Looks like this and can be found on Amazon and Ebay
They also sell them at Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table
Posted on 06/08/2009 6:54:44 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
My HP-48SX ceased functioning about 5 years ago and i still miss it. I recently got the bug to go out and replace it with something. I saw an HP-50 on sale today for about 60 bucks. I bought the 48-SX when they first came out(circa 1989?) for A LOT OF MONEY. I forget the exact amount, but it was either $199.99 or $299.99. I think it was the latter.
The only thing wrong with my 48 is the on/off button. I know this because the problem started out minor and gradually got worse. I used to be able to turn it on and off by pressing extra hard on the button. All the other buttons worked fine. Then little by little it(the on/off button) quit working completely.
I saved the calculator in hopes that I would find a way to fix it. I've tried spraying electrical contact cleaner into the keyboard and nothing works.
I was totally lost without that calculator for a long time after it quit functioning. I had an extra fat wallet for it that doubled as my checkbook. I never went anywhere without it.
This was before I had a cellphone and I'm pretty sure it was before anyone had a PDA. I turned my HP into a primitive PDA. It didn't have a touch screen or internet connection, obviously. But I had files in it with all kinds of personal info and my entire personal phonebook in it. There was lots of old stuff from college in there too.
I was still using payphones extensively back then...along with an answering machine at home that I could call up from a payphone to check my messages.
Since I got a cellphone, the HP became a little less important. I guess that's why I never replaced it. A buddy of mine told me he could program my HP to make the sounds of the phone numbers being dialed so I could hold the calculator up to the receiver of the pay phone and just let it dial like that automatically. He never did get around to doing that for me though...and so I never got to test it to see if it would work. It seems like it shoulda worked though. But I didn't know how to do it myself efficiently without redoing my entire phonebook. I wanted a program that would take a pre-existing stored number and convert it into the sounds required to dial a number. That was a little over my head.
Even to this day, sometimes when I pick up a simple handheld calculator and start punching in numbers real fast I accidentally revert back to RPN and have to start all over. IT REALLY SUCKS! And it's been 5 years since I've ever touched anything that uses RPN!
Ok.
Now tell me how to open the case!
I can’t figure it out. It appears to me the face plate is glued down on top of the screws you need access to...to take the thing apart. How do you pry up the face plate without destroying it?
That’s actually a nifty device; it could make a handy tool when our energy-supply is cut.
THat won’t fit in my pocket protector.
Yes. It's EMP-proof for sure!
http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/docs/opening/hprepair.zip
(Zipped File for Download)
The HP-50 has switchable modes, RPN is just one of its modes. It works a little different than the HP48s and earlier HP RPN calculators, but unless you have a lot of programs for the older calculators you won’t notice much difference.
The construction quality isn’t up to the HP-41C’s standards, but it’s comparable to the HP-48 series.
Overall it’s a nice calculator for the price. They don’t sell nearly as well as the TIs since the college textbooks all assume the student has a TI (HP hasn’t been as good at maintaining their position in education as TI. When I was in school, you had to have an HP-67 or 41, or if you couldn’t get better, an HP-25. Now most engineering students carry TIs, some of them run RPN entry programs on them.)
I still mostly use my HP-41CX and HP-41CV, they were built to a higher standard than the later models, and both still work like a charm. I also run an HP-41C emulator on my Palm.
I’ve got several notebook computers. Including three little Eee PCs that sit in strategic places near where I tend to end up. I have an HP calculator next to each one. Boot time: zero. App launch time: zero. Time to get the number I want: several seconds less than the shortest boot time on any computer I own newer than a C-64. ;)
-PJ
I love it when people who don't know RPN try to use it. They almost toss it back in disgust.
“I love it when people who don’t know RPN try to use it. They almost toss it back in disgust.”
WHERE’S THE EQUALS SIGN???
You still operate a C64???
I’m in awe.
I had an HP-35 when they first came out (early 70's), then an HP-45, an HP-11C, and finally the HP-16C. That has lasted me more years than I can remember...
Oh, the seduction of RPN...
I think in RPN.
In the mid-80's I wanted Reverse Polish on my early IBM-PC and Unix workstation, and wrote an RPN calulator program in C that mimicked the HP-45, including conditional looping, I/O to files, all sorts of stuff. It ported to VAX/VMS, Windows, Linux, you name it. I still use it as my main online calculator, when I don't have the HP-16C at hand.
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