HP35S, 15 years after: which new release for 15th anniversary?

[JimP]

(06-07-2021 02:19 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  2022 will be the 15th year for the HP35S. Not sure whether other HP scientific programmable calculators have lasted longer in production.

In case HP decides to release a new “Jubilee Edition” of our beloved HP35S, which change or new features, put aside bugs correction, would we like to see in it?

Two things. A display that doesn’t cut off the last digit — perhaps a 4 line display suitably resolved to show the operation and result (similar to some of the WriteView examples in the Casio/Sharp/TI world). And, like the 27S, the TVM functions. Everything else is really quite useful.

[Roberto Volpi]

(06-11-2021 11:35 AM)JimP Wrote:  A display that doesn’t cut off the last digit

True! This annoyance is a real pain in the arse every time it happens.

[Siegfried]

Are you sure it is still in production? It’s not on the US HP Calculator website (though apparently readily available).

A non-shifted STO key would be a nice improvement, as would be a a vertically centered - sign.

[rprosperi]

(06-29-2021 01:12 PM)Siegfried Wrote:  Are you sure it is still in production? It’s not on the US HP Calculator website (though apparently readily available).

In January, during the HPCC video conference, Cyrille confirmed the 35S was still in production, despite many reports that it had been discontinued for many months prior to that meeting.

Availability or not of a model for purchase from the HP website is not, and never has been, an indicator of product availability. As an example, the Prime is not sold there, and it remains available is in the midst as we type of major s/w upgrades.

As for changes to the 35S in a new version, that is simply not going to happen... a bit sad, but true....

[Sukiari]

(06-10-2021 02:35 PM)Pjwum Wrote:  Isn't it a product developed by Kinpo Electronics in China and not supported anymore? Sad, despite its undeniable bugs I like it.

Quick correction, it’s developed in Taiwan, not Communist China which is more rightfully known as West Taiwan.

[Chr Yoko]

HP may produce in batches once their stock is depleted enough factoring the suppliers MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) and production leadtimes after order.
So after analysing sales rates (pcs/week sold), their trend (flat, upwards, downwards) the HP35S product manager would decide when to KO (Kick-Off) the production at supplier(s).
He may also decide to kill the product completely if, let say, the MOQ is covering more than one year of forecasted sales. It could be 3 months or 6 months depending on the inventory and cash flow situation at HP and allowance from the accounting department.

Also some tools have limited life time such as plastic injection molds or stamping cuting dies. They require to be refurbished several times until they need to be completely retooled.
That means that at some point in time, it might become too costly to continue the production vs market sales price.
An other possibility is to take that retooling opportunity to modify the part design, fix some issues, change materials, supplier or style...

[tom234]

(06-10-2021 10:45 PM)Peet Wrote:  2020 was the 41st anniversary of the HP41, I was already dreaming of a 41 retro calculator similar to the 35S, but nothing came from HP but from SM (and it was better than I hoped).
The DM41 is really fun and now I can use my old 41CV programs on a real Calculator again (not just in an app). Although I never owned an HP42S and was never interested in this calculator, I also ordered a DM42 because of the fun with the DM41X. But I see them more than toys than tools .

As a daily calculator, I use the HP 35s and not the two DM models. The reasons: The HP 35s is cheaper (not so bad if it falls or is lost), it is more ergonomic (for a daily driver I like a plastic-back more then metall) and looks much more professionally build (lettering and buttons).

The main things that bothered me about the HP 35s:
- a bad display
- the stripes at the side (design fail)
- the cursor keys (design fail)
AND: no possibility to save programs externally (so I never wrote a program with more then ten lines becaus I remember the day when I lost all programs in my HP28s)

I was hoping for something like a HP 41s. But there came nothing from HP and so I have not much hope for a new 35 homage/successor.

I just got my first HP35s RPN calculator. 27s since 1988. Turned down 42s could see those fails in design a mile away.
If you want a retro RPN you get a Replica of it Swiss Micro don't care about the price.
It fixes everything. HP could fix 35s problems but it would be looking like the DM42 with nice keys.
RPN is good for Grade School it teach the order of operations quite well and makes the student think. It's programable yeah.
HP should make a retro series the best calculators from the 70's, 80s, 90s and the 60's.
They could as nostalgic as Fender.
If I really catch the RPN bug its off to SwissMicros, but really everyone wants a Prime. We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel we want new stuff that does old stuff as well as new stuff, that's a replica of a replica of the original HP.

[Hlib]

HP has already made all the calculators for every taste. Are you dreaming of a cheap hp-35s, because there is no extra $100 to buy at least an hp-48gii? Or is a terrible disease called "RPN of the brain" haunting you?
I still do the usual RPN calculations on my old MK-61, but this is nostalgia.
I recently sold my last hp-50g and bought a graph-100+. Because I didn't see the advantages of a real hp-50g compared to the go49gp.apk emulator. (except for faulty keys and keystroke missing, regardless of the settings ).

Now, these calculators are more than 25 years old, and they function perfectly. Do you need an hp-35S: to study RPN, or do you not calculate anything more complicated than trigonometric functions at all?

[Liamtoh Resu]

If HP decided to put out a programmable scientific calculator to replace
the hp 35s, I would like to see the following additional features:

) a micro usb conneter with a lin/mac/win connectivity kit

) a clock chip

) a piezo buzzer which could emit different tones/frequencies.

Cheers.

[Lode]

(06-07-2021 02:19 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  2022 will be the 15th year for the HP35S. Not sure whether other HP scientific programmable calculators have lasted longer in production.

In case HP decides to release a new “Jubilee Edition” of our beloved HP35S, which change or new features, put aside bugs correction, would we like to see in it?

Complex number support for all its transcendental functions, sqrt, etc... It even has an i button, so why not allow using it properly

Also an improved font, some symbols are oddly aligned

[Eddie W. Shore]

(06-07-2021 02:19 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  2022 will be the 15th year for the HP35S. Not sure whether other HP scientific programmable calculators have lasted longer in production.

In case HP decides to release a new “Jubilee Edition” of our beloved HP35S, which change or new features, put aside bugs correction, would we like to see in it?

Has it been 15 years already? How fast time flies.

* Polar/Rectangular Conversion
* Real, Imag, Abs, Arg Complex Numbers Functions
* USB connectivity
* Solar powered with battery backup (a guy can dream)

[Gene]

I would suggest simply encouraging SM to make something new and exciting. Until then, the DM-42S and DM-41X are the best of this type of machine available, IMO.

[BillBee]

Eddie, if you could add Alpha Strings (ala 41c) I will gladly give you an "amen"!

-Bill

(08-03-2021 03:56 AM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  

(06-07-2021 02:19 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  2022 will be the 15th year for the HP35S. Not sure whether other HP scientific programmable calculators have lasted longer in production.

In case HP decides to release a new “Jubilee Edition” of our beloved HP35S, which change or new features, put aside bugs correction, would we like to see in it?

Has it been 15 years already? How fast time flies.

* Polar/Rectangular Conversion
* Real, Imag, Abs, Arg Complex Numbers Functions
* USB connectivity
* Solar powered with battery backup (a guy can dream)

[ijabbott]

(08-03-2021 01:50 PM)Gene Wrote:  I would suggest simply encouraging SM to make something new and exciting. Until then, the DM-42S and DM-41X are the best of this type of machine available, IMO.

I understand that they are making something new and exciting, but only vague hints from Michael so far.

[David Hayden]

(08-03-2021 01:50 PM)Gene Wrote:  I would suggest simply encouraging SM to make something new and exciting. Until then, the DM-42S and DM-41X are the best of this type of machine available, IMO.

They are wonderful machines (I own both) but the cost is high and the keyboard is no match for the 35s. As for functions, I look forward to the DM-43s.

To me, the 35s is frustratingly close to a wonderful machine. I really like the keyboard. The display is okay (for me) and the price is fantastic. The function set is good and strikes a nice balance between number of functions and the complexity of the user interface. It's pretty easy to find everything.

I wish I could transfer programs to/from a PC, or at least print them with an IR printer. I understand the need for non-IO versions, but why not make a 35s that's acceptable for exams and 36s that has I/O?

A non-shifted STO seems required to me, along with P<->R conversions. Those have been on the keyboard since at least the HP-25.

A faster processor would help. It's inexplicably slow and I have to believe that faster processors are available at very low cost and power consumption these days. Just look at the 30b.

Programming it is difficult with just 26 labels. The ability to XEQ or GTO a line number and have those instructions updated as the program is edited is great, but it's very hard to use when you're jumping forward. You have to guess at the line number and then adjust it later. What would work well is to program with labels, and then be able to delete the labels. The XEQ and GTO instructions would be changed to target the appropriate line numbers. As it is, the automatic editing only works within a label.

Oddly enough, I wouldn't complain about these things if only 200-300 steps were available. 26 labels would be plenty in that case. But with 32kb it's a different story. I'd love to store a whole library of programs but that just isn't possible.

I'd like to see my favorite RPN programming feature: local registers. The WP-34s has these and they're a godsend. No more worrying whether program A conflicts with program B. Also, I quickly found that *I* don't need lots of registers, my *programs* do. I can live with a very small SIZE when my programs can allocate their own registers.

Sadly, it's my understanding that the 35s code is so convoluted and poorly documented that changing it is impractical. Creating an updated model would mean starting from another code base, or starting from scratch.

Dave

[DanLins]

(06-10-2021 03:10 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  

(06-10-2021 02:45 PM)Jake Schwartz Wrote:  SwissMicros fills the bill rather nicely, IMHO.
Jake

I love SwissMicros products, but I am afraid it just fills the niche of oldtimer HP nostalgics.

Both DM41X and DM42 are superb, but they are clearly small PCs in disguise, and expensive as hell. Only those who have actually possessed and used the famous HP41 and HP42 can feel the shiver, mainly because they recall the good ole times.

It would be great to know what users of SwissMicros calculators think about that.

The original 35 came out at $395, which equals $2559 in 2021 dollars, so the DM41X, had it been available then would have cost less than $20 in 1972.

Dan

[syzygetic]

(06-10-2021 03:22 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  

(06-10-2021 03:10 PM)Roberto Volpi Wrote:  I love SwissMicros products, but I am afraid it just fills the niche of oldtimer HP nostalgics.

Is there anybody in the market for a RPN scientific programmable calculator that is not part of this niche? And if so is this a sizeable market justifying the design and production of a new RPN calculator?

It seems that since 2007 the answer has been no.

Me! I grew up with a TI89, way too young to use a 42s for real. I learned RPN after undergrad because my company issued HP12Cs as standard to all employees (finance firm), and I loved it. RPN is simply ergonomic for me, and HP calculators are tactile and quality. Today, I own a DM42 and a DM15L and my trusty HP12C. I love all three, not for nostalgic reasons, but because I know them well and use them effectively … they are extensions of my capabilities.

Really, I don’t care about the 42s. I’m sure it’s great, it sounds cool, but the DM42 would be wonderful in a vacuum, and I grew up with calculators technically more “powerful”.