HP-67 battery questions

[Thomas Okken]

Hi all,

I have an HP-67 that I bought on eBay a couple of years ago. All I have is the calculator, the soft case, and quick reference guide; I have no battery pack, no charger, nor any of the other things that came with the calculator originally.


The calculator has been sitting in a drawer ever since I bought it, but now, finally, I'm starting to feel the itch to bring this thing back to life and run some programs on it.


I figure I'll send it to Randy for some general good lovin' once he's ready to accept new jobs, but until then, I would at least like to see if the darn thing even still works.


I figure I can just take three AA batteries, and with some wire and some tape to hook them up to the terminals in the battery compartment, I'll be able to find out if the calculator is still a calculator, so to speak.


Before I do that, though, I think I should ask some of the more experienced people on this forum for advice, specifically: (1) is it OK to power an HP-67 with three NiMH or Alkaline batteries, given that those have a somewhat higher voltage than the NiCd batteries that the calculator was designed for, and (2) which of the terminals in the battery compartment is (+) and which is (-)?

Thank you -- and have a great weekend!

- Thomas

[db (martinez, ca.)]

Thomas; You probably know all this but:

-Yes, randy is da man, period. Good choice.

-This guy is the only source for after market chargers.
-Waterhosko has sold batteries for years on ebaby and just by word-of-mouth. His stuff works.
-The overlap between the 67 and woodstock series is well documented. Since i have gotten good service out of nimh cells in my 21/25/27/29 i would trust them in a 67. Besides; the specs are just about identical.
-Someone who knows more than me once posted that it would be safer to burn slightly-used alkaline cells (if you want to use throw-aways) in calcs that expect rechargeables, for obvious reasons. I've had good luck doing this but i don't know if i would have had bad luck not doing it. Like the lady said; "couldn't hoit"
db


edited to turn the original into english

Edited: 8 Jan 2011, 3:23 p.m. after one or more responses were posted

[Thomas Okken]

Hi db,

This is very useful information! I have an HP-25 that I use with batteries that I recharge outside the calculator, but with the HP-67, that seems like a much more awkward approach, because of how the battery pack is built and also because most battery chargers won't charge 3 batteries at a time... So it is good to know that it is still possible to get a battery pack that I can just leave inside the calculator, and get a charger that I can use to charge the batteries while they're inside the calculator.

Regarding the polarity of the battery pack, after googling a bit more diligently, I found this (at this site, where else? *facepalm*) so I can now go and find out if the calculator is still working, before doing anything else.

Quote:

---

Like the lady said; "couldn't hoit"

---

Was the lady from Noo Joisey by any chance? :-)

Anyway, thank you very much for your advice!

- Thomas