HP Palmtops

[John W Kercheval]

Never owned one (opted for the Poquet) but is anyone using these things? if so for what?

[Dave Britten]

(01-04-2015 11:07 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Never owned one (opted for the Poquet) but is anyone using these things? if so for what?

They're pretty much a 19BII on steroids. You've got all the financial calculator features, plus Lotus 1-2-3, which is still extremely useful as mobile spreadsheet programs go. I still haven't found anything that can match its usability. Plus since they run MS-DOS, you can run tons of existing software on them. GW-BASIC is particularly good for tinkering.

[Dave Frederickson]

Here's a good place to start to learn about the Palmtops: The HP Palmtop Paper Online

They still perform repairs and buy and sell HPLX's. Also, Hal Goldstein is a member of this forum.

[hp41cx]

(01-04-2015 06:11 PM)Dave Frederickson Wrote:  Here's a good place to start to learn about the Palmtops: The HP Palmtop Paper Online

They still perform repairs and buy and sell HPLX's. Also, Hal Goldstein is a member of this forum.

256741 x Thanks :-)

[Dave Frederickson]

Don't forget to check out the exhibit at the HP Computer Museum.

[Gerald H]

The Programme ARIBAS runs very nicely at the DOS level in the 95, 100 & 200 LX.

ARIBAS is a great Platform for programming in number theory at low cost.

[Giancarlo]

Hello,
As far as i remember i used to run a 'micro C' or 'small C' compiler on my hp95lx. It was a marvel to write and compile code on this littke piece of wonder.
I always loved the hp95lx because i felt it as a companion of my hp48.

I never had a 100 or 200 (unfortunately). I jumped to a 620lx and then to the 720lx. I found these two machines interesting for day to day activites (writing texts in pocket word or spreadsheets) but very limited for development.

What other sw did you all run on these machines?

Giancarlo

[Katie Wasserman]

(01-04-2015 05:54 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  They're pretty much a 19BII on steroids.....

I look at the 200LX as more of a IBM XT on steroids. You can double the native speed by changing the clock crystal and expand the disk space to hundreds of MB's with a PCMCIA card. It has built-in monochrome and color video cards (but shown in black and white). A serial interface, an IR interface, runs DOS 5.0 for a couple of weeks on 2 AA cells .... plus all the built in "apps" only some of which you mention.

[Dave Britten]

(01-05-2015 12:13 PM)Katie Wasserman Wrote:  

(01-04-2015 05:54 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  They're pretty much a 19BII on steroids.....

I look at the 200LX as more of a IBM XT on steroids. You can double the native speed by changing the clock crystal and expand the disk space to hundreds of MB's with a PCMCIA card. It has built-in monochrome and color video cards (but shown in black and white). A serial interface, an IR interface, runs DOS 5.0 for a couple of weeks on 2 AA cells .... plus all the built in "apps" only some of which you mention.

Yeah, when you dig under the hood, that's definitely what it really is. But from an included-software standpoint, it clearly owes a lot to the financial calculator line. Of course, my 19BII can't run ZZT, GW-BASIC, and Turbo C. Hell, you can run Windows 3.0 with a serial mouse on the 200 LX if you're bored/desperate enough.

(Note that the 200 LX has a tendency to be a little sluggish with CF cards larger than around 64 MB.)

[matthiaspaul]

(01-04-2015 11:07 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Never owned one (opted for the Poquet) but is anyone using these things? if so for what?

I'm still using my 200LX, since I still haven't found a modern replacement meeting all my expectations from such a device (clamshell design with professional keyboard, full x86 / PC compatibility, very long-lasting power using off-the-shelf batteries).

A while back I bought a Yukyung Viliv N5 3G, which comes close to what I would expect from such a device in the 2010s, but the proprietary Lithium-Ion battery packs only last for about 1.5-2 hours per run and two weeks in standby (and since Lithium-Ion batteries have a limited life of only 3-5 years even when not used, this will ultimately limit the lifetime of the N5 as a whole) - compare this to several days uptime and up to a year in standby achievable with the 200LX running on 2 AA cells. The N5 keyboard, while good, isn't as good as the 200LX keyboard (too large key caps, no numpad, not localized and in a somewhat strange layout) making it more difficult to touch-type, and the normal screen resolution is too high.

So, although the N5 is much more capable in theory, in the end I continue to use the 200LX for personal appointments and to store notes while traveling. I once used it also as a development machine, but since it doesn't support 386 instructions, none of the newer development tools run on it any longer.

Greetings,

Matthias

[rprosperi]

(01-19-2015 12:58 PM)Mike (Stgt) Wrote:  ...then we put every toy to the table and make a photo like this or this one.

Ciao.....Mike

Mike - photos are not visible, at least from here. I checked as I simply like these kinds of photos, fond memories of fun times at PPC meetings.

Which Palmtop group do you get together with?

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(01-19-2015 01:58 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Mike - photos are not visible, at least from here. I checked as I simply like these kinds of photos, fond memories of fun times at PPC meetings.

Which Palmtop group do you get together with?

I can see them from here (Italy).

[rprosperi]

(01-19-2015 02:09 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  I can see them from here (Italy).

And now, I can see them here as well. Weird.

Anyhow, thanks if you fixed that Mike.

[Johnny_Bjoern]

These meetings look cozy. Was the meetings in Germany? Will there be future meetings? I have some 95LX, 200LX, 700LX, and others. As you I don't use them anymore but sometimes put batteries in and se if they still work...

Best regards
Johnny, Denmark