Is 50g good or crap?

[Thomas Radtke]

(05-02-2014 02:05 PM)jebem Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 10:41 PM)Egan Ford Wrote:  50g's are $75 at Amazon. Instead of taking your wife out to dinner this weekend, get a 50g and make pasta.

I tried that approach with my other half, but no luck They don't understand us.

The key is to understand them. The correct selection of red wine, some candles, and music from an italian opera is crucial.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(05-03-2014 06:37 AM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  

(05-02-2014 02:05 PM)jebem Wrote:  I tried that approach with my other half, but no luck :( They don't understand us.

The key is to understand them. The correct selection of red wine, some candles, and music from an italian opera is crucial.

Well, in my case, candles would produce the opposite effect... and thrown at me. :)

[jebem]

(05-03-2014 08:55 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  

(05-03-2014 06:37 AM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  The key is to understand them. The correct selection of red wine, some candles, and music from an italian opera is crucial.

Well, in my case, candles would produce the opposite effect... and thrown at me.

Thank You all, You are stressing me a little bit more...
Now that I'm traveling this weekend to Brussels to yet another week running one more VMware vSphere Fast Track course training, I guess that I have no other choice than take the opportunity and acquire some expensive diamond earrings gift, instead of the initial petrol perfumed candles that I saw in a so nice local Chinese shop near my local home in Lisbon

[Thomas Radtke]

(05-03-2014 09:58 AM)jebem Wrote:  [...] I guess that I have no other choice than take the opportunity and acquire some expensive diamond earrings gift [...]

Now we're talking!

;-)

[lemontea]

Based on discussions here and replies to some of my questions, it is highly possible I might spring for a Prime soon instead of a 50g. But I write this knowing that I already purchased a WP-34S (not yet arrived).

Surely it is not possible that I will end up also buying a 50g? Nah, that would be too ridiculous and my wife will very likely XEQ me for it!

:-D

[jebem]

(05-04-2014 02:09 AM)lemontea Wrote:  Based on discussions here and replies to some of my questions, it is highly possible I might spring for a Prime soon instead of a 50g. But I write this knowing that I already purchased a WP-34S (not yet arrived).

Surely it is not possible that I will end up also buying a 50g? Nah, that would be too ridiculous and my wife will very likely XEQ me for it!

:-D

My super RPN WP-34S keeps me busy right now.
I'm discovering how great is this project from Walter, Pauli and Marcus, among other contributors.
I tried the emulator before getting the calculator, but I prefer to have the "real thing" to play with.

That said, I believe that there is space for the HP-50G and for the HP-Prime as well. Besides a common set of features, then each one covers different areas as well, so I think I'm not alone when I say: I have all of them and I do not regret it.

[lemontea]

One very strong (possibly temporary) argument for the 50g (instead of the Prime) is the vast extant literature on it, with lots of programs, training, insight, etc. But as we go along, I am sure there will be more of such for the Prime as well.

[HP67]

The 50g is the continuation of the 48 series which has been around since 1990. It is unlikely the Prime will ever catch up with the amount of programs and technical doc.

On the other hand, we are very fortunate to have HP guys and other people who have been close to HP supporting both devices here on the forum. It is extremely unlikely that you will come up with a question on either the 50g or the Prime that can't be answered. And on the Prime you even have a good chance of getting your ideas into the next software version.

Jebem said it well, the two calculators are really different and for different types of users. There is nothing but money stopping anybody from getting them both and applying them as intended. "Pick the right tool for the job."

[Manolo Sobrino]

I just found this... (Han, are these pics yours?) They are not altered, mine is the same. Judge for yourself:


(Real men don't use spring contacts... and solder every wire to electrolytic capacitor terminals when they can. The piezoelectric beeper is fixed with tape, if something rattles inside your 50G now you know what it is.)

My favourite:


(Be extra-careful when soldering BT5+, hot tip+ ribbon... I wasn't )

Key domes are taped to the board:


(I've seen this technique in €10 clock radio knobs... actually for these it is nicer because when the scotch adhesive doesn't adhere any more you can replace it without drilling the case. BTW, the metal domes are like this.)

The full set

If anybody can identify the JTAG connectors, please let me know. I have an idea about it, but I'm not sure.

[Egan Ford]

(05-05-2014 12:02 AM)lemontea Wrote:  One very strong (possibly temporary) argument for the 50g (instead of the Prime) is the vast extant literature on it, with lots of programs, training, insight, etc. But as we go along, I am sure there will be more of such for the Prime as well.

IMHO, the Prime will never catch up to the "vast extant literature on it, with lots of programs, training, insight, etc.". AFAIK, the 50g never caught up with the 48 or 41 series.

[cutterjohn]

(05-08-2014 08:39 PM)Egan Ford Wrote:  

(05-05-2014 12:02 AM)lemontea Wrote:  One very strong (possibly temporary) argument for the 50g (instead of the Prime) is the vast extant literature on it, with lots of programs, training, insight, etc. But as we go along, I am sure there will be more of such for the Prime as well.

IMHO, the Prime will never catch up to the "vast extant literature on it, with lots of programs, training, insight, etc.". AFAIK, the 50g never caught up with the 48 or 41 series.

I think that they're lumping, more or less 28S -> 50G all as one big "48" grouping as really you can use alot of the dox for the entire line w/the 50G although starting with the 49G alot of stuff was added standard that wasn't in the prior firmwares except some as addons, etc at least for the Xs. (Can't remember if they were sold as cards and/or separate software).

Anyways, by the time I got my 48SX, mid-90s IIRC the publications had already seemingly drastically tailed off, and I never saw much for the >=49G until they were already in the mortgage your house to buy copies price range.

TBH I don't think that the 3rd party publications were ever that big or at least in my HP experience, say 90s onwards, that or I never looked in the right places or missed any relevant comp.sys.hp48 postings... and today AFAICT it's even LESS active as in this forum + maybe still comp.sys.hp48 + also maybe the hp forums will end up being the primary Prime references.

[Egan Ford]

(05-09-2014 04:59 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  TBH I don't think that the 3rd party publications were ever that big or at least in my HP experience, say 90s onwards, that or I never looked in the right places or missed any relevant comp.sys.hp48 postings... and today AFAICT it's even LESS active as in this forum + maybe still comp.sys.hp48 + also maybe the hp forums will end up being the primary Prime references.

Search for hp48 in books @ amazon.com. There are a surprising number of books. Granted its not 100s of different books, but relative to what I expect to see from the Prime, the % of Prime books will probably round to zero.

How the "Internet" publishing platform compares to print media with respect to the Prime, I agree it will become the primary Prime reference. However I speculate the quality of that reference will not match that of the concentrated effort that went in to past 48 books.

None of this is a dig against the Prime, it is just the state of HP calculators today.

[walter b]

(01-17-1970 04:47 AM)cutterjohn Wrote:  TBH I don't think that the 3rd party publications were ever that big ... and today AFAICT it's even LESS active as in this forum + maybe still comp.sys.hp48 + also maybe the hp forums will end up being the primary Prime references.

Regarding the latter, I don't hope that will come - and we'll work against that.

d:-)

[lemontea]

I have to say, looking at those innards pics really turned me off on the 50g.

(OTOH the WP looks much better! Good call on the 30b platform.)

[neonjohn]

Best calculator I've ever had and that's saying a lot considering I have an HP-41 and all the calculators older than that plus a selection of blister-packed ones. I like mine well enough that when they announced the EOL, I bought a case of them even though I'm retirement age. True the old ones are bullet (and probably tank) proof but dang, the HP-45 was $495!!! HP obviously had to scrimp on something to keep the price reasonable and I think they made pretty good choices. I don't like their decision of putting the Saturn on an ARM chip but I can live with it.

The big hairy zit on the nose of this calculator is HP's decision to gimp the IrDA port. The academics claimed that people would "cheat" if the IrDA actually worked. The transmit port is so gimped that it'll barely drive the printer when the windows are in contact.

Being a design engineer, I just could not let this situation prevail. So I designed a MUCH improved IrDA. It will hit my calculator from 6-8 ft away. Unfortunately this wasn't the easy job I thought it would be. I was hoping that a change in resistor or something similar. Faint wishes. When HP gimped the calculator they did so with malfeasance in their hearts.

They had a special IrDA transceiver made just for the IrDA capable devices. It looks just like an IrDA transceiver you might see in a TV remote or something. But with 5 volts on it, I could barely see it with my IR-sensitive camera.

Not wanting to risk one of those COB blobs from where the drive signal came from, I designed a board to fit in place of the IrDA thing. I had to sacrifice the transmit side so to fit everything in. I used the most efficient IR LED I could find and switched it with the lowest Rds power fet I could find.

This mod works extremely well but I'm not so sure anyone else would want to risk their calculator unless they had a box of spares like me.

John

[Allen]

(04-30-2023 08:48 AM)Alchemisst Wrote:  HP 50g should have color like prime,better graphing,better CAS

The 50g was released in 2006.. Have you seen what the top electronics looked like back then?

I love my 50g, though I admit I tend to use the 48g more, only because I'm more familiar with the menus. The 50g is a good compromise, as it does not require recharging, but is faster/more powerful than the 48g series.

[Alchemisst]

Whatever Prime beats HP 50g in all respects,era of HP 50g is gone

[Allen]

(04-30-2023 11:44 AM)Alchemisst Wrote:  Whatever Prime beats HP 50g in all respects,era of HP 50g is gone

Battery life on the 50g is much better! in 15 years of owning a 50g I've never had to plug it in to charge, and only replaced the batteries infrequently.

[Marco Polo]

(04-30-2023 11:47 AM)Allen Wrote:  

(04-30-2023 11:44 AM)Alchemisst Wrote:  Whatever Prime beats HP 50g in all respects,era of HP 50g is gone

Battery life on the 50g is much better! in 15 years of owning a 50g I've never had to plug it in to charge, and only replaced the batteries infrequently.

Hp50 cannot recharge as batteries as it does not have recharge circuits

[Alchemisst]

You must be using it less frequently.Moreover HP 50g is just useful for calculations as it lacks most of advanced mathematical features like hypergeometric series,taylor series,laurent series and it can't integrate most of expressions lt has cheap graphing ,no geometry.

HP 50g is irrelevant and stands too small in front of the beast HP Prime which is like a mathematical computer.