HP-65 collection

[Don Shepherd]

For programmable handheld calculators, this was the first.

1974 was a great year. I got married, got my MA degree, got my first professional job, and the HP-65 was born.

collection

[Didier Lachieze]

Very nice collection !

Still a few pacs to chase to keep you busy

[rprosperi]

(06-24-2014 02:47 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  For programmable handheld calculators, this was the first.

1974 was a great year. I got married, got my MA degree, got my first professional job, and the HP-65 was born.

collection

Nice photo of a nice collection; thanks for posting. The little plastic card holders seem to be rare these days, nice to see you still have the properly color-coordinated ones for each applications pac.

Does it still read/write cards?

[Don Shepherd]

(06-24-2014 10:29 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(06-24-2014 02:47 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  For programmable handheld calculators, this was the first.

1974 was a great year. I got married, got my MA degree, got my first professional job, and the HP-65 was born.

collection

Nice photo of a nice collection; thanks for posting. The little plastic card holders seem to be rare these days, nice to see you still have the properly color-coordinated ones for each applications pac.

Does it still read/write cards?

Thanks, Bob.

I actually acquired this HP-65 about 7 years ago. The previous owner had done the card reader rebuild. The reader initially worked fine, but it stopped working about a year after I got it. However, it was still under warranty from the guy who did the upgrade, and he honored that and fixed it for free, and it has worked fine ever since.

I must have placed the standard pac near a magnet at some point, and all those cards became unreadable. A forum member told me how to cut the corner on an existing blank card and use that to fake the copy-protection circuit and re-create the standard pac programs on the original cards, and that worked fine also. This forum is truly great.

Over the years I have written a few dozen HP-65 programs, and filing and storing them has always been a problem, so recently I acquired these card holders and they work great. I think they were actually designed for HP-41 cards, but they work fine for my 65 cards too.

[CosmicTruth]

OMGosh ...they didn't give you a PDF quick reference guide? what a burn

[Don Shepherd]

(06-25-2014 12:46 AM)CosmicTruth Wrote:  OMGosh ...they didn't give you a PDF quick reference guide? what a burn

No, no PDF's. From the original HP-65 owner I got the 65, wall charger, and the six pacs with manuals. That's all. Everything else in the photo came from separate Ebay auctions except the pad of Programming forms (thanks Katie). I got a great deal on the hard case; bought it through Ebay from Samson Cables for $30 BIN (they advertised it as a hard case for the 17b, I'm sure BIN would have been much more if they knew [as I knew] it was really for the 65). Every once in a great while you find a terrific deal on Ebay.

One interesting item is in the lower right corner of the picture, a promotional mailout packet from HP in 1974 targeted to previous HP customers with positions that might benefit from a programmable handheld computer (in this case, a fellow who worked in the chemistry lab at UMASS). I never saw that packet before, it just came up on Ebay one day and I grabbed it.

[rprosperi]

(06-25-2014 12:28 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  A forum member told me how to cut the corner on an existing blank card and use that to fake the copy-protection circuit and re-create the standard pac programs on the original cards, and that worked fine also. This forum is truly great.

Can you elaborate on the procedure? I've heard this a lonnnng time ago at a PPC meeting, but have frankly forgotten how it worked.

Also, (somewhere) I have some of the little card holders (like those in the photo but blank/generic) from an HHC back in the 80's; I will look for them. They are so much more refined than the 41C booklets, but less easy to use.

[Don Shepherd]

(06-25-2014 01:59 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 12:28 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  A forum member told me how to cut the corner on an existing blank card and use that to fake the copy-protection circuit and re-create the standard pac programs on the original cards, and that worked fine also. This forum is truly great.

Can you elaborate on the procedure? I've heard this a lonnnng time ago at a PPC meeting, but have frankly forgotten how it worked.

Also, (somewhere) I have some of the little card holders (like those in the photo but blank/generic) from an HHC back in the 80's; I will look for them. They are so much more refined than the 41C booklets, but less easy to use.

Sure Bob. This was from another forum member several years ago, I cut out the text and kept it with my 65 manual and eventually tried it and he was right, it worked like a champ:

You can write to protected cards easily with an "unprotect" card. Take an old card that you aren't otherwise using and cut its bottom right corner off so its right side is at a 45 degree slope to the upper right corner. Then, if you gently put that into the exit port of the card reader (the left slot), you can write to a protected (cut corner) card. The protected card will push this one out of its way as it goes through, but this cards's pointed corner will fill the gap of the protected card's cut corner, fooling the HP-65 (or 67 or 97).

[walter b]

Great collection. Thanks for a glimpse. You got the steel rope - have you got the security cradle as well?

d:-)

[Don Shepherd]

(06-25-2014 08:12 AM)walter b Wrote:  Great collection. Thanks for a glimpse. You got the steel rope - have you got the security cradle as well?

d:-)

Danke Walter.

Yes, including the original box, instructions, 2 keys, and sales receipt dated August 3 (it doesn't show the year, unfortunately [an early Y2K problem], but the original cost was $12.50). The buyer's name is on the receipt. I called his house and his widow told me he died in 2009.

Actually, I see now that the original cost on the box was $25.00, apparently marked down by 50%.

[rprosperi]

(06-25-2014 02:08 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Sure Bob. This was from another forum member several years ago, I cut out the text and kept it with my 65 manual and eventually tried it and he was right, it worked like a champ:

You can write to protected cards easily with an "unprotect" card. Take an old card that you aren't otherwise using and cut its bottom right corner off so its right side is at a 45 degree slope to the upper right corner. Then, if you gently put that into the exit port of the card reader (the left slot), you can write to a protected (cut corner) card. The protected card will push this one out of its way as it goes through, but this cards's pointed corner will fill the gap of the protected card's cut corner, fooling the HP-65 (or 67 or 97).

Excellent, thanks very much. I have some bad original 67 cards which I can restore this way. Appreciate the useful tip.

[Jake Schwartz]

(06-25-2014 12:34 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(06-25-2014 02:08 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  Sure Bob. This was from another forum member several years ago, I cut out the text and kept it with my 65 manual and eventually tried it and he was right, it worked like a champ:

You can write to protected cards easily with an "unprotect" card. Take an old card that you aren't otherwise using and cut its bottom right corner off so its right side is at a 45 degree slope to the upper right corner. Then, if you gently put that into the exit port of the card reader (the left slot), you can write to a protected (cut corner) card. The protected card will push this one out of its way as it goes through, but this cards's pointed corner will fill the gap of the protected card's cut corner, fooling the HP-65 (or 67 or 97).

Excellent, thanks very much. I have some bad original 67 cards which I can restore this way. Appreciate the useful tip.

Does anyone remember the logo of the HP-65 User's Club (prior to its name change to PPC)? Richard Nelson used the shape of one of those "write-protect-defeat" cards: