| stoolpigeon |
I've been using my daughters calculator to help a friend with their small business but even though it has "everything" I wish I had my old HP with reverse polish notation.
I know there are some computer simulations but can you still buy a hand held calculator with this feature?
If nothing else we will see who the oldtimers are!!!!!! |
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| richie00boy |
| My dad used to go on about this on hiw work calculator. What is RVP again? I't been many years since he explained it to me. I recall it's something to do with you put the numbers in first then press what function button you want? |
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| stoolpigeon |
It's easier to do than explain but say you want to add 2 and 3 on a conventional calculator you would press 2 + 3 = but on the HP it would be 2 enter 3 +. What you are doing is putting 2 into a registry where it can be operated on.
The advantage of this system is being able to do long calculations without having to use memories. Once mastered it is really quick and conventional calculators seem very cumbersome. |
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| stoolpigeon |
Thanks, I didn't know they were made any more.
And it's a model 33S and I'm sure my oldie was a 33C. |
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| Conrad Hoffman |
| The later 33S isn't bad. The earlier 33S had an impossible-to-see decimal point and (I think) some software bug. The goofy chevron key design wasn't necessary, but it works ok. I prefer my old 32 series, though those also had some obscure software bug. These weren't too expensive way back, but NOS or mint ones were going for insane high prices on eBay a while back. IMO, RVP can't be beat, but modern engineers are no longer familiar with it. There are also a couple HP copies that run on the PC if you search around. I think there's also an HP calculator forum. |
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| BudP |
The TI 59 crushes all!!!!!
Old timers indeed!!!!
Bud |
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| stoolpigeon |
I am still coming to grips with the idea of a calculator forum. Do they hot them up?
Is there a slide rule forum? |
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| oshifis |
| I use a HP 45C regularly. Nice small gadget with pouch, programming manual, user manual (two large volumes), charger, non-volatile memory inside... RPN and the stack register make calculations very quick once you used to it. HP made damned cool stuff before they went in the PC/Printer business... |
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| jackinnj |
I have been using an HP-41 since the early 1980's -- although the original HP-41C was replaced by my employer with a HP-41CX when a co-worker spilled coffee all over it. I have the EE programs as well as the financial and statistics packages.
TI-59 is a great device - and is serially capable. The HP-41 used the HP-IL interface which will hook up to a HP 3468 DVM!
I also use an HP48G but find the HP-41 easier.
Whatever happened to books of logarithms and slip-sticks? |
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| SY |
| quote: | | Whatever happened to books of logarithms and slip-sticks? |
When was the last time you used the word "mantissa?" |
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| jackinnj |
| quote: | Originally posted by SY
When was the last time you used the word "mantissa?" |
Don't they eat their mates?
Man tissa one b_itchin' calculator |
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| ak_47_boy |
| I have a TI-84, it does everything and some since you can write your own programs for it. Graphing features are great. |
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| bwaslo |
"The earlier 33S had an impossible-to-see decimal point.."
Did they fix that in recent ones? That's the main thing that kept me away. Another thing was that it is a REALLY UGLY calculator, maybe I can squint my eyes and get past that (squinting couldn't make it any harder to find the essential keys like 'Enter'). I think HP hired some trekky to design their new calculators, rather than someone who occasionally uses one!
I've got two HP32S that I'm nursing along, but I'll only be able to fix them so many times.
And yes, IMHO, RPN is much nicer for long calcuations and for figuring things out without having to use paper or have the calculator preprogrammed. I truly hate algebraic notation calculators after using RPN.... But I'm an oldie too. Do younger people even use calculators anymore other than for taking SATs? Young engineers I see seem to always open their laptops to do math.... |
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| torroid88 |
"HP made damned cool stuff before they went in the PC/Printer business..."
Yeah, they had the misfortune to be taken over by MBAs, whose only "invention" with the "INVENT!" motto !!! |
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| Conrad Hoffman |
I don't know about the decimal, as both my units were old ones Wal-Mart blew out very cheaply a year or two ago. I keep my brown 32S ones for use at home, and the new one at work where it wouldn't be a tragedy if someone threw it against a wall because they couldn't figure out RPN. :smash:
I won't buy HP computer anything, as the last scanner and printer I got from them were nothing but trouble and got no upgrade support. IMO, their entire software staff should be, er, "reeducated" in some fashion. It's too bad the test equipment half the company, that owes its legacy to Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard, couldn't have kept the name. |
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| Brett |
I've used RPN calculators (currently an old HP48G) for so long now, that using a 'standard' one takes me a few moments of conscious thought, and I'm much, much slower using them when doing anything more complicated than a simple addition, multiplication etc.
I also used to have a free PC based HP clone software calculator, but lost it in a crash. Sure would be handy to have for when the HP isn't to hand. |
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| peranders |
| quote: | Originally posted by stoolpigeon
I've been using my daughters calculator to help a friend with their small business but even though it has "everything" I wish I had my old HP with reverse polish notation.
I know there are some computer simulations but can you still buy a hand held calculator with this feature?
If nothing else we will see who the oldtimers are!!!!!! |
If you happend to use Mac, check this!
http://www.tamburri.net/LXVII/LXVII%20Home/Welcome.html |
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| zapnspark |
Don't forget the HP-16C "Computer Scientist" calculator
I bought it in 1985.
I still use it.
Replaced the batteries last year.
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| Brett |
| It was sad when HP became Agilent. |
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| AuroraB |
I was in college in the early 70s, We had a lab set of the very first hp45's,-- our lab supervisor guarded them with his life.
No wonder , cause they were well over 600$ each in 73!!! |
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| pinkmouse |
| My 80's vintage Sharp. Not particularly clever, but it's big enough not to lose under a pile of wood shavings in the workshop. :) |
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| zapnspark |
This is the CASIO CM-100 solar powered programmers calculator.
It came out in 1986.
I got 5 of them in 1987 as closeouts for $2 each.
Two were stolen by other programmers.
One melted.
I still have 2 that function.
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| Conrad Hoffman |
| The HPs will always be my favorites, but when it comes to cheap calculators for the machine shop and such, Sharp makes some pretty good ones. Not as sleek as the old EL-507, but the recent EL-506W is nice. I picked up one of the popular TI calculators they sell in the office stores for students, and hate it. Math is hard enough for students without an annoying calculator. They seem to have the market sewn up, as the Sharps have to be mail ordered around here. |
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| jackinnj |
this is the plug-in end of the HP-41 -- as I said, it is my second, being a HP-41CX -- I used the securities and financial pak back when everyone's idea of a personal computer was an Apple II+ with 48k of memory -- you could price CBOE options in seconds.
it would take hours to do a simple network analysis with the circuits pak. i had the statistics pak at one time but found that all i really needed was pretty simple.
my first electronic calculator was a Bowmar -- it used to give wrong answers when the batteries ran low. |
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| jackinnj |
Conrad -- remember this one from 1980? I used to play with one at the McGraw Hill bookstore on Avenue of the Americas -- i believe it cost around 2 grand at the time -- the next lower rung was the HP-67 (a few years before the HP-41)
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| Conrad Hoffman |
Oh yeah! I did quite a lot of programming on one of those, and they have the worst feeling keyboard of all time. OTOH, they're a pretty good machine for little control and lab applications. About two years or so ago I ditched one or two on the surplus market for cheap, including the memory, gpib, and manuals. Several people showed up later quite upset, as they're collectible, and sometimes sell for far more than IMO, they're worth.
BTW, on that photo above, I notice that you don't have the fame, fortune, or hot babes plug-in modules. If you ever get those, remember not to install the second two at the same time. They're not compatible, and will crash the unit. |
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| planet10 |
The 1st calculator i ever used was some big HP my dad brought home from work (HP45 mentioned above? cost & timing would be right). My 1st one was an HP25c, but left that in an ex's glovebox. I then got an HP11, but killed it, i now have an HP30-something that probably needs new batteries. I had an HP 12 emulator under OS9 and now use FreeRPN. The built-in OS X calc can be switched to RPN, but the stacks don't work quite right.
That last link to the HP67 emulator is much appreciated.
PA... maybe Apple's Java interpreter works better?
dave |
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| dnsey |
I spent some of my first month's full-time salary on a Sinclair Cambridge Programmable, the first programmable calc at an affordable price in the UK.
RPN, tiny LED display, some severe flaws in the number-crunching algorithms, and a 'software library' consisting of four books of program listings, each of which had to be manually entered each time it was required, due to the lack of non-volatile memory of any sort. Any kind of serious use saw a battery life of about half an hour.
It did, however, teach me the rudimentary principles of programming, and I had gained a working knowledge of BASIC by the time I bought a ZX81 a few years later. |
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| AndrewT |
| quote: | Originally posted by jackinnj
Conrad -- remember this one from 1980? I used to play with one at the McGraw Hill bookstore on Avenue of the Americas -- i believe it cost around 2 grand at the time -- the next lower rung was the HP-67 (a few years before the HP-41)
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I loved that machine.
Got it to print off families of exact scale drawings of wing profiles for my winged single seater race car. Built the wing from one of those profiles.
I have never found a later machine that could achieve this scale drawing thing.
I still have the little booklet of profiles.
And all that from 16kB of RAM and no HDD.
The operating system was before DOS since it had no discs. Some version of basic was used for writing the programmes, we didn't buy any software, we developed all our primative uses in house. |
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| AndrewT |
Hi,
I wish I could show you a pic of the Sinclair calculator using reverse Polish notation. I think I bought in in '69 or '70, but lack of memory is not just the calculator's problem.
Clive Sinclair alledgedly reprogrammed a washing machine chip to get his little gem to work. |
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| rdf |
| peranders, you brought back a flood of memories mentioning this, like simplifying the fundamental equations to the point of fitting a first order crossover frequency response sim within the HP's 30 (?) step program register during boring classes. |
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| Gary P |
I got hooked on RPN calculators when I started college back in '76. Wanted on of the HP calculator but they were out of my limited budget. Found this calculator at a local store on sale for $35.00.
This calculator was from the consumer products division of National Instruments. It did all the basics and had a stack of 4 registers. They also sold a model called the Mathematician that only had 3 registers in the stack. The calculator is long gone but the manual is still in the library.
I'm using a HP48G+ now. After so many years of RPN using a algebraic calculator generally results in frustration. Keep trying to stuff numbers in nonexistent registers... |
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| peranders |
| quote: | Originally posted by Gary P
After so many years of RPN using a algebraic calculator generally results in frustration. Keep trying to stuff numbers in nonexistent registers... |
I'll guess you known how I feel when I have found this german HP calculator. |
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