Most common calculators in the forum?

[Craig Bladow]

HP
2x25
41C
41CX
42S
11C
15C
32SII
35S
48GX
49G+
50G
71B
Prime (C)

TI
55

But I'm not a collector!

[jebem]

I guess many prominent members do not post here because they have so many machines in their collections that this is not really practical.
This starts looking more like an inventory database now...

Anyhow here is part of my collection:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-481...ht=Show+of

Yes, Prime is losing against the others here.

For instance i have just one Prime but i have two 41cv and a bunch of 50G and 48S ang G as well.
Oh, and quite a few Casios and Texas too, not to mention Sharps, Canons, and other brands that i cant recall right now.

Maybe the question would be more oriented to what machines do you actually use on a regular basis.

[brickviking]

Just a quick note about the Canon, pie4r? It's a F-804P. And my fx-9750GII behaves like a fx-9860gII without a backlight.

Cheers.

(Post 136)

[Marco Polo]

Hi!
My calcs, HP only:

1 x 28s
1 x 48sx + 128kb card + eqn lib card
1 x 48gx + 128kb card + 1mb card (both Cynox)
1 x 50g
1 x 35s
1 x 200lx

[Carsen]

(11-30-2017 04:36 AM)lemontea Wrote:  

(11-30-2017 04:05 AM)Carsen Wrote:  As a young man born in the 90's, my collection consists of only modern models (so far..heh).

1. HP 50g
2. Another HP 50g
3. HP-12C (Bought in 2016)
4. HP Prime
   

I am currently hunting out the HP 48GX because of my liking to RPL. I also hunting for a HP-15C as I find the Voyager series extremely ingenious and fascinating. I'll have to try a HP 41CV and a HP 42s on a emulator somehow. I hear high praises about these two units and I want to see for myself.

Hey young man, whatever you do, don't buy one of those DM42s coming out, and let us old guys get a chance first! LOL

That'll be easy. After all, my purchasing power is much weaker than most of you old guys. Especially since I'm currently paying for college. Lol.

[grsbanks]

(11-30-2017 07:31 AM)Carsen Wrote:  That'll be easy. After all, my purchasing power is much weaker than most of you old guys. Especially since I'm currently paying for college. Lol.

Why don't you go for a SwissMicros DM15L? They're easier to come by than an original HP-15C -- in fact their very raison d'être is the rarity of the HP model (Michael's HP-15C gave up the ghost, he couldn't find a replacement so he started a company that makes them). They operate exactly like the HP-15C with a few extras (they run the original HP-15C ROM in an ARM-based emulator), they are much faster, they're reasonably (IMO) priced and built like a tank.

Head on over to http://www.swissmicros.com

[Gamo]

Real Calculator

HP 12C (the 12C+ Edition)

None-HP: Casio fx-300ES and Casio Casio fx 260 Solar Scientific Calculator

Coming Soon: HP 11C



Gamo

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(11-30-2017 03:38 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  

(11-29-2017 11:10 PM)pier4r Wrote:  In the meanwhile, where is your list?

Who cares? I believe you've figured out that the 41 is the most popular HP calculator and that it's neither rare nor expensive on eBay. Also, that the 50g and Prime aren't as popular as you thought they'd be because this is a vintage HP calculator website targeted at HP calculators introduced between 1968 and 1986.

It could be argued that the 12C is the most popular HP calculator as it's been in production for over 30 years, but that's because of the business community and most of us have technical backgrounds and favor the scientific models.

Amen Dave!
Your words could have been mine, had I spotted this thread before.
See what you miss at MoHPC when you go out for a night? :-)

[jthole]

Here are my little numbers ... (very little indeed)

HP:

1x HP 35s (actually just sold)
2x HP 12c (the one I got first is in such nice condition that it stays in the house. I bought a very cheap "beater" (US$15), made in Malaysia, for taking with me on the road.

non-HP:

1x TI-35 (1982 version)
1x SwissMicros DM15L

My Casio FX-4000p must be somewhere, but I don't know where, so that doesn't count ...

[Luigi Vampa]

HP28s
HP48sx
HP50g

[pier4r]

Updated so far until the post quoted below.

(11-30-2017 03:38 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Who cares?

Me, statistics and forum history. Is it enough? https://i0.wp.com/media4.giphy.com/media.../giphy.gif

For example I am getting surprised by the distribution, so statistics may help change some views or getting interested in some models, etc.

Quote:Also, that the 50g and Prime aren't as popular as you thought they'd be because this is a vintage HP calculator website targeted at HP calculators introduced between 1968 and 1986.

I am not sure how to interpret this passage.
For my perspective it seems like "here we discuss systems sold between 1968 and 1986, the rest is not welcomed". If I am not wrong (and I hope I am), I can accept that you have this view but I don't agree on it. It sounds too much like gate keeping.

For me a museum collects history (that is: the recorded past), and yesterday is history too (if someone recorded something yesterday).
Furthermore I can understand that having mixed discussions about the HP 35 or the prime is not the best, but that was the case with the previous forum organization. With the new forum, you choose the section that you like and that is.
Also with the new forum (and with proper titles), you just ignore what you are not interested in (like I did with many 41 topics) without risking that interesting topics on the systems that you like gets archived tomorrow.

I also believe many people that have the prime do not see this section, therefore we see low numbers (and I "killed" the report of applications, that are the most common solution nowadays. If I introduce the applications I guess the Prime wins hands down, together with Free42)

Aside from the points above, surely having more members, due to the larger span of calculators covered (well, TI/casio and co are not really covered), may decrease the quality of the posts. One can empirically prove this on many social networks, some reddit communities are especially good at this.
Nonetheless if the community is "controlling itself" (i.e: uninteresting spam(i) gets nuked) one can get only new perspectives and activities that are interesting. For example math problems that can be solved with the 50g, the prime or the 41, and an interesting math problem can come from any passionate member, also without calculators.

Quote:It could be argued that the 12C is the most popular HP calculator as it's been in production for over 30 years, but that's because of the business community and most of us have technical backgrounds and favor the scientific models.

I partially agree here. Because surely a product that is sold en masse is likely to be common, but the point is also another: how many that bought a calculator keep using it and let it work.
In the 1970-1980-1990 maybe was common that people would care about their calculators, but today it is likely that they won't care much and those get wasted. Therefore asking for working calculators may bring surprises.
But even if people care about their calculators, time will slowly break down everything.

For example about the 41 (that so far has a solid 1st place thanks to S. Cote): it was produced between 1979 and 1990 (quick info from the wiki). So even newer models have 27 years. Who ensures that they are still working?

That is surprising, not that there are 40+ models of the 41 and variations, but that there are that many - compared to other models - that are still working.

I would like to know the results of a similar survey in 2019, 2021 and so on. Sooner or later they will stop working, I think. So would be interesting to track the change of the distribution in different years.

(i) uninteresting for the majority, not only for you (or for me).

[pier4r]

(11-30-2017 06:55 AM)jebem Wrote:  Maybe the question would be more oriented to what machines do you actually use on a regular basis.

I knew the problem of extensive collections (although I also expected that people would dump a CSV or a text file, just to show off. But it did not happen yet).

Indeed I wrote:
"So please reply reporting which calculators do you have (or a subset of them if you want)"

At the end we assume good faith, so one could report only the models that he is really in love with aside from the ones he has to have a "check" in the collection.

edit1: nice shoots here: http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-481...ht=Show+of

The problem is that I cannot really count them (and I do not know if the examples are working) . Plus I may mistake a calculator for another (aside from the 50g and the 48, I cannot really distinguish quickly the others). So I will stick to your written report.


edit2:
@brickviking
"And my fx-9750GII behaves like a fx-9860gII without a backlight"
This means that I should consider fx-9750gII and fx-9860gII part of the same series? Was not the second with SD card?

edit3:
A recap so far
- 47 x 41 C/CX/CV . Solid first place with S.Cote having them breed (I cannot explain otherwise).

- 29 x 48G/GX/S/SX/G+ ; 28 x 50g . Super close numbers for the second place (note that considering the 48gII and 49G+, the 50g series would pull ahead)

- 17 x Prime vs 12 x 35S, 12 x 42S . Impressive the numbers of real 42S still working around, compared to the prime. The so disdained 35S is not that bad too (still compared to the prime).

- 7 x 34S . I was expecting more actually. Considering that: 4 x DM42/DM42Beta . The DM42 is not even in production yet and is quite popular compared to the rest of the options.

[grsbanks]

(11-30-2017 02:26 PM)pier4r Wrote:  Indeed I wrote:
"So please reply reporting which calculators do you have (or a subset of them if you want)"

FWIW I included all the machines that I own just for the sake of completeness but I rarely touch any of the Casio or TI machines. The Casio fx-9860GII and the TI NSpire CAS CX are among the most user-unfriendly machines I have come across!

My main "go to" machines are the DM41L and, increasingly as the firmware slowly emerges from beta to production level, the DM42.

I think it was fairly predictable that the "41" would be the most widespread machine owned in this forum at least. As someone else pointed out, not only was it a game changer that rendered pretty much every other calculator on the planet obsolete, but it was also so much more than a calculator. It was just one (OK, the main one) device in a whole ecosystem that was open for anyone to add to. I'd love to get hold of a CX or CV but having just been on holiday I'd have a hard time justifying the outlay to the other half

[rprosperi]

(11-30-2017 02:13 PM)pier4r Wrote:  

Quote:Also, that the 50g and Prime aren't as popular as you thought they'd be because this is a vintage HP calculator website targeted at HP calculators introduced between 1968 and 1986.

I am not sure how to interpret this passage.
For my perspective it seems like "here we discuss systems sold between 1968 and 1986, the rest is not welcomed". If I am not wrong (and I hope I am), I can accept that you have this view but I don't agree on it. It sounds too much like gate keeping.

I think you missed Dave's point. Because this place is a museum, it naturally is visited by people that have decided to visit a museum, probably because they have older HP machines, so the results reflect the older nature of machines in use by those people.

If you wanted to know the distribution of new sports cars being purchased and driven, you likely would not see good results polling visitors to a car museum.

All visitors and topics are of interest, no one is trying to erect gates, this is just a view to explain why the actual results differ from what you expected to see.

Being surprised that the 41 is at or near the top confirms that you did not have a complete view of HP calculator history, or of the general user base here. That is not a bad thing, but it explains your expectations, and it also means that this poll is a good way to learn such info; I'm sure many younger and recent members were also educated by the replies in this thread.

[Thomas Okken]

(11-30-2017 02:13 PM)pier4r Wrote:  

(11-30-2017 03:38 AM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Also, that the 50g and Prime aren't as popular as you thought they'd be because this is a vintage HP calculator website targeted at HP calculators introduced between 1968 and 1986.

I am not sure how to interpret this passage.
For my perspective it seems like "here we discuss systems sold between 1968 and 1986, the rest is not welcomed". If I am not wrong (and I hope I am), I can accept that you have this view but I don't agree on it. It sounds too much like gate keeping.

Indeed. Given the volume of discussion on this forum on decidedly post-1986 topics like RPL and the WP-34, there are plenty of people here who don't share the sentiment that seems to be behind Dave F.'s comment.

(11-30-2017 02:13 PM)pier4r Wrote:  For example about the 41 (that so far has a solid 1st place thanks to S. Cote): it was produced between 1979 and 1990 (quick info from the wiki). So even newer models have 27 years. Who ensures that they are still working?

The point I tried to make in my previous post was that, during the 11 or 12 years it was made, the HP-41 completely dominated the high-end calculator market. If you wanted a high-end programmable calculator, you got a 41, the only question being C, CV, or CX. They sold like crazy and were used everywhere.

By the time the RPL calculators took over the crown, the calculator marketplace had started to shrink because PCs were becoming more and more affordable. The trend continues today, with smartphones squeezing the life out of what's left of demand for calculators.

Because of all this, the 41 is probably the best-selling high-end calculator of all time. Given that, and the fact that they were pretty well made, it's no surprise that they are still easy to find, still fairly inexpensive, and extremely well represented in people's collections. People may talk about their RPL machines more, but the 41 lives on.

[pier4r]

(11-30-2017 02:43 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  All visitors and topics are of interest, no one is trying to erect gates, this is just a view to explain why the actual results differ from what you expected to see.

Yes this makes sense. Although I was not expecting to see a distributions reflecting new buyers (because otherwise I won't have mentioned the 48 series that is long gone), rather a distribution reflecting users here.

Quote:Being surprised that the 41 is at or near the top confirms that you did not have a complete view of HP calculator history, or of the general user base here. That is not a bad thing, but it explains your expectations, and it also means that this poll is a good way to learn such info; I'm sure many younger and recent members were also educated by the replies in this thread.

For the 41 surprise, I thought it was like the 42S. Quite powerful but expensive and aging ( with aging I mean: after 20+ years things break down. If my first 50g is still working after 2030 I'll kiss the ground).
So I was expecting the 41 to be used, but not so massively. Also the 42S is a monster but it is also not that fast, so I was also expecting people to have their 41 (or other 'old' models) but using mostly newer models due to practical reasons.

Said that, newer models (say, a 48) being more inexpensive, common and younger would therefore be more popular in the survey. So far it is not so.

As you said "and it also means that this poll is a good way to learn such info; I'm sure many younger and recent members were also educated by the replies in this thread.", so this topic (and in general data) is helpful. At least for me.

So far I have at least the following effects:
(a) reading more about the 41. I read briefly in the Hp journal (where a quintillion of devices was produced for the thing, even a pen to read bar codes and exchange programs)
(b) See if there is a valid 41 replica in software somewhere (windows/linux won't be bad).
(c) See if it can adapt to my workflow.
(d) Already checked. See if I can get a 41 myself, but they are over budget. Even the dm41 or the 41CL (if I understood right they are new) are out of my reach for the moment.

(11-30-2017 02:45 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  Because of all this, the 41 is probably the best-selling high-end calculator of all time. Given that, and the fact that they were pretty well made, it's no surprise that they are still easy to find, still fairly inexpensive, and extremely well represented in people's collections. People may talk about their RPL machines more, but the 41 lives on.

And indeed that's nice. Would be a pity to see such technological feats unused. I did not know that the 41 was a best selling machine, I had the idea that when people (especially companies) need something, they bought desktop calculators/computers.
For example the Hp 9100 series or 9800 (If I am not mistaken about the numbers).

[jthole]

Great work! I see you put me in for a 35, but I have a 35s

Actually my science teacher in highschool had a HP 35. I think that's where my interest in HP calculators started. However, the university courses I attended dictated a Casio, so it never grew beyond a mild interest, until I found out about HP emulator apps.

[grsbanks]

(11-30-2017 04:05 PM)jthole Wrote:  the university courses I attended dictated a Casio

Don't get me started on that

The only reason courses dictate a particular type of calculator is so they can show you exactly which buttons to press on it to get a given result. What are students learning with that? Nothing! They should be learning how to use and program their calculators to solve problems and it shouldn't matter which one they use as long as they are able to devise and implement a sound algorithm.

I wouldn't be surprised if HP never made inroads into the education sector because they held that same belief that a particular type of machine shouldn't be foisted upon students. If memory serves, it was the TI-57 being shoved down students' necks at the facility I attended (it was EOL by then so I bet the school got a batch of them on the cheap). I didn't buy into that, I rebelled and used a brand spanking new HP-15C and still came out OK in maths...

[pier4r]

(11-30-2017 04:17 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  The only reason courses dictate a particular type of calculator is so they can show you exactly which buttons to press on it to get a given result. What are students learning with that? Nothing! They should be learning how to use and program their calculators to solve problems and it shouldn't matter which one they use as long as they are able to devise and implement a sound algorithm.

Those are not only teachers though. I remember when I contributed with a method to solve a particularly lengthy problem in one exam in the University (nothing fancy, just "look we have calculators"). I published some personal notes on the subject (i) using as example the sharp el 506w.

On the day of the exam, 20 people, I am not kidding, show up with a brand new sharp el 506w and... asked me how to do the procedure since they just looked briefly in the manual.
I explained them but I was quite surprised.

It is us "human". We may be more interested to develop our way with a calculator, but we are not interested in cleaning a bike chain, there is someone else that will do this. And so people put efforts where they are interested.

(i) see http://pier4r.wikispaces.com/file/view/A...r1.1.9.pdf page 178, but it is Italian)

[smp]

Here are my few:

HP:

HP-86B
HP-41C -> 41CL
HP-200LX
HP Jornada 820
HP-110+
HP Prime

non-HP:

TI SR-10
TI SR-11
TI-74 (currently en route to me)
TI Voyage 200

smp