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Wow, talk about barely portable. Just finished restoring this by completely dis-assembling the 4 boards from each other and cleaning all contacts.

The interior looks like a modern day computer with plugs and jumpers attaching the boards together.

Any way, just wrote two programs for it: Great Circle Bearing and Great Circle Distance. Load one on program side 1 and the other on program side 2. You can find the formulae on the web, would have printed them here but the formatting would not accept it.

This is a key and learn programming language with the ability to accept two separate 80 line programs. There are no conditional tests so I have a workaround for that.

The Bearing program may come up with the wrong heading by 180 degrees because one cannot test for a negative sin and work that into the program. What I did was to slip in a subroutine (E and F) at the end of the bearing program to calculate the sin, display, if negative, then press start again and the reciprocal of the bearing is displayed. In other words, you run the conditional test.

All this about 4 years before the HP 65.

Cheers, Geoff

MONROE SCIENTIST 324G
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE PROGRAM

VARIABLE FORMULA EXAMPLE KEY KEY

• Latitude initial LAT.I N 049.05’ HMS-DEC STO 0
• Longitude initial LON.I W 123.09’ HMS-DEC STO 1
• Latitude final LAT.F S 037.57’ HMS-DEC STO 2
• Longitude final LON.F E 151.11’ HMS-DEC STO 3

1. SET DISPLAY TO ZERO
2. CONVERT LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES TO DECIMAL BEFORE STORING
3. EAST LATITUDES AND SOUTH LONGITUDES ENTER AS NEGATIVE
4. RUN THIS PROGRAM FIRST, THEN COURSE PROGRAM


PROGRAM LISTING

RCL 3
-
RCL 1
= A
SIN/COS
2ND
STO 4

RCL 0
SIN/COS
2ND B
STO * 4

RCL 2
SIN/COS
2ND C
STO * 4

RCL 0
SIN/COS
* D
RCL 2
SIN/COS
=

+
RCL 4
=
SIN-1/COS-1 E
2ND
STO 5

*
60 F
=
STOP

PROGRAM SECTION EXPLANATION

A = COS(LON.I – LON.F)
B = COS(LAT.I)
C = COS(LAT.F)
D = SIN(LAT.I) * SIN(LAT.F) +
A * B * C
E = ARCOS(D)
F = DISTANCE NM

USE IN PLACE OF 60
69 FOR SM
111.11 FOR KM

VARIABLE REGISTERS
LAT.I 0
LON.I 1
LAT.F 2
LON.F 3
A 4
A * B 4
A * B * C 4
DISTANCE ARC 5

MONROE SCIENTIST 326
GREAT CIRCLE BEARING PROGRAM


1. BEARING PROGRAM USES DATA GENERATED BY GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE PROGRAM
2. DISTANCE PROGRAM MUST BE RUN FIRST TO SUPPLY GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE ARC IN STORAGE REGISTER 5.
3. IF SIN (LON.I – LON.F) IS NEGATIVE, TRUE BEARING IS: 360 –- C
4. TO TEST FOR NEGATIVE SIGN RUN SECTION E
5. IF SIGN IS NEGATIVE THEN RUN SECTION F FOR BEARING


PROGRAM LISTING

RCL 0
SIN/COS
2ND
* A
RCL 5
SIN/COS
=
STO 6

RCL 0
SIN/COS
*
RCL 5 B
SIN/COS
2ND
=
STO 7

RCL 2
SIN/COS C
-
RCL 7

/
RCL 6
=
SIN-1/COS-1 D
2ND
STO 8
STOP

RCL 1
-
RCL 3
= E
SIN
STOP

360
- F
RCL 8
=
STOP

PROGRAM SECTION EXPLANATION

A = cos(LAT.I) * sin(DIST ARC)
B = sin(LAT.I) * cos(DIST ARC)
C = sin(LAT.F) - (sin(LAT.I) * cos(DIST ARC)
D = COURSE
E = TEST FOR NEGATIVE SIGN
F = IF SIGN NEGATIVE EXECUTE F FOR
BEARING

VARIABLE REGISTERS
LAT.I 0
LON.I 1
LAT.F 2
LON.F 3
DISTANCE ARC 5
BEARING FOR SIGN TEST 8


EXAMPLE:

ON CALCULATOR LOAD:

• GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE PROGRAM IN MEMORY 1
• GREAT CIRCLE BEARING PROGRAM IN MEMORY 2

• ENTER LAT.I, CONVERT TO DECIMAL, STORE IN REGISTER 0
• ENTER LON.I, CONVERT TO DECIMAL, STORE IN REGISTER 1
• ENTER LAT.F, CONVERT TO DECIMAL, STORE IN REGISTER 2
• ENTER LON.F, CONVERT TO DECIMAL, STORE IN REGISTER 3

1. SELECT PROGRAM 1 AND START
2. DISTANCE IS SHOWN IN NAUTICAL MILES

3. SELECT PROGRAM 2 AND START
4. BEARING IS SHOWN IN DEGREES

• PRESS START TO SEE IF THE SINE(LON.I – LON.F) IS NEGATIVE
• IF NOT NEGATIVE THEN PREVIOUS BEARING IS CORRECT
• IF NEGATIVE THEN PRESS START AGAIN TO SEE CORRECTED BEARING

VANCOUVER N 49’05” W 123’09”
SYDNEY S 37’57” E 151’.11”

DISTANCE = 6911
BEARING = 240’ TRUE

Edited: 8 Dec 2007, 1:57 p.m.

Hello!

Quote:
Wow, talk about barely portable.

Well, not less portable than an hp-97! I really love these "Compucorpses", truely amazing machines. You probably have come across this text already, if not it is certainly worth reading: http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/d-compucorp.html

Did you try the example from the manual for computing factorials? The only way to break the loop is to force the end of the program by generating an error condition (negative square root)! The later model 326 (from 1974) has some program control functions and a cassette recorder for storing programs.

Strangely, these rare calculators are sold much cheaper than commonplace hp calculators like the 42S. Thanks to this disinterest of many collectors, I am now only missing the 360 "bond trader" and the 340 "statistician" from my collection, of all the other 300-series models I have at least one (320, 322, 324, 326+392 cassette tape, 342, 344 and 354 "Surveyor") :-)

Greetings, Max

I also noticed a funny quirk, as you key in the program sequence it actually calculates the answer as you go.

In other words you have to have the registers filled with the correct variables or the programming will generate an error! and prevent you from continuing with the programming.

On the upside, once the program is in you can check the answer with the example and know there were no mistakes during the keying in phase.

This really turns the eyes in the cockpit when I cross check our latitude and longitude distance and bearing between waypoints on the flight plan and onboard FMC (flight management computer)

My backup is the HP 67 and my HP 01:

thats the FMC (the green CRT on the central pedastal)

Cheers, Geoff

Neat pic, but why isn't HP-67 on the console and the HP-01 on your wrist?

Stefan

Well the hp 67 was in the flight bag to my right and the HP 01 was counting down the elapsed time / fuel remaining. Had to take the HP 01 off my wrist for the shot as the camera did not have a macro function.

here's another shot of the HP 01 with the FMC in latitude/longitude mode.

Great picture Geoff!

I see you were about to cross the International Date Line, where Sunday becomes Monday!

Since I trundle around in Cessna 172s and don't recognize your console, what are you flying?

Not quite that new but still got a few more toys than the C-172.

Got about 200 hours in the Skyhawk then moved on to the:

c-185 on floats
DHC2 Beaver on floats
DHC3 Otter on floats
Beech 18 on floats
B-737-200
DC10-30
B767-200 & 300
and soon to be the B777-200 & 300

Cheers, Geoff


Edited: 8 Dec 2007, 10:55 p.m.

That's a nice foto. I think Dave Hicks will be impressed.

Max,

I really like the 300 series Compucorp too, you forgot one model though the 360/65. I have that one and all the others except the plain 360. I hope we don't get into a bidding war on ebay over that! :)

-Katie

I own a Monroe 3180 Bond Trader. Do you know if
the CompuCorp Bond Trader 360/65 or the Monroe equivalents
have any patent numbers?? I can't find any patent numbers
anywhere. ?? I've only found a few Monroe design patents...
but no Utility patents in the late 70's - early 80's.

Thank you!
Eric Bjornson
cell: 250.744.8751
eric@trading.tc

Hello Geoff,


I was highly interested at reading your Post and - as you will see hereafter - I instantly recognized your B 767 Cockpit ...

So, as my money back :-))) , and if you are interested in some Airborne Fuelcheck Software I just recently wrote for DC10-30, B767 ... - or ANY other Jet A/C since I had lately modified this Software into easily accepting ANY JET A/C - please have a look
here.

Once you have this software, you just need to enter 6 or 7 constants pertaining to your A/C ( MTOW, MLDW, ... , COMPANY FINAL RESERVE FUEL ... )

Ahhh ! And by the way this software also computes all your Actual Limitations in a very accurate and realistic way, much better than the classical load sheets computations which ALWAYS compute a too big last minute extra Payload because they just forget that carrying any extra Payload implies carrying extra Fuel ... It can ruin your day on a long haul flight ...

And the free package comes complete with a free 30 page document I recently wrote on Transport Coefficients Computations which work extremely well on ANY long haul Aircraft trip.


Friendly yours


Antoine