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What calculator do you use ?
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nfmax:

--- Quote from: nfmax on January 09, 2015, 12:14:25 pm ---In the office, an HP 32Sii - the last of the great HP's, off an eBay seller in Belgium
At home desk is an HP48GX 'the mother of all calculators' bought new around 1992
At home lab bench is an HP11C, still my favourite, bought new around 1984, and now on its second set of batteries
I also have a 15C LE, one of the last of the batch 'just because'; an HP45 (works, but dodgy switch contacts somewhere) which was rescued from the skip when a former employer closed down; A TI-59 with PC100 print cradle (awaiting restoration) from the same source; another TI-59 bought new around 1979 and also in need of renovation; an HP20 which was a free gift from a supplier; and a 1970's four-function desktop with VF display and 'computer' style keys

--- End quote ---

Update: I've started work on my original TI-59 and it will now do sums for me when running off a bench supply (3.75V @ 110mA). I have disassembled the battery pack using brute force & ignorance and removed the decomposing NiCd cells. The pack was removed from the calculator long ago, but not before corrosion caused the +ve contact spring to break off the calculator main PCB. So the next steps are to disassemble the calculator and remove the main PCB; make & solder in a new contact spring; rebuild the battery pack using NiMH cells; and last but not least, overhaul the magnetic card reader. We'll see how that goes...

In other news, I've been repairing my father's HP33E (1979) which had a broken case due to being used with Alkaline primary cells, that are rather longer than the original NiCd's. I've glued the bits back together with epoxy & sourced some 'flat top' NiMH cells. Final assembly tonight! This calculator is otherwise functional.

And I scored a 'cheap' HP42S from a local seller off eBay (well, cheap for an HP42S anyway)

Happy days!
linux-works:

--- Quote from: Tuomas on January 09, 2015, 10:01:42 am ---Anyone else tried the WP-34S?

It's an HP 30b (or 20b) business calculator that is programmed with a new community-written scientific RPN calculator firmware.

I recently bought the 30b, reprogrammed it, and printed an extremely ugly and confusing key overlay for it ( you can get better proper sticker overlays online, I should probably get one.. ). I've had it at work on my desk for a while now, but I haven't really had a lot of time to play with it.

From what I've tried it seems to work pretty well, but I think I still prefer the HP 32SII that I have home.

--- End quote ---

like this one?



Rigby:
That looks awesome.  There is NO CHANCE IN HELL that I would be able to get those stickers on that well, though.  I'd wind up throwing the whole thing out a window after a few minutes, so kudos to you and your dexterity.
linux-works:
you'd be surprised!  I don't have a super steady hand anymore (coffee, age, etc) and my eyesight is even worse ;)  the technique was just to peel the sticker off with the edge of a mostly dull xacto knife and use that to support the sticker while you center it on the key.  there's a little wiggle room for adjustment since its not a very strong adhesive.

the printing was not perfect, though; some white dots in the corners can be seen on some keys.  maybe it was the cutting process that caused it, but you can see them if you look closely enough.

but all that as it is, its still a 'more than good enough' effect and I would not have believed that stick-on keys would come out this good.

the SOB part was flashing the calc.  if you do this, buy pogopins (spring things) and build a jig.  I had to give up and tack solder kynar 30ga wire to the contacts to get a successful firmware flash.  pressing on the contacts by hand never worked and I tried many many times.  I think I used a regular ftdi (probably even fake, lol) dongle to convert usb into serial/ttl which is what that thing needed (either 5 or 3v levels, but my dongle had a selectable switch for output level).
codeboy2k:
WP-34S ! I want one.
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