CAS and Introduction

[JanS]

This might be rather lengthy by way of introcution as a new forum member, but here goes:

My very first contact with HP calculators must have been somewhere in summer 1989 while in the final year of high school and that was only by mention from a friend and classmate of mine who had heard of it at the time and was saving up to buy one as he intended to start for a university degree in Information Science (and he did accomplish both - buying the calc and obtaining the degree) - the machine in question was of course the fabulous HP-48 SX introduced that year. I myself at the time was quite fond of a Casio fx-7100 that was gifted to me by my father somewhat earlier in the 1980ies who had obtained it probably somewhere in Japan while flying there as a pilot - and it is still with me in perfect working condition, although the faceplate is showing it's age (no RPN, though). I myself started studying law (which I did not finish, only to be drawn into Information technology, albeit as what would now be called an administrator). In that line of work I dabbled with some of the earlier emulators of the HP-48 series on Windows / WindowsCE / Windows Mobile (Thank you Christoph) but I never had any real use for the sheer amount of power and wealth of functionality that these machines offered.
I did however have good use for an HP-200LX in my line of work and thus, this became my very first HP "calculator" as well as my mobile mainstay at the time - I did have two 2MB SRAM Cards and a 9v battery-powered external modem for this beauty. This machine is still with me, albeit with a broken hinge (like so many of them) but it has since spawned a few brothers who are still in use today when on holiday or just when I'm in a little nostalgic mood. So, still no dedicated HP calculator, but a least an HP machine.

In 2007 I married a physician (she still has her 48-SX, but I did not know this at the time, nor did I get to lay eyes or fingers on it).
Sometime in the 2010s my uncle (who was an engineer) passed away and while going through his estate together with my father, I inherited an HP-11C (no manuals, batteries still good, but aparently my uncle never had programmed it).
So finally I was able to experience the magic of these slanted buttons first hand - really a haptic eye-opener - but still, no real use for it on the job at the time and also somewhat busy with beeing a husband and father and tied up with analogue photography as a hobby (Olympus OM System if you must know). As it had and still has sentimental value, I never could bring myself to use it as a daily driver and I wasn't yet into what some would call recreational calculating - so my relationship with HP Calculators went dormant once more except for the occasional foray in to DOS Retro gaming and othe HP-200LX related follies.

Last winter i went downstairs into the garage of our apartment complex to throw some broken webcam into the electronics recycle bin and as usual, I risked a look into what others had thrown out. A little blueish-green light reflex peeked my interest and after closer inspection a really worn 6s came into view. It would not turn on, but after a quick oil change (2x SR-43 type which of course I had lying around, beeing the tech geek) it came back to life. Now i was curious, because I#d never heard of that machine and I startet surfing the interwebs for more information (still, no RPN).

However, this made me pull out the 11-C and play with it, learn about it and it's siblings and before you can blink an eye, I had contracted a severe case of CAS (Calculator Aquisition Syndrome, not Computer Algebra System, mind you). So, first things first, I had to get my hands on an HP-48SX and there was a nice one available not to far away for personal pickup at a reasonable price, so I went to see the machine and the person selling it. Turns out the gentleman was dispensing the estate of his late father and together with the 48 I aquired a 71B and the earlier printer model as well as a 95LX (sadly, with a defective screen).

Boy did I drop into a rabbit hole !
Here we are, a couple moth later in 2022 and this is now a serious hobby:

   

The 71B mentioned above has some interesting W&W ROMs (along with a CMT Memory Module and dual HP-IL in good working condition) and I will post about that machine in a different thread to find out a little more about those. My daily driver is Free42 on my iPhone (thank you Thomas) and I keep a somewhat used 15C LE as a physical backup in my Laptop Bag along with a 48-GX.

I'm looking to add some more machines to my collection in the future, but I'm in no hurry to do so and also the WAF needs to be managed in order to keep the hobby going.

So, for now, I'd like to thank all of you here for beeing the nice, friendly and helpful people you are.
Stay healthy and keep calculating,
Jan

[rprosperi]

Welcome to the Forum!

Nice story, thanks for sharing that here, I'm sure many readers here will find portions of your story familiar (though wives that use a 48SX are pretty rare) and also share bouts of CAS more frequently than they wish.

As a fan of all things 71B, I would love to get copies of the ROM images to explore when you get around to playing with that; feel free to reach out for tips or assistance on how to do that if doing so is new. Hint: If you're going to play with a 71B, you must get a PIL-Box.

[JanS]

(08-23-2022 02:08 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  ...
As a fan of all things 71B, I would love to get copies of the ROM images to explore when you get around to playing with that; feel free to reach out for tips or assistance on how to do that if doing so is new. Hint: If you're going to play with a 71B, you must get a PIL-Box.

Bob, thank you for the warm welcome and mention of the PIL-Box (which I'd read about sometime earlier). That is something I'm definitely interested in and I fired off an email to Jean-François just now to see about it's availability at the moment.

I'm still learning about the 71B which is a great machine and I'm more than willing to help archive and preserve what is contained in the two W&W eprom modules (1x64K & 1x32K). As the Owner of W&W is still around, I've also sent him an email, wondering if he may be able to provide a manual or any other material relating to those modules (or maybe even source ?) - Wilfried Kötz is still around, although he does not keep an HP related presence on the web afaik.

I'm working on that 71B Post right now and I suggest we move further discussion there, once that post becomes active.
Stay healthy and keep calculating,
Jan

[Guenter Schink]

(08-22-2022 05:08 PM)JanS Wrote:  So, for now, I'd like to thank all of you here for beeing the nice, friendly and helpful people you are.
Stay healthy and keep calculating,
Jan

You could meet a lot of these nice people at the next
Allschwil meeting in der Schweiz October 28/29 this year. I'm sure J.F. Garnier (guess he will be there) would be eager to dig into your newly acquired 71B

Günter

[JanS]

(08-23-2022 08:03 PM)Guenter Schink Wrote:  

(08-22-2022 05:08 PM)JanS Wrote:  So, for now, I'd like to thank all of you here for beeing the nice, friendly and helpful people you are.
Stay healthy and keep calculating,
Jan

You could meet a lot of these nice people at the next
Allschwil meeting in der Schweiz October 28/29 this year. I'm sure J.F. Garnier (guess he will be there) would be eager to dig into your newly acquired 71B

Günter

Günter, thank you for mentioning the Allschwil Meeting - I'd really like to go and it is not to far for me (I'm near Frankfurt am Main), however, the date falls on the last weekend of the school holidays for fall season and I might be on vacation with the family. If I'm not abroad, I definitely plan on attending.
Best Regards,
Jan

[Eddie W. Shore]

Welcome to the forum, Jan!