HP 48GX

[David Whittaker]

I have just added a working HP-48GX to my collection and have started acquiring modules for it. Are there any web sites with manuals for these modules?

The ones I have bought so far are:

• BTS 96 Math + MAUBERT
• The Pocket Professional Mechanical Engineering Pac by Sparcom
• The Pocket Professional Mechanical Engineering Reference Pac by Sparcom
  

Also does anyone know anything about the companies that produced these modules and their history?

[isanchez]

Hi,

today I have recieved an HP48GX with the following cards/books, apart of the user's manuals:
CALCULUS,
Mathematic Pac.1 (book+card)
Mathematic Pac.2 (for College and University, book+card)
Mathematic Pac. 2 (proffesional extension, Book)
Geometry pac.I (for students and surveyors, Book + card)

all from BRINGSLID application software, from Kongsberg, Norway...

No more idea about it, all information is welcome!

Kind regards

[Giancarlo]

Hello,
i have some cards for the hp48gx/sx without manual:
- chotkeh civil engineering review sw card
- chotkeh engineering fundamentals review sw card
- sparcom personal manager
- sparcom physics pac

Do you have some of these manuals to share?

thanks

Giancarlo

[Han]

What are the legalities with respect to scanning a manual and posting the PDFs? I have a number of these manuals that I am willing to share, but I would prefer to not break any laws in the process.

[Giancarlo]

Hello Han,
this is a good point. I think that these manuals without the cards are useless but from a law point of view i really ignore what happens sharing these files.

any hint?

This is good to know also in relation to the fact that one day these docs could be potentially integrated in a new set of DVD of the hp museum,

thanks

Giancarlo

[David Whittaker]

If you post just the front cover and the edition notice (or copyright page) of any manuals you will only be posting just enough information so the rest of us can track down the publisher to buy our own copies. I do not mind paying for the manuals, but at the moment I can not find enough info about the companies that produced the cards to ask them if they will sell an e-copy or allow me to make my own copy of any manual I can eventually lay my hands on.

Also, I am interested in finding out more about these companies as their history is part of the HP-48GX story. The postings on this forum that have been made so far is the most comprehensive list of cards made for the HP-48GX I have seen to date, and as such it is becoming a useful resource in itself. So if you have a card that has not been mentioned to date please also add a post.

Thanks

[Han]

(12-01-2014 07:40 AM)David Whittaker Wrote:  If you post just the front cover and the edition notice (or copyright page) of any manuals you will only be posting just enough information so the rest of us can track down the publisher to buy our own copies.

I'll post the information when I get home (probably not a picture since there are limits on storage per account, but at least the information needed to track down the publisher).

[Giancarlo]

Hello,
this is my list of hp48 cards:
- chotkeh civil engineering review sw card
- chotkeh engineering fundamentals review sw card
- sparcom personal information manager
- sparcom physics pac
- Sparcom mechanical engineering application pac

I never found any information of the Chotkeh company while the names of the sparcom programmers can be accessed in the about menu...

I remember also an italian card (which i couldn't afford at that time). The name was SMARTROM. Does anybody remember it?

Thanks

Giancarlo

[Han]

Sparcom Corporation
897 N.W. Grant Avenue
Corvallis, OR 97330 USA

The manuals themselves do not seem to have a typical copyright page. These manuals are genuine, but do not appear to have been mass produced like your typical manual (hence the non-standard copyright section, or the lack thereof in some cases). They are all spiral bound.

General Chemistry Pac
Edition 2; November, 1991
Manual Reorder No. 11052-A
Software Reorder No. 10052-1A

General Chemistry Reference Pac
Edition 1; October, 1991
Manual Reorder No. 11062-A
Software Reorder No. 10062-1A

Electrical Engineering Pac
Edition 2; August, 1991
Manual Reorder No. 11051-A
Software Reorder No. 10051-1A

Electrical Engineering Reference Pac
Editioin 1; March, 1991
Reorder Number 11061-1A

Mathematics Pac
Edition 1; July, 1991
Manual Reorder No. 11071-A
Software Reorder No. 10071-1A

Math-Pro
Edition 1; September, 1993
Manual Reorder No. 10201-1M
Software Reorder No. 10201-1A

There are also phone numbers in the covers, but I am pretty sure they are defunct now.

Phone: (503) 757-8416
Fax: (503) 753-7821
Email: support@sparcom.com

I believe many of these Sparcom cards were authored by Brian Maguire (among others). I think he still license these programs but have since moved to the TI world. For example, the engineering pac is available on the TI89 in the form of EE*Pro.

At some point, Sparcom cards were distributed by da Vinci Technologies, but there were issues about royalties not being paid (?) to certain authors. I think the metakernel team may have expressed such concerns in the past, but my memory fails me at the moment.

Chotkeh
1793 Riverside Dr. Suite 3H
New York, NY 10034
Phone: (212) 942-5077
Fax: (212) 942-8105

The cards (and manual) were authored by Ali Badakhshan. These too appear to be manuals printed out by the author and spiral-bound. The ones I have are:

Mechanical Engineering Review: Problems and Solutions
Mechanical Engineering Review Manual (for the card)
Engineering Fundamentals / EIT-FE Review: Problems and Solutions
Engineering Fundamentals / EIT-FE Review Manual (for the card)

There are also some separate "packets":

Startup: ME Solved Problems
Startup: EIT-FE Solved Problems
Samples of the HP48 Numeric Keyboard Calculations
Selected Built-in Functions (HP48G & HP48GX)
FAQ

The cards I own are:

Sparcom
----------
Physics Pac
Math*Pro
General Chemistry Application Pac
General Chemistry Reference Pac
Electrical Engineering Application Pac
Electrical Engineering Reference Pac
Mathematics Pac
Mechanical Engineering Pac
Mechanical Engineering Reference Pac

Chotkeh
---------
Engineering Fundamentals Review Software 6.0
Mechanical Engineering Review Software 6.0

I have actually never used any of these cards for doing anything productive -- I have them merely for collection purposes. I did tinker with them just to see what they had to offer. As software (on the HP48 goes), they're OK. I think these would have been quite useful back when I was in high-school but these days the have more nostalgic value than anything else.

[MattSekula]

I work at an Engineering bookstore. We have a bunch of these Sparcom Calcware applications softwares for various subjects, various pocket professional PACs, and a bunch of old HP user manuals. If any of you are interested in them I can provide a full list. Email me at MCSekula@gmail.com.

[Gerald H]

(12-01-2014 09:23 PM)Giancarlo Wrote:  I remember also an italian card (which i couldn't afford at that time). The name was SMARTROM. Does anybody remember it?

Thanks

Giancarlo

Yes I remember it & have now found it in my cellar.

I also got it from Italy, copyright is with Smart Technology or possibly Odd Bringslid, my documents are ambiguous. The two cards I have are "CALCULUS Mathematik I ver 3.0" & CALCULUS Mathematik II ver 2.0". The second of these cards has the Smartrom, a treasure trove of tools to investigate the ROM.

Haven't touched my 48GX to work in years, it now seems awfully slow.

[Raymond Del Tondo]

Hi Han,

for me, one of the most interesting Sparcom cards is the SPICE48 pac, full name "ADVANCED Pocket Professional SPICE48 P/N 10511-1A".
For those who don't know that pac: It's a powerful menu driven circuit analysis tool/simulator, based on the Spice from Berkeley.

Cheers

[Raymond Del Tondo]

(04-28-2015 04:59 PM)Gerald H Wrote:  Haven't touched my 48GX to work in years, it now seems awfully slow.

Maybe you should give SpeedUI a try;-)
Of course it's not as fast as a 50g, and maybe not quite as a 49g, but SpeedUI shows how fast the user interface of an original HP 48GX can be.