Collector or daily user

[EugeneNine]

Since my 48sx On button seems to have worn out it made me wonder how many collect and simply admire their HP's vs how many use them every day.

Those that do use them what are your plans should you have a failure?

[pier4r]

I try to use it, my real daily driver would be the sharp el506w for easier and more common computations.

I found the environment of the 50g (admittedly because other math environments for my thinclients either are slow, or not available or too verbose) pretty neat for quick math explorations that require more than few operations. With the newRPL the system will likely be even better.

Furthermore, I still found the sharp el506w more practical than the free42 for my limited usage.

I have the hp prime app on android and windows*, and I plan to use it on windows to develop programs that are too big for the 50g and then let it compute on android (because android systems are fanless), but I did not yet give it a serious shoot.

* If you know any other environment that runs locally (no cloud connection) on windows and android and it is designed for math, let me know. (aside from the free42, that is a wonderful project)

[EugeneNine]

(10-19-2017 05:00 PM)pier4r Wrote:  I try to use it, my real daily driver would be the sharp el506w for easier and more common computations.

I found the environment of the 50g (admittedly because other math environments for my thinclients either are slow, or not available or too verbose) pretty neat for quick math explorations that require more than few operations. With the newRPL the system will likely be even better.

Furthermore, I still found the sharp el506w more practical than the free42 for my limited usage.

I have the hp prime app on android and windows*, and I plan to use it on windows to develop programs that are too big for the 50g and then let it compute on android (because android systems are fanless), but I did not yet give it a serious shoot.

* If you know any other environment that runs locally (no cloud connection) on windows and android and it is designed for math, let me know. (aside from the free42, that is a wonderful project)

There are actually a bunch but I don't do windows (learned that the hard way) so I can't say if they all run there or how well they run with all the issues with windows. Stuff like Octave, RPL2, wxMaxima, Scilab, etc.

What would you do if your 50G or sharp get lost/broken? All my 'pc' based stuff I can grab another used laptop for a couple hundred $ and throw linux on and be back and running in under an hour. But replacing my 48SX isn't as easy.

[pier4r]

RPL2 runs on android? Octave/scilab and co run on android and windows, but on android they need a proper keyboard (not touchscreen that is pain).

The question about losing the device is a good one that I never seriously posed to myself. I remember my prof of the course where I learned how transistor worked (at physical level), that said "devices with integrated circuits either die quickly after the first months of usage, or last very long" and my experience seems to confirm this (it is different if there are a lot of capacitors, like in power supplies, motherboards, video cards).

So I always assumed in the back of my mind that the sharp el506w would last at least 30 years (so round about 2032) if I don't spill water on it and I hope the 50g would last until 2025 as well (I have a second model though and maybe I will get a third if the first two are too busy, I need to decide quickly though).

After that I guess I will rely on the Hp prime app and similar ones.

I love functioning tools (of whatever type, a very old bike, an old wrench, an old pump, a light bulb, etc...) and I find pitiful to throw them away (if I can I recycle them).
I have a tablet that died likely because the boot sectors of the storage got corrupted, still the RAM and the CPU in all probability are ok. I do not have the mean to recover and reuse them though. In my situation I need to be realistic. The same will happen with the calculators. Probably some parts of the calculators will be absolutely fine, but it is unlikely that I will be able to recover them.

Therefore: let them work now that they can.

[John Colvin]

I have been both admiring and using my HP49G+ for 17 years now. Still working like new.

[EugeneNine]

you can plug in a USB OTG cable to nearly any tablet and use a normal keyboard that way, or any of the typical bluetooth keyboards.

I just got a spare non-working 48sx from ebay to see if I can make one from parts, sure I can use X48 on my laptop, tablet, Raspberry Pi, etc but its nice to hold the real thing too, its a quality tool.

[ttw]

I use the HP50g every day. Long programs run on the desktop but exploratory programs on the HP50g. There's little setup.

[striegel]

Since I carry an HP 17BII with me in the backpack everywhere I travel and use that, and there is an HP 200LX out on my desk at home that gets used daily, I am a daily user.

But since I also own more than 50 calculators and I can't use them all for the entire day, my collection is an extension of what I enjoy about using calculators. Most all of them do have working batteries installed in them and I regularly cycle them out of storage onto my desk.

Alan

[Dave Britten]

Definitely both. I've got some devices just because they're neat, and some because they're useful. Occasionally you get a rare gem that's got quite a bit of both.

[brickviking]

Daily user for me. There's no room nor finances to make any nod to a vague hint at a collection, and as I already have the best HP calculator there is (for speed and memory, at least) except for the Prime, I think I'll just leave it at that.

As for what I'd have to do if I lost the 50G to death? I'd have to revert back to emulation, or for physical devices, I'd end up using the fx-9750GII full time, or the fx-82TL for quick calculations. Neither of these have the features the 50G does. I'd have a hard time justifying the current prices for another 50G, heading up past $200 in some cases.

(Post 119)

[pier4r]

(10-20-2017 07:03 AM)brickviking Wrote:  As for what I'd have to do if I lost the 50G to death?

I cannot send you a PM. Anyway there are always a couple of 50g on ebay around 50-60$ , used. If you check constantly you may find even better bargains.I paid my second 50g (used, 2017) 43€ vs 110€ of the first (2010, refurbished).

[Thomas Radtke]

Just using them, and not even every day.

[John Keith]

Daily user, mostly the 50g. Not really a collector, but a surprising number of HP calculators seem to have "accumulated" here. :-)

[Sylvain Cote]

Daily user for 41CL & HP-16C, weekly user for HP-71B & HP-75C/D and infrequent user for everything else in my collection, which is extensive.
Sylvain

[Larry Hiatt]

If my prime fails or disappears I have An HP49 to fall back on while I figure out what to do.

[Jlouis]

I have lots of calculators, but I don't think I qualify for a collector. I just like to use them, learn to program them, but not for professional reasons (not anymore). It's just fun, a way to exercise the brains, to be active.

And it's great, isn't it?

Cheers

JL

[Thomas Okken]

My HP-42S used to be my daily driver, until concern about the dwindling supply of these machines prompted me to preserve them in software, by writing Free42. Now Free42 is my daily driver, and my HP-42S is retired and lives in a desk drawer, next to my HP-25 and HP-67. I still get out all three of those machines from time to time, but that is just for fun. I never use them in the sense of getting something done. I do like having them, though. Whether that makes me a collector or not, I couldn't say.

[xmehq]

Both really. I keep a 48g and a 32s handy at work and many others at home for fun.

[Craig Bladow]

Both here too. Have cycled through, in the last year or so, HP 50G, HP Prime, HP-25 and back to HP-41cx.

[Giancarlo]

Hello,
I consider myself a daily user and in some way a collector of calculators. I own some specific models, mainly the top of the scientific and the graphic one, in particular if they had rom modules.

I daily use my Primes, apps or reals. Sometimes i try to use older models even if my hp49g+ seems so old now being used with a stunning color and bright touch screen.

I still love to use my rpl one in particular the ones with Rom cards. They still do a good job in specific fields and there is nothing similar today.

Thanks

Giancarlo