HP-10 my last missing piece

[PANAMATIK]

Some days ago I aquired an HP-10 on a well known platform. This rare piece was the last missing calculator in my HP collection. The price was a tough 199,- Euro.

When it arrived today I was very curious and inserted new batteries, switched ON, and was very disappointed, because the display showed only some segments and the motor made terrible noise and run endlessly against the right end. No reaction of the keyboard. My thought was, this is an unrepairable damage of the electronics.

Then I disassembled it and carefully stacked the PCBs together again. To my great surprise the display came up, the keyboard did run, and I was able to calculate. The next step was to insert paper and as you can see in the image, it also prints!



If the HP-10 electronics is damaged, I see no chance to repair it, because it doesn't contain an ACT chip, nor the HP-10 microcode is available. It can't be read out of the single chip inside with normal means. I would not have been able to make a replacement chip, not to mention the work, that would have been accompanied with it.

Now I'm very happy, and this concludes my collection of HP calculators.

Bernhard

[rprosperi]

Congratulations Bernhard on completing your collection.

It is especially satisfying when one acquires a super-rare piece that is not working, and then resurrects it back to fully working condition.

It's disappointing that such a rare piece is so boring and unexciting, but the thrill of restoring it fully more than makes up for that.

Nice job!

My prediction: This will NOT be the last HP calculator you acquire....

[Harald]

(02-10-2018 04:09 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  It's disappointing that such a rare piece is so boring and unexciting, but the thrill of restoring it fully more than makes up for that.

Very true. I am still really happy about finding a 70, and then again I am disappointed by it's functionality.
I am still wondering if I should fill the gaps in my collection. Those are a 37E, 38E, 38C and a 10 of course.

But if I do get those, what about all the non RPN calculators I don't really want, but would make the collection really complete...

[PANAMATIK]

(02-10-2018 12:31 PM)Mike (Stgt) Wrote:  a) Congratulation!

Thanks

(02-10-2018 12:31 PM)Mike (Stgt) Wrote:  b) Is it known what's inside?

The ACT, ROM, RAM, display drivers and keyboard scan are integrated in a single chip. I'm sure that internally there is an ACT unit running, but there is no access to it.

(02-10-2018 12:31 PM)Mike (Stgt) Wrote:  c) Would you affirm 'it can be read out with unusual techniques'?

Hi Mike

Chip reengineering has been done for some old chips with optical microscopic techniques. But this is not always possible. Then you could read the ROM electrically by attaching probes inside the chip area - quite impossible for normal mortals.

Bernhard

[PANAMATIK]

(02-10-2018 04:37 PM)Harald Wrote:  

(02-10-2018 04:09 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  It's disappointing that such a rare piece is so boring and unexciting, but the thrill of restoring it fully more than makes up for that.

Very true. I am still really happy about finding a 70, and then again I am disappointed by it's functionality.

In this case it was not really restoring, but just a little bit luck.

Perhaps there is an unseen exciting part. I see the aspect of making the perfect adding machine for the time before computers. Did HP achieve this goal with the HP-10? The manual has 80 pages and key operations seems to have the same consistency like in the more advanced HP models, not seen in non HP adding machines. Perhaps I will check the HP-10 against the HP-19C when I make my next tax calculations.

Bernhard

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

Congratulations for completing your collection. Certainly kind of a dream come true and hopefully not a big void to fall into afterwards ;-)

(02-10-2018 05:46 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Perhaps I will check the HP-10 against the HP-19C when I make my next tax calculations.

I prefer the HP-10 (or any desktop calculator) over the HP-19 for this kind of work. You don't have to look that much whilst typing because the larger keys are hard to miss. If only it had a USB connector so that the results would appear in the Excel spreadsheet that I send to my tax advisor...

Myself I have given up on ever completing the collection of HP calculators. The only thing I hope for is to get together all LED handhelds some day. Not many are missing: HP-27 and HP-29C (and an HP-35 red dot with and without the bug, but that's not really important for me). And an HP-16C to complete that series. About the other LCD models I don't really care, they are all late 1980ies and beyond and way past the date when a calculator was something I could really use at work. If I find one cheap (which is <20Euros for me) I buy it, otherwise I rather invest the money in a pizza and a nice glass of wine.

Regards
Max

[rprosperi]

(02-10-2018 06:15 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  I prefer the HP-10 (or any desktop calculator) over the HP-19 for this kind of work. You don't have to look that much whilst typing because the larger keys are hard to miss. If only it had a USB connector so that the results would appear in the Excel spreadsheet that I send to my tax advisor...

You are looking for one of these.

And this even meets your budget criteria (except maybe for shipping to Europe).

An HP calculator for every need.

Though I must admit this one too is not very exciting...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

(02-10-2018 06:54 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  You are looking for one of these.

I already have one :-) At some stage they sold them in Europe also. But the blister box is still unopened...

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(02-10-2018 07:28 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  

(02-10-2018 06:54 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  You are looking for one of these.

I already have one :-) At some stage they sold them in Europe also. But the blister box is still unopened...

I've one, too. That's the price to pay to own a complete collection... ;)

The Calcpad 200 is useful for notebooks without a separate numeric keyboard though.

[rprosperi]

(02-10-2018 07:28 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  I already have one :-) At some stage they sold them in Europe also. But the blister box is still unopened...

Mine is still sealed too... just no good reason to open it, though I have wondered about the key click/feel.

The CalcPad 100 is worse (or at least looks worse through the blister).

As Massimo says, the price one must pay...

[PANAMATIK]

(02-10-2018 08:01 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  I've one, too. That's the price to pay to own a complete collection...

LOL. That's the reason why I stop collecting now, before it is too late and I run into this kind of calculator. Perhaps it is not bad at all and a real HP. But you don't want get addicted to collecting, do you? I admit I bought a nice white colored solar HP-10S+ a year ago for 5 bucks. Can't throw it away.

Bernhard

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(02-11-2018 12:05 AM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  

(02-10-2018 08:01 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  I've one, too. That's the price to pay to own a complete collection... ;)

But you don't want get addicted to collecting, do you?

I fear it's too late now. :(

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(02-11-2018 10:46 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  I fear it's too late now.

I have come to the conclusion that it must either be a disease or a genetic dispostion. Some people simply have to collect stuff...
When prices of vintage calculators started to rise to the current level I was sort of kicked out of that game. My income is simply insufficient to continue adding to this collection apart from the odd novelty calculator and some lucky find every now and then. So I intensified collecting other stuff that I can still afford, e.g. (mainly cheap) watches.

Here is my Panamatik Woodstock Low Power (still not in it's housing because it has some residual issues) surrounded by a dozen Swatches, all of them the same model ("Irony Diaphane Chrono Full Blooded") but in different colors. The calculator displays GPS synchronised time which is useful for setting the watches after a battery change - about the only use I have for a calculator now. And I probably spent about the same amount for all those watches together (some of which are unused!) as for the calculator.

Regards
Max

[PANAMATIK]

(02-11-2018 12:18 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Here is my Panamatik Woodstock Low Power (still not in it's housing because it has some residual issues) surrounded by a dozen Swatches, ...

It is much easier to fit into the housing when you use 0,25 mm isolated copper wire instead of normal PVC isolated wire.

Isn't it amazing that so many watches all show the same time on earth. At least one of them should show martian time with 25h a day.

Bernhard

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(02-11-2018 01:59 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  It is much easier to fit into the housing when you use 0,25 mm isolated copper wire instead of normal PVC isolated wire.

It's not so much a mechanical problem but it still behaves stangely sometimes (I will post it in more detail in the thread related to that calculator). Just in case it needs to be re-flashed I will leave it out of it's the housing for some time.

(02-11-2018 01:59 PM)PANAMATIK Wrote:  Isn't it amazing that so many watches all show the same time on earth. At least one of them should show martian time with 25h a day.

Martian time is not so easy with off-the-shelf watches (but any quartz wall-clock could be easily transformed into a Mars clock with a little Arduino project I guess) - but at least I have one watch which displays sidereal time. The clock hands rotate at Earth solar rate but the planisphere turns at sidereal rate:

[grsbanks]

(02-10-2018 06:15 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  [...] And an HP-16C to complete that series. [...]

I was lucky enough to inherit one of those a few weeks ago, but it had LCD bleed.

   

   

After sourcing a dead Voyager unit of the same generation I was able to transplant the LCD into the HP-16C, which now looks like this (pictured with my 15C that now sports the badge that was on the dead 15C).

   

[damaltor]

(02-14-2018 01:18 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  

(02-10-2018 06:15 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  [...] And an HP-16C to complete that series. [...]

I was lucky enough to inherit one of those a few weeks ago, but it had LCD bleed.





After sourcing a dead Voyager unit of the same generation I was able to transplant the LCD into the HP-16C, which now looks like this (pictured with my 15C that now sports the badge that was on the dead 15C).

Hi,

i am very interested in the remains of your dead 15c.