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Handhelds Education HP Hardware

Recommendations for RPN Calculators? 580

sg3000 asks: "My trusty old HP 48S graphing calculator, that served me since engineering school, seems to be giving up the ghost. I haven't used it in a few years, but recently I put new batteries in it. It works, but it makes a loud static/white noise sound when it's on. The noise is not as noticeable when I hold it, but when I set it down on a hard surface, it's really loud. Then it sucks the batteries down incredibly fast (I put new batteries in it, and two days later, they were drained). Any suggestions on what I should buy as a replacement?"

"I'm in graduate school now, and since I'm taking an accounting course, where they don't want us digging out our laptops during a test, I need to buy another calculator. I'm a big fan of reverse polish notation (RPN), so I'd prefer to get another HP calculator.

Do companies still make calculators? I'd love to get another HP 48, but I'm not even sure if HP even makes calculators like that any longer -- on their web site, they're all cheapo-looking single line deals. I've read about something called an HP 48g, but HP has nothing about it on their web site."

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Recommendations for RPN Calculators?

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  • by civilengineer ( 669209 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:45PM (#7051064) Homepage Journal
    just change it to silent mode
  • by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:52PM (#7051126)
    Click on "Start"

    Click on "Run"

    Type in "calc.exe"

    Click "OK"

  • by ArsonPanda ( 647069 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:54PM (#7051141)
    Why exactly is it "Polish"

    It's not! it's RPN, so it's everything except Polish.
    It's a Norwegien fisherman, a bannana, and a communicable disease, but it's NOT "Polish".
  • by drquizas ( 681020 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:54PM (#7051142)
    Wow, I was pretty sure RPN was something my data structures prof made up when he was introducing the concept of stacks.
  • Get a HP... (Score:2, Funny)

    by yadayadayada ( 568840 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @10:00PM (#7051195)
    ...because they come with indemnification.
  • by (H)elix1 ( 231155 ) <slashdot.helix@nOSPaM.gmail.com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @10:22PM (#7051353) Homepage Journal
    This sounds like subharmonic oscillation in the inductor core used in the DC-DC converter. Pop it open, find the inductor, and replace it - thing should be good as new.

    The sad part is I still have not figured out if you are making a Trek funny or have a soldering iron and know how to use it. God help me, I actually thought to see how the mods would tag it to decide...
  • by sg3000 ( 87992 ) * <sg_public AT mac DOT com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @11:00PM (#7051580)
    >>Sounds like its power supply inverter is toast. Rip it apart, trace
    >>down the IC that is making all the noise (or look for a small IC
    >>mounted xformer near on IC) and do some home work. Replace what makes
    >>noise and what ic is a PWM if it has one, unless its home brew PWM
    >>inversion and learn.
    >
    >Generally the only time an IC makes a noise is when it sizzles just
    >before it goes bang.
    >
    >But yes, it sounds like a faulty component in the inverter for the TFT
    >backplane, probably a coil with shorted turns, or an eletrolytic
    >capacitor which was glued-down on the board but the glue has broken
    >down and fallen off.

    Thanks. I used my 48S during our quiz tonight, and people around me could hear it buzzing. The guy next to me had a cheapo TI calculator, and he asked me why my HP calculator was growling at his calculator.
  • Ha! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Erwos ( 553607 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @11:11PM (#7051640)
    My "real" first calculator was an RPN one, handed down by my engineer father. That makes me a real geek.

    But, anyways, this reminds me of a funny story. I'm sitting in a low-level C++ class, when the teacher decides to show us some Lisp. I found this quite interesting and reminescent of my days with the RPN calculator, so (stupidly) I raised my hands to inquire whether or not the design of Lisp was based on Polish Notation (PN), which would at least cement in my mind how to treat the language.

    Teacher: "WHAT! What did you say about Poles?!"
    Me: "Polish _Notation_. You know, the mathematical format."
    Teacher: "You're making it up!" (at this point, I was fairly stunned)
    Me: "It's called that because, theoretically, those Polish mathematicians knew what they were about, you know?"

    It was probably the lowest day of my school career. We were getting CS teachers who _didn't know what RPN was_. How embarassing.

    As for your calculator, no bloody idea, I just use my TI-83+ whenever the batteries still work.

    -Erwos
  • by Moofie ( 22272 ) <lee AT ringofsaturn DOT com> on Thursday September 25, 2003 @01:00AM (#7052227) Homepage
    for my HP 48G. Does anybody have one they'd be willing to unload? Or a .PDF I can grab from somewhere? HP wants $40 for the book, which is ridiculous IMO.

    I'll bake ya some bad-ass cookies if you can give me that .pdf.

    I'm also looking for a hard case. I love my 48, and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. Or from my newly distracted hands when I can get a Palm that'll run the emulator. : )
  • by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Thursday September 25, 2003 @01:08AM (#7052261) Journal
    For One, I, Overlords RPN welcome our new . . . .

  • by supergumby ( 141149 ) on Thursday September 25, 2003 @01:14AM (#7052299)
    Looks like you depend on your TI-89 a bit too much.

    (b^x)^y = b^(xy)

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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