HP 32E requires case pressure to fully light up

[mfleming]

(02-25-2021 02:59 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  Indeed, this isn't mentioned nearly enough! The industrial design of the Spice series is abysmally poor. It's not unusual for a company to lose their way, but the drop in industrial design and maintainability standards from the Woodstock series to the Spice was precipitous, in many ways: plastic thickness/toughness, ability to take the damn thing apart, boards that connect with the tall golden fingers to 'press-fit' (who does that?!?!) and worst, they didn't fix the by then well-known susceptibility of damage to the electronics plugging it in w/o batteries.

Some of these shortages were addressed by the 41 design, though clearly still far from perfect, but most solved in the Voyager models, likely the most robust industrial design in calculator history.

And let's not forget the bag 'o chips approach to assembly in the early Spice models. Who didn't see the long term connectivity problems coming?

Still, all in all, the idea of the calculator being built like a quality instrument was no doubt fading by the end of the Classic series. Competitive pressure from TI and others.

BTW, I did manage to pry the top of the case open far enough to press down on the display board, and even managed to reassemble without breaking anything. Worked! I'm reluctant to use it again though. Way too fragile...