Compact Calculator Cavalcade

[@kimchee94112]

I have couple of TI SR-50s, the first Texas Instruments scientific pocket calculator from the mid 70's. It was half the price of the HP-35 then. Both SR-50 are dead from battery leakage. Good memories, see if I could fix it. The HP-35 still kicking although needed to fabricate a new battery pack. My go to calculator was the HP-15C, use the heck out of it from early 80s to 2000, still works and very functional. I now have a collection of HPs from typewriter size second generation desktop scientific calculator (late 1960 early 1970?) RPN, LED readout and integrated thermal printer, to a few pocket HPs with magnetic card readers and various engineering and science add on chips. Using slide rule and fingers well into the 70's, haha. FORTRAN was what we had before, then came spreadsheets, what a game changer. AI will make computation much easier and make me so much dumber.

[@philosynth]

Great collection! I own some Voyager HP calculators, 11C, 15C and 16C and love the form factor. The pleasure of pressing those keys is unmatched.

[@johnhamill7419]

Nice Calculators. I have and still uses my 1983 HP 11C. I still have the manuals for it. I wrote a Decimal to Hex converter because I am a computer science grad. Because A to F wasn’t a digit on the calculator I used a 2 digits for 0 to F and used 00 to 15. I also have my first calculator a Radio Shack blue florencent display ~1976 model Model EC-420. In highschool I won a HP 35 for 2nd place in a toothpick bridge building contest. I think I still have the last two calculators but don’t know where they are.

[@chef1arjunaidi]

Great video, Joe! The Texas Instruments book is cool, i gotta find a copy.

[@ericbergstrom2066]

Hey Joe, you made me pull out my 11C. I know I replaced the batteries just ONCE in it's lifetime. I turned it on, and it fired right up. Kind of amazing. I used to have a Sinclair calculator that was a kit (like the ZX80 computer). I sold it on eBay a long time ago. I probably shouldn't have... it's probably worth a lot more now.

[@Joe_VanCleave]

I first saw a Sinclair in high school about 1973 or so. The coolest thing ever at the time. Actually, their form factor and appearance are still special even today.

[@klausphotobaer5754]

Hey Joe, this really brought back some memories ! Thank You for this video. Guess I have to pull out one or two boxes where I store my old calculators. Unfortunately, I don' t have my first calculator any more, wich was an Omron ( maybe You' ve heard of them ? ) Fluorescent tube etc. I totally agree with Your opinion that the old calculators are much more fun. They have personality, the new ones seldomely have. HP still is and as far as I know, always was in the calculator market. But they never produced " cheapies ". I used an HP48G when I went to engineer school some decades ago. It still runs and is soooo f...ing complicated that you have to study a manual of 200 something pages when you leave the basic functions. It could even solve diffential equations and display them graphically. A real " mean " machine and almost none of the profs were able to use them. BTW, the original TI 30 ( wich I happen to have, used it in school back in the 70s , still working ! ) uses red LEDs as well and the keys were very similar to the ones of the hp. No wobbly rubber thingies like nowadays. Thanks for sharing !

[@androo4519]

Nice. I'm envious of your Hp11 and HP15. Just bought an HP 35s which is really nice to use but perhaps the last of its kind. I also have a Casio fx-98 card sized scientific that everyone seems to want to buy.

[@MrWaalkman]

I loved the "Math on Keys" book! Nice collection, do you have your HP-15C Collector's Edition yet?

[@phxxer]

Being from Albuquerque, I'm surprised you don't have a MITS in your collection. You really should try and find one. Also, you should have mentioned at least one financial calculator. I have about 8 different ones, both TI and HP. And a newbie, a Victor. I also have one that will add feet and inches. My first one was a 4 function Sharp with flourescent display. A zero was the bottom half of an 8. I think I paid $345 for it!

[@BobSmith-dx9bj]

I have my first real calculator from electronic school in 1975.

[@someonespadre]

I have a genuine hp15c calculator app on my work iPhone. I have a knockoff 11c app on my personal iPhone.

[@SeanFlaherty]

HP FTW!