My HP12C died.

[afm199]

Nice collection! I have a 12C app on my phone and it's lovely.

 

[Blankpage]

I’ve had a couple of HP11C’s that had a rough life and wore out disappeared over the years. Currently have two 15C’s, one I had reconditioned at some place in Texas that used to do such stuff. I find the back plate eventually starts to peel off the 11’s and the 15’s with how I use them however I know other people with them and theirs look pristine.

The 33S is the most garbage one I’ve ever owned, the buttons are crap. It’s from the period when HP was considering dropping calculators.

The 35S would be a perfect pocket calculator if it had straight sides. Sucks that they curved it, can’t use it as a straightedge for drawing sketches.

 

[ksandvik]

...spent hours debating with other EE class mates about RPN versus TI algebra.... I started with an HP-35 long time ago.

 

[lizard]

I have 12C, 41CV and HP41CV app.

 

[afm199]

I have 12C, 41CV and HP41CV app.

Tech weenie!

 

[berth]

Actually, I think the 12C is still made and sold, unlike most of the others.

The 48G is my favorite, for two main reasons.

First, the display. Having 4 rows of numbers is very nice.

Second, for the algebra solver.

Plug in a formula, e.g. d = .5*a*t^2, fill in what you know, solve for the unknown. Easy.

Working with units is nice too.

My singular complaint about modern calculators, (not that the 48g is modern any more), is lack of a backlight.

I have phone versions of these, but like the tactile feel of the originals, plus it's easier to "2 thumb" a calculator than the phone.

I tried to warm to the 42S, but couldn't really do it. I also have a legacy 15C, and a modern 33s. But, with my eyes, a backlight would be really nice. The 15C display is still very nice, however.

I'm almost fond of the 28S and it's bifold design.

 

[DataDan]

The 48G is my favorite...

Mine too. The ENTER key is getting a little wonky, and I'm afraid it won't last. When I made inquiries about fixing it, the answer was: Buy another one and part it out.

I'm almost fond of the 28S and it's bifold design.

I have one of those, too, and I very much liked the folding design when I was using it regularly.

It was the 28 then the 48 I did the most programming on: A trip computer for recording time, distance, fuel consumption, and miscellaneous notes. And HHTS--hand-held timing and scoring. Take it to the race track, enter names and numbers of 6 competitors, push the corresponding key when they cross start/finish. Display either lap times or gaps.

I'll bet you can get much better functionality on phone apps for about a buck-and-a-half.

 

[Butch]

I have an 11c. Two, actually, and an Ap on my iFone that seems to be an 11c.
I love Reverse Polish Notation. Seriously.

Edit... you guys are such geeks

 

[Blankpage]

Nice collection! I have a 12C app on my phone and it's lovely.

Never considered doing that but just now downloaded a 42S app. Creator for the 15C said it sometimes displays wrong numbers so screw that.
Used to annoy me using my iPhone calculator but don’t have to use that anymore, sweet.

 

[berth]

It was the 28 then the 48 I did the most programming on: A trip computer for recording time, distance, fuel consumption, and miscellaneous notes. And HHTS--hand-held timing and scoring. Take it to the race track, enter names and numbers of 6 competitors, push the corresponding key when they cross start/finish. Display either lap times or gaps.

My Dad turned me on to the 48G, inadvertently. He was actually a fan of the Commodore calculators (of C-64 fame, yes, they made calculators). And the 15C.

Notably he was fond of push button programming, and the simply the fact the functions were on the keys.

He got a 48G when his Commodore finally died.

What boggled my mind when dabbling with the 48 was that it had Kermit built in.

Kermit is a file transfer protocol (like X-, Y-, and Z-Modem from back in the day). Which meant the G had a serial port. Of all things.

"A what!?"

Where I was working they were toying with some handhelds for data collection in the field (well, the green houses). They had some awful thing already and were looking at some devices from Symbol.

But since these things had Kermit, as well as a just everything else (things like menus, forms, and the function keys etc. etc.), I managed to convince them that we use these instead. The fact that they were $99 each instead of $999 each helped seal the deal. They also lasted for-ever on the 3-4 AAA batteries that they used. Weeks. They were tough too. One got run over by a truck and came out ok. We got these nylon fluorescent orange cases for them.

They'd take them out, record their data, return them, and then a guy would plug them in to a PC and we'd upload the data in to the computer. It was pretty slick.

Programming the 48 is truly just a joy. It's super powerful with RPL (Reverse Polish Lisp), it's easily factored, easy to test, and you can do it in bed. Most of the coding for this thing was done in my spare time with pillows.

People did absurd things with the 48, they had that all figured out. I didn't need to go to those levels. I was able to use the high level routines for everything. It was pretty amazing for a 4-bit CPU.

 

[2legs2wheels]

I still have my 14C that I rarely use now a days...

 

[augustiron]

:nerd
48g checking in

 

[oobus]

This Polock approves! Oldest RPN HP calculator gets a free Perogie.

 

[Kestrel]

Looks like I'm the new kid on the block with my HP50G. My two decade old TI-85 was stolen out of a lab by an undergrad and I ended up replacing it with the 50G.

RPN is wonderful. Might sound weird if you're just now reading about it, but it's pretty much doing math how you'd do it in your head... piece by piece, then combining the pieces, and so on.

Most of my number crunching these days is in MATLAB, but for anything handheld, I reach for the 50G.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

RPN for the win. :banana

It’s like a suicide shift or a manual transmission, keeps people from borrowing my calculator. :shhh

 

[lizard]

I have 12C, 41CV and HP41CV app.

Random internet pic:

 

[berth]

The HP-41 was an extraordinary piece of kit.

The killer feature of the 41 was its expandability. Whether it was to add software ROMs, or I/O capability. The HP-IL interface was quite clever and plugged in to a lot of things.

Obviously, HP felt that later devices didn't quite need that.

The 48 series had the serial port and slots for software and RAM, and a serial port is quite versatile. But it's not HP-IL.

Back in the day, I'm thinking 78-79, my Dad had a random HP marketing magazine with an article talking about a future with handheld devices. It was quite interesting.

The 41 and 48 series were powerful handhelds, but didn't really advance so much the future portrayed in the magazine, there were, in the end, still calculators with a chime and a clock to keep track of dates. It would take the smart phone makers to push over the edge.

 

[afm199]

RPN for the win. :banana

It’s like a suicide shift or a manual transmission, keeps people from borrowing my calculator. :shhh

I was amazed when an engineer friend couldn't use my 12-C and asked if I had a calculator that worked. :laughing

 

[afm199]

The HP-41 was an extraordinary piece of kit.

The killer feature of the 41 was its expandability. Whether it was to add software ROMs, or I/O capability. The HP-IL interface was quite clever and plugged in to a lot of things.

Obviously, HP felt that later devices didn't quite need that.

The 48 series had the serial port and slots for software and RAM, and a serial port is quite versatile. But it's not HP-IL.

Back in the day, I'm thinking 78-79, my Dad had a random HP marketing magazine with an article talking about a future with handheld devices. It was quite interesting.

The 41 and 48 series were powerful handhelds, but didn't really advance so much the future portrayed in the magazine, there were, in the end, still calculators with a chime and a clock to keep track of dates. It would take the smart phone makers to push over the edge.

Indeed, but for a good decade or more, HP ruled the roost of calculators with their still amazing devices.

 

[tgrrdr]

I have a 12C app on my phone and it's lovely.

I still have my 15c from college but mostly just use the app on my phone.