35s with a broken Enter key... worth repairing?

[John Galt]

Stupidly, I dropped my 35s and it somehow wound up with a wobbly Enter key. It still works, but you have to press the middle of the key. Pressing its right side is dead.

I understand the calculator is disassemble-able, but what am I likely to find once everything is apart?

I just bought a 50g to replace it with, but its upper right-most key is difficult to press, so it's going back. Lousy QC. Now I'm undecided what to replace it with.

[Jeff O.]

(10-30-2014 03:54 AM)John Galt Wrote:  I understand the calculator is disassemble-able, but what am I likely to find once everything is apart?

Well, this old post used to show what you would find. The links to the pictures are broken, but the disassembly instructions are still there. Luckily, I was able to find the "originals" and have attached the two most pertinent ones to this post. As described in the post and shown in the pictures below, the keys are attached to frames. Sounds like you broke one side of the ENTER key from the frame. I have no idea if you would be able to repair such a problem, but it is not too difficult to take the unit apart for inspection if you want to take a look.

(10-30-2014 03:54 AM)John Galt Wrote:  I just bought a 50g to replace it with, but its upper right-most key is difficult to press, so it's going back. Lousy QC. Now I'm undecided what to replace it with.

I tried replacing my 42s with a 48G, 49G+ and a 50G, and was never happy. Those all sit in storage somewhere. If you like the 35s, it is still available at amazon and from Eric Rechlin, so maybe just buy a new one. Or, as I’m sure some will suggest, buy a 30b converted to a wp34s from Eric Rechlin.





       

[John Galt]

That's a great help Jeff. The picture confirms the near certainty of the rightmost attachment point breaking loose. I'm glad I didn't embarrass myself looking to buy a replacement Enter key.

I may in fact buy a new 35s. It's my daughter's HP and Dad feels like an idiot for having broken it.

The 50g was a bit of a disappointment for more reasons than the mushy key. Daughter likes it, but I can't get past the Enter key being in the wrong place. Maybe that doesn't make as much difference to her but I'm on the fence about it vs. the HP Prime vs. replacing this one.

Quote:Or, as I’m sure some will suggest, buy a 30b converted to a wp34s from Eric Rechlin.

Uh oh... you just complicated things.

At first glance it looks perfect. Please tell me it's the answer to my prayers. Since parting with my 41CX I haven't found the "perfect" calculator and wound up with a proliferation of them like you did.

[Jeff O.]

(10-30-2014 01:15 PM)John Galt Wrote:  

Quote:Or, as I’m sure some will suggest, buy a 30b converted to a wp34s from Eric Rechlin.

Uh oh... you just complicated things.

At first glance it looks perfect. Please tell me it's the answer to my prayers. Since parting with my 41CX I haven't found the "perfect" calculator and wound up with a proliferation of them like you did.

Not sure if I can provide spiritual guidance, but I can say that the 34s does a lot of things right. I pointed you to the fully built version on Eric's site, which includes the crystal. The crystal makes reliable communication with the PC emulator possible, so you can upload and download programs developed on PC and vice versa. It is fun to program (as evidenced by the fact that I spent a month or more fiddling with programs to solve the HHC 2014 programming challenge). Be aware that the keys are re-labelled with stickers, and there is a full overlay on the keyboard. These may eventually show wear, but if you buy an extra overlay or two from Eric, you could always replace them in the future if necessary. Note that you can get into a 34s more cheaply. A while ago the 30b was being sold for around $10 somewhere on the internet, and they seem to be available for around $20 from Amazon at the moment. You would need to buy some overlays from Eric, and find someone to flash it into a 34s for you. Without the crystal, I have found that communication is unreliable, so unless you are good at soldering super small components (the crystals are about the size of a grain of sand in my opinion), probably best to just buy the whole thing from Eric.

[John Galt]

I can't believe anyone would take on that challenge for as little as $75, so I bought it.

If I can decide which HP product comes close to her needs I may buy it too, but at the moment the WP 34s looks too good to pass up. From what little I read about it, the phrase "why couldn't HP do that" kept entering my mind. I'm sure you all heard that before.

[Ron Ross]

While the Wp 34s may be a solution, it is built upon an Hp 30B which ain't the best. I like its size better than the Hp 35s, but I am not certain its build quality is as good as the Hp 35s.

And why is she using an Hp 35s? Is it because she is in an engineering school and is restricted to NCEES approved calculators. If that is the case, you should revert back the Hp 35s.

If she isn't restricted and it sounds like she isn't and she likes the Hp 50G, I would suggest she adopts that calculator instead. It is far more capable than the Hp 35s. It actually has the enter key IN THE RIGHT PLACE, if you ain't a dinosaur and know better.

Another calculator for consideration is the Hp Prime. It is actually a lot better built than anything Hp has made in at least 10 years, maybe more. It is a quality calculator with a color touch screen and targeted at the educational market. However while it does have an RPN mode, in RPN mode it is not nearly as versatile, in fact it almost seems crippled even though they put a wide enter key midway up, so it pretends to look like a legitimate RPN machine.

But it won't replace an Hp 50g for number crunching power, if I had to choose one for school for myself, I would grab the Hp 50G and If I am not pressed for time, I kinda like the old Hp 48G's, but they are slow, especially for a student who may actually use the graphing capabilities. I often use an Hp 48g due to the keyboard compared to the Hp 50G, but if I weren't biased and were starting out, the Hp 50g has so much more and is much faster.

I just recently finished a class in Power Flow and I must agree, nothing beats an Hp 42s for shear number crunching and adaptability for an EE class. My Hp 48G felt clumsy in comparison for the kind of calculations I could crank out with my customized 42.

[John Galt]

(10-30-2014 08:00 PM)Ron Ross Wrote:  Another calculator for consideration is the Hp Prime. ... However while it does have an RPN mode, in RPN mode it is not nearly as versatile, in fact it almost seems crippled even though they put a wide enter key midway up, so it pretends to look like a legitimate RPN machine.

I have been considering the HP Prime. I admit falling right away for the big wide Enter key, which is in the right place – for me. Then, I read about its various shortcomings and my enthusiasm for it waned.

The best thing the 50g has going for it is its speed, which blows away my 48GX. I'm not excited about its keyboard or its layout though. The one mushy key was a disappointment that I decided I couldn't tolerate.

I'm still undecided but the WP 34s seems worth getting excited over. For now.

Everything is a compromise... sigh.

The 35s struck the right balance for my daughter's needs, and I may end up getting another if I can't fix hers. I just know I'm going to wind up with a drawer full of calculators. Why should I be any different?

[Ron Ross]

Is your daughter in an engineering program, or is she in need of a decent (perhaps RPN) calculator. If she doesn't need trig, an Hp 17Bii is a pretty good choice. It has list based statistics and a solver that allows you to add a lot of features and the older voyager line is of excellent quality and fairly cheap to acquire.

Get the Hp 50g fixed if it is still under warranty. Sounds like you got a lemon, as keyboards on them are considered good. I suspect she would like that best as it is a big step up from an Hp 35s. To me, the Hp 35s is nearly the size of my Hp 48, therefore negating its value as a pocket calculator.

If your daughter is a calculator connoisseur, you might be able to find an Hp 32sii and that is a NICE calculator aside from a bit short on RAM (okay, starved for RAM, by today's standards).

You might also consider an Hp 19Bii, they usually don't cost a fortune, and unless she's a comp sci major, its a better calculator than an Hp 35s in many ways.

[John Galt]

(10-30-2014 08:58 PM)Ron Ross Wrote:  Is your daughter in an engineering program,

Not yet, just entered high school but I started her on the 35s five years ago, mostly to think RPN even during elementary math education. She prefers RPN to the TI her school provides and used the 35s exclusively. I'm the engineer, she appears to be going in the pre-med direction.

SAT test prep requires a good scientific calculator, so trig, etc. are required. The 35s is certainly adequate, but for the short time she used the 50g she liked it despite the Enter key in the wrong place :-) so a replacement is on order. I just returned the one with the bad key. Hopefully the replacement won't have that problem.

I have not used an HP Prime yet but from what I read about it, will probably hold off on that purchase for now.

The expense isn't really a concern. Anything is cheaper than the HPs I bought for myself years ago... $400+ I recall, then there were the memory cards, modules... etc. Of course now I'll be spending that on several calculators instead of just one.

By the way I sold the HP41 and 48 series for more than what I originally paid for them, so they really didn't cost anything. I got an obscene amount of money for a 16C.

Thanks for the recommendations, I really appreciate them.

[John Galt]

(10-30-2014 08:58 PM)Ron Ross Wrote:  If your daughter is a calculator connoisseur, you might be able to find an Hp 32sii and that is a NICE calculator aside from a bit short on RAM (okay, starved for RAM, by today's standards).

Even I am not that much of a connoisseur:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B...dition=new

   

[Jeff O.]

(10-30-2014 05:25 PM)John Galt Wrote:  I can't believe anyone would take on that challenge for as little as $75, so I bought it.

In my comments above, I failed to point out that to do the calculator to PC transfer, you need a rather special cable, which would also allow you to flash the unit. The cables built by hp are long gone. I believe some here have managed to build their own cables, search for posts if you are interested in that path. I hope this does not make you regret your decision. The crystal will give you an accurate stopwatch function at least.

[John Galt]

That's OK, I wasn't planning to transfer anything using a PC but if I did I'm sure I'll find a way to make it work.

[Jeff O.]

(10-31-2014 02:12 AM)John Galt Wrote:  That's OK, I wasn't planning to transfer anything using a PC but if I did I'm sure I'll find a way to make it work.

Good, I was a little worried. I realized my error pretty quickly, but by the time I could get back to the forum, you had already made your purchase. I'm sure you will enjoy your new wp34s.

[John Galt]

(10-30-2014 08:58 PM)Ron Ross Wrote:  Get the Hp 50g fixed if it is still under warranty. Sounds like you got a lemon, as keyboards on them are considered good.

Hi Ron, the replacement 50g arrived today and all its keys are perfect. I felt a little bad about demanding a replacement just for one key, but it would have bothered me forever.

[Ron Ross]

Don't feel bad. That key click feedback is why you buy an Hp.

And now is a great time for your daughter to upgrade. If the Hp 35s were a true pocket calculator, I would be a big fan, but it has nearly the same foot print as an Hp 48g. Yeah, its thinner, but only a tad size smaller in area and doesn't fit in anything but my cargo pants' pockets as well.

As for the Hp 50G vs the Hp Prime, I admit, I feel the build quality of the Hp Prime is significantly better. Hp did a lot of things right with the Hp Prime from an Hp user's point of view. Stupidly so though, because the ENTER key is the Equals key and that is halfway up on this calculator vs on the lower right corner like ALL other algebraic calculators. It feels like an RPN calculator, but comes out of the box in Algebraic mode. And the RPN integration isn't to bad, it easily mimics an Hp 35s with an unlimited stack and but with a CASIO like interface. To someone who isn't familiar with the Hp48/50G series line, it is as good as any Ti or Casio. However, compared to an Hp 50G, it lacks quite a bit of High End power (to be fair, most people aren't going to miss that HIGH END power).

Where the Hp 50G excels over the Hp Prime is Units conversions, Matrix manipulation and vector math, not necessarily because the Hp Prime lacks these features, but because they are not implemented nearly as well (I am prejudiced by my knowledge of the Hp48/50G in this area though). By adopting a CASIO like interface, the Hp Prime gave up seamless integration between the math offerings. Perhaps there are ways to circumvent this, but I haven't discovered them (to be fair, I don't use my Hp Prime nearly as much as I should or could).

But to someone moving up from an Hp 35s, the Hp Prime is a pretty good transition. And if transitioning from a Ti graphing calculator, it is also a lot less painless and perhaps better than an Hp 50G. It has RPN, it does have units conversions (probably a direct knock off of the Ti-89, and done just like the Hp 50G w/o flag 117 set), and a CAS interface and basically a really good algebraic machine with the EQUALS key in the WRONG place. An Hp 35s user wouldn't compare to the Hp 50G, but to their Hp 35s, where it is a big step up in everything, capabilities, HARDWARE, touchscreen, everything.

[RMollov]

(10-30-2014 03:54 AM)John Galt Wrote:  Stupidly, I dropped my 35s and it somehow wound up ...

I just bought a 50g to replace it with, ...

I recon HP50 can't be a replacement for the HP35S, they just serve different tasks and have different area of application. If one is happy with what HP35S is capable of doing, he/she wouldn't need the 50.

In the past, when HP35S was released I was disappointed like many others with its shortcomings. As time goes by I catch myself using it more often than the rest residing on my desk: HP41, HP48, HP50, HP71B, HP15C LE, WP34S. It just does what I need - to crunch numbers and occasionally to solve equations (its solver is very,very good).

Just my 5 cents...