The HP Restoration Guide, progress report

[Geoff Quickfall]

Boy, there is a lot of research to do and so many aspects of each family to cover. In any case the intro, chapter one, two, three and six are complete. only 9 more chapters to go. The saving grace is that most of the photography is done. I have a few donor calculators on their way so that I can document them. I am including at the moment 5 appendices ranging from tools, battery pack rebuilds, drying box design, glossary, citations, sources for parts and URLs, how to make special tools.

Here are some preliminary pages to let you see the format and depth of explanation. 52 pages are completed so I figure about 200 pages should do it in a 8.5 by 11 inch format and the book will be spiral bound for ease of use. The larger size is for the inclusion of bigger pictures! There are a ton of photos all in colour with full explanations. Chapter two "Classics" alone has 35 photos and includes the 65, 45 and 55 restorations. I have included a couple of pages of chapter six which has 35 photos also.

I suspect the HP 41 chapter (eight) to be rather large as it encompasses the calculator, card reader and memory enhancements (double x). Those of you attending Fort Collins may have an opportunity to purchase the book (don't have a cost as it is not completed yet but I am not looking to make a profit). Also if the book is not done, the presentation will be Chapter Eight from the book so you will get a highlight of what the completed guide will look like.

In any case let me know what you think (I reserve the right to ignore it ;-)

Also, I keep finding things out after research, for example I had completely forgotten the radix jumper in the spice so of course now I have to add it to Spice chapter! Love this site.

Cheers, Geoff

THE COVER

Table of Contents (only two pages of it for this posting)

Chapter 6, the HP 01 (only the first two pages for this post)

Edited: 2 July 2009, 9:37 p.m.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

You'll need to ship your books overseas! :)

I'm wondering why you do not start with "the" classic HP-35 or a combined 35/45 chapter? The chapters should follow the line from "easy" to "advanced". This makes the book a better reading from cover to cover.

Marcus, who's self made battery packs tend to look a little "Frankenstein'sch" ;)

[Geoff Quickfall]

Hello Marcus,

That idea was in my mind but when I started the book I decided to break the guide into the families starting with the Classics. Next I had to think about the best way to show encompass the most detail in a specific restoration that could be applied to the entire family.

By selecting the HP 65, I have a pictoral essay that encompasses not only how to enter a 'classic' including the 35 and others, but also the card reader. Once the complete restoration of the 65 was written there was only a need to include any calculator in that family that had a variance in restoration as compared to the example I used.

So in chapter 2 "the classics" once the essay on the HP 65 was completed the only other two calculators that need to be talked about were the HP 45 quartz crystal modification and the HP 55 quartz crystal replacement. For continuity I selected a 'complete' restoration on the HP 65 and then a follow up on the 45 and 55 differences. Once the 65 was described I had covered:

1  how to enter a classic

2  how to repair a card reader

3  how to add a quartz crystal

4  how to replace a quartz crystal

in effect all the classics were now covered and onto chapter 3.

I guess the best way to put is:

by describing the HP 65 restoration I had covered the 35, 70, and 80 restorations inclusive, the woodstock 67 and only had to add the differences with respect to the 45 and 55 timing functions.

I hope this elucidates my convoluted thinking!

Cheers, Geoff

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

Geoff, that sounds well thought out.