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Calculator blog


Musings and comments about our common interest

 

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Notice about StreamSmart 410 and HP50g

I have received some questions from customers, regarding the capabilities of the Streamsmart 410. Can it interface with the HP50g?

The answer is yes, but...not as it is shipped.

It comes with two cables. One of them is a USB A to mini, and serves to link between the StreamSmart and a chargind device or a computer. The other is a USB mini to USB nano, which is used to interface with the HP Prime. However, the HP50g has also a mini plug, so what you really need is a mini to mini plug - which doesn't come in the package. Either you need an adapter of a mini to mini cable.

We will try to locate such cables, in case some of you want to use the Streamsmart with your 50g machines. 

 

 

 

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to do list

To do list for this week:

check the workings of Streamsmart 410 (I have now noticed that I have written in our website smart stream repeatedly all around) together with the HP Prime - use as many probes as possible.

check the workings of Streamsmart 410, but now using the old -and soon to be discontinued - hp50g.

Compare both implementations from a student point of view and from a scientific point of view. See which is the real maximum sampling rate in both cases. See what is the accuracy in both systems.

In fact, let’s see which is the better of the two.

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Offers on HP Prime old models elsewhere

Now you may have seen that there are some sales actions regarding the A revision of the HP Prime calculator (product code NW280AA). These have excellent prices, and if you don’t consider using any of the extended capabilities of the machine (namely, the StreamSmart 410 or the wireless dongles for class communication with the professor), I think it is a good opportunity that should not be missed. Fortunately or unfortunately, We have finished all our stocks of that model, and we’re only left with the newer, C-revision G8X92AA model. This is the only one that fulfills the initial prime promises of wireless and connectivity.

By the way, be aware that there are two different models of StreamSmart 410, one of them being more recent than the other (with respective model numbers NW241AA and NW278AA). As to the differences between both models, it may be as small as being the same product produced in two different companies, to a complete redesign with new features - and everything in between. I really have no data to recommend you to choose the newer over the older model, or the other way around. I will investigate, though.

(There was also another StreamSmart model, the 400. I have never had one of them so no comment)

HP’s information on the StreamSmart equipment is quite scarce, to say the least. There is not a clear statement about which equipment can work with each model. I know, because I have tested it, that they work with both the hp50g and the HP Prime, and have seen pictures of it working with the 40gs. I am not 100% sure it works with the 39gs or the 39gII - but I promise to give an answer as soon as I get it myself.

The only source of probes to be connected to the StreamSmart are from Fourier. There is an extensive catalog of probes. Don’t think of using your StreamSmart as a multimeter - it will work, but there are better specialized tools for that, both in convenience and accuracy. Even 30 years ago, you could do better with the HP3468A and the HP41c - professional quality. Also sampling frequency is far too low - it can only go up to 5khz! you can get a USB oscilloscope for about the same money.

But you have an enormous number of other different probes that can be used - most of them to organize experiments for your students: temperature, sound, pressure, vibration - there it is a tool without peer. And then you can analyze the data with the tools in the HP Prime - which include also FFT tools and advanced statistics. I can’t think of any other system that can match the HP Prime - SmartStream pairing.

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HP Prime versions and Streamsmart 410

It has been confirmed by HP officers (in the enthusiast’s forum hpmuseum.org) that previous versions of the HP Prime cannot work together with the Smartstream 410. To be clear, hp Prime revisions A and B, with product code NW280AA, don’t work with the data acquisition unit; and the only version that guarantees to work is revision C, with product code G8X92AA.

formatosCalculator aficionados need to pay attention when getting second hand units, because there is nothing in the calculator body that help discerning one from the other. Nothing at all. The onto way to know it is to press the help key, and then about… There it says the revision number and the firmware.

Not all firmwares are valid for all versions, so pay attention when forcing the update of your unit (there are cases where the updating function in the connectivity kit tells the user that there are not updates available, and sometimes the user forces the upgrade with other tools like the update.exe windows program.

By the way: to make the decision easier and safer, we have created a pack with an hp Prime and a Streamsmart 410, guaranteed to work together.

We have also posted a number of Fourier probes here. Please remember that you need a cable for all of them, although you only need at most 4 cables, if you want to measure 4 magnitudes in parallel.

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