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floppy · 06-23-2021, 04:47 PM

What would you do today when you find an HP-75C when you clean up the storage of your grand-uncle and he give it to you?

Example: you take the part, put it in tight bag, and go fishing because you can call data from it because it will remember to you the coordinate of monster fishes you stored it it. So, something pragmatical (I know, running with an HP-75C and going fishing is a bit weird.. however practical.. and more fun than running with raspberry pi and GPS).

(please:
- dont explain you would fall in love again
- dont say you will sleep with it because it remember your student time
- dont put it into a big glas and try to keep it for the next 200years)

Background: a colleague in the US is going to pension and will be running around garages etc. and sometime, he find things. I would give him a picture of an HP-75C and send him chasing it (I already made him aware of HP-71B etc.).

Maximilian Hohmann · 06-23-2021, 06:06 PM

Hello!

(06-23-2021 04:47 PM)floppy Wrote: What would you do today when you find an HP-75C ...

I would put it in the box together with the others (I have more than one already).

Greetings
Max

floppy · 06-23-2021, 09:46 PM

(06-23-2021 06:06 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote: Hello!

(06-23-2021 04:47 PM)floppy Wrote: What would you do today when you find an HP-75C ...

I would put it in the box together with the others (I have more than one already).

Greetings
Max

You mean no pragmatical use can be imagined? come on.. something.
Something better than making SUDOKU in the long winter period.

twoweims · 06-23-2021, 10:28 PM

HP-75C makes a great alarm clock for light sleepers. Wink

floppy · 06-24-2021, 07:03 AM

(06-23-2021 10:28 PM)twoweims Wrote: HP-75C makes a great alarm clock for light sleepers.

This is the first pragmatic idea. Using an HP-75C below few books on the table nearby the bed (as a flat clock).
Has anybody another idea?
(example: if the price is too high, I would not spend more than 50USD for a bed clock since my Blackberry Q10 has already one and this is flat).

Maximilian Hohmann · (This post was last modified: 06-24-2021 09:24 AM by Maximilian Hohmann.)

Hello!

(06-23-2021 09:46 PM)floppy Wrote: You mean no pragmatical use can be imagined? come on.. something.

No, I'm afraid, nothing at all. And I sleep very well so there is little to no chance that I will wake up from it's feeble chirping. This calculator has very little appeal to me. For a calculator it lacks a dedicated numerical keyboard and for a quite powerful BASIC programmable computer one display line is just not enough.
With some peripherials (like the HP-IL to HP-IB interface) and a plotter one could use it to draw christmas cards or similar items though.

Greetings
Max

floppy · 06-24-2021, 09:41 AM

Thanks Max for your straight and honest message. Lets wait if anybody here has another opinion/idea.

Further comment from my side. This is another side of the story: how to justify to other family member I spent 50USD on a vintage box? all take my vintage sun glasses, my vintage rain coat, my vintage pen.. (= I can invest there), it means a real vintage box must be explained and the use described (any kind of return on invest will be explained in comparison to other raspberry pi etc. I have a t home). I know, this is hearthless.

Sylvain Cote · (This post was last modified: 06-24-2021 11:34 AM by Sylvain Cote.)

For me, the most important feature of the HP-75, like the HP-41 & HP-71, was HP-IL and its capacity of controlling remote equipment with it.
I could surely see an HP-75 controlling an equatorial platform allowing to capture great pictures with a telescope.
The machine is fast, can go to sleep and be wakeup with a timer, has a great BASIC implementation, good I/O, so perfect for this kind of problem.
You would need the following: HP-75, IO-ROM, HP-IL/GPIO interface, step motors, equatorial platform, telescope, camera mount, camera & remote camera controller.

Maximilian Hohmann · 06-24-2021, 11:56 AM

Hello!

(06-24-2021 11:21 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote: You would need the following: HP-75, IO-ROM, HP-IL/GPIO interface, step motors, equatorial platform, telescope, camera mount, camera & remote camera controller.

And not to forget a step motor driver that can handle input from HP-IB (GPIO). The microcontroller required to build that can easily handle all tasks related to telescope operation therby redering the HP75 useless. And with an unlit display it is useless for this task anyway, not to mention that it's 16kBytes of memory will hold a very very limited catalog of celestial objects only. I think I will continue to control my telescopes using my iPhone...

Regards
Max

Maximilian Hohmann · 06-24-2021, 12:02 PM

Hello!

(06-24-2021 09:41 AM)floppy Wrote: Further comment from my side. This is another side of the story: how to justify to other family member I spent 50USD on a vintage box?

You can consider yourself very lucky IFR you can find one for 50$... Anyway, how would you justify the purchase of a Van Gogh for 200 Million Euros? Nobody needs a Van Gogh and good copies can be found cheaply yet people spend this kind of money to own one.
For me one of the good things about collecting is that one does not have to justify anything :-)

Regards
Max

Garth Wilson · 06-24-2021, 06:01 PM

Someone gave me a 75C. It's pretty beat up, but it does work. I had thought about just using the shell, keyboard, and LCD and building a different computer into it.

As for an alarm clock (as mentioned above), the only alarm clock I use is my 41cx. The 71 would work too, and if you set the beeper to loud, it is really loud!

floppy · 06-24-2021, 07:09 PM

(06-24-2021 06:01 PM)Garth Wilson Wrote: Someone gave me a 75C. It's pretty beat up, but it does work. I had thought about just using the shell, keyboard, and LCD and building a different computer into it.

Good idea for winter time. Other Idea: you take a touchscreen of the (approx) size of an HP75, you put a raspberry PI board on the back and use an EMU75. the raspberry pi could start with raspbian and the launch would be with "wine" and/or "dosbox". you would have the HP75 feeling with modern hearth (I could not find any HP75 emulator under windows it means perhaps dosbox would be the only solution for now).

Garth Wilson · 06-24-2021, 07:38 PM

(06-24-2021 07:09 PM)floppy Wrote: Other Idea: you take a touchscreen of the (approx) size of an HP75

Oh man, you said the wrong thing! I hate touchscreens! Big Grin

The grime, the parallax, the lack of tactile feel, etc.. (And no, I don't use a smartphone.) I wouldn't mind the LCD having smaller characters, to get more characters per line and maybe two lines; but otherwise the 75's design attracts me a lot more.

KeithB · 06-24-2021, 08:35 PM

Well they *could* have tactile feel. The difference in feel in my iPhone's home button between its active and "dead" state is amazing.

As for the HP75, I guess you could hook it up to a weather station and a set of sprinklers and make a weather sensitive (don't water when it rains) controller.

You could also use it to control model trains.

Hook it up to a WiFi module and make a Twitter-station. 8^)

floppy · 06-24-2021, 08:56 PM

My thoughts:
- I buy an HP75 (a dead one; good keyboard).. cheap.. no family member will complain
- I replace the screen with LCDs
- I connect the keyboard with a GPIO (and raspberry PI board in it; for controlling the LCDs with EMU75)
= high feeling with HP keyboard, pain of reading only 1 line (vintage good pain), modern technology.

Any other ready to go idea for an HP75 full of life?

Chr Yoko · 06-25-2021, 03:00 PM

I may transform the 75C into a wearable-computer-watch such as that project :

https://hackaday.io/project/169343/galle...e3dea67f5d

twoweims · 06-25-2021, 06:47 PM

(06-25-2021 03:00 PM)Chr Yoko Wrote: I may transform the 75C into a wearable-computer-watch such as that project :

https://hackaday.io/project/169343/galle...e3dea67f5d

Perfect! The 75C already has wonderful time and appointment mode features so the only real modification needed would be to add a watch band! Wink

ijabbott · 06-25-2021, 06:54 PM

(06-25-2021 03:00 PM)Chr Yoko Wrote: I may transform the 75C into a wearable-computer-watch such as that project :

https://hackaday.io/project/169343/galle...e3dea67f5d

Be the envy of your 1980s' friends with your super-duper calculator watch!

floppy · 06-25-2021, 07:45 PM

lets avoid a bit decadence.
I have the feeling we all invite our neighbour (female) in order to show our vintage calculator collection.
ok ok. thats possible and for sure a good plan.
But anything else is welcome (that good old plan is known).

C.Ret · (This post was last modified: 06-28-2021 08:59 AM by C.Ret.)

(06-23-2021 04:47 PM)floppy Wrote: What would you do today when you find an HP-75C when you clean up the storage of your grand-uncle and he give it to you?

It would really be the very first time my great uncle gave me something!

Otherwise, I will very gladly use this HP-75C as a portable device for reading and recording the daily values displayed by the many thermometers, pressure switches, flowmeters and controldisplays of all kinds present in my immediate professional environment.