The $199 HP35X

[Ignatz]

First of all: Happy New Year, everyone!!!

The 50th anniversary of the HP35 will be coming up soon, and it got me to thinking: what would I like to see to commemorate the occasion? The 35S was introduced to mark the 35th anniversary and it's fine calculator, even if it doesn't have the build quality of the original HP calcs. Oh, and the display is a bit $h1t, too...

Now SwissMicros make the $199 DM42, which has a beautiful display, part-metal casing, a blazing-fast processor and a USB-rechargeable battery. The keyboard, however, is horrible. The existence of this calculator shows that there's a market at this price point so, it got me thinking: what if HP were to produce a '35X'? calculator with the display, processor and battery like that of the DM42, but with a proper, resin-injected keyboard, like on the CWSN-series calculators. I'd be falling over myself to give them my money, and it would pay proper homage to the type of design thinking that made the old Hewlett-Packard calculators such magnificent devices.

Oh, and don't let the industrial design team responsible for the Prime and the 50g anywhere near it...

Ah well, I can dream...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  ... but with a proper, resin-injected keyboard, like on the CWSN-series calculators.

What does "CWSN" stand for? If you mean a keyboard like on an HP-67 then you can count me in :-)

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  I'd be falling over myself to give them my money...

I'd be falling over myself even more if they could make one for 99$ instead of 199$. See, I really don't need another calculator, it would only be for the sake of annother addition to the collection. So the less they ask, the better the chance that I will buy one. So far I jave not bought anything from Swiss Micros because the money they ask (the price is reasonable I am sure) is well above what these things are worth to me.

But there is one thing that would make me spend some extra money: A luminous display! Panamatik has shwon that an LED display and low power consumption do not exclude each other, so why not make the 40-year model as close to the original as possible.

Regards
Max

[Ignatz]

(01-20-2020 01:50 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  ... but with a proper, resin-injected keyboard, like on the CWSN-series calculators.

What does "CWSN" stand for? If you mean a keyboard like on an HP-67 then you can count me in :-)

Sorry, Classic-Woodstock-Spice-Navigator. Just being lazy ;0) And, for me, the ultimate keyboard feel would be the Spice series. Never bettered for tactile feedback.

[Marco Polo]

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  Now SwissMicros make the $199 DM42, which has a beautiful display, part-metal casing, a blazing-fast processor and a USB-rechargeable battery. The keyboard, however, is horrible.

I don't own (yet...) a DM42, but afaik it does not run on rechargeable batteries. It should run on common non-rechargeable CR2032 cells and can be powered through usb connector, but not recharged (HP 50g style...).
About the keyboard, i never tried one but reading the comments it seems to be a decent piece of hardware: not horrible, not excellent but not bad at all.

Regards
Marco

[grsbanks]

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  Now SwissMicros make the $199 DM42, which has [...] a USB-rechargeable battery.

No it doesn't

It'll draw power from the host computer instead of the battery if connected to a USB port (and it'll accelerate the CPU threefold too), but it does not recharge the battery, which is a bog standard CR2032 lithium coin cell.

[jthole]

Well, if they could make a 35S Mk. II with I/O options, and the checksum bug fixed, I would be happy enough.

They could look at what SwissMicros and Torsten Manz deliver for the DM15L, where you can easily sync between Torsten's excellent simulator and the DM15L.

[Ignatz]

(01-20-2020 03:26 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  

(01-20-2020 01:39 PM)Ignatz Wrote:  Now SwissMicros make the $199 DM42, which has [...] a USB-rechargeable battery.

No it doesn't

It'll draw power from the host computer instead of the battery if connected to a USB port (and it'll accelerate the CPU threefold too), but it does not recharge the battery, which is a bog standard CR2032 lithium coin cell.

Ah, I stand corrected... but I would still like a rechargeable battery. Would it be possible for a rechargeable to deliver enough current to operate the processor at 3x speed (given size constraints)? You could toggle between 1x / 3x for battery life / performance.

I’ll admit I’d have no use for my ideal calculator (I only calculate foreign subtitle offsets for films these days), but man, I would really, really want one...

[Ignatz]

(01-20-2020 01:50 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  But there is one thing that would make me spend some extra money: A luminous display! Panamatik has shwon that an LED display and low power consumption do not exclude each other, so why not make the 40-year model as close to the original as possible.

Regards
Max

Max... es ist mir gerade aufgetaucht... I just thought, based on what you said: a backlit display would, with today's technology, allow you to switch between black on-red LED mode, LCD mode, and who knows what else...

[ijabbott]

I'd expect nothing less than a holographic display to simulate the red LED segments and their bubble lenses.

[toml_12953]

(01-20-2020 10:00 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  I'd expect nothing less than a holographic display to simulate the red LED segments and their bubble lenses.

I'd pay quite a bit for the green, slightly slanted digits of the HP 9100A/B!

[Ignatz]

Oh, and solid-colour 'f' and 'g' keys, for the sake of all that’s decent in this world...

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(01-21-2020 09:58 AM)Ignatz Wrote:  Oh, and solid-colour 'f' and 'g' keys, for the sake of all that’s decent in this world...

Absolutely! And maybe for the 40 years jubilee the "g" key should be made from solid silver. The solid gold "f" key will have to wait for the 50 year special edition :-)
Even Sinclair was able to produce silver and gold plated calculators (these were special editions of the "Sovereign" model)!

Regards
Max

[twoweims]

For $199.00 I would like it to make coffee as well.
It should use K-Cups and Nespresso Pods interchangeably.

[Ignatz]

(01-21-2020 10:29 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

Absolutely! And maybe for the 40 years jubilee the "g" key should be made from solid silver. The solid gold "f" key will have to wait for the 50 year special edition :-)
Even Sinclair was able to produce silver and gold plated calculators (these were special editions of the "Sovereign" model)!

Regards
Max

But is IS 50 years, isn’t it? 1972 - 2022? Now, if I only had some sort of portable, handheld, electronic device that would allow me to check that....

[pinkman]

You did not receive your « g solid silver key » HP 35s 40th anniversary?

2022 could also be the good year for a « 15C limited right debugged and alphanumeric-programmable usb 40th » édition ?

[Hlib]

Last year, I bought a 3×fx-9860gii(SH4) + 2×fx-991DE_X + 2×ti-83plus_SE, as well as an Android smartphone with an ips display with 2Gb of RAM with hp-50g, ti-200 and HP-Prime emulators. Almost new and not used for $180 for them all. I was offered another new hp-50g two copies for $25 each, but I no longer had any free money. I do not use the service ibey, aliexpress and others, and find good products on local Internet resources in third world countries. And now, I`m interested in this mystery: how much the expected real profit from buying HP-35/DM-42 for $199 exceeds my investment for the above my stuff, which brings me no more than $50 per month. If I buy an expensive watch + car-infinity, then I am accepted in reputable offices. If I count at work on HP-50g, on CG50 etc. then it causes only ridicule and jokes. I wonder who else can sell the hp-35 for $200?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(01-21-2020 08:07 PM)Hlib Wrote:  And now, I`m interested in this mystery: how much the expected real profit from buying HP-35/DM-42 for $199 exceeds my investment for the above my stuff, ...

It won't exceed it. If you really need a pocket calculator for work (very, very, very few people really do these days) then the cheapest one you can find will do the job. The very moment that you need more elaborate functions, a smartphone or tablet app or a spreadsheet on your desktop computer is the better choice and will cost you nothing because you probably already have it.

The 40 years or 50 years special edition HP-35 at the quoted price of 200$ will be a pure collector's or fan(boy) item. Maybe also a financial investment: the 30 years HP-15C limited edition calculators have almost triplicted in value since they were released in 2011 (unfortunately I could only afford to buy 2 then...).

Regards
Max

[Hlib]

Thanks! Demand from collectors dictates their prices. I remember You said ( https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-10864.html ):

Quote:Show me one single engineer who is paid for doing efficient work for a company and who uses a pocket calculator for matrix operations with complex numbers!!!

. I like Your realistic view of things.

[marsman2020]

I'm really enjoying my WP34S.

For the next anniversary it would be nice if HP could put out another 'repurposable' model with an SDK available. Maybe enough dot matrix display to show four lines of the stack and/or soft menus.

[Steve Simpkin]

(02-12-2020 06:28 AM)marsman2020 Wrote:  I'm really enjoying my WP34S.

For the next anniversary it would be nice if HP could put out another 'repurposable' model with an SDK available. Maybe enough dot matrix display to show four lines of the stack and/or soft menus.

It's very unlikely that HP corporate would approve the R&D needed to make any model like this that would have a limited market.

It sounds like you would like the WP 43S which is based on the SwissMicros DM42.
https://gitlab.com/Over_score/wp43s/-/tr...umentation