Micro Voyagers

[Matt Agajanian]

Hello all.

Anout a year ago or so, someone here was creating credit-card sized Voyager calcs. Are they still being made?

[Barry Mead]

Yes, You can find them at this link.

here

Edited: 25 Aug 2013, 5:06 p.m.

[Matt Agajanian]

Thanks for the reference. Now, as I also remember, the keys are so tiny and someone here found that a PDA/iPhone stylus worked perfectly! Which stylus would you recommend?

[Barry Mead]

I don't own one of these, I just know where to buy them.
I did once ask someone I trust how well the keyboard worked, and
they did say that it was not as nice as a real HP-15C with the tactile keys, but they did like theirs, very much. If you get one you might also be interested in this PC Simulator that has a built in interface to upload/download programs and data from the Swiss Micro to the PC. Check out this simulator here

Best of luck, Barry

[Matt Agajanian]

Actually, now that I've been reminded of how small the keyboard is, I will stick with both my original 15C and Vicinno Soft LLC's iPhone app.

Thanks.

[robert rozee]

i wonder if the designers have though about making a full-sized version? they could either use real buttons, or even go so far as to produce it in such a way that it can be slotted into an HP12C casing and make use of the existing keys.

someone could then produce a replacement metal plate with the secondary functions, and look at re-screening the keys that need relabelling (or do it the way the wp34 is done).

before anyone says "why not just reprogram a new 12C?", the answer is because (a) no one has written the code yet, and (b) because the new 12C/15C is proving to have an exceptionally short service life.

[Thomas Radtke]

Quote:

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Now, as I also remember, the keys are so tiny and someone here found that a PDA/iPhone stylus worked perfectly!

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They're easy to operate without a stylus, except you have problems using anything else than a classic HP ;-).

The problem was and probably is registering the keystrokes. There's no reliable feedback, unfortunately.

They are very nice to look at, but no replacement for the original Voyagers.

[Stephan Matthys]

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The problem was and probably is registering the keystrokes. There's no reliable feedback, unfortunately.

They are very nice to look at, but no replacement for the original Voyagers.

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Fully agree with Thomas. The keys are quite hard to press & sometimes do not respond properly; on my DM-15 especially the prefix keys are kind of problematic.

Let's put it that way: it's a nice toy, but - as Thomas already said - no replacement for the real 15C.

[Hans Brueggemann]

...hmm, i feel somewhat tempted now to do a franken-hp by implanting the guts of one these into an HP-15C LE. to get the best of both worlds, that is...

are there any photos of the innards of the micro voyagers available?



hans

(no, i won't consider the costs of such an endeavour.)

[Mike Morrow]

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...i feel somewhat tempted now to do a franken-hp by implanting the guts of one these into an HP-15C LE.

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The very interesting thing to me is the fidelity of the emulation of HP-15C firmware on the DM-15CC. It has avoided the infamous problems of the HP-15C LE, and goes on to add significant enhancements that the HP-15C LE does not even attempt. All this from a small organization that's likely not even half the size of HP. :-)

Quote:

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...are there any photos of the innards of the micro voyagers available?

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From Lyuka's interesting website comes this photo:

The photo above shows PCB version 12. My year-old DM-15CC has PCB version 10, which has obvious differences. The keyboard is on the opposite side of the PCB...this shows what you see when the case back is removed.

The
SwissMicros website has links to youtube videos of device development at the bottom of this INFO page.

My DM-15CC (now called just DM-15) still has old MEM80 version 7 firmware. Version 14 is the most current. As far as my unit goes, I find:

1. Running at 48 MHz, it completes a 2500-iteration of the Savage Benchmark in about 250 seconds. The HP-15C LE completes this in 48 seconds. The HP-15C completes this in about 6000 seconds.

2. Running long duration programs at 48 MHz results in rather short battery life from the CR 2032.

3. The / plus ON self-test starts but does not appear to respond to keyboard presses to test keys. After about 40 seconds, ERROR 9 is generated.

4. The + plus ON self-test starts but does not appear to respond to keyboard presses to terminate. Pressing ON will eventually stop this test by turning the machine OFF.

5. The x plus ON self-test starts works.

Edited: 26 Aug 2013, 6:15 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

IIRC, the full sized version was planned but canceled when the 15CLE came out.

[Stephan Matthys]

Actually I never tried + plus ON. However, / plus ON doesn't work on mine, either, & * plus ON works fine on mine, too.