Just in case your original RPN calculator wore out or died

[Steve Fitton]

http://www.shopping.hp.com/product/calculator/Scientific/1/storefronts/NW250AA%2523ABA


The HP 15C RPN calculator is going to be available again......

[Larry Cunningham]

Yii! 100 bucks!

Collecting "classic calculators"? These guys have been watching too much Mecum Auto Sales, I'll bet they would cough up $70K for a filthy old "barn find" clapped out '55 Chevy six cylinder..

Seriously, by now these should cost about $20.

(I have one, somewhere, as well as the binary/octal/hex/decimal version, long abandoned.)

L.

"Never play cards with a man named Doc, and never eat at a place called Mom's." -John O'Hara

[Steve Fitton]

Hell, even the cheapie casio or Ti calculators cost an arm and a leg these days.  I really miss my HP 32 SII, but since the repair center in Corvalis closed down I'm stuck with a drawer of inoperative ones.

BTW, the HP-15C retailed for 135.00 back in 1981, so arguably its cheaper now.

My Dad's old RPN calculator still works, some unit from the 70s, either an early HP or Sinclair(?)

[Howard Rush]

I'll bet Brett's letter to Santa Claus is being drafted.

[Larry Cunningham]

The HP300C has a hemi and rear wheel drive, and is styled like a Bentley..

L.

"My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it." -ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Brett Buck]

I'll bet Brett's letter to Santa Claus is being drafted.

  If it's a quality product like the original the $100 is a bargain. That's about what they sold for originally - in 1984! This is probably #2 on the all-time list of calculators people would like to buy new (HP32sII being the king of the hill). I just gave away its little brother, an HP 11C.

      I can also highly recommended the HP35s - it's a very nice piece and perfectly functional.  There are just a few awkward features but just for daily use mine has been fine.

     Brett


p.s. I wasn't going to wait for Santa but they are mostly sold out and those that are available are in the $200-250 range.

[BillLee]

Still have my HP16C. That's the one Larry referred to that does the decimal/octal/hexadecimal thing. Haven't used it for years and years (Good grief! I've been RETIRED for 15 years and the days of busting dumps was 10 years before that!).  It's been kicking around my home office and I just rousted it out. The d*mned thing actually still fires up!

Man, that was a lot of years and memories ago!

Bill

[Don Hutchinson AMA5402]

Don't give it another thought Bill, I still have the slide rule I bought in my junior year of high school, 1947! And it still works too!
Don

[BillLee]

I still have those as well, Don. 

Ever see a circular slide rule?  You could read a lot more accurately since an 8" diameter was equivalent to  approximately a 24" straight slide rule.

Bill

[Howard Rush]

Don't give it another thought Bill, I still have the slide rule I bought in my junior year of high school, 1947! And it still works too!

Mine is downstairs.  I use my dad's, which he bought in 1929.

[BillLee]

O.k., which was better, a Post or a K&E?

 

[Brett Buck]

O.k., which was better, a Post or a K&E?

   Of those, Post. Never swelled up or started binding because they were bamboo inside. But my favorites are Aristo, much easier to read.

    Brett

[Steve Fitton]

   Of those, Post. Never swelled up or started binding because they were bamboo inside. But my favorites are Aristo, much easier to read.

    Brett

How is it you are old enough to have used a slide rule???  I thought you were 45 or 46?  I'm 42 and NObody used slide rules including my Dad, who was a grizzled electrical engineer even back when I was a kid.  Dad said his slide rule got put away as soon as desktop electronic calculators came out, late 1960s.  By the time you were in school you must have had those Ti calculators with the red led displays, right? Plus there were the HP RPN well established by then for serious work.  PC computers were coming out as well, I think we had a couple of Apple IIe's in 8th grade in school.

I'm not trying to bust on you, I'm just suprised that in a few years slide rules would have vanished so quickly. I don't think I heard of one mentioned in an academic setting till college.

[Howard Rush]

The true nerd is panchronological.  Don't get Brett started on old radios.  .

[Brett Buck]

The true nerd is panchronological.  Don't get Brett started on old radios.  .

  I accept the judgment of history.

    Brett

p.s. and on the topic of radios, my great gift to myself for my 50th was a pair of NTE-126 Germanium PNP transistors needed to fix the FM subchassis on my Zenith Transoceanic Royal 3000-1. $8 a piece, highway robbery!

   

[Brett Buck]

  Dad said his slide rule got put away as soon as desktop electronic calculators came out, late 1960s.  By the time you were in school you must have had those Ti calculators with the red led displays, right? Plus there were the HP RPN well established by then for serious work.  PC computers were coming out as well, I think we had a couple of Apple IIe's in 8th grade in school.

I'm not trying to bust on you, I'm just suprised that in a few years slide rules would have vanished so quickly. I don't think I heard of one mentioned in an academic setting till college.

   You underestimate my poverty, and slide rules were obtainable with little more than dumpster diving back in the early-mid 70's. I was thrilled when they came out with pocket calculators, that made slide rule prices plummet to near zero. I couldn't afford something like a TI-30, much to my good fortune.

   I got a Pickett H500 when the local college bookstore was throwing them away. And I won a Pickett N600 at the Arkansas Region 8 science fair in 1976 (although it wasn't delivered until 2005, that's another story). I used that for a long time, still use slide rules occasionally. I can't use the Picketts any more, too hard to read for my old man eyes. I got some Post Versalogs (including a green cosine model still in the original unopened package) more recently but then I discovered the Aristos and those are very easy to read and use. I use a Nestler Polymath Duplex in the "6"" size because that, too is easy to read.

   I also had an early RPN calculator that WAS NOT and HP - it was a National Semiconductor scientific calculator (with LEDs, of course) made for about a year in 1975. That's all I had through college, and it finally crapped out after spending a few days lost in a snowbank, then I got an HP-11C (the 15C little brother, missing only the hex/dec/bin conversion, for the most part) that I had until very recently when I gave it away to someone who admired it. I then moved to the HP-32SII, that's still the best. I also have some Hp-33 and HP-35S that are still available and work nicely. I also have 3 HP-48s (one of those still in the unopened box) I bought as a precaution when Carly shut down the Corvallis plant.

   For the record, I was 50 on July 28th, hence my eligibility for "Geezer Points" in The Hurl.

   Brett

[BillLee]

Have to agree with Brett: I have an HP 32S "50th Anniversary"  and it is the best calculator I ever had. Was a gift from the HP salesman when my boss and I attended an HP seminar back in 1989. Started out with a "business" calculator. Told him thanks but it was worthless for me and he came up with the 32S instead.

Bill

[Jim Thomerson]

I suppose you guys don't remember when universities had calculator rooms.  You could go in and do figgerin using a hand cranked Marchant or Monroe calculator.  Last ones I saw in use was about 1966.

[Steve Fitton]

I suppose you guys don't remember when universities had calculator rooms.  You could go in and do figgerin using a hand cranked Marchant or Monroe calculator.  Last ones I saw in use was about 1966.

For the really really old guys in our club that worked at NACA Langley, "calculators" were rooms of high school chicks that did the tedious arithmetic for the engineers.  I'm not sure they even had slide rules, just pencils and paper.

[Brett Buck]

Have to agree with Brett: I have an HP 32S "50th Anniversary"  and it is the best calculator I ever had. Was a gift from the HP salesman when my boss and I attended an HP seminar back in 1989. Started out with a "business" calculator. Told him thanks but it was worthless for me and he came up with the 32S instead.

    The 32s was going for astronomical prices a few years ago, $500 for a MIB copy. It was a great calculator but even *I* wouldn't pay that much for one. Then the 33S came out, and it dropped to around $150, then the 35S came out a few years ago and 32S prices came back down to the $100 range. At this point, the only advantage of the 32S/SII is that it handles hex/dec/bin conversions more neatly than the 15C and much better than the 35S.

    I would highly recommend the 35S as a current replacement for the 32S/SII, it's pretty good.

    Brett

[Brett Buck]

   Of those, Post. Never swelled up or started binding because they were bamboo inside. But my favorites are Aristo, much easier to read.

    Brett

  This is the one you want, Aristo 968. That's the one I am using now, it's the '12"'  version. I would greatly enjoy the 1068 which is a 20" version, but I can't find one.

http://sliderulemuseum.com/Aristo/S210_Aristo_968_Studio.jpg

[BillLee]

I suppose you guys don't remember when universities had calculator rooms.  You could go in and do figgerin using a hand cranked Marchant or Monroe calculator.  Last ones I saw in use was about 1966.

Oh, yes, I do remember that!

Ours (University of Colorado engineering school) was called "the NAC" (numerical analysis center). It was a room with several table of mechanical calculators for us peons while over in the corner was a large area where the EE's would wire up the analog computer to solve their problems.

That's where we had the first computer I ever worked on, a Bendix G-15. A large blue box about the size of a soft drink vending machine. Had a rotating magnetic drum for memory. The EE's had interfaced an IBM Selectric type writer to it for printed output and an IBM 029 key punch that you could use to feed in a card deck. First time I got to mess with that and I was hooked for a lifetime and a career. Still can't get away from the computers! 

The EEs had wired the G-15 up so that at Christmas time it would play Christmas carols through a loud speaker hung outside the window. One day a buddy and I were screwing around and started it up during class period. Got a visit from an irate instructor real quick! 

Bill

[BillLee]

This is the one.

[Martin Quartim]

I hope they make a Special Anniversary one for the HP-41C/CV/CX   and as optional a Stunt Module     I wiiiiiishhhhh

Martin

[Larry Cunningham]

..nerk nerk nerk!!

Can I borry some duct tape from you guys for my glasses? They broke again..

I have pocket protectors (the good ones from AMP) for sale. If you can't remember how to use the CI scale, I can refresh you. (I can teach you, but I'll have to charge..)

I had a beautiful Post slide rule given to me as a high school graduation gift. It even had the hard leather case with the velvet cloth inside. So, I had it engraved with my name, and a week later I left it in my Electrical Machinery lab and when I went back to get it an hour later, it was gone.. forever. Some thieving bastard still has my engraved slide rule, I'll bet.

And I had it all broken in, with the proper nose oil on the bamboo slides!

I bought another post which I still have, but it has the gray molded plastic case. It's not special. I never even nose oiled it up very much.

Say, I hear they're having a Star Trek marathon! Captain Kirk and the Gorn and all that
Rot..

L.

"NO KILL I" - Horta

[Eric Viglione]

Well if that's your cup-o-tea Brett.. you might enjoy a gander at my Royal D7000. Ought to make a ZTO addict smile... 
This one is about as mint as I've seen with all the accessories, paperwork intact, etc.

Oh, and you must be looking at Parts Express or Mouser? Try Webtronics...  a little better at $5.70 ea. LOL.

http://www.web-tronics.com/nte126.html

The thing about ZTO's, is all the memories from childhood of camping with my family, and the ZTO was the link to the outside world, and Dad had a CB in the car.
No Nintendo, Smarphones or Ipods, etc, back then... to each generation their own I guess.

EricV

 I accept the judgment of history.

    Brett

p.s. and on the topic of radios, my great gift to myself for my 50th was a pair of NTE-126 Germanium PNP transistors needed to fix the FM subchassis on my Zenith Transoceanic Royal 3000-1. $8 a piece, highway robbery!

   

[Brett Buck]

Well if that's your cup-o-tea Brett.. you might enjoy a gander at my Royal D7000. Ought to make a ZTO addict smile...  
This one is about as mint as I've seen with all the accessories, paperwork intact, etc.

Oh, and you must be looking at Parts Express or Mouser? Try Webtronics...  a little better at $5.70 ea. LOL.

    I got them locally. We have some great electronics stores around here, I can get just about any radio rework part within about 2 miles of my house.

  Sweet D7000y. I have a Royal R7000 that the kid who had it took out of the box for the first time ever about 5 years ago and used it in college. It had two problems - first, he had spilled some red wine in it that gummed up some stuff, and when I went to clean that out, I found that the power supply cap had physically exploded. Bits of black plastic everywhere. That caused a hum, I replaced it and works perfectly. The sound is pretty good, too, I run my iPod through a stereo-mono mixer into the "tuner out" jack and put the bandswitch in between bands to kill the radio output, and it works like a charm. This one has the fixed crystal frequency weather band.

     Brett

[EddyR]

w

[Brett Buck]

I'd love to have one of these but it's a little out of my price range for display items/affectations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Curta_Mechanical_computer_img_1651.jpg

  Brett

[EddyR]

Brett  
 
Ed

[pat king]

Thankfully my 32S II is still going strong. I have a later NIB RPN machine around here somewhere just in case. I still have my Post Versalog stick. Besides being a calulation tool it makes a fair club.

Pat

[Tim Wescott]

Brett 
 Yes the Curta. The Curta is a very simple machine having one rotating drum. It's great feature was you could carry it in your pocket. It is a lot of fun to use. I was given a very early Curta by James Comstock a Friden engineer as I was the only Service Tech in the company to work on mechanical,electronic calculators and the Flexiwriter equipment. As a  joke the Curta given to me had a the larger crank that was used to hand run a  Electro Mechanical calculators when repairing them added in place of the rather small Curta crank. There is nothing new in the Curta as all rotating drum calculators operate on the same principle. The later SRQ Friden SR machine had over 12,000 moving parts. James Comstock showed me a hand held electronic calculator in 1968,four years before they came on the markey from Japan. The big breakthrough was the use of intigrated circuits and Friden " Singer " would not move in that direction and so a few years later they were gone.
Ed

When I ran the IEEE store in my college days, we had an old Tektronics calculator stuffed into a corner.  It was as big as a manual typewriter (does anyone under 30 know how big that is?), four function, had obscure quirks in the order that you could enter functions, and only eight display digits.  I assume it was stuffed full of circuit boards full of SSI logic chip, and it was undoubtedly a triumph of engineering.  But it couldn't hold a candle to a TI-35 or an HP-15C.

[Larry Cunningham]

I still have my old Post bamboo slip stick, and since logarithms still work, so does it. (It may need a little nose oil.) And my little circular job (plastic junk) for flight calculations when I was learning to fly in a Cessna 152. You guys may think you're nerds, what with the ((good!)) AMP plastic nerd packs full of pencils, pens and erasers. But WE had "slip offs" sponsored by our Electrical Machinery class. I liked the trick of using the Ci scale to divide easily, and tracking decimal points by "move it to the left and add", which means so little to most (normal) people.

I have a really good calculator I use nowadays (below), in spite of it not being RPN.

L.

"..Embrace your nerditude. In the immortal words of Lafcadio Hearn, a geek of incredible obscurity whose work is still in print after a hundred years, `woo the muse of the odd.' " -Bruce Sterling

[Eric Viglione]

Hey, I still have my Pickett N515-T - Cleveland Institute of Electronics version aluminum slide rule, complete with leather holster.. only trouble is I darn near need a magnifying glass to read it these days...*sigh*

I will admit this much, that as much as we like to joke about these silly things, the one thing a slide rule could actually teach you was the relationships of things... you knew in a tactile sense when this went up, that went down exponentially, or was a divisible of the other by a lot or a little... which lead to the ability to know when things looked about right by the seat of your pants. Some of that feel for what will work is lost in a calculator driven world I think. About mid way through my electronics courses, Texas Instruments calc's were allowed in class, but they still tested you on knowing the right formula to use. They didn't seem to care if you were a mathematic savant, just if you knew the formula and could get to the right answer. So even if you had a programmable calculator, you still had to know the formula.

Brings back memories for sure... the sad thing is these days, my stupid cell phone has a pretty decent app for a scientific calculator when I'm on the run... isn't that just awful?!!
EricV

[Brett Buck]

I liked the trick of using the Ci scale to divide easily, and tracking decimal points by "move it to the left and add", which means so little to most (normal) people.

 Oh, Larry, what are we going to do with you? The main value of the Ci scale is not to make division easier, it's to make multiplication easier. Using C and D, division always stays on-scale. Multiplication can run off the end. Using Ci, you can turn a multiplication into division by the inverse, so multiplying also stays on scale, too.

     Brett

[Brett Buck]

Hey, I still have my Pickett N515-T - Cleveland Institute of Electronics version aluminum slide rule, complete with leather holster.. only trouble is I darn near need a magnifying glass to read it these days...*sigh*

   I have the same issue with my Picketts. If you think a 500/515 is bad, try an N600 some time. That's why I switched to first Post, and the Aristo - it's like the old man "large print" version of a slide rule. The Nestler Polymath Duplex is the only five-incher I can read any more. Some lady in Germany was selling brand new ones for reasonably cheap about 5 years ago, and I got a reasonable supply.

     Brett

[Douglas Ames]

I still have my old Post bamboo slip stick, and since logarithms still work, so does it. (It may need a little nose oil.) And my little circular job (plastic junk) for flight calculations when I was learning to fly in a Cessna 152. You guys may think you're nerds, what with the ((good!)) AMP plastic nerd packs full of pencils, pens and erasers. But WE had "slip offs" sponsored by our Electrical Machinery class. I liked the trick of using the Ci scale to divide easily, and tracking decimal points by "move it to the left and add", which means so little to most (normal) people.

I have a really good calculator I use nowadays (below), in spite of it not being RPN.

L.

Larry, et al,
I sent this thread to my 80 yr old father, a former Civil Engineer. He got a kick out of it and sent me this reply;

"Doug - When I went to college in 1949 the ex-GIs had nice expensive slide rules because they were on the GI Bill. I bought a circular slide rule because they were much cheaper and couldn't go out of calibration or stick and could fit in my pocket. Some nerds hung their slide rules in their case from their belt.The straight slide rules could go out of calibration if dropped or stick if they got wet. I remember taking an exam on a rainy day where there were several slide rules sitting on the radiator drying out while their owners waited so they could finish the exam. Getting the slide to work smoothly required nose oil which was convenient since nose oil is found in the crease where your nose meets your face.
 
Slide rule calculations don't give you the decimal point so you have to do a mental exercise to determine the magnitude of your answer. Today people accept whatever the computer gives them and don't recognise if the answer is of the right magnitude or not. I sometimes had to give a report back to an employee and tell them the decimal  point was wrong after just taking a quick look.
 
When I went to work in 1953  in the Pittsburgh Headquarters of Columbia Gas we had Marchant mechanical calculators to use. You had to be carefull when you put in numbers to be sure you didn't set it up to figure to too many decimal places or it would run on and on and wouldn't stop for a long time.
 
I have witnessed an amazing development of computers in size and speed unlike anything I could have imagined when I was in college.- Dad"
_____

Heck, I thought the LED calculators were the cat's meow in the early 70's. They were banned all through H.S. by my "traditional" Math Teachers. -Doug

[Larry Cunningham]

I'm guessing the iPhone already has "an app for that", to do all the common things an engineering student might need, in addition to being able to text your friends and send your girlfriend a picture of big DC motor in the Electrical Machinery lab.

And perhaps we need an iPad app with a slide rule on the touch screen that you actually slide, so we oldsters can remember how it was, to the amusement of youngers.

Those of us lacking iDevices will be SOL.

L.

"Nothing's more expensive than a free computer." -Gerry Laurence