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Do people think that there is a market for an RPN, simple scientific with bluetooth that can act as either a numeric keypad for a laptop or simply just send the contents of the X register to the laptop as if it had been typed in?
I often find myself calculating on the calc and then re-typing the answer into the PC.
Targus have a couple of products that give an idea of how it might work:
keypad calculator but USB only and bluetooth keypad but no calc but I wouldn't expect the keys to be full-sized -- it should primarily be, and look like, a calculator -- just one that happens to be convenient for sending results to a PC.
Obviously it would need to be fairly chunky in order to pack enough batteries to power bluetooth for a reasonable period but this need not be a bad thing.
Posts in this forum frequently request/beg/demand that HP produce an RPN four-banger. Well maybe this is the excuse they need to justify the effort needed to produce a simple RPN machine?
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Quote:
Do people think that there is a market for an RPN, simple scientific with bluetooth that can act as either a numeric keypad for a laptop or simply just send the contents of the X register to the laptop as if it had been typed in?
There is a market for everything, in this case an incredibly small one I suspect.
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I often find myself calculating on the calc and then re-typing the answer into the PC.
I do too, but I usually have to format it in some way afterwards anyway, so the advantage of having it entered automatically is not all that high.
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Targus have a couple of products that give an idea of how it might work:
keypad calculator but USB only and bluetooth keypad but no calc but I wouldn't expect the keys to be full-sized -- it should primarily be, and look like, a calculator -- just one that happens to be convenient for sending results to a PC.
Obviously it would need to be fairly chunky in order to pack enough batteries to power bluetooth for a reasonable period but this need not be a bad thing.
That is a bad thing in my opinion. A simple calculator should be as small and compact as possible, and last forever on batteries.
But they aren't mutually exclusive though, you could have a Bluetooth interface and still make it small and last a long time on batteries if you engineered it right.
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Posts in this forum frequently request/beg/demand that HP produce an RPN four-banger. Well maybe this is the excuse they need to justify the effort needed to produce a simple RPN machine?
I don't think so. They would have much more success with say re-hashing the 12C as a non-programmable scientific.
Dave.
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Hello!
Quote:
Obviously it would need to be fairly chunky in order to pack enough batteries to power bluetooth for a reasonable period but this need not be a bad thing.
I don't even think so! I have a bluetooth headset (two way) for my mobile phone that is so small that it hides behind your ears and that runs for hours on a charge of its miniature LiIon Battery. And it has to provide a continuous stream of data all the time, other than the calculator that must only transimit a few bytes every now and then.
On the other hand, a big battery would also be able to power an (O)LED display.
Greetings, Max
NB: I frequently use one of these USB-four-bangers together with my notebook computer. Since it also has incorporates an USB-hub and I have to connect my mouse anyway (I hate this trackpad-thing), I don't mind the USB cable at all...
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I often find myself calculating on the calc and then re-typing the answer into the PC.
Use the excellent Free42 emulator on your laptop, then the "Edit | Copy" from its menubar. I was able to copy the result of a calculation (the X stack register) and paste it into notepad. The result is available anywhere via copy and paste.
Hope this serves your need.
Dennis
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Quote:
Do people think that there is a market for an RPN, simple scientific with bluetooth that can act as either a numeric keypad for a laptop or simply just send the contents of the X register to the laptop as if it had been typed in?
I often find myself calculating on the calc and then re-typing the answer into the PC.
I do too. I'd like to have a software version of the calculator running in sync (through Bluetooth) with my actual calculator. Then I could copy/paste the result into other applications. Maybe also have the emulator save a sequence of keystrokes received through Bluetooth and play them back (through Bluetooth) on the actual calculator.
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Instead of blowing all the battery power in the air, I'd be perfectly satisfied with a cute little white USB cable like Apple has it. It will not cost battery life, but will even allow charging of rechargeables instead. And it will be found on a messy desk, too. Else, clean up!
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Instead of blowing all the battery power in the air, I'd be perfectly satisfied with a cute little white USB cable like Apple has it. It will not cost battery life, but will even allow charging of rechargeables instead.
Rechargable batteries in a low end scientific calc - why?
I'd refuse to buy it on principle!
Dave.
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OK, this was just meant as an opportunity. A Whitetooth calc will work with normal batteries as well, of course.
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Hi to all.
This idea seems quite good to me. Using a laptop is always a bit painful in my job (electrical calibration) and it is useful to always have a calculator handy for checking things out during spreadsheet development. A fairly basic calculator that could communicate with a PC (and cellphone, and PDA) via BlueTooth seems like something that would be marketable. Ideally I would like to see an improved HP 50G with BlueTooth functionality.
Engineers and scientists of all sorts, accountants, tradespeople, and business people in general would probably find an easy way to send a series of figures to their cellphone quite a useful feature. It would prevent transcription errors and speed up the "txting" business.
Possibly not so good for students, though! Yield not to temptation. ;)
The cost of implementing BlueTooth (licensing) may be the problem, rather than no market.
