Old calculators...
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. I still have my Post 1447 student's slide rule from sometime in the early 70's!
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Oh yeah, almost forgot. I still have my Post 1447 student's slide rule from sometime in the early 70's!
:-O I still have both of mine...
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
My old HP-28C is sitting on my desk, bought in 1985. Only on its second set of batteries. Still Going strong. Amazing!
-Bryan My latest programming adventure was coding a facial recognition system for the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey Ride at Universal Studios Florida. I love my job.
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
When I was a kid my dad used an old mechanical "adding machine" in his business. It was a foot and a half long and almost a foot wide. Weighed a ton. You pushed the buttons you wanted (1st the numbers, then plus, minus or equals) and then grabbed the 12-inch handle and pulled - like a one-armed bandit at Vegas. Had a mechanical numeric display that rolled the numbers and also printed on cash register paper. Must've had a million moving parts inside. Then my mom, who was tired of all the hard labor working the thing, got a calculator. It had a red LED display and was about an inch thick (don't remember the brand). Suddenly the adding machine was a bench warmer and the calculator was the new star of the office. That was in the early 70's. Dad is gone and mom is long since retired. But she still has that same calculator and uses it to do her bills.
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
I have my dad's Texas Instruments SR-10. Its not new, but it still works. Every so often I put some NiCads back in, plug in the charger and have a field day doing + - * / % and sqrt :) Don't know why I still keep it, but it has sentimental value -- he replaced his slide rule with it.
patbob
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Drew that! :-\
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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I have a Cassie Fx-570c, does base conversions one of the reasons why I bought it in the 80s.
Two heads are better than one.
And I keep my Casio fx-4000p in my backpack for just such an occasion as I need a scientific calculator. I bought this thing sometime in the mid-80's although I may have replaced the battery once, I can't remember doing so (but I did write the battery number (cr2032) on the back sometime in the past). I've even had one of the students come scurrying in asking if anybody had a calculator they could borrow for a test (I'm a univ. research asst.) Must be the Boy Scout motto showing in my behavior ;-) Way
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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Just reading this thread, I checked my HP48GX in my drawer, purchased in 1995, never change batteries and still works well. All programs I installed at that time still there. I have an HP97 on my desk, never failed me.
Have a Novus 4515 Mathematician PR programmable calculator. Made by National Semiconductor. Think late 1970's era. Uses LEDs for the display. Fortunately also used Ni-Cads for batteries.
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I have an old - and I realised today it must be nearly twenty years since I bought it - Sharp EL-5020 programmable calculator, and I realised I had forgotten how to put it into Hex mode. No problem, I'll look on t'interweb for a manual. Found it, no hassle. By then though, I had worked it out (press the button marked "->HEX", it wasn't complex, just Monday morning). Then I noticed in the results was fleaBay - and sure enough, brand new, was this calculator. How likely is it that a twenty-year-old piece of ephemera (and calculators are indeed such) would be working now, much less still buy-able? Even more, I just realized I never have replaced the batteries, and it isn't solar powered. :omg:
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
Long time lurker - first post here. I have an old ca 1966 Canon 161 electronic calculator that I restored to operational condition this last weekend. No "chips" - something like 788 germanium transistors and over 2000 diodes on a stack of 11 9x12 inch boards. The display consists of layers of clear plastic slides that are side-lit by small incandescent lamps. Takes almost one second to do a divide operation. Some of the digits flicker while it is doing this. Fun old machine! There is an example of one here: http://oldcalculatormuseum.com/canon161.html[^] I have also an HP-15C that I bought in 1983 - 4th set of batteries, I think... - Oren
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And I keep my Casio fx-4000p in my backpack for just such an occasion as I need a scientific calculator. I bought this thing sometime in the mid-80's although I may have replaced the battery once, I can't remember doing so (but I did write the battery number (cr2032) on the back sometime in the past). I've even had one of the students come scurrying in asking if anybody had a calculator they could borrow for a test (I'm a univ. research asst.) Must be the Boy Scout motto showing in my behavior ;-) Way
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Long time lurker - first post here. I have an old ca 1966 Canon 161 electronic calculator that I restored to operational condition this last weekend. No "chips" - something like 788 germanium transistors and over 2000 diodes on a stack of 11 9x12 inch boards. The display consists of layers of clear plastic slides that are side-lit by small incandescent lamps. Takes almost one second to do a divide operation. Some of the digits flicker while it is doing this. Fun old machine! There is an example of one here: http://oldcalculatormuseum.com/canon161.html[^] I have also an HP-15C that I bought in 1983 - 4th set of batteries, I think... - Oren
