Hi,
When did the 12C quality go downhill from the 80's vintage models? Would a 1995 Singapore 12C be comparable to an 80s model? e.g. would 3532Sxxxxx be OK? I know it is a 1995 model, but not sure when the cost cutting occurred.
Thanks
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HP 12C - When did quality go downhill?
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10-17-2006, 09:35 AM
Hi, When did the 12C quality go downhill from the 80's vintage models? Would a 1995 Singapore 12C be comparable to an 80s model? e.g. would 3532Sxxxxx be OK? I know it is a 1995 model, but not sure when the cost cutting occurred. Thanks ▼
10-23-2006, 12:45 PM
Same for 49G, 49G+ and 17bII+. JMatias ▼
10-26-2006, 11:06 PM
I've been considering a replacement for my 42s which rececntly wore out on keys and frame abuse (carrying around factory etc.). ▼
10-27-2006, 08:40 AM
The Hp50G is a nice calculator. However, if you don't use trig functions or can get by with approximations, the Hp17Bii+ is a much smaller more compact calculator. Comes with 32K RAM, all of which can be used by the unlimited variable name convention. No real organization or directory structure, but the equations just pile up in a list menu of sorts. If your equations do require trig, but not a lot of them, the Hp33s is Hp's present pocket scientific (a bit larger than the Hp17Bii, but it is still smaller than the Hp50G). However, it only has single letter variable names ie 27 variables, total available to the user. While it is advertised to have 32K, it can probably address or use 3-5 K RAM at the very most due to the variable length issue. You might consider letting fixthatcalc take a look at your Hp42s as well. I haven't used their services, but they do have a good reputation (also a long wait, so you would still have to buy something in the interim)
10-27-2006, 09:11 AM
Bob, ▼
10-27-2006, 09:42 AM
As an aside, the HP 28S manual contains a short section (6 pages) titled "Notes for HP RPN Calculator Users" with the following subheadings:
So there are significant differences in handling between these. Since the 50g is a direct descendant of the 28S this information is still valuable. You should be able to find the 28S manual online or on the museum DVD. Marcus
10-27-2006, 09:51 AM
Quote: Or, if you can live without an actual keyboard (I know, that's a big "if"), get a low-end PDA and run Free42 on it. Palm Z22: $99 at CompUSA; Free42: $0. - Thomas ▼
10-27-2006, 10:24 AM
Quote: Agreed -- it's not quite an "emulation" since it doesn't use the actual ROM image, rather it's a re-implementation of the functionality and a good simulation of the interface -- the only places I can tell it from a real 42 (aside from the obvious physical differences) is by the fact that the package offers several versions of the program, including one which uses a very nice decimal math package to give you a much more precision and a higher range of values -- it can tell you (very quickly) that 2000! is 3.32637509245 E 5735, which would overflow a real 42S. Personally, I like a PDA with a higher-res screen, so I use a Palm T/X -- I have a lot of calculator emulators for it, and Free42 has one version with a very nice full-screen skin, big enough so that my big fingers can easily type on it if I'm careful... I also have Power48, which is a port of Emu48, and p41CX, which is a very nice emulator for the beloved HP41 series...
10-27-2006, 11:22 AM
Thomas,
Edited: 27 Oct 2006, 11:23 a.m. ▼
10-27-2006, 01:35 PM
Quote: The Free42 core was written to be portable, but it does require a C++ compiler, and I don't think there is one for the 50g -- at least, I couldn't find anything on hpcalc.org, except for gcc, but that's C only. Getting rid of the C++ dependencies is actually not very difficult; until version 1.3, Free42 was pure C (except for the Windows front-end). However, it would mean sacrificing the Decimal version, since I grafted the BCD code onto Free42 by relying on operator and function overloading, and that is a C++ feature that C does not have. - Thomas ▼
10-27-2006, 04:30 PM
Well shoot, there goes my plan! ▼
10-27-2006, 10:18 PM
Well shoot, there goes my plan! The best-laid plans of mice and men... ;-) Seriously, I was under the impression that Free42 required just a C compiler, so I was hopeful that the hpgcc route might work.
Before version 1.3, Free42 was pure C; versions 1.3.* are C++, but only in the sense that I made whatever modifications were necessary to get everything to compile as C++ -- but the code would still compile with a plain old C compiler, as long as you changed the Makefiles appropriately, changed all the *.cc filename extensions to *.c, etc. Maybe there will be an hpgcc++ someday.
I hope so! The other thing to hope for is that OpenRPN will mature into an actual product; if that happens, it will no doubt be possible to compile code for that platform using state-of-the-art C++ compilers (much like we can use similar tools to develop for PDAs today).
- Thomas Edited: 27 Oct 2006, 10:23 p.m.
10-27-2006, 09:46 AM
Actually, if you buy an Hp17Bii USED from Ebay or other source, you will get an RPN based calculator with the Exact keyboard and basic layout of the Hp42s (if you are really adventurous, you could even swap guts, to get your old 42s back but I wouldn't bank on that option). Many engineers like the older Hp17Bii for the layout similarity to the Hp42s. Actually has a nicer (easier anyway) solver to work with. The 17Bii actually has a bit better statistics functions, but lacks trig (does have pi, e^x, N! and other basic math though). No matrix functions of course. If you are a power user and used the higher functions of the Hp42s, nothing less than an Hp 42s will work and if you can't replace it, you will have to move up to the RPL graphics line of Hp calculators.
If you do buy a graphics, you can easily buy a new Hp50G (or the slightly less expensive Hp48Gii). As you take it to the factory floor, perhaps cost IS an issue. ▼
10-27-2006, 02:17 PM
Thank you for all of your responses.
10-30-2006, 09:03 AM
Actually on old 48G the keyboard can be a problem as some rows of keys start not working when the connection is not made anymore by the ruber thingy (?) under the screen. Arnaud |