and PalmOS; they're pretty good at taking care of their customers and trusting them.

      Their calculator division, at least, has always truck me as a group run by engineers and people who understand technology as well as how to make it into useful tools.

      I still have my HP-45; and it still runs. The only problem I ever had was trying to use it on a submarine when we rigged for red.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    5. Re:More Companies Should Do This by Tacvek · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Look at amazon.com

      HP top of the line grpahing calculator is Hp50g at $117.95. http://www.amazon.com/50g-Graphing-Calculator-F2229AA-ABA/dp/B000GTPRPS

      Ti's top of the line is the 89 Titanium at $139.95. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-89-Titanium-Calculator/dp/B0001EMLZ2/ref=pd_sim_e_6

      TI's top of the line mainline (83 series) is the 84+SE at $120.21. http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-TI-84-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B0001EMM0Q/ref=pd_sim_e_5

      The Hp50g is definitely significantly more powerful than the 84+SE. It arguably has a better CAS than the 89. Yet of the three it is the least expensive.

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
  3. HP calculators by chrysalis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    HP calculators have always been hackable. The 48 S/SX/G/GX calculators had a large and active scene. I spent countless hours coding on it. The Saturn processor was very nice to code on.

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    {{.sig}}
    1. Re:HP calculators by harrkev · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is a difference between "programmable" and "hackable," or at least to me...

      "Programmable" implies that a programming language is made available. Nothing more, nothing less. You can do what the programming language allows you to do. Of course, certain limits may inherent (or added to) the language. It is like giving you a sandbox to play in.

      In this case, "hackable" means that they have thrown the doors wide open, and published almost everything that they know about it (schematics, etc), and are inviting people to dream up new uses (which presumably includes hardware hacks). This is like giving you the keys to the house and saying "It's yours. Make yourself at home. Feel free to paint or remodel if you want."

      I happen think that HP makes (or at least made) the best calculators in the world. Then, TI kind of took over after HP rested on their laurels after releasing the 48G series. The 48G firmware, at least to me, was an ugly hack of the 48S code. For example, HP added new units to the 48G. Of course, it would be too easy to add these units to the "units" menu where they belong, so they had to throw them in a "secret" menu that you will only find by reading the manual.

      I love RPN, and love my old 48SX. Even the keypad feels nicer than any other calculator in the world.

      --
      "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  4. Password-Pad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Might be nice to use it as an password-pad
    and still have an RPN calculator at the same time.

  5. Re:Why? by chuckymonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Be allowed into tests at universities.

    --
    "Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
  6. Good on 'em by Anastomosis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whoever is in charge of decisions like this at HP really needs to be hired at Apple.

    1. Re:Good on 'em by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whoever is in charge of decisions like this at HP really needs to be hired at Apple.

      Right...Like anyone who worked at HP would ever get very far at Apple...

      --
      This guy's the limit!
  7. Re:Oh dear. by Goaway · · Score: 4, Informative

    You should not be so quick to call for others to return their geek card, when you yourself is not even aware of one of the biggest legends in computing.

  8. Re:Why? by Tacvek · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Any Windows mobile phone can easily be programmed for using the SDK. This does require Visual Studio or some ticks to use the free platform SDK, but most windows developers will already have Visual Studio.

    Once one has the Windows Mobile SDK, one can compile and install applications with absolutely no difficulty. (Almost no providers choose to required signed apps on Windows Mobile phones, and even when they do, the end user can disable that with slight difficulty.)

    --
    Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
  9. Embedded Hardware by lm317t · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The L series is a typical AT91SAM7 32bit chip that should work with the usual openocd toolset. It does not look like HP is using an RTOS like FreeRTOS which, among other things, has a udp/tcp/ip stack that I like to use on the AT91SAM7X series which contain an embedded MAC (no apple fanbois, thats a Medium Access Controller). The code is using IAR compilers :( so you can't just dive in to using the Gnu arm toolchain without some serious homework 1st creating a makefile and tweeking various files.

    The engineers did populate the connectors for the JTAG and provide unpopulated pads for ADC, PWM, SPI, and basic digital I/O, so I would say that anyone looking to get started in embedded electronics could start here, they'd just be locked into using IAR. Also a display is awesome for providing a UI, something most embedded dev kits lack!

    Thanks HP, it really is nice that you guys considered the hacker community as customers.

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    EOF
  10. Re:Why? by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You must have an iPhone. On every other platform (Windows Mobile, Palm, S60, and BlackBerry) you can easily write and deploy your own code.

  11. Re:Sorry but I have to ask.. by harrkev · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does it run NetBSD?

    If you want it to.
    Some assembly required... and maybe some C++.

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  12. Re:Why? by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do the batteries in your laptop last for years? I think I replaced the batteries in my HP48G twice during my entire undergraduate career. You can take an HP calculator out into the field on a data-collecting expedition for days or weeks on end without worrying about the charge. And whereas I've worn out the keyboards on a number of laptops over the years, the keys on my 15-year-old HP calculator still work perfectly. There's still a lot to be said in favor of special-purpose hardware.

  13. Re:Why? by lm317t · · Score: 3, Informative

    Aside from power, weight and poor tolerance to extreme temperature changes, try controlling a servo or stepper with a laptop in a critical realtime environment, like with sensors. You might be able to do this with a parallel port, but it would be extremely unreliable without a true realtime OS and alot of hacking, also expensive. Unless you admire Rube Goldberg this would be foolish. You can actually guarantee better response time with a fairly slow embedded processor.

    There's much more to the computing world than X86 processors. In fact laptops, desktop, and servers are in the minority as far as computing chips are concerned.

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    EOF
  14. Brick! by cplusplus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet the first thing I'd turn it into would be a brick.

    --
    "False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
  15. Re:Why? by blind+biker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i did enjoy working as an assembler programmer back in the days of the first home computers

    That's exactly the kind of enjoyment I had in mind. Just to be able to get one pixel on that LCD screen to blink would provide me with some fun. Call me nostalgic, I don't mind; coding close to the HW has always been my passion, ever since the 80's.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.