☰ pyILPER

Start Up

If you use pyILPER for the first time, please read this document to get pyILPER up and running.

To use the file management capabilities of the virtual drives or the HP7470A plotter the latest version of the LIFUTILS must be installed. After installation of the LIFUTILS restart pyILPER and check from the "Utilities" menu if a LIFUTILS version was detected by pyILPER.

Set the pyILPER working directory

Run "pyILPER configuration" from the "File" menu to set the pyILPER working directory.

pyILPER stores all log files in a working directory. The default of that directory is the users home directory. Change the working directory to an appropriate location.

Set up pyILPER with the PIL-Box

Connect the PIL-Box to your computer.

Run "pyILPER configuration" from the "File" menu and configure the tty device of the PIL-Box.

Open the pyILPER configuration dialog from the file menu. Change the name of the PIL-Box device to the USB serial device the box is connected to. pyILPER tries to figure out the proper device name. If that does not work, configure the device manually and check the Installation instructions for further details.

pyILPER tries to determine the baud rate of the PIL-Box serial device. If that does not work, set the baud rate manually to the baud rate the PIL-Box is configured to. See the PIL-Box documentation for further details.

Now initialize the loop with the HP-IL controller:

  • HP-41: switch the calculator OFF and ON.
  • HP-71: issue an RESET HPIL @ RESTORE IO @ CLEAR
  • HP-75: do an ASSIGN IO.

See the User Interface Documentation for further details.

Set up pyILPER with virtual HP-IL over TCP/IP

pyILPER supports virtual HP-IL over TCP/IP. You may connect the HP-71B Emulator of Christoph Gießelink or the HP-41 Emulator V41 (available at www.hp41.org - a registration is required to access the software) with pyILPER.

Run "pyILPER configuration" from the "File" menu to set the pyILPER TCP/IP configuration.

Change the communication mode to TCP/IP. Check if the TCP/IP configuration parameters (remote host, remote port, local port) are configured properly. See the documentation of the virtual HP-IL over TCP/IP and the documentation of EMU71 or V41 for further details.

Emu71 includes remote keyboard support. See the Terminal Tab documentation how to set up.

The recommended procedure to connect Emu71 to pyILPER is:

  • Start pyILPER configured in TCP/IP communication mode. The status line shows: "not connected to virtual HP-IL devices."
  • Start Emu71 with the HP-IL module configured properly. Switch the calculator on and press the ATTN key until the pyILPER status line shows "connected to virtual HP-IL devices".
  • Initialize to loop as specified above.

The recommended procedure to disconnect Emu71 from pyILPER is:

  • Switch Emu71 off and close the program.
  • Close pyILPER.

Set up pyILPER with Emulators running on DOSBox

The HP-41, HP-71 and HP-75 emulators of J. F. Garnier can be attached to pyILPER if they are executed on DOSBox.

You need the DOSBox version 0.74-2 or later. Other versions will not work.

Install the DosBox software and apply the following change to the serial section of the DOSBox configuration file:

serial1=nullmodem server:localhost port:59999 transparent:1 txdelay:0

See the DOSBox documentation how to locate the configuration file.

Install your favorite EMUxx emulator(s) on DOSBox.

Modify the INI file of the emulator. Remove all devices you do not need to be emulated by the EMUxx program. Insert the device:

XIL COM1

Run "pyILPER configuration" from the "File" menu to set the pyILPER TCP/IP configuration.

Change the communication configuration to TCP/IP socket Server (PIL-Box emulator).

Start pyILPER. You should see the message "waiting for client" in the status bar. Start DOSBox. The pyILPER status line should now say "client connected". Now start the EMUxx program on DOSBox.

Note:

  • The EMUxx programs do not support sending IDY frames for asynchronous service requests . Therefore the virtual keyboard will not work for the HP-71. It works for the HP-75 because this calculator does not use service requests to query the virtual keyboard. The function keys of the HP-82162A thermal printer do not work either.
  • Always start pyILPER before the DOSBox program.

Using pyILPER stand-alone

If you would like to use pyILPER stand-alone without connection to a real or emulated calculator set up the program to use virtual HP-IL over TCP/IP (see above). Then you can use the the virtual drive to manage the content of LIF image files.