Panasonic HHC info?

[David Betz]

Well, I have my HHC working pretty much. I replaced the batteries but  
that didn't really help the "insufficient memory" errors. I'm  
wondering if it is necessary to expand the memory to use the Basic ROM.

Does anyone have a copy of the HHC documentation or any information  
on programming it either in Basic or SNAP?

Thanks,
David

On Jul 12, 2005, at 1:46 PM, Roger Merchberger wrote:

> Rumor has it that David Betz may have mentioned these words:
>
>> I finally received my HHC Basic ROMs yesterday and they seem to work.
>> (Thanks Roger!)
>>
>
> I *think* (and with the minimal remaining number of functional  
> neutrons in my head, that's a toughie! :-O ) I have everyone caught  
> up on the HHC Basics. To those people who were severely delayed on  
> receiving their chips, I publicly apologize -- It was never my  
> intention to let this project go "lax" like it did.
>
> If I did forget you, please raise your hands! Then lower them  
> again, and type out an email to me, and I'll get you taken care of.  
> I currently have a couple of days of "minimal insanity" with which  
> I can clean up any last loose ends.
>
>
>> I do have a problem where it claims I have insufficient memory to
>> save even the smallest program. I seem to remember hearing someone
>> else complain of that problem as well but I never saw anyone post a
>> solution.
>>
>
> That would've been me; I may have an idea to the cause, but I've  
> not had a chance to try it. See below.
>
>
>>  Has anyone been able to save programs? Is there some trick
>> involved? This is the first time I've used the machine and I suppose
>> there could be left over stuff in RAM that needs to be deleted.
>>
>
> I found that I could get 1 program entered and running, by manually  
> deleting everything I could find in the 'filesystem' and  
> immediately going to the Basic and setting it to program input  
> mode.  [[ This is the first time I'd used the machine as well... ]]
>
> However, there was other 'flakeyness' with my HHC as well, and so I  
> don't think it's a 'Basic-only' problem.
>
>
>>  I would think it would have disappeared long ago though since the
>> batteries were dead when I bought the machine and I am only able to
>> run it off of the power supply. Has anyone had success saving  
>> programs?
>>
>
> I *think* (and knowing near nothing about this machine, I really,  
> really stress *think*) that the batteries _need_ to be functional.  
> A lot of portable machines of this era used the batteries as an  
> oversized 'smoothing capacitor' for lack of a better term and would  
> not operate correctly without a working battery pack.  (I have a  
> Tandy 600 which exhibited similar memory wackyness when running it  
> from AC only with no battery pack installed.)
>
> I have not had time to test this theory, however, so I might be  
> 'full of condensed milk' as my father-in-law used to say.
>
>
>> Also, my machine has a menu entry offering to run SNAP programs but I
>> have been unable to find a description of the SNAP language. I
>> believe it is a Forth derivative. Can someone point me to a
>> description of the SNAP language?
>>
>
> Wish I could; SNAP sounded kewl. What I can tell you is the machine  
> uses a CMOS 6502, so if anyone can find a way to read the internal  
> ROMS or figure out the BASIC enough to program a ROM dump utility,  
> should be pretty easy for one who's good with 6502 disassemblers to  
> maybe glean some knowledge about it. (M'self, I'm more a 6809 kinda  
> guy...)
>
> As I have some really good soldering/desoldering tools now, I could  
> take a stab at desoldering the ROM chip[s] and reading 'em  
> directly... tho:
>
> 1) I wouldn't know where in memory it resides without manually  
> tracing address lines & whatnot (which I don't have time for) ...  
> or ...
>
> 2) I wouldn't have time to do this for at least a couple of months.  
> But hey, we've been waiting almost 10 years now for Basic, right???
> ;^P
>
> HTH,
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>
> --
> Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Profile, don't speculate."
> SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers |     Daniel J. Bernstein
> zmerch at 30below.com          |
>
>