Calculator blog

Upon some comments from Don Shepherd about the speed of the solver of the different versions of hP17bII

A=SIGMA(I:1:5000:1:1)

HP 17bII original: 80 seconds, serial number ID90700765, made in Indonesia

HP 17bII black: 80 seconds, serial number ID11400944, made in Indonesia

HP 17bII+ gold: 80 seconds, serial number CNA 43000634, made in China

HP 17bII silver:173 seconds, serial number CNA 04401226, made in China

Don made me doubt about the gold version measurements, but I have now confirmed them.. His is as fast (or slow in this case) as the silver version. His serial number is CNA 62900787, but I am at a loss to explain the meaning of the serial numbers of the new models. 

Don is a frequent poster in www.hpmuseum.org that shares with me an appreciation for the humble HP17bII. It is for us one of the best thought out HP calculators. The menu system is so well organized that HP did not feel the need to clutter most of the keys with several functions. And it is quite easy to navigate or learn - easier than the HP50g or the 30b.

The only missings thing in the HP17bII to be complete are:

• True programmability. Still, the solver allows some elaborate structurid programming, with loops, conditionals, etc (while you need to be creative: there are not a lot of examples in HP's documentation, as opposed to what you could find in the HP41, HP65, etc., which were full of them)
• More math functions: trigonometrics, hyperbolics, etc. If it just had what the HP19bII had, that would have been more than enough

The newest model has a good keyboard (clearly better than the gold version, not able to make up my mind between the oldies and the newest) and a fantastic screen (the best of all the series). I am still on my first set of batteries, so I do not know about its consumption (it is the calculator that I use the most at work)

Let's begin with Engadget . They present a video of HP's Dennis Harm, and they talk about "1981 coolest calculator". They mention as well the HP15c reissue for those to which the 12c does not move. They coin the term "retrocalculation". One would have thought that it was coming from the results back to the original data!

Hypebeast compares the well-being of a 30 years old calculator with the early death of the HP tablet. It recalls as well that the original introduction price was 150 dollars - now it is 80 - negative inflation for a 100-fold speed improvement.

GearPatrol Shows as well the calculator with the same picture that appears everywhere. (It is surprising that a financial calculator is shwon with Pi in the screen. It is a feature the calculator does not have!). "Iconic dinance industry tool", they say.

http://matrix.millersamuel.com/?p=11514 talks about the 30th anniversary and not the actula calculator. It was a surprise seeing a different picture from the rest of the bonch - since it is an old HP12c! You can see that it is an old model since the keys are shiny, as compared with the newer, matte-finish keys. (In the past, HP calculators had double-shot keys: both the key and the number were molded together - that is, the number was in the key plastic and could not be worn out or erased! Talk about quality and attention to detail!)

He goes on talking about his long-lasting unit from 1986. (Only 25 years old) Voyager family models were famous for their long lasting batteries - his have been changed just once since he bought it!

"With the rapid and untimely demise of the TouchPad, you might get the sense that HP isn’t very good at keeping its products alive", says ZDnet Mobile. "The interesting thing about the HP-12C is that HP never really anticipated it lasting so long. Expecting a two-year life for the device, HP was surprised to see that the HP-12C lasted much, much longer. Perhaps HP could learn a few things from the device and apply it to its tablet strategy."

Market Watch Shoes the standard HP press release

Michael Doan uses the Iphone for calculations, and confesses he was never a 12c man - he bought instead a 18c (see the site for an example), but he too likes the timeless design that lasts.

Lets include as well HP's historical video. 

Today HP issued a press release where it communicates the launch of the new HP12c Anniversary Edition and the HP15c reissue.

Here is a link to the Press Release

HP12c Anniversary Edition

Let's have first some first pictures of the unit being released:

Please email me at jose@thecalculatorstore.com if you want higher resolution pictures (4279 x 3380 pixels on one of them - higher on others - enough to print it big for a poster!)

The calculator is functionally and hardware equivalent to the current HP12c, ARM-based. The Anniversary edition will come in a gift box, with a laser-engraved serial number (as opposed to the painted decal of late), printed manual and a higher quality pouch. It will be a precious present for anyone in the finance world!

With 30 years' history, the HP12c is HP's longest running product - by far. While the HP12c platinum has a different firmware, the newest 12c runs exactly the same algorithms as the original 12c - only 150 times faster, since it is running emulated on an ARM processor.

HP was preparing a series of marketing actions using the HP12c. Is amazing how such wonderful company can manage to spoil this opportunity - losing 25% of its market value in the process!.

Here are some of the videos HP has released:

And here is the second:

In further blog editions we will insert more videos of the series.

HP15c Limited Edition

Same comment about the higher resolution pictures...

A note on availability in Europe on both theHP12c Anniversary and HP 15 LE:

It will take a little more than in the US, but they are guaranteed to come. The new calculators are presented to distributors on Sept.22. Prices have not been communicated yet to the network, and there are some points to decide yet.

The models will be in English only, but they will be a different part number than the US ones (#B1S instead of #ABA). I will not be able to tell the differences -if any- until I receive the samples.

There has been a change in the head of the EAME calculator business - this does not speed up the process. but, eventually, you will have a "local" calculator supported by the local network.

Just returned from holidays and still no news on pricing o0n the long-awaited new products. The in-tray is filled with enquiries on one of them - guess which.

Some of the incoming email suggests some ideas for the website. Some of them have been implemented, some of them interesting and worth trying. 

One of them is intriguing and I would like to ask the readers whether is a way to go or not. It is about upgrading to higher models.

Of course, the malfunctioning units would have no room in the system. I am thinking on getting discontinued calculators in exchange for new ones (+ some money to discuss, depending on age, state and model). This would be limited to top models (one of the new coming models, the 50g and the 17bII - maybe as well for the upgraded wp34s)

What do you think? please email to jose@thecalculatorstore.com with your comments!

Horses for courses...

I was thinking this when I packed my things for the summer holiday in Minorca. I had been working hard until Friday afternoon, but I left some things pending for the summer holidays (some financial analysis and the BP for the following year)

I needed to take one or more calculators with me. As many of you, I have a significant collection of calculators, so the choice is not evident at first sight. I have most of the typical calculators in the past or current line-ups - main missing item is 65-67. I hope to fill the gap sometime in the future.

Back to the packing chores. I wanted to learn more in depth the 50g, so there went a manual and the calculator. There are a number of mathematical tools that I wanted to get confident with. The 50g is a very powerful tool for a scholar - either student or professor, but I doubt that an engineer at work uses CAS or most functions at all - despite its value for a math lover. (Does a 50g really have a place in business? Yes, but you need to customise it heavily) Anyway, one for the bag. Just the doubt about taking with me a summer or winter HP50g. Let's be serious and take the winter one.

Then I took my trusty HP15c. Normally is in my jacket pocket. This time I took it with me because I wanted to create a library of programs to add to this -yours- website. You know, you need to be prepared for the rush! But this is not a calculator I'll take with me in shorts, to the beach!

But then, there was the job I still had to do. +-/*-kind of job, with a lot of A%, %T, %, but little more. Instantaneously, I knew I wanted an HP17bII, and no other calculator. Keyboard feel would not be a factor, but screen contrast would - then I'd take the silver HP17bII+. 

I understand that this may sound like heresy. I know that most of our readers are engineers, and a calculator without all transcendent functions is a hampered machine; but when I wanted to do number crunching in the beach, this is the calculator I wanted to have by me.

Another possibility would have been the 19bII, but its bigger real estate utilisation (and its fragility when my son drops it to the floor) were some points against.

Your mileage may vary - and that's why I said "horses for courses"

We have a page about RPN: why it is a better way to use a calculator. So far it is embryonic - we need to go much further in the description. We need to have something simple enough to send to one of our friends, and attractive enough so that he gets interested in it.

I wanted to include an applet of an RPN calculator, but I have problems in storing files in this server - since is not mine. So far I have not been able to include a proper Java RPN calculator - yet.

What I have found is a nice site with emulators in several environments/operating systems - one of them as Java.

You will see that is a nice example. You can start practising with it...you'll probably want to hone your skills with it...just in case...

By the way: it is a very good tool for RPN training. Just make sure to open the window as big as you can: on the right side you will see the stack and the registers, and see the effect of what you're doing on the processor.

Of course: no liabilities accepted if the machine is not a perfect replica of HP 15c. I have not tried to program it, and just tried some examples with complex data; but did not do a full review of it.

Is it my ignorance on the subject, or do you share with me the impression that there is a lot going on on the small calculator world? We have mentioned recently 2 different HP15c clones, and the HP41CL, which was the subject of a prior blog. 

Here you have a link to the site. It is not so evident to find it from within Systemyde.com !!

systemyde.com/hp41/

and here is a link to the manual. Please read if you want to commit your old 41C to surgery!

HP41CL manual

Some of the users of this new development are showing us the beauties and virtues of the HP41CL. Geoff Quickfall has made a couple of impressive videos demonstrating the features of this development:

Here you have a display of calculator speed comparisons between the old and new hp41. The speed difference is impressive!

(If you compare the quality of these videos, they are miles ahead of what you can see elsewhere regarding calculators- Not bad at all for someone starting to record them!!)

Today I came across a very interesting project: The Kinome Voyager

It consists in a calculator of the Voyager series enhanced with hardware and memory that allows it to run the firmware of the different Voyager calculators. You can select, with a special switch on procedure, which one will you use. This was done on "normal" voyagers!

Today with the new Voyagers that run the firmware as emulation of the original firmware, in theory it should not be impossible to have several firmwares in the same calculator. You would just need to have a keyboard cover with the right lettering. something like this:

Please click on the "cc" symbol on the lower right to get access to text subtitles that illustrate what the user is doing.

An interesting feature is that each "environment" keeps its memory even when running a different calculator model. 

For more information, please read the following link in hpmuseum.org:

Kinomi Project

Read from message 33 onwards - the rest makes reference to this summer "#calculatortrendingtopic"...

If it is ever available, I will buy for sure one...I have enough calculator "donors" for frankencalc surgery...

Imagine a hypotetical calculator reissue. Imagine now that you are confronted with the following question: would you keep the calculator that everybody loves exactly "as is", or would you try to improve upon what many have considered the perfect calculator?

Picture yourself as well confronted with the fact that everybody else wants new calculators being developed (refresh the graphic family, low end and high end, etc.), and that this reissue has strong appeal only to a small group of engineers (around 100.000 units were produced in its first incarnation).

A new development to extend the features of that loved calculator (like including algebraic entry, multiplying its memory) would detract from your current development programs. The fact that the original firmware is there only in the form of a ROM, without any other documentation or support, does not help, either.

According to the information that we have, it comes as no surprise that the firmware would be exactly equal to the original model, i.e. limited to 65 registers. HP would think it's better to avoid glitches and problems using a proven solution. However, according to a source linked to emulator design, it would not be too difficult to move it up to 128 registers. More than that could be substantially more complex. But that might be our community's task (the reissue would come with the same adaptor found in the HP30b)

If you'd plan to go that way, it would be good to buy 2 calculators: one to experiment with, and the one that stays "factory" (you will not be able to keep the original firmware once flashed)

Just imagine what can be done with 128 registers! Or imagine if you can have 2 memory spaces- just like what's been done with the wp34s: you could keep 2 sets of programs according to your needs; or have one set with your programs (close to full memory used up), and one set empty, for heavy matrix utilisation. 

Comments welcomed!!