How to create a custom APPT alarm 100/200LX

A tip on page 53 of the Sep/ Oct 93 issue described how to select a custom alarm for your 100/200LX Appointment Book, and even gave code for four sample tunes. However, the tip did not explain what the codes meant or how to use them to write your own alarm tune.

One of the alarms shown was a short melody from Bach (found in ALARMS .ZIP). The code looked like this:

t200 k1 o3 v3 daf. L16 edfedc#e L4 o2 a

You don't have to enter the letters in lower case, but I have done so to distinguish them from numbers. I made an exception with the letter L, to distinguish it from the number 1. The blank spaces (or commas) in the code are for readability and do not affect the tune. The code is explained below:

t200 -- the letter T sets the tempo of the alarm (0 slower to 255 faster).

k1 -- terminate the alarm by pressing any keystroke. K0 disables this feature (default).

o3 -- the letter O sets the octave (0 to 7, lowest to highest octave).

v3 -- the letter V sets the volume (0 to 3, lowest to highest).

daf. -- letters A-G represent notes in the melody. A period following a letter extends the note's duration by half.

L16 -- the letter L sets the length of subsequent notes (1 to 64). 8 is a whole note (default), 16 is a half note, etc..

edfedc#e -- the letters A-G represent notes in the melody. The # (or +) symbol following a letter makes it a sharp. A minus (-) following a letter makes it a flat.

L4 -- sets length of the following note.

o2 -- sets the octave lower.

a -- plays the A note.

In addition, you can use the following commands in the tune:

Pn -- the letter P sets one pause of length n (1-64). 1 is the longest pause, 64 the shortest.

MN, ML, or MS -- the letter M sets the playing style to Normal (the default), Legato, or Staccato.

I create an alarm tune by first plunking it out on the piano until I figure out the notes. Then I key in the notes on one line in MEMO. I don't enter any of the other commands the first time through (I use the defaults). I save the file in MEMO as C:\ _DAT\ ALARM.SND. Then in APPT I press (MENU) Options Alarm Beep... and select Custom (which selects C:\ _DAT\ ALARM.SND as the alarm). I press Test to see what the new alarm sounds like.

I go back to MEMO, which I have left with ALARM.SND open. I modify the line, adding codes for the tempo, octave, length of the notes, etc., as needed and save the file again. I go back to APPT and test the modified alarm to see how it now sounds.

I follow the above procedure until I get the tune I want. Individuals with some musical training can probably streamline this procedure.

One point to remember is that the HP 100/200LX can only play one custom alarm. It's name has to be ALARM.SND and it has to be found in the C:\_DAT directory. If you create other custom alarms, you'll have to name them ALARM.SND to test or use them. But you can store them in other directories under different names.

Rich Hall Editor,

The HP Palmtop Paper