How to you compute Trig functions in radians on the HP71B?

[zeno333]

How do you use Radians on the HP 71B...I have an Android emulator and can not seem to use radians...

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

RADIANS

[Dieter]

(08-19-2018 07:19 AM)zeno333 Wrote:  How do you use Radians on the HP 71B...I have an Android emulator and can not seem to use radians...

Simply set it to radians mode with the RADIANS command.

Dieter

[zeno333]

I did it...thanks

[KeithB]

But note that you have to be in "BASIC" mode, not CALC mode.

Unless the emulator is different that way.

[Joe Horn]

(08-21-2018 02:01 PM)KeithB Wrote:  But note that you have to be in "BASIC" mode, not CALC mode.

You can set the angle flag to radians in CALC mode by typing FLAG(-10,1). That takes the same number of keystrokes (12) as exiting CALC mode, typing RADIANS, and restarting CALC mode. But it impresses the natives more.

[Gene]

Hey Joe!

You sure make HP-71B Basic easy!

[rprosperi]

(08-22-2018 12:41 AM)Joe Horn Wrote:  You can set the angle flag to radians in CALC mode by typing FLAG(-10,1). That takes the same number of keystrokes (12) as exiting CALC mode, typing RADIANS, and restarting CALC mode. But it impresses the natives more.

That actually saves a keystroke since the closing parenthesis is automatically inserted for you. I knew this worked when manually inserting parenthesis in your formula, but didn't know it did so for functions as well. Maybe if I used CALC mode, I'd recall such details...

[KeithB]

I was going to mention setting the flag, but did not want to confuse things. (And I don't have the flags memorized off the top of my head!)

The flag will also be quicker since, at least on a real HP71B, there is some delay with the context switch.

rprosperi:
I *love* the HP71B calculator mode. I wish the Prime was similar with pre-calculation of results. The 71 is my main calculator at work since they frown on calculators with lots of memory and wireless communications in a secure area.

[rprosperi]

(08-22-2018 02:15 PM)KeithB Wrote:  I *love* the HP71B calculator mode. I wish the Prime was similar with pre-calculation of results. The 71 is my main calculator at work since they frown on calculators with lots of memory and wireless communications in a secure area.

Unless you really like Algebraic use (there is no accounting for taste, even here) I can help with that. There is a great RPN program for the 71B, written by Chris Capaner in '84/85 which lets you use the 71B just like any other HP RPN calculator, but still retaining the 71B's powerful and flexible BASIC. It is a BIN program, so it's instantaneous (unlike some BASIC RPN programs) and it retains the stack values when you exit (to use BASIC) and then return to RPN. It also provides (via a tiny LEX file) commands to access the X, Y, Z, and T stack values from BASIC, so it can also be easily integrated into some larger shell program if desired. This program can be found among the OLDP disks, in files RPN (Type BIN, 1288 bytes) and RPNLEX (Type LEX, 172 bytes).

It did come with an overlay (there are about 50 functions), but you can easily make one using one of the blank 71B overlays that you see on eBay, etc. still relatively cheaply. I have scanned my original and will find a link to the hi-res image posted here in the past.

There is also another more ambitious 71B RPN program, providing most of the functions of the Voyager models (without programming, but after all, you have BASIC underneath) which I will post info on soon, just trying to find a bit more documentation.

So even die-hard 71B users can still enjoy the comfort of RPN.