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From: sunburned.surveyor on 5 Dec 2005 14:17
I've bought an HP49G+, and I'd like to start writing some programs for
it. I'd like to keep some of these porgrams on an SD Card.

Can anyone recommend a brand/model of SD card?

Is there any documentation or tutorials that explain how to store and
access data and programs on an SD card using the HP49G+?

Thanks for the help.

The Sunburned Surveyor

P.S. - I would also like a recomendation from any surveyors on a card I
can buy with basic surveying programs. (Curve Calcs, Triangle
Solutions, COGO, Traverse Adjustment...) I had something similar from
TDS for my old HP48, but it won't work in the HP49G+. Is there anything
comparable out there?

From: timwessman on 5 Dec 2005 17:29
If you'd like, we are looking for testers for our final data collection
software which I hope to start selling in a month (www.pssllc.com).
Currently we have about 5 serious testers. Send me an email at
timwesssman @ yahoo if you are interested. Using our software makes
TDS or SMI feel like the stone age. . . (other surveyors reading may
apply also if wanted)

http://www.hp.com/calculators/graphing/49gplus/educators.html Look at
the "Using a Secure Digital Card" It has the info you need. Basically
tag either a list :3: {Folder Name} , or use :3:"Folder/Name" and then
STO, PURGE etc. It is quite easy. Unfortunately no way yet to get a
list of items stored in the SD card directly.

For data storage, if you are using our software I'd highly recommend an
Ultra2 from sandisk. We've tried lots of cards and that is the one
that gives the best read/write speeds in the HP. The USB/SD combo
cards have a different controller that is much slower.

TW

From: Han on 5 Dec 2005 21:46
Try here:

http://www.quickclose.com.au/

From: Han on 5 Dec 2005 21:52
BTW, I'm not a surveyor; I just happened to notice this page while
doing a search for HP48-related info.

From: John H Meyers on 8 Dec 2005 00:14
On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 13:17:12 -0600:

> I've bought an HP49G+, and I'd like to start writing some programs
> for it. I'd like to keep some of these programs on an SD Card.

Good idea -- I just lost four memory backups
which were stored in my on-board flash (Port 2):

Right after I did :2:MyBkup RESTORE on the most recent one,
I got "Invalid Card Data," and it turns out that all four backups
(totaling somewhat under 128K, or one bank, I presume)
had vanished from on-board flash (during re-organization?)

After PINIT and warmstart (no more "Invalid Card Data"),
I copied another backup from computer to user memory,
thence by Filer to flash again, purged user memory,
repeated :2:MyBkup RESTORE, and guess what? --
that backup was gone again!

There was still a great deal of free space reported
in Port 2, and only about 30K of main RAM has been used at all,
so if on-board flash (and its software management)
is so unreliable (comparable to and as risky as a floppy disk,
IMHO), an SD card (being sure to write protect it whenever
not immediately storing stuff) would seem to be essential
(is anyone building them into old 49Gs yet? :)

Whenever we can't remember whether we've write-protected
our card, and are too lazy to pop it out to look (or are
afraid that the card mechanism might not outlast the keyboard :)
we might use this little program to tell us the card's status:

\<< -55. CF IFERR :3: ~~~ DUP STO THEN DROP2 ERRN DOERR
ELSE LASTARG PURGE DROP "SD OK R/W" DOERR END \>> 'SD' STO

This program gives us one of the following messages:

o Error: No SD card inserted
o Error: Disk Protected [thank goodness!]
o SD OK R/W [proceed at your own risk :]

If you get "Error: Circular Reference"
then you've accidentally picked up your 49G, not your 49G+ :)

> Can anyone recommend a brand/model of SD card?

The file sizes for my calc files are so small,
and writing files is so infrequent for my usage,
that the writing time can't possibly matter to me.

It will be a close call whether the calc will last
as long as it takes me to ever complete one single pass
thru an entire card, so I looked for the smallest card I could find
(which was 128MB), then got the cheapest (which was 256MB!)

Only time will tell whether the heavy demands of occasionally writing
a 30K backup are too much to expect of this cheap card (under US$20)

I bet it will do much better than the built-in 2MB flash, however.

> Is there any documentation or tutorials that explain how to store
> and access data and programs on an SD card using the HP49G+?

In case you are interested in backing up your entire main user memory
(i.e. the entire HOME directory), which you may want to use first:

There are some strange things about user memory backups made
via the ARCHIVE command, which is that when made directly
to a computer or to the SD card, the output is a true
"Backup" object, but whenever made or copied to a port
(ports 0-2), e.g. :2:MyBkup ARCHIVE, the output
is for all intents and purposes an ordinary directory object
(which you can even "explore" in the Filer).

A true backup object can be restored directly from the stack
(e.g. [Backup MyBkup] RESTORE) or directly from the SD card
(e.g. :3:MyBkup RESTORE), but a directory object can *only*
be restored to HOME by first creating or copying it to a port
(0-2, *not* 3) and then doing e.g. :2:MyBkup RESTORE.

So don't worry if an ordinary directory object (perhaps
first made to on-board flash and then later copied to SD)
can't be restored via :3:MyBkup RESTORE,
just copy it to a port instead, and all will be well.

In fact, you can by this means restore *any* directory
object to become the calc's entire HOME directory
(a new "hidden" directory will manifest itself in that case,
sans any alarms or user key assignments).

> The Sunburned Surveyor

Do you survey deserts? Oceans?
Certainly not polar regions -- or are they that warm already? :)

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