Only 18 days after placing the order, today I received in the wilds of Alabama a thin cardboard envelope that I first thought was some sort of printed matter. But inside was Mike Steinmann's full set of DM-Voyagers. This is an impressive set...these are beautiful little machines!
I've only played around with the DM-15C so far. In fast speed (48 MHz) it executes a 2500-iteration Savage Benchmark in 250 seconds, while in slow speed (12 MHz) it takes about 1050 seconds. The HP-15C takes 5840 seconds, and the HP-15C-LE takes 48 seconds. So for this benchmark, the DM-15CC is 23.4 times faster than the HP-15C, but the HP-15C-LE is 5.2 times faster than the DM-15CC. Numerical results are identical for all three versions.
The various case back plates have the appropriate model-specific information tables...a very nice touch! I'm surprised by how mechanically substantial these feel. These units have no serial numbers. The instructions web page indicates there will be an LCD contrast setting in a future firmware upgrade. I have only a few suggestions so far:
1. Provide a sheet that has the information that is found at
this instructions page, with some detailed info about the features of mem80 extended memory, plus a description of the benchmark that is invoked by the B plus ON combination.
2. Make note on the instructions web page that the various test and configuration setups are invoked by pressing the specific key followed by ON. ON followed by the specific key will not work. Example: B plus ON starts the internal benchmark, but ON plus B does nothing.
3. Put a small simple "DM-1x" logo to the right of the LCD, just as the original had a "HP-1x" logo. Otherwise one must examine the keyboard closely. Yeah, I know, how hard is that. But some sort of printed logo on the face with the model numbers would be a positive zero-cost addition.
I wasn't sure I really wanted to order the five-version DM-Voyager package, but now that it's here, I'd be unhappy had I not. I've never seen such an interesting combo of calculators in the 41 years since I bought my first. I made only one bad decision...I did not order an additional DM-15CC for frequent use while allowing the one I have now to stay with the other four.
Thanks for a great job, Mike!