Considering their hardware specification, graphing calculators surely feel like an anachronism in 2019. There are plenty of apps and other software available for that nowadays, and despite all preaching by our teachers, we actually do carry calculators with us every day. On the other hand, never underestimate the power of muscle memory when using physical knobs and buttons instead of touch screen or mouse input. [epostkastl] combined the best of both worlds and turned his broken HP-48 into a Bluetooth LE keyboard to get the real feel with its emulated counterpart.
Initially implemented as USB device, [epostkastl] opted for a wireless version this time, and connected an nRF52 based Adafruit Feather board to the HP-48’s conveniently exposed button matrix pins. For the software emulation side, he uses the Emu48, an open source HP calculator emulator for Windows and Android. The great thing about Emu84 is that it supports fully customizable mappings of regular keyboard events to the emulated buttons, so you can easily map, say, the cosine button to the [C] key. The rest is straight forward: scanning the button matrix detects button presses, maps them to a key event, and sends it as a BLE HID event to the receiving side running Emu84.
As this turns [epostkastl]’s HP-48 essentially into a regular wireless keyboard in a compact package — albeit with a layout that outshines every QWERTY vs Dvorak debate. It can of course also find alternative use cases, for examples as media center remote control, or a shortcut keyboard. After all, we’ve seen the latter one built as stomp boxes and from finger training devices before, so why not a calculator?
I don’t know if “outshines” is the word to use. Now all I need to do is replace my screen non-destructively (remember no screws, just plastic pegs).
You have checked into the forum at Museum of HP Calculators (MoHPC) for assistance?
https://www.hpmuseum.org/
Any repair on an HP-48 is a serious pain and can’t be done without some form of physical altercation, even by a pro.
my old 48G+ still works, lost my original 48G from tech school in the divorce. I am sorely tempted to try to replicate this project!
Sorry for your loss. It may yet be possible to get a replacement 48G.
Why did she want your calculator, professional need or sheer vindictiveness?
It was the only valuable possession.
Familiarty with keyboard and tactile feedback helps the zombie. One eye half open, semi drool ,mostly dead tired cant even sit up straight , and partial snoring data entry. Needs something like VR glasses set up that can roll over on without snapping neck to go with it.
There are tiny qwerty keyboards but dont have the long hour muscle memory association and arent single key multi function like ol graphing calculator.
Cool idea but need in ti-83/6 style and VR goggle. :)