Your First Handheld?

[Dave Frederickson]

An HP-35 which I received for Xmas in '73 as a junior in high school. It had been briefly owned by a family friend who upgraded to a 45.

Still runs.

[ekubaskie]

HP-45. Followed as soon as I could get one by the HP-65.

[kakima]

After several slide rules, an HP-25 in December 1975 when I was a freshman in college.

[Steve Simpkin]

(05-07-2014 11:39 PM)Gerson W. Barbosa Wrote:  These were my first, second and third (for those who can read it :-) real handhelds.

Gerson,
I am going to say 15C, 28S and 42S. The other five numbers/symbol values displayed (incremented every 9.8 seconds) do not appear to be valid HP calculator models.
Thanks for the puzzle
Steve

[Visu]

HP 11C.

I think this question appeared in the previous forum 10 years ago.

[Dave Britten]

Now, if we're talking HP handhelds, the first would be a 95LX my father obtained from his employer in the mid '90s. He didn't have a lot of need for it, but I made use of QBasic and Memo for experimenting. A couple years later, I obtained a first-gen Windows CE handheld (Cassiopeia A-10?) but exchanged it for a 200LX due to some reliability issues and functional defficiencies. This was all around late middle school, mind you; I was and am a huge nerd. Loved the Database app then, and still do.

Eventually I fad-chased my way back to Windows CE, and later settled on Palm OS, but always kind of regretted selling the HP (though the Palm OS handhelds were generally wonderful in their own regards, and I remember most of the fondly even though I hate handwriting recognition). Got another 200LX around 2006, and won't make the mistake of selling it again, but you also won't be separating me from my iPhone and iPad either. Two very different use cases that neither can really handle for the other. I'm finding that for non-connected PIM functions, the 200LX just can't be beat even after 20 years. I'd kill for an iPad version of Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.4. Numbers is an utter joke in comparison.

For programmable calculators, I started with a Sharp in 5th grade (EL-9200C or something along those lines), TI-82 in 7th grade (loved it, but outgrew it quickly), TI-86 and later TI-92 in 9th grade, TI-83 in 10th grade, TI-92+ upgrade module in 10th or 11th grade (can't remember the exact year), and I believe my first HP was the 48GX I purchased in 10th grade. I still have it, and bought it a 128KB RAM card a few years ago. I've also owned a 49G, whose keyboard I've always despised. I got a 50G in college, but still felt like the 48 was a more polished product. I've since obtained a number of other HP handhelds, mostly via ebay and other second-hand means.

Right now I'm in the hospital, having had surgery this past Monday. I'm hooked up to a PCA pump that I can use to dispense 0.2 mg hydromorphone as often as every 6 minutes. My trusty 48GX is sitting on my lap right now, with a small program that allows me to enter my current pain level (0-10), and also records the time at which I'm pressing the PCA button. It schedules an alarm 6 minutes out, plays the traditional "CHARGE!" fanfare to let me know it's time to hit the dosage button, and repeats as necessary. Then I can send the data over to my 200LX via IR to merge it with my pain management spreadsheet. A bit overkill? Absolutely. But the efficient dosing and great mental distraction are working wonders for my recovery and psyche.

I want to make some improvements to the program so that it automatically calculates an appropriate maintenance interval rather than always reporting 6 minutes. That's today's software engineering goal, I suppose.

[Jeff O.]

I think it was a Sears 4-banger, which may have been a rebranded Bowmar. As soon as I got a part time job and saved up $395, I got an HP-45. My parents, friends, etc. thought I was nuts.

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(05-08-2014 05:09 AM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  

(05-07-2014 11:39 PM)Gerson W. Barbosa Wrote:  These were my first, second and third (for those who can read it :-) real handhelds.

Gerson,
I am going to say 15C, 28S and 42S. The other five numbers/symbol values displayed (incremented every 9.8 seconds) do not appear to be valid HP calculator models.
Thanks for the puzzle
Steve

Hello Steve,

Yes, those were my first HP calculators, in order. The HP-15C was a replacement to a TI-59 after being stolen by a burglar; the HP-28S was acquired one year later and used for another year. The HP-42S was used only two months during college vacations. When classes returned I sold it (which I regret) and bought an HP-48G (replaced with a 48GX one week later).
When the output O3 of the Johnson counter is activated, the counter is reset, so the displays cycles through the three valid calculator models. Actually, that should have been a 4.7 uF capacitor (for 1 Hz frequency) , not a 47 nF one (as far as I can remember, due to some simulator setting I wasn't able to verify the circuit until I lowered the value of the capacitor).

I'm glad you liked (and solved) this little puzzle :-)

Cheers,

Gerson.

[cutterjohn]

When I was in grade school I think that I had some TI calculator, which had red 7 segment display(I think). I probably had some other early scientific calc as well as I seem to vaguely recall one with the now common gray LCD type of display, but I never tinkered with that one as much or got(below) shortly after.

In high school, I had a Sharp PC-1403. It was pretty frustrating though as I remember it had some kind of port which looked to attach peripherals. I can't remember if the manual mentioned them but I remember every time going to a Radio Shack or similar stores always looking around for them, as I really wanted even a tape backup for the programs that I'd write on it. HS was pretty dull...

The HP-28S came when I moved on to university, and as I mention elsewhere while it was really a step up it was frustrating since none of your programs could be saved which is why I was EXTREMELY happy to get a 48SX eventually.

(BTW I seem to recall someone mentioning somewhere that kermit was all there was for the 48SX but I seem to distinctly recall having a functional library that provided at least Xmodem if not Ymodem protocol(s) as well... which were MUCH better than the kludgey kermit(never worked well for me)...)

[Guenter Schink]

As I could put my hands on an HP-97 while in Office, I was really addicted to RPN. In 77 I bought a NOVUS 4515 Mathematician PR. But this calc was so limited with only 3 stack levels and one memory register, it was almost useless.
HPs were to expensive for me still. In 78 I got an Casio fx-501p. That was a real nice calculator, though no RPN. Then in 1980 I convinced myself to spend a lot of money for an HP-41c, which served me well during a couple of years to calculate a lot of things around airplane and flight management.

Günter

[Steve Simpkin]

(05-08-2014 02:00 PM)Gerson W. Barbosa Wrote:  When the output O3 of the Johnson counter is activated, the counter is reset, so the displays cycles through the three valid calculator models.

OK, I did not look up the 4017 and had assumed it was a binary counter instead of a Johnson counter. Neat little circuit

[Ken Shaw]

Radio Shack EC-425 (same as TI SR-10).
In first year of university (Xmas 1974).

[bshoring]

I got my first handheld at Macy's in San Francisco in 1975 -- a Qualitron 1444 "Electronic Slide Rule." Had percent, reciprocal, sqrt & square, plus memory and an X<>Y key. What it could do blew my mind.

I had an old Monroe rotary (with the carriage that moved back & forth) at work. Still I wasn't sure I could trust a machine to do what I could with pencil and paper, so for a month after getting the Qualitron, I kept checking its results in my head or with pencil and paper when balancing my checkbook. Once a month went by with no errors by the electronic, I threw away my pencil.

I researched programmables (TI, HP & others) in 1981 and settled on an HP-41 CV, and eventually got lots of peripherals and modules, joined PPC, the whole nine yards.

I really wanted an LED machine and a financial, though, so in 1982 I bought an HP-38C Financial Programmable, which became my favorite and I used it and the HP-41 CV extensively for 2 decades.

[Namir]

In 1974 I got my first calculators. It was a scientific sharp (very similar to SHARP PC-1802) that a Japanese technician (working with the French oil exploration company ELF-ERAP, where my aunt worked) got me from Japan. I had asked for a Canon Palmatronic scientific but got the Sharp. When my aunt told me that the Japanese technician had returned and mentioned the calculator's relatively low cost, I though he brought me a simple four-function calculator. I was very delighted to see that it was a scientific calculator. I also realized that the trend in electronics was one of decreasing prices.

My second calculator was the HP-55.

Namir

[Les Bell]

Like many others, my first handheld was produced by Faber-Castell - I forget the model, but it was the generic plastic model all 1969 secondary schoolkids got.

From there, I graduated to a Sinclair four-banger, then the Sinclair Scientific - all built from kit form. In fact, I used to build the four-bangers during the afternoon and sell them to friends in the bar where I worked at nights. After doing that a few times, I'd saved enough to buy an HP-45.

I don't miss the Sinclairs, but I wish I still had the -45. And the crappy slide rule, for that matter.

[Dwight Sturrock]

HP34C- 1983

[Thomas Radtke]

(05-08-2014 12:04 AM)Thomas Klemm Wrote:  TI-25

Ah, same here!

Sold it after some weeks/months and got a Casio fx-81p at a similar price.

[KCC]

I suspect John is more interested in your ages, so he indirectly asked a seemingly unrelated question...
Mine the Casio FX-140, with fluoresecnt green display. My favorite keystroke was 69! then, which was the only speed test I knew, and it took around 25s.

[lemontea]

(05-08-2014 02:26 PM)cutterjohn Wrote:  (BTW I seem to recall someone mentioning somewhere that kermit was all there was for the 48SX but I seem to distinctly recall having a functional library that provided at least Xmodem if not Ymodem protocol(s) as well... which were MUCH better than the kludgey kermit(never worked well for me)...)

Y Modem?! I think that was the first to use 1024 byte blocks or something like that. And Z Modem was a protocol that allowed continuation of disrupted transmissions...

Old enough for you? ;-)

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(05-09-2014 07:38 AM)lemontea Wrote:  Y Modem?! I think that was the first to use 1024 byte blocks or something like that. And Z Modem was a protocol that allowed continuation of disrupted transmissions...

Old enough for you? ;-)

Yes, you are. You passed the admission test with flying colors! :D