Silicone Case for HP 50G

[zx_spectrum]

as you might know there is Guerrilla Silicone Case for Texas Instruments TI Nspire widely available which is great...
then i thought why there no such thing for the dear HP50G !!!??
as you know these things are getting more and more expensive and rare and I think we better provide proper protection for the units that we have; the 50G is the last RPL machine at the end of the day...

in my opinion the case should have:
- nice rubber finish that provide better grip and protection
- one-piece shell that fits very snugly
- opening for the keys to stick out

I think if some one started such project there would be a demand for it
see the attached photo
the mentioned TI case is actually loose low quality silicon, what I am suggesting here is hard, high quality rubber/silicon... just like the rubber on hand-held Digital Multi-meters
it could be one-piece, slip-in case or two-piece, screw-fixed clam shell

look, let's face it; the 50G is flimsy piece of chinese plastic that really feels like a cheap thing in hand specially when compared to 48G and other old hp's and yet there is not a lot of 50G out there and guess what!! they are freakishly crazy expensive so we better be very careful with the ones we have.
and once these are gone you can kiss RPL goodbye

I personally don't mind dropping over 50$ (heck maybe 100$) for something that gives 50G a real heft and makes it feel like a nice 48S/G in my hand
and of course I don't expect something disgusting like TI silicon case mentioned above, that is why I was talking about digital multi meter-like rubber maybe something permanent or screw-fixed at least.
it gotta be thick, heavy-duty and sturdy; something that would give some heft to the the rather cheap hollow original case
you know what would be even better; building whole new substitute swap case for the 50G but i know that would be difficult..

more design suggestions are welcomed...

[Leviset]

In General are there any other covers (not cases) available apart from the pricey Guerrilla silicon ones that are very flimsy?
i.e. rubber/silicon covers for different calculators that are sturdy and capable of protecting the calculator if dropped

[John Keith]

Unfortunately the rarity that makes the 50g valuable also means there probably won't be enough demand to make the production of custom cases economical.

I would love to be proven wrong, in which case (pun intended) I would probably buy at least one.

[zx_spectrum]

(04-10-2019 04:40 PM)John Keith Wrote:  Unfortunately the rarity that makes the 50g valuable also means there probably won't be enough demand to make the production of custom cases economical.

I would love to be proven wrong, in which case (pun intended) I would probably buy at least one.

a short production run would be sufficient in my opinion. besides i think that most owners would be welling to pay a reasonably high price for 50G case provided that it is really high quality

[rprosperi]

(04-10-2019 06:58 PM)zx_spectrum Wrote:  a short production run would be sufficient in my opinion. besides i think that most owners would be welling to pay a reasonably high price for 50G case provided that it is really high quality

You can't find out until you can quantify these terms in your phrase:
short
most
reasonably high price
really high quality

Not giving you a hard time, but anyone that makes such things won't (because they can't) give you a price (or likely even a price range) until you can quantify terms for them to determine the business case.

Maybe you should create a poll, asking folks how many they would buy at various price points (e.g. $5, $10, $25 each) to at least have some data to create a basis for such a discussion. (The poll needs to be carefully worded to avoid folks from simply saying they'd like 1 at $5 and that's all.)

Perhaps this will show demand for 300 units at $5/ea. Perhaps it will show a total demand of 25 units at $25 each. But at least you will have a basis to continue a discussion to source these.

For what it's worth, I'd likely buy a couple to check out, and if they work well, likely a couple more.

[brickviking]

Incidentally, I note that the TI-Nspire CX fascia doesn't appear to have many legends on it, but the HP-50G is practically covered with them on almost every key. Surely the cost of creating a case would also have to include the cost of labelling it with durable lettering and not merely rub-offable paint?

Just my NZD $0.02...

(Post 330)

[zx_spectrum]

(04-11-2019 12:54 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(04-10-2019 06:58 PM)zx_spectrum Wrote:  a short production run would be sufficient in my opinion. besides i think that most owners would be welling to pay a reasonably high price for 50G case provided that it is really high quality

You can't find out until you can quantify these terms in your phrase:
short
most
reasonably high price
really high quality

Not giving you a hard time, but anyone that makes such things won't (because they can't) give you a price (or likely even a price range) until you can quantify terms for them to determine the business case.

Maybe you should create a poll, asking folks how many they would buy at various price points (e.g. $5, $10, $25 each) to at least have some data to create a basis for such a discussion. (The poll needs to be carefully worded to avoid folks from simply saying they'd like 1 at $5 and that's all.)

Perhaps this will show demand for 300 units at $5/ea. Perhaps it will show a total demand of 25 units at $25 each. But at least you will have a basis to continue a discussion to source these.

For what it's worth, I'd likely buy a couple to check out, and if they work well, likely a couple more.

yes of course... anyone with an intention to start the project should go through such planning process.
but that would not be me as I have no means to take on such project; I live in a country that I don't speak its native language, relatively new in this country and don't have the sufficient public relations to access resources...

with this post I was just trying to bring up the idea hoping that someone would take on such project

[zx_spectrum]

look, let's face it; the 50G is flimsy piece of chinese plastic that really feels like a cheap thing in hand specially when compared to 48G and other old hp's and yet there is not a lot of 50G out there and guess what!! they are freakishly crazy expensive so we better be very careful with the ones we have.
and once these are gone you can kiss RPL goodbye

I personally don't mind dropping over 50$ (heck maybe 100$) for something that gives 50G a real heft and makes it feel like a nice 48S/G in my hand
and of course I don't expect something disgusting like TI silicon case mentioned above, that is why I was talking about digital multi meter-like rubber maybe something permanent or screw-fixed at least.
it gotta be thick, heavy-duty and sturdy; something that would give some heft to the the rather cheap hollow original case
you know what would be even better; building whole new substitute swap case for the 50G but i know that would be difficult..

[ijabbott]

(04-11-2019 06:15 AM)zx_spectrum Wrote:  I personally don't mind dropping over 50$ (heck maybe 100$) for something that gives 50G a real heft and makes it feel like a nice 48S/G in my hand
and of course I don't expect something disgusting like TI silicon case mentioned above, that is why I was talking about digital multi meter-like rubber maybe something permanent or screw-fixed at least.
it gotta be thick, heavy-duty and sturdy; something that would give some heft to the the rather cheap hollow original case

Do you mean something like this Fluke holster?



(Of course it should be FHB colour for nostalgia's sake. )

[SammysHP]

A mold for such a case usually costs about $10,000 to $15,000. So either you have to produce thousands of cases or you need a different manufacturing process. You can 3D print silicone cases (surface won't be great) for less than $100, but the benefit of such a low quality case is questionable.

[zx_spectrum]

(04-11-2019 07:37 AM)SammysHP Wrote:  A mold for such a case usually costs about $10,000 to $15,000. So either you have to produce thousands of cases or you need a different manufacturing process. You can 3D print silicone cases (surface won't be great) for less than $100, but the benefit of such a low quality case is questionable.

let's not get too negative
people now are initiating such niche-targeted small scale projects all the time. to name few:
- making commodore 64 keycaps
- Amiga cases
- ibm model F keyboard
.... etc

[zx_spectrum]

(04-11-2019 07:18 AM)ijabbott Wrote:  

(04-11-2019 06:15 AM)zx_spectrum Wrote:  I personally don't mind dropping over 50$ (heck maybe 100$) for something that gives 50G a real heft and makes it feel like a nice 48S/G in my hand
and of course I don't expect something disgusting like TI silicon case mentioned above, that is why I was talking about digital multi meter-like rubber maybe something permanent or screw-fixed at least.
it gotta be thick, heavy-duty and sturdy; something that would give some heft to the the rather cheap hollow original case

Do you mean something like this Fluke holster?



(Of course it should be FHB colour for nostalgia's sake. )

not really..
I am talking apple newton case (but small of course) with printed front face side

[John Keith]

Actually, I would prefer something like the Fluke holster or an OtterBox cell phone case, etc. which would mainly protect against falls. Any sort of plastic cover over the front of the calculator would likely result in more problems than benefits IMHO.

In the end, though, I think that money would be better spent on new hardware (Swiss Micros DM48?) with better display and keyboard, faster processor and more memory, most likely running NewRPL.

[zx_spectrum]

(04-11-2019 09:50 PM)John Keith Wrote:  In the end, though, I think that money would be better spent on new hardware (Swiss Micros DM48?) with better display and keyboard, faster processor and more memory, most likely running NewRPL.

will don't get your hopes high. actually don't cultivate any hope at all; the guys there have 0 interest in such machine.
I tried to provoke the subject of DM48 a year ago on their forum and that didn't fly; the counter argument was that hp won't let them use 48g ROM (so what about those dm11 dm12 dm15 dm16 dm41??!!)

I even provided a design argument about the possibility of reusing the same dm42 case and keyboard to accommodate 48g functionality without doing any modifications at all so no need for new mold.... but really there is just no interest ...at least i can say this about the community there

so later I brought up the subject of running newRPL instead, but again ...the same thing

each time i bring up such subject the discussion somehow turns into a silly personal RPN vs RPL attitude which is funny actually

finally I got the impression that SM is no place for RPL users

[grsbanks]

(04-12-2019 05:16 AM)zx_spectrum Wrote:  (so what about those dm11 dm12 dm15 dm16 dm41??!!)

There is no statement of copyright in the ROM for the original HP machines on which those are based, so they were fair game. HP know about the DM1x/41 machines and have made no attempt to prevent their production.

The 48GX ROM is free for non-commercial use, so SM can't include it with a commercial product. One possible technical solution would be to provide a DM48 with an emulator on board but no HP ROM and ask customers to grab the ROM themselves and place it in the calculator. Not all calculator users are sufficiently technically able so doing this is potentially opening up a world of pain for support issues and SM would no longer have the time (remember, it's a two-man band) to improve other existing products and develop more.

[Claudio L.]

Having users download a ROM won't really work. It didn't when we released Hpgcc3, people had to download a Rom, put it in a directory and hit build for it to be transformed into an hpgcc3 ROM. Few if anybody actually did that. Most people just kept using hpgcc 2.0 and the ARMToolbox.

[grsbanks]

(04-12-2019 06:40 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  Having users download a ROM won't really work.

Precisely. And that is why there are no plans at the moment to make a DM48, or at least none that David & Michael have let me know about. Remember, I am not a member of SwissMicros staff so the only information I get from them is information that I can reveal here or on the SwissMicros forum.

[edryer]

The device could be divided into a separately developed boot ROM (flashable) that when powered up would ask the user if the user abided by non-commercial terms - if answering yes then the device would initialise with the (supplied but inert) HP48 ROM, and that would be that, or if they said no, it could come up with some sort of message "Please sideload ROM via USB"... most would repower up the calc and then choose option yes )))

[Eric Rechlin]

(04-12-2019 01:23 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  The 48GX ROM is free for non-commercial use, so SM can't include it with a commercial product.

Do you have a source for that stipulation? I don't remember HP saying anything about commercial use vs non-commercial use, but then again, it has been nearly 20 years since it was released.

[Claudio L.]

(04-13-2019 01:07 AM)Eric Rechlin Wrote:  

(04-12-2019 01:23 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  The 48GX ROM is free for non-commercial use, so SM can't include it with a commercial product.

Do you have a source for that stipulation? I don't remember HP saying anything about commercial use vs non-commercial use, but then again, it has been nearly 20 years since it was released.

I did research the topic back in the day with the 50g rom and there was nothing explicitly allowing redistribution or use within a product other than an HP product. We should not assume that because it's not explicitly forbidden is allowed. There is only one phrase that's everywhere "Copyright xxxx, all rights reserved", which means they reserve all the rights to themselves, and you can only do what they explicitly allow.