floppo

[tcraft]

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

I still have my HP-35. It had been so valuable to me when I started in engineering I could never quite bear to get rid of it, (even though a $25 calculator can do almost everything it could now). Many years later several people GAVE me their old HP-35s and I used the parts to rebuild mine. Works like new (at least the last time I took it out).

Hank

[Bigdog]

Re: floppo

I couldn't afford an HP-35 back then. They were over $600 back in '73. But I did pay $150 for a TI SR-10. It only had square root and reciprocal but it saved my butt in Jet Propulsion. Couldn't have gotten thru as well with the slide rule. The SR-10 is long gone but I still have the slide rule.

Greg

[tcraft]

Re: floppo

larn to code, code to earn

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

The HP-35 was a MAJOR investment in the early 70s. Even a lot of the professors didn't have one yet and they showed a LOT of interest in mine! What is funny is I still have my slide rule too and use it a lot more than the old HP. If anyone is interested I also have the old manual for my HP-41C/41CV. Had to be the most complex calculator ever built!

Hank

I couldn't afford an HP-35 back then. They were over $600 back in '73. But I did pay $150 for a TI SR-10. It only had square root and reciprocal but it saved my butt in Jet Propulsion. Couldn't have gotten thru as well with the slide rule. The SR-10 is long gone but I still have the slide rule.

Greg

[Stumpy]

Re: floppo

Hank,
I had/have an HP-41CV...somewhere. Don't recall ever truly mastering the beast to the point where it was the tool it had the potential to be. Most of the time we had an adverse relationship ;-). Reckon now I'll have to dig around and find it.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

It was the biggest PITA I ever owned.....and I drove English cars!

Hank

[skip]

Re: floppo

I still have my HP-35. It had been so valuable to me when I started in engineering I could never quite bear to get rid of it, (even though a $25 calculator can do almost everything it could now). Many years later several people GAVE me their old HP-35s and I used the parts to rebuild mine. Works like new (at least the last time I took it out).

Hank

I remember being a poor student and not quite being able to swing the HP-35. It was the Cadillac compared to the TIs at the time. But when the successor HP-45 came out I took the plunge. I, too, still have it and use it regularly. I have rebuilt the Ni-Cad battery packs several times, but it still works like a champ. And just to make sure we stay aviation-related, that HP-45 has added up every hour entered in my log book.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

I still have the HP-15c I got years ago and honestly it is probably the most cost effective useful calculator I ever owned (with the trusty slide rule second).

Hank


And I use it every day as an engineer, and yes, on the Taylorcraft too.

[N96290]

Re: floppo

Was there any truth to the rumor that the space shuttles used a HP41 as a backup computer to fly home if everything else went south. I only learned enough RPN programing to reverse program some of the routines an old engineer had written for our test lab and that made my brain hurt.

Lyn

[N96290]

Re: floppo

Was there any truth to the rumor that the space shuttles used a HP41 as a backup computer to fly home if everything else went south. I only learned enough RPN programing to reverse program some of the routines an old engineer had written for our test lab and that made my brain hurt.

Lyn

[TimHicks]

Re: floppo

In college, studying Mechanical Engineering in the 80's, I spent $200 that I could ill afford to spend on this HP-41CV. It was hugely valuable. I learned to program the heck out of it.
I bought the Memory Pack and later the Math pack (this model has 4 expansion ports that you can plug in various modules to expand its abilities)
The height of its usefulness and my programming was when I spent a weekend trying to solve an elaborate finite-difference (sorta like finite-element) heat-transfer problem. I remember spending a couple hours with pencil and paper writing the program. Then a half-hour carefully inputting the program into the calculator.
Then, barely breathing for anticipation, hitting the PGRM button or whatever it took to tell it to start calculating.
I knew that it would probably take a while to compute, so carrying the HP-41 with me, I walked across campus to check my mail in the student union, checking the screen occasionally to see that the little bird was still flying across the screen (indicating that it was still thinking).

Then, a half-hour of computing later, the results started popping up on the little screen. I was giddy as I carefully copied them down (missing something would mean starting over). I checked my results and they were clearly correct.

I could hardly contain myself. I felt that I had beat the system.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

Never heard that one, and never saw an HP 41 on a manifest. The first computers were called "Noun Verb" and we used it on Apollo. Nasty clunky thing that was state of the art at the time. Your watch does more now. We always heard that HP built the Noun Verb system and it was the basis for the HP-35. One of those things none of us ever bothered to verify.

Hank

Was there any truth to the rumor that the space shuttles used a HP41 as a backup computer to fly home if everything else went south. I only learned enough RPN programing to reverse program some of the routines an old engineer had written for our test lab and that made my brain hurt.

Lyn

[Mack Dobkins]

Re: floppo

Was there any truth to the rumor that the space shuttles used a HP41 as a backup computer to fly home if everything else went south. I only learned enough RPN programing to reverse program some of the routines an old engineer had written for our test lab and that made my brain hurt.

Lyn

Yes, That is absolutely the truth that the HP 41C was carried on the space shuttle. I even have the original HP newsletter that had a write up about it.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: floppo

I would LOVE to see that if you can scan it! We had LOTS of "interesting" stuff that went up we weren't told about. Some of it was pretty dangerous, most just caused us work to make sure it WASN'T dangerous. They were pretty tight about any electronics, especially if it could be linked to the on board systems. For instance you were NOT allowed to have a CD player that could be plugged into one of the laptops. They had to be "stand alone" and we were ALWAYS sending up "bandoleros" of carbon flash light batteries. The most demanded was always candy. I guess M&Ms must taste WONDERFUL in zero G (you would HAVE TO get tired of playing with them eventually!)
I know thee were HP calculators on board, but am surprised something like a 41C was allowed. The most dangerous I heard of was someone trying to slip alcohol aboard. Vodka is VERY flammable up there! Funniest one I ever caught personally was some golf balls. They were supposed to take some hollow ones for an EVA and they tried to slip in some regular ones that were NOT allowed! We caught them because the weight was wrong. That was a Soyuz launch to the ISS.

Hank