Posts: 177
Threads: 12
Joined: Jan 1970
Hi Will. During a visit to WalMart last weekend I saw 3 versions of the 33s display with the newest being the best yet as the numbers and characters were all visible. The units had a 502 date code.
It appears to me that units made before mid year 2004 have the poor display and small (,) and (.). Units made between mid year 2004 and end of year 2004 have the poor display but with larger (,) and (.). Units made in 2005 have a much improved display. I am hoping that the 2005 units have had the bugs removed as the product manual update was removed from the HP web site some time in the Spring of 2005.
I hope that this helps.
Regards,
John
Posts: 1,153
Threads: 94
Joined: Mar 2006
I've only seen two displays. One has the decimal points noticeably smaller than the pixels in the 5x7 character grids. The newer (Wal-Mart) unit has decimal points approximately the same size as the character pixels.
If they're fixing bugs anyway, it seems to me the firmware solution is to sacrifice a digit and program a big, fat 4- or 6-pixel d.p. as a separate character. (But they didn't ask any of us, now did they?)