Author Topic: What calculator do you use ?  (Read 173330 times)

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Offline nelson

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #200 on: September 01, 2012, 09:13:27 am »
Using caculator in my Galaxy II, haha  ;)
 

Offline sprocket

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #201 on: September 01, 2012, 06:49:44 pm »
I used to use a HP20S with was some of the most advanced we where allowed to use in high school back in 92. Still have it and it is rock solid. I upgraded to a texas TI-89 titanium when I started on my engineering degree a few years ago..
 

Offline nelson

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #202 on: September 05, 2012, 03:34:34 pm »
« Last Edit: September 05, 2012, 03:38:59 pm by nelson »
 

Offline Sionyn

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #203 on: September 08, 2012, 10:35:54 pm »
a strange looking TI85
eecs guy
 

Offline FenderBender

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #204 on: September 09, 2012, 12:48:02 am »
I use a Casio FX115MS, because it's one of the very few models that understands and supports engineering suffixes for powers of 10. So, for example, I can directly multiply 47n by 33.1k and get an answer of 1.5557m, without having to first think about converting the natural way I write and specify components into E-9 or E+3 or whatever. Stick the calculator in Eng mode and it gives results directly in picofarads, megahertz or whatever other unit is appropriate, not just x.yyyE13 which requires thinking.

Just got my Sharp W516X. Just like yours. It has an Eng Mode which allows you to flip between I believe, Tera, Giga, Mega, Kilo, milli, micro, nano, pico, and of course the widely used...femto.

Also has an entire library of scientific constants ranging from mass of an proton, to plancks constant, to faradays constant. Also has a metric converter between certain measurements, not everything unfortunatley, but the more used ones. Like *C to F*, gallons to liters, etc.

It also converts to/from Hexdecimal, Binary and a slew of other N-bases.

The editor is really nice. If I have a rather complicated equation that I would like to solve, on my previous calculator (TI 30XII) which is about $5 cheaper than my Sharp, I would have to fudge around with a ton of parenthesis and then get those wrong and it get's aggrevating. "WriteView" editor works really well on this.

Like holy hell, every time I read the user manual, I find something else.

I have only two gripes about this calculator. One is that this new version of the Sharp 516 has a really glossy black panel.. And the keys are the same color as the front panel. If I was sharp I would have made the number keys perhaps a gray and then certain function keys a different color. Again, it is still very usable. Just sometimes it makes it tricky to find the key you want.

The other gripe is that the default answers are in simplest fractional form. There is a button called "Change" which cycles through mixed number, fraction, and decimal. However, if you change the mode to Stat it defaults to decimal. Again, not a huge problem. It's not terrible but it does take 2 button hits to get a decimal number.

Otherwise, huge amount of functionality, which is to be expected nowadays, but thumbs up to Sharp.

I really like it.

I wish I could take it apart just to look at it, but i appears Sharp has hermetically sealed the case in addition to using like 8 screws. The calculator is one of the lightest calculators I've ever used, which is why I want to take it apart. It feels...yes...a bit cheap, but it's not flexible at all. Doesn't bend or stress, so I'm intrigued a bit.

The only reason I want to take it apart is because my TI30XII was the dodgiest POS I've ever seen internally. Bodge jumper wires...and to make things more disgusting, they had made provision to use surface mount components in about 5 places, according to their foot print, but TI of course cheaped the hell out. They decided to instead of getting a 22uF ceramic 0805, to use a POS through hole electrolytic and solder it onto the pads. Same thing with two LEDs they had in there...for whatever reason...debugging perhaps? Crystal was soldered on the same way. Yuck. I didn't even want to own it after that..If you are literally producing millions of these calculators, I really don't understand how having some poor guy solder on some through hold components onto SMD pads is more economical. You buy probably in quantity 1,000,000 at a time. The price difference has to be so tiny...But perhaps the Sharp is the same way. I'm going to try to take it apart again...
« Last Edit: September 09, 2012, 01:06:36 am by FenderBender »
 

Offline ampdoctor

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #205 on: September 09, 2012, 02:04:39 am »
Thru college I thought I needed the hp 48SX, especially for statics/dynamics and difeq's.   Oddly, the better I got at math, the less I needed it.  After a while all I ever needed was a cheap ass walmart calculator(Casio fx-260 to be exact) that has trig functions, logs, and a few other bits and pieces.  And the older I'm getting the more calculator averse I'm becoming.  When you think about it, NASA put three guys on the moon with a damn slide rule!  So if you start thinking you need some huge feature laden calculator, you might be mistaken.  LOL
 

Offline FenderBender

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #206 on: September 09, 2012, 03:04:23 pm »
Partially agree, though I do not have close to the amount of experience as you do... I'm not saying that everyone should be walking around with a TI-89, but the nice thing about modern calculators is that they can really help you eliminate stupid mathematical errors, and can help you do problems more quickly and more accurately. That's not to say that you can't do that with a slide rule, of course, but modern calculators help us to have confidence in the results we get. For example, one thing I like about my calculator is that I can write the equation in as it would look on paper. I can't tell you the amount of times where a missed parenthesis has changed my result completely. Of course that is just user error, but as humans we are capable of mistakes. We are also capable of catching those mistakes, but it's nice when we don't have to do that.

Just a thought.

 
 

Offline T4P

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #207 on: September 09, 2012, 04:28:58 pm »
The only reason i look to more expensive calcs is simply : I hate cheap scientific calculators, they go intermittent within a year and can give you funny calculations even when they battery's fresh
 

Offline Wytnucls

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #208 on: September 24, 2012, 05:28:26 am »
HP 67 all the way!
Works like new.
Fixed the magnetic card reader.
A pleasure to write programs with.
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #209 on: September 24, 2012, 05:50:00 am »
Dad had the later model with LCD display........ and the card reader, the expanded memory blocks and a few roms as well with overlays.
 

Offline Wytnucls

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #210 on: September 24, 2012, 08:25:21 am »
Yes, the HP-41C...got that one too, but still prefer the sturdy all in one HP-67.
 

Offline perfect_disturbance

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #211 on: September 24, 2012, 04:46:36 pm »
Best calculator ever.
HP 48gx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-48_series

Currently getting by with.
HP 49g
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-49_series

Considering replacing it with.
HP 50g


 

Offline Tuomas

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #212 on: September 24, 2012, 05:14:38 pm »
Sounds like a good topic to post my first post to.

I got a hp 48gII for cheap some years ago. Not to be confused with real, original, 48-series calculators, this one is a less powerful version of the 49-series. The keypad feels nice, but the buttons break too easily.  I've had two buttons break already. The buttons still engage, but the plastic supports are broken, so the buttons are "wobbly". Also too big and heavy for everyday use.

My everyday calculator these days is a HP 32SII. Small and lightweight, feels durable and has just enough features. If I need more computing power I look for a compter anyways.
 

Offline robrenz

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #213 on: September 24, 2012, 05:39:37 pm »
Best calculator ever.
HP 48gx

I still use mine and I also have this emulator on my laptop that works great.  49 and 50 stink in my opinion.

Offline perfect_disturbance

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Re: Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #214 on: September 24, 2012, 06:26:05 pm »
49 and 50 stink in my opinion.
I agree the 49 stinks. I definitely miss my 48.  But I've heard the 50 is marginally better than the 49.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2012, 04:46:34 pm by perfect_disturbance »
 

Offline PA4TIM

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #215 on: September 24, 2012, 06:33:39 pm »
I have a ipad app of a 48. But it has to many functions. I have not found a manual yet but it is rather complicated. After a week i managed to get the solve function to work and that is a realy great function. My 35S and 15C also have solve but the 48 is more easy. You see the vars, go with the cursor to the one you want to know, press solve and ready. Real cool.
www.pa4tim.nl my collection measurement gear and experiments Also lots of info about network analyse
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Offline robrenz

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #216 on: September 24, 2012, 06:54:34 pm »
I have not found a manual yet but it is rather complicated. After a week i managed to get the solve function to work and that is a realy great function.

Manuals here http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&document=&product=58443

Solver is great in that you only have to enter the equation in one form it will rewrite the equation for all the other variables. Multiple equation solver is even greater. You can store multiple equations that share some variables. It shows all the variables in one solver and then searches for whatever equations it needs and solves for intermediate values necessary and spits out the variable you solved for.

The equation library is an example of this. Go to ohms law in the equation library and you will see how it behaves.

Offline nanofrog

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #217 on: September 24, 2012, 11:50:17 pm »
Might I ask where you get the 48GX emulation program?

Miss using my old 48SX (still have it, but a couple of lines on the display are shot, and the way it's sealed <melted/welded plastic pins>, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to get it back together if I managed to repair/replace the screen). Have a 50g, but it's not the same feel (more of an empty plastic enclosure that will break vs. 48 series). The 50g also loves to eat batteries.
 

Offline robrenz

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #218 on: September 25, 2012, 12:02:49 am »
Might I ask where you get the 48GX emulation program?

Free  :)  http://hp.giesselink.com/emu48.htm

Offline nanofrog

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #219 on: September 25, 2012, 12:14:09 am »
 

Offline bullet308

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>>>BULLET>>>
 

Online amyk

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #221 on: September 25, 2012, 09:16:04 am »
I have an HP-42S but that reminds me working with an ASIC company in China a few years ago left me with an interesting item: a cheap looking (like this one) ostensibly four-function calculator that had trig functions and was actually programmable, the extra features accessed via multi-key combinations (not printed on the case). The concept didn't really catch on.
 

Offline donald

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #222 on: September 25, 2012, 08:08:09 pm »
CASIO College FX-100A been using since 1980,

just also acquired CASIO FX-82a plus
 

Offline PA4TIM

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #223 on: November 09, 2012, 10:23:08 pm »


Not mine, its on my bench for restaration only

This one is mine since Yesterday. Made in 1971 week 43 according to the serialnumber. A HP -35 the mother of all scientific pocket multimeters

« Last Edit: November 09, 2012, 10:25:46 pm by PA4TIM »
www.pa4tim.nl my collection measurement gear and experiments Also lots of info about network analyse
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Offline FenderBender

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Re: What calculator do you use ?
« Reply #224 on: November 09, 2012, 11:37:33 pm »
What do you guys think about the new OLED color graphing calcs by makers like TI (nSpire) and Casio (Prizm)?

I think they look rather gimmicky, but I've never actually used one. I'd assume battery life must be atrocious. I really like my current calculator (Sharp EL-516X) because it has dual power (solar + battery). Never have to change the batteries in my calculator again.

I wonder if there's any use for e-ink in calculators? Might be interesting.

Anyway, any thoughts on those smartphones with calculator software running on top calculators?
 


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