My HP-15C revives......

[Thomas Okken]

I wonder about the usage pattern of people whose Voyagers run for over decade before needing new batteries. I used to own an HP-10C in college, which I used a lot; I used it in my studies and exams, and I enjoyed the challenge of programming it, with its severe limitations (I also had a 41CX, on which, of course, everything was easy). I would run through a set of batteries in a matter of months -- and I started using even more after I had had it undergo speed-up surgery (which was slightly disappointing, I think it was about 1.6 times faster afterwards, while I had expected 2x).

I'm not complaining about several months on one set of batteries; I actually thought that was pretty good, given how heavily I used it. But how do you make a set of batteries last 10, 15, 20 or even more years?

Hmm, maybe my 10C was just out of spec? I don't have it any more, but I did buy a used 10C on eBay a while ago; I guess I could just pop a fresh set of batteries in there and set it to run a program with an endless loop, and see how long it takes before the low-battery warning comes on, and how long before it dies. If anyone has run this kind of test before, what did you find?