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Swiss Micros Tools

DM16L
DM16L

I built swiss_micros_tools because I was tired of keeping a serial terminal open just to poke a SwissMicros calculator. The USB console is a perfectly good protocol; it should not need a human sitting in the middle. The three chores that matter to me are setting the clock and moving memory both ways.

Tool Status Purpose
dm_set_time available I set the calculator clock second-precise from the host.
dm_receive planned I will pull a memory dump without copy-and-paste.
dm_send planned I will push a memory dump without a terminal session.

Everything is Ada 2022 with AdaCL. I run the same binaries on macOS, Linux, and Windows. The generated reference lives at GNATdoc.

Get started #

Install the same way as the sibling HP-41CX suite (just replace hp41cx-tools with swiss-micros-tools:

Then I do this:

  1. Connect the USB cable.
  2. On the calculator, enter SERIAL CONSOLE mode.
  3. Find the device (Unix path or Windows name). The POSIX helpers dm-get-serial-device.sh / dm-get-serial-port.sh do this for a DM16L / CP2102N.
  4. Run a tool with -d / --device, or export DM_SERIAL_DEVICE.
  5. Use -? / --help when I am stuck.
    -d Device   --device=Device       device file (unix) or name (windows)
                                      of the USB serial device.
                DM_SERIAL_DEVICE=     set via environment variable

    -?          --help                this help

export DM_SERIAL_DEVICE="$(dm-get-serial-device.sh)"
dm_set_time-main
# or, with an explicit stamp and UTC:
dm_set_time-main -d /dev/tty.usbserial-0001 --utc "20260917 150000"

The compact stamp dm_set_time sends is eight digits, a space, six digits (YYYYMMDD HHMMSS). That is not the line t prints back (2026-09-22 18:09:26 TUE). Omit the stamp and the application will use the host clock.

Two notes I actually want you to open #

This page is the workshop door. The two essays behind it are the bench.

I start with the shared library because every later tool hangs off the same UART dialect and the same GetOpt spine.

Then I walk you though the one programme that already ships: how I accept an optional time stamp, how Spitbol checks the correct format, and the four lines I send once the port is open (ct 1, ts, t, and a blank wake-up).

Note Why I wrote it
The swiss_micros packages I keep calculator literals in Console_IO and flags in a hierarchical GetOpt type. Read this before you copy a constant.
The dm_set_time packages I extend that type, check YYYYMMDD HHMMSS, and run the ct / ts / t dialogue. This is the working specimen.