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Spice chargers - Printable Version

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Spice chargers - Stephen Vater - 03-19-2005

I've recently been attempting to revive my 34c after many years in storage. I've acquired replacement battery packs from Digikey (they were great to deal with!)as recommended by Katie Wasserman's article in the museum (the part number has changed from p253-f021 to p229-f021, by the way). The calculator works as I remember, and passes the self test.
Which brings me to the charger. The original was lost or discarded inadvertently (though I recall a certain cat chewing through one power brick's cord, perhaps this one.) I found one in short order on ebay, anxiously waited for it to arrive, only to find that though it was the correct model 82087b, the adapter plug did not snap into the calculator snugly, and when jostled caused random segments to light up in the display. The calculator is fine, but makes me wonder about this adapter, as I never put the calculator to hard use and always remember the power plug snapping into place.
Does anyone have any experience or suggestions with revitalizing heavily used contacts as these may be? Does anyone have a picture of a connector in prime shape? To my untrained eye it almost looks like there might be a plastic insert missing on the back side of the connector that would provide additional tension on the contacts that would make for a good fit. There's no apparrent damage, but I can't be sure.
And as another alternative, I've pondered looking for another calculator in the Spice series in order to get my hands on a working adapter. The question here is which calculators shipped with the 82087b chargers? Just the "c" series calcs, or did the later "e" series as well?
My thanks to any and all that have any information on these questions. I appreciate your time. This web site really is a wonderful thing!!


Re: Spice chargers - Mike T. - 03-19-2005

I've owned the HP32E, HP33C (sadly now broken), and an HP34C and the chargers appear to be inter-changeable.

I think that all the spice series used the same charger though I cannot be certain as I've only ever seen three.

I expect that the retaining clip on your charger is broken as I have one with in a similar state though it still works fine providing I don't move it about...

Mike T.


Re: Spice chargers - Vassilis Prevelakis - 03-19-2005

My advice is to avoid connecting a charger to your calculator.

Just charge the batteries with an external battery charger.

You can get the HP external battery charger for the Series 30 (which is compatible with the adapter you have) on eBay.

Of course any battery charger will work (even cheap ones). You can remove the batteries from the pack to insert them in the charger, or modify the charger to accommodate the HP battery pack.

**vp


Re: Spice chargers - db (martinez, ca.) - 03-20-2005

The "e" series can use either the a or b model charger.

The "c" series needs the b model and can not use the a.

It sounds like your charger may have lost the springy tab in the center. In any case; if i was you i would use slightly used alkalines or charge the rechargables outside the calculator. Even with a good plug the batteries themselves can have itermitent contact and if this happens while charging it can fry the calculator.