[HN Gopher] DM32 - a modern take on the HP-32SII calculator
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DM32 - a modern take on the HP-32SII calculator
Author : bosveld
Score : 50 points
Date : 2023-05-17 07:44 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.swissmicros.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.swissmicros.com)
| martinjacobd wrote:
| I hope these people do something similar for the hp48 or 50
| series, though I understand it's a big undertaking. I'd be the
| first person to buy it.
| ghaff wrote:
| I used an HP-41 for years which finally died. I was really
| tempted to buy the equivalent from these folks but couldn't
| justify it given that I use a physical calculator once in a
| blue moon (and have a good HP-41 app on my iPhone).
| wrycoder wrote:
| I love my 41CX+ app.
| dublin wrote:
| FWIW, the best RPN caclulator app I've seen (no Android, just
| iPhone, sadly...) is the MathU RPN from CreativeCreek. Not
| only does it successfully combine the scientific, digital,
| and financial capabilities of the HP 10-series (12c, 15c,
| 16c) into one calculator, it's also one of the _very_ few RPN
| apps that really gets the look and feel of HP 's keyboard/UI
| design right. This app is literally the biggest thing still
| tying me to Apple's iOS, which I've finally decided I'm done
| with, but I really don't want to give up this app - it's one
| of only two I've ever paid for.
| morcheeba wrote:
| Me, too. My two HP48s are finally starting to fail after 30
| years of use.
| tikej wrote:
| The 128 bit arithmetic part is really interesting. I wonder
| whether they used libquadmath and whether they needed to
| implement any extra funcitons beyond what's available there.
| williamDafoe wrote:
| My favorite thing on the TI SR-50 was to calculate 69! ... It
| was the largest number that the 2-digit exponent could hold and
| also the slowest calculation. I also discovered the 1 hidden
| digit of precision (13 digits) by subtracting know digits of pi
| away from the pi constant to reveal the invisible digit in
| scientific notation ...
| ibiza wrote:
| I'm happy one can buy a mighty 4-stack RPN calculator today new.
| Greedily, I wish they had recreated the 32S instead, as it had a
| single Gold function key and far less busy silk screening. I say
| this as a former owner of a 32SII.
|
| https://www.hpmuseum.org/32s.jpg
| nvy wrote:
| Personally I'm hoping for an HP48G or HP50G clone. I still use
| my 50g and it's great.
| fmajid wrote:
| There's the HP Prime
| trasz4 wrote:
| Prime is a completely different product, because it's aimed
| at a completely different target group: students, not
| engineers.
| russh wrote:
| HP48GX with a sizeable readable font.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| I'm the opposite on this, I like more labeled functions
| directly reachable with function buttons and less menu
| scrolling :)
|
| SwissMicros should really do the WP-34s imho:
|
| https://commerce.hpcalc.org/images/34s-angle-medium.jpg
| trasz4 wrote:
| 32S didn't use menu scrolling though.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Did the Berkeley Graphics (https://berkeleygraphics.com) guy
| design their website? I mean that in a good way.
| agumonkey wrote:
| Swissmicro is noobish but Berkeley graphics is super neat to
| me.
|
| I find these light blockish ui relaxing (more than flat,
| whitespace recent ones ironically)
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I abhor flat UIs. Our brain has all of these wonderful ways
| of inferring depth from a flat image, and modern UI design
| seems to be to avoid using those affordances at all costs. I
| find it particularly ironic that the flat UIs seemed to be
| taking over at about the same time that stereoscopy was at a
| peak in its hype...
| DominoTree wrote:
| SwissMicros is the first project listed on the Berkeley
| Graphics website, so I'd say yes.
| linsomniac wrote:
| I keep looking to see if they have the credit card ones back in
| stock, but they never seem to.
|
| A few weeks ago I added an "rpncalc" command to my CLI "swiss
| army toothpick" program ( https://github.com/linsomniac/toothpyk
| ): "pyk rc 86500,24/365x" (x == * == multiply).
|
| On the one hand I love the HP calculators and have leaned on them
| heavily in the distant past. On the other hand I like having a
| clean desktop (3d printing some under desk drawers at this
| moment).
| aidenn0 wrote:
| This is interesting; the display can show the whole stack (my
| daily driver, a 35s has only 2 lines, and the 32SII only has
| one). Keyboard looks fairly similar to a 32SII in layout; no
| arrow-keys like the 35s.
|
| Given that it takes only a single battery, I suppose it stores
| programs in non-volatile memory rather than SRAM (my 35s has two
| batteries and you need to change them one-at-a-time to not erase
| the memory).
| inejge wrote:
| Keyboard layout is identical to 32SII, save for the orange-
| shifted SETUP above the ON key and an extra top row of blank
| keys, presumably for some kind of menu functions. Interesting
| indeed. The 32SII's forte has always been pure number
| crunching, with most functions reachable with a couple of
| keypresses. It had a rather limited program memory, which this
| version can rectify.
|
| Having a single battery shouldn't preclude SRAM storage; there
| could be a small capacitor capable of preserving the contents
| for several minutes.
| zokier wrote:
| besides slightly different keymap, what are the main differences
| between this and DM42 (or DM41X)?
| groos wrote:
| As far as I can tell, the build quality is the same: fully
| metallic enclosure with printed keys unlike the double-
| injection molded ones on the HP originals. The DM41X was
| released with just one font, one emulating the segmented 'font'
| of the HP41. This one appears to have improved that by allowing
| different, easier to read fonts.
| cschmidt wrote:
| They are emulating different HP calculators. The DM42 is a
| HP-42S clone, while the OP is a HP-32SII.
| trasz4 wrote:
| In somewhat related news, HP is releasing reedition of HP-15C
| this summer.
| criddell wrote:
| Thank you for the news! I missed out last time the re-released
| it.
|
| You can preorder now:
|
| https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-19886.html
|
| Update: I tried to order and failed. I'll be watching for a US-
| based distributor though because I definitely want one.
| jamesgill wrote:
| I still have (and use) an HP-15c from the mid-80s. I know it's
| nostalgic, but you had to have lived it to appreciate the power
| these had/have--and the fun of manually programming stacks. I've
| owned a 32S and many others over the years, but this one has
| stuck.
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| Me too and ... it's still working on the factory batteries!
|
| There are many reasons to love the HP calcs, but I think the
| keyboard doesn't get enough praise. I have never found another
| calculator as satisfying to use. I heard from owners of the
| Swiss that it's not quite as good.
| fmajid wrote:
| Me three. The reason why those calculators last so long is
| their use of silicon on sapphire technology.
|
| FYI the company that took over the HP Calculator business is
| releasing a "HP-15C Collector's Edition" that fixes the
| HP-15C Limited Edition's bugs, but it's a limited edition as
| well so if you want one you'd better preorder. It won't have
| the amazing battery life of the original, but it will be
| orders of magnitude faster, and reports say build quality is
| good, unlike newer HPs.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I heard a (possibly apocryphal) story that the 1XC series
| calculators were specified to only need a battery change
| every N days, and the engineers interpreted that as working
| while being on 24/7 for N days. Battery life in them is so
| absurd, I suspect that shelf-life of the button cells may
| come into play as much as the drain that the calculator
| itself uses.
| dublin wrote:
| The batteries in my wife's 12c have only been replaced two
| or three times since she bought it in college in 1984! She
| worked as a commercial real estate appraiser for many
| years, using it daily. A few years back, she started a new
| job doing something similar, so it's back in use again,
| good as new.
|
| I fully expect it to outlive both of us - due to HP's
| excellent dual-shot key molding that embeds the key legends
| into the keys themselves, it looks nearly new less a few
| scratches and dings imposed by the real world. This may
| have been one of the last times a product was truly
| designed to last indefinitely. And yeah, I suspect self-
| discharge of the batteries is at least on par with the
| actual power usage of the calculator...
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