Calculators 6

[DaveAtkins]

I have had my HP 15c calculator since 1984, when I was a grad student. Yesterday, the zero key started getting "squishy" and it won't always produce a zero in the display. I love my HP 15c, but I know it is no longer made. Has anybody out there made the transition from an HP 15c (or 11c) to a newer model? If so, which one?

DaveAtkins

 

[jike]

Hi Dave!

I use a TI-30Xa. It has plenty of functions for me and is only about $10 or $15. Anything that needs programming or spreadsheets, I use my computer.

 

[HgTX]

I wandered on in to the Civil exam with my 48GX. Then again people even had solutions books with them and no one seemed to care.

Know what I want? I want the RPN equivalent of a cheap nonprogrammable barely scientific calculator. I use my fancy 48GX for arithmetic and I feel a little silly.

I fear that after hanging onto my dead 11C forever, I may have finally tossed it a couple of years ago. Idiot. But I had no idea at the time the thing would become such a commodity, nor that someone was out there who would fix it.

Hg, wallowing in regret.

 

[DaveAtkins]

Thanks for all the great input. My biggest shock is that 15c's are still available, mostly on e-Bay, with the going price as much as $350! I'll say it again--$350! I'm going to Staples this weekend to check out the 33s.

DaveAtkins

 

[connect2]

I used an 11C for about 15 years until the 3 key started to require extra effort so i retired it for a 32SII which i used for about 4 years until recently split my coffee into it ... looked at the new souped up HP's and am back to using my 11C believe it or not... if i had a nickel for every time i've pushed a button on these calculators the tax man would love me.

 

[rmw]

I can't find a "zero button" on my slide rule, much less one that is "squishy".

I use an HP 28S, but I keep the owner manual(s) handy in case I punch some wrong button and get myself off in some "never-never land," which can happen real quickly.

rmw

 

[sdz]

Try getting a palmtop with excel on it. Then you can do everything a calculator could do and more. I use an HP Jornada.

 

[lahpe65]

HP48G

 

[pennpoint]

A walk down memory lane. Anyone remember the early Bowmar Brain?
Talk about tactle feel, the keys clicked clearly as you pressed them.

Regards
pennpoint

 

[connect2]

a 'touchy feely' thread for sure.

 

[akastud]

Dave,

Staples does not carry the HP 33s, in fact I had a hard time finding it anywhere. I finally picked it up off of HP's website, and it was mailed to me in about 3 days.

akastud

 

[haynewp]

After it's days have finally come to an end, I will always have a special place in my heart for my 48SX.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

I have never learned how to use RPN and had not given it much consideration until this thread started. The 1970's transition from a slide rule to the Texas Instrument "style" data entry was a fairly seamless event for me - the though process is similar for both. At that time, I viewed RPN as an unnecessary complication.

 

[HgTX]

RPN is kind of like setting up an Excel spreadsheet (10 years ago I would have said Lotus). First you put in the numbers, then you do stuff to them.

Hg

 

[JAE]

"standard" method -

X + Y = Z

RPN method -

X
+Y
-------
Z

RPN is actually the way I was taught in 1st grade/2nd grade, etc. although I didn't really understand it at RPN.

 

[Ibeam]

Best HP I had was the 27S. Much quicker and user friendly than the 48GX for writing equations and solving. HP discontinued it around the time when the 48's hit the market (for twice the price).

My first day on a job, the guy in charge of supplies and setting up workstations is installing an overhead light above my desk. Using 2 hands to tighten up a nut&bolt, with a screwdriver dangling between his palm and little finger, the screwdriver slips. About 4 feet below is my HP27S. Like a Spear, it plunges in and shatters the INPUT key. He might as well have cut off my arm.

Anyway that's how I ended up with the 48GX, but similar to some of the other posts I'm mostly limited to the basic math. I don't really like to recommend it because it seems so cumbersome to input custom equations, and I think it's slow to process them once you've got it entered without buying the extra memory card (over $100 dollars last time I checked). But I don't know what else is out there.

 

[HgTX]

The 48GX makes me nervous because even with simple arithmetic it takes a while to display things, so my typing can get ahead of it and I wouldn't even know. I don't think it's a battery issue because from what I remember it's always been like this, and I've changed the batteries.

Anyone else have that?

Hg

 

[JAE]

Yes, my 48GX seems to hesitate but I've found that it still brings forth the answer correctly....just a lag due to the graphical display.

 

[JedClampett]

I notice that my 48GX slows down when I get a couple of hundred entries in the stack. Clear the stack and see if that speeds things up.

 

[bjb]

I was dismayed when HP stopped making the HP32Sii, because I love its combination of speed, power, and RPN. I consider it the gold standard, and dread the day when it gives up the ghost. I have also found that it's almost impossible for me to use a non-RPN calculator. I have held on to my HP11c as a backup, and I am impressed with its solid construction, something I no longer see in current calculators.

Does anyone have any experience with the new HP33S? I don't like the way it looks for one, but I wonder about how it functions.

 

[arto]

Ah, the Bowmar Brain....

Nowadays I get funny looks when describing someone who's "wicked smaht" as a "Bowmah"
- as in "He's a wicked Bowmah!"