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Been needing to get this off my chest for 15 years or so...
Back in 1992 or so I attended an auction in Bedford UK.There in a box lay two 71bs complete with a Zenwand each. I had (in those days) no idea what they were but hey, they looked interesting. I bought the pair for about £20. I'm an electronics engineer and hoarder so my life is full of cupboards containing old circuit boards computers etc etc.
I had them for about two years and played a bit with some basic programs. There was remember NO internet to speak of NO web and NO information.
I moved house in 1994 and ....... threw them into the bin !
My pennance. I now have a 41CX with math/stat, circuits, Advantage modules and HPIL
Also a '71b with tape drive HP914A drive RS232 module, math and text editor PIL box etc etc
Have I done enough to save my HP soul ?
What sins have you commited LOL
Sean
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Thats really bizarre!
In late 1994, due to a temporal rift, a pristine HP-71B with Zenwand showed up at my house, garage to be accurate, with a 20 pound note attached to it!
On a separate yellow stickey was the following:
"The answer is 42"
and
"This is for you"
Yes, you have paid your dues!!!!
At least I sold my HP-25 and put the funds to an HP-41C in 1982!
;-)
Geoff
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Perhaps we can make an multi-purpose HP towel for just such occasions?
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Quote:
What sins have you commited LOL
In the late eighties or early nineties, at a flea market, I came upon a cardboard box full of old HP calculators, AC adapters and maybe some other stuff. At least two dozen calculators. They were all scientific LED models, probably HP-25, HP-33E and the like, but there's no way to be sure. All had "Property of [the power company]" stickers, and I guess they had been thrown out when the company bought newer LCD calculators.
The guy wanted 20$ for the lot. As I had just bought an HP 28s, I had no use for those old calculators, so I walked away...
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The only regret I have is that at some time in the past, hundreds and thousands of early HP desktop calcs got dumped in skips and probably ended up in landfills. If only I had known about them to go on salvage missions each time I saw a skip!
When you think about the rest of our computing heritage that has just been chucked out and lost, you can't help but ask yourself, why were we so stupid?
Mark
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Quote:
What sins have you commited LOL
thinking that they would just keep getting better and better
I wish I had gotten the HPIL-to-parallel interface converters (there were at least a couple of them), and some other things, but I didn't feel that I could afford them at the time. I wish I had kept all the advertising literature from the early 80's, and I kind of wish I had kept all the boxes things came in. I do still have the 41's original box and the 82169A HPIL-to-HPIB interface converter box, and I have all the manuals.
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Quote:
I wish I had kept all the advertising literature from the early 80's, and I kind of wish I had kept all the boxes things came in. I do still have the 41's original box and the 82169A HPIL-to-HPIB interface converter box, and I have all the manuals.
For some reason when I started collecting I recognized that boxes, manuals and promotional literature were worth keeping. So, I have four working 41's (two 41C's, a 41CX and a 41CV) all with boxes and manuals, and with some of the promotional literature as well. I also have several dead calculators (the charger problems) with near mint condition boxes and manuals. I'm hoping to find working devices to match the boxes and manuals.
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Mark, what's a "skip"? We don't know that term in the US.
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I suspect he means pallet.
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Well, in the UK, a skip is a large waste bucket that gets lifted up onto the back of a flat-back lorry. One of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container)
Mark
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Everything is by brands in the US, so close to this is the "Dempster Dumpster" or 'dumpster' for short.
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A friend once told me that he saw an HP-81 at the swap meet, but he didn't buy it for me since he wasn't sure it was a model I wanted.
Five years later, after I got out of prison...
Just kidding, I was obviously disappointed but didn't do anything rash.
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Another thing that will condemn this community to HP Hell is the apparent failure to appreciate what a great calc the 19Bii is. Although I will accept the clamshell formfactor is not ideal, what the calc offers functionally though is surely the most flexible and well specified all-rounder HP ever produced.
I am under the impression that the later models used button cells instead of the N cells so that got rid of the dreaded battery door problem as well.
A truly great calc that no one seems to like?
Mark
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Quote:
I am under the impression that the later models used button cells instead of the N cells so that got rid of the dreaded battery door problem as well.
Actually late-run units kept all three N-type batteries, but the battery cover was modified and relocated to the back of the calculator. Surely a more clever design.
Gerson.
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I spotted an HP-91 under a guy's sneaker at a hamfest. There was also an HP-97 in the pile as well. I bought both for $10 and parted out the 91 to get the 97 working. Then I binned the mortal remains of the 91. Oops!
At least I'm still balancing my checkbook with that 97.
Bob
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It was about ten years ago, when I started to collect HP calculators, at a flea market. I saw a kind of little coloured HP calculator I didn't knew. At that time I thought it was a recent four banger made from HP, something of no interest to collect. I went away without even looking at the calc, thinking it was the kind of things we will find in quantities in flea markets ... Now, I'm not absolutely sure, but, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it was an Xpander.
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