Uploading, downloading and editing aplets, programs & notes
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 | Hardware requirements
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| Software requirements
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| Putting it into practice
 | On the hp 39gs, hp 40gs or hp 39g+
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| On the HP38G, HP39G & HP40G
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Manuals and miscellaneous information
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"Using the hp 39gs & 40gs effectively"
This is a booklet that I created for a two day professional development
session I recently conducted. It consists of selected excerpts from the
book "Mastering the hp 39gs & hp 40gs" (below) and outlines many of the
things that I consider necessary knowledge if you'd like to consider
yourself a 'master' (if such a thing exists). It does not cover the
Connectivity software or the ADK39. |
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"Mastering the hp 39gs & 40gs
Graphical Calculators"
An update of the manual for the 39g+, this is a
free 366 page book I wrote under contract to HP when the new hp 39gs and hp 40gs
models were
released in 2006. It is a fully hyper-linked pdf file. HP owns the
copyright but you can download it
free (4Mb). Click on the link to go to a page with more details. |
| Mastering the hp 39g+ Graphical Calculator
This is a
free 350 page book that I wrote for HP as an update of the 38G book and
is a fully hyper-linked pdf file.
This version was written under contract to HP in early
2004 and they own the copyright but you can download it as a
free PDF file (2.4Mb). Click on the link to go to a download page. |
| Mastering the HP38G Graphical Calculator
This is a book that I wrote back in 1998 on how to use the HP38G. I still
have a couple of copies in a box in my shed if you are interested. Click on the link. |
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| Official HP sites
Note: Due to the fact that HP changes its website regularly with the
release of new models, the links below may not be valid any more. Please
advise me if you find a link that's out of date. Also, HP redirects you
according to which country you're in. These links are for Australia and
may not be valid elsewhere. If in doubt, try
www.hp.com/calculators and
follow the links to your machine.
| The
Graphical Calculator main page |
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The hp 39gs main page
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Manuals
This page allows you to download both the HP manual and the manual I
wrote for HP in PDF format (referred to above). Languages other than English are available
for the official manual. |
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The
HP Aplets
This is a collection of aplets that were originally
produced for the HP38G back in 1995 and have been updated and
re-issued. Some are very good. Others are... well... not. You
can also find them on my Aplets page, with the documentation
in A4 size instead of US Letter. |
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Connectivity Software
See this page for the most up to date version. Hopefully this is the
one I have on my site too! |
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Learning Modules for the hp 39gs/40gs
I wrote the ones for the 39g+ but these were written by someone else.
If you check out the FAQ entry (the last one) you'll see that the
writer stole copyright material from my site! Am I annoyed?... |
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| The
hp 39g+ main page
| Learning
Modules for the hp 39g+
This is a series of PDFs that I produced for HP under contract in 2003. It
contains a huge amount of information on how to use the hp 39g+. Highly
recommended IMHO. The same basic information is covered in far more detail
in the book above. |
| The
HP Aplets
This is a collection of aplets that were originally
produced for the HP38G back in 1995 and have been updated and
re-issued. Some are very good. Others are... well... not. You
can also find them on my Aplets page, with the documentation
in A4 size instead of US Letter. |
| Specifications
& Overview.
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| CAS manuals for HP40G and hp 40gs users.
The hp 40gs is sold in Europe and is basically the same as the
39 series except that it has a Computer Algebra System (CAS) and doesn't have
infra-red communication. A couple of people from Europe have contacted me
saying that the CAS manual is difficult to find. Thanks to Els Moens this is
a version in pdf format and is quite
small (988Kb). A french language version
(848Kb) of the CAS manual can also be downloaded here.
On the other hand, my book above ("Mastering the hp 39gs & hp 40gs")
contains an appendix with very detailed information on the CAS, including
examples of its use. For the beginner it is probably the better option.
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| A small article on extra CAS commands by Michaël De Coninck. Download in Word,
or in PDF.
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| Teaching Functions and Calculus with a Graphical
Calculator
This paper covers many of
the topics covered in teaching Functions and Calculus, looking at how they
can be enhanced with the aid of a graphical calculator. In all modesty I
would rate it as essential reading for any teacher using an HP graphical
calculator to teach calculus.
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| Small
Tips & Tricks for using Word & your PC more effectively
This is a 9 page article (120Kb) I wrote for a small professional development
session I gave at my school. A lot of people who use Word are not aware of
the many, many ways that you can accelerate your work through combinations
of keystrokes rather than using the mouse all the time. It's probably old
hat for experienced users but may be of interest to some.
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| The HP39G Newsletter
Produced by Michaël De Coninck <ndco232@tiscalinet.be>
but not for some time. It has some interesting information. The issues so far were:
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| US vs
W.Aust.
This is an article I wrote for a mathematics teacher magazine comparing
acceptance of calculators into the USA and Australian educational systems.
Issues examined included teacher expertise levels and equity issues and,
although it was written in 1998 some of the material is still relevant.
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Programming
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| Saving copies of aplets - a topic for
non programmers.
| The Loan Table Aplet
 For those students who solve problems involving borrowing money
and making regular repayments, this is an absolutely essential aplet and
easy to set up! All you have to do is store the amount borrowed into P,
the interest rate in to R and the amount being repaid into A.
The aplet will then show you the remaining princip al
and interest charged each year/month/quarter.
The nice thing is that you don't need a cable for this one - it is quite
easy to set up, although you'll have to be careful to enter the
equations correctly. The example shown is $10000 at 5% pa with $600
repaid. Click on the link to the left for instructions on how to set it
up, or go to the Misc Aplets page to download the aplet ready
made. |
| The GP Solver aplets.
This pair of aplets are simply copies of the Solve and Sequence aplets
with formulae added that allow you to work easily with geometric
sequences and series. Very easy, very quick and very useful in tests and
exams. |
| The Transformer aplet.
This is an aplet which allows students to explore geometric
transformations using 2x2 matrices. This is really useful when
introducing the topic but not one that you would want to keep on your
machine. |
| "Programming" simple
aplets
This is a short text that I wrote for a professional development session
some years ago.
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| Programming aplets
in HP Basic.
The HP38G/39G/40G/39g+/39gs/40gs all share a common built in programming language
called HP Basic language. You can work directly on the calculator with this
language but this is very tedious because of the limitations of the
keyboard. A far better method is to use the ADK39 (Aplet Development Kit),
which is available in two versions; one for the HP38G (ADK) and one for all the
other models (ADK39). It requires only moderate skills and this link takes
to an extract from my book "Mastering the 39gs & 40gs". This extract takes
you step-by-step
through the process of creating an aplet using the ADK.
This extract is only a start on programming. For more detail scroll up to
the section on manuals, locate the "Mastering the 39gs & 40gs" manual,
download it and read the
whole section on programming plus the list of all the programming commands
(plus examples).
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| Programming using sRPL
This is the programming that you need to use if you intend to create games
and really fast, flexible aplets. It involves programming at the assembly
code level and requires considerable skills. If you intend to try to learn
this style then you will need to invest considerable time and effort. You
will also need to understand how Reverse Polish Notation works (which is not
hard). The link will download a collection of PDF files that form a set of
tutorials in how to program in sRPL (system Reverse Polish Notation). Thank
you to Michaël De Coninck for producing this wonderful set of tutorials.
Click here to download
a set of files containing the tutorial.
Notes:
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When using sPRL you will be bypassing a lot of the normal safety
features of the calculator that prevent programs and aplets from running
if their code will cause the calculator to 'crash'. It is VERY likely
that you will cause a crash on your calculator when learning sRPL with
consequent loss of data. You should ensure that the contents are backed
up before beginning. It is not possible to cause permanent damage - you
can't, for example, corrupt or delete the built in aplets. You can,
however, cause corruption or loss of any user data. |
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These tutorials were written for the 39G/40G/39g+. As far as I know they
should still be valid for the 39gs/40gs but I have not tested this. |
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Some of the aplets on my site which have been written in sRPL have the
source code as part of their download. For those interested in learning sRPL
this may be of assistance, although sRPL is notoriously difficult to read if
you don't know it well. Try the following: On the Games page see Albhed Translator, Black Jack, Euro
Millionaire, 39G Game Launcher, Guy walks into a Bar, Jezz-Pack, Matrix
Screen Saver, Mine Hunter and Tic Tac Toe. On the Stats & Probability
page see Inference 38G, Statpack39/40. On the Misc Aplets page see Ticking
Clock. On the Functions & Calculus page see Library L1542.
You may also find it useful to look at the following links. Most of
them are for the HP48 and HP49G and later models but these also use the same chip as
the HP38/39/40/39g+/39gs/40gs and so most of the information is still valid. The
main difference from the HP38/39/40/39g+/39gs/40gs is that the HP48 & HP49G
don't have an aplet structure and the addresses within the chip are
different. Still, they may be helpful... |
| http://www.area48.com/ |
| http://www.quickclose.com.au/tut.htm |
| http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/docs/programming/usrrples.zip |
| http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/docs/programming/progtutr.zip |
| http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/docs/programming/usrtutpd.zip |
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| Programming on the 39g+ with HPG-CC
Please note:
| I can't
support this language at all, so please don't ask me for help. The
original developers may be willing to help, but may not due to
dropping the 39g+ support. If you're using it then I'd like to know so
drop me a line. If I ever do find the time to get into it properly it
may be me asking you for support! :-) |
| Users of the 39gs/40gs: This language was written for
the 39g+ and has not, to my knowledge, been updated for the 39gs/40gs.
It MAY still work but the entry points to the chip that it uses may no
longer be valid. IF THIS IS THE CASE THEN IT IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE TO
PERMANENTLY LOCK UP THE CALCULATOR, REQUIRING A RELOADING OF THE SYSTEM
BIOS. ie. You may turn your calculator into an expensive doorstop. Don't
experiment with this on a machine that you're about to need for exams!!! |
The hp 39g+ was the first of this family of calculators which didn't
use the Saturn 5 chip and this was continued with the 39gs and 40gs. Up to that point the
previous models had all shared the same chip along with others in the HP48 family.
However, supplies had run out world wide and so the hp 39g+ took a
different route. It uses instead an extremely fast ARM processor
(slowed down a bit to save batteries) and simply emulates the
Saturn 5. That is, it runs a special program on it that 'pretends' to
be a Saturn 5 chip and runs the calculator's operating system
accordingly. This may seem a strange thing to do but the operating
system was written in the expectation that it would be running on a Saturn
chip and doing it this way avoided having
to completely re-write system, a very expensive option. To the user there is no difference except for a
considerable increase in speed (on the order of 10 times as fast as
the 39G). To the programmer, however, there is a BIG difference.
Because the underlying chip is a fast ARM processor it is possible to
write code which completely bypasses the emulation program and runs
directly on the underlying ARM chip. This results in incredibly fast
code, sometimes on the order of 100 times faster. It also means that
you can use other high level languages to program in, rather than
being confined to HP Basic. In particular, you can use a version of C
created by a very talented group of programmers called HPG-CC.
The drawback is that by bypassing the emulator, you lose access to ALL
the abilities of the calculator itself - it's graphing facilities,
it's built in functions and so on. It is possible to access some of
these via back door methods but they are not simple.
Warning!!
As I understand it, it is
possible to write code in HPG-CC that will completely crash your
calculator! By this I mean not just to the point where you have
to do a hard reboot and lose the user memory. I mean to the
point where you overwrite the calculator's operating system and
can't even reboot, resulting in a very expensive door stop.
This language is NOT for the beginner programmer. Unless you
have some experience with using C in another, safer, environment
I would VERY strongly suggest that you not consider using it!
Note also the point above about the language being designed for
the 39g+ not the 39gs/40gs.
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At the time of writing this information (Dec 11th 2005), HPG-CC had
reached Version 2.0 but at this point the developers were not
intending to continue support for the 39g+
beyond what had already been done, basically due to lack of interest from programmers -
the developers can't really be expected to continue to support a model
that no-one's programming on. I had written a few small
experimental programs in it but just didn't have the time then to do
it justice and to give the developers the feedback they needed. No-one
else seemed interested at the time.
However, you can still download version 1.1 from the link below. The
file is 12.6Mb in size.
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/hpgcc/HPGCC-1.1_with_39G_support_WinSetup.exe?download
This installation file contains the last version which still
supported the 39g+, along with a Windows interface that allows you to
program more easily (the original versions were DOS based). This link
is not to a file on my site and so may change without notice. Please
let me know if it does.
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| HPGCalc Font
This is a font that you can use in worksheets to match the characters on the
HP screen. Downloading the collection from http://www.geocities.com/jking_ok/font.html.
It was created by Joshua King, modelled on the HP screen font and is
suitable for Windows, Unix, Macintosh etc. Once installed, you just use
Insert/Symbol to place characters into a Word document. Don't forget to
embed the font in the document if you're sending to someone who doesn't have
it..
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| Using the Connectivity Software and the ADK
| This is a help file that I wrote years ago for the
39G/40G. It covers how to use the connectivity software BUT it is the
serial port version used by the old model, not the USB port software
used by the 39gs/40gs. If you're really not understanding the whole
concept then this would be worth reading because the basic idea is the
same, it's just that the new software looks different and you plug the
cable into a different place on the computer!
If you install the ADK39 Note and Program Editor (found on my
Utilities page) then this gets installed as part of the process as the
Help file and can be run from the Start->ADK39 menu.
(445 Kb)
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