tomm@voodoo.voodoo.uucp (Tom Mackey) (11/06/90)
I just purchased an HP-38E financial calculator (I've just gotta
stop looking in the "Little Nickel"... the SAF getting way too
low these days ;^) and have a few questions:
It came with zip documentation.... is HP pretty good about
supplying User's Manuals for their older stuff? Anyone
willing to part with a manual, or willing to make copies of
some of the 38E specific stuff?
Hitting G-MEM shows p-08 r-20 (8 program steps and 20
registers). Does this imply that they can be re-allocated
like the HP-41 series? If so, how? Seems like
programability implies a bit more useful address space.
How do you use the Delta-DAYS and DATE keys?
What is %T? (This is probably a stoopid question, but what
the hey!)
Most of the rest of it I've already figured out, but any other
hints or nifties would be appreciated.
PS:
(SAF = Spousal Acceptance Factor)
PPS:
What can you say to your spouse that will make them believe
that buying old HP's is better than putting the same amount
of money in savings????
--
Tom Mackey (206) 865-6575 tomm@voodoo.boeing.com
Boeing Computer Services ....uunet!bcstec!voodoo!tomm
M/S 7K-20, P.O. Box 24346, Seattle, WA 98124-0346rrd@hpfcso.HP.COM (Ray Depew) (11/07/90)
> PPS: > What can you say to your spouse that will make them believe > that buying old HP's is better than putting the same amount > of money in savings???? When you find out, let me know! :-) Regards Ray Depew IC's by Bill and Dave rrd@hpfitst1.hp.com
slsw2@cc.usu.edu (11/08/90)
In article <543@voodoo.UUCP>, tomm@voodoo.voodoo.uucp (Tom Mackey) writes: > I just purchased an HP-38E financial calculator (I've just gotta > stop looking in the "Little Nickel"... the SAF getting way too > low these days ;^) and have a few questions: > > ... > > Hitting G-MEM shows p-08 r-20 (8 program steps and 20 > registers). Does this imply that they can be re-allocated > like the HP-41 series? If so, how? Seems like > programability implies a bit more useful address space. On the 15, 16, 11, etc. the allocation of memory between program and register spaces is automatic; when the program gets big enough to require another register, one is sucked up from register space and tacked onto program space. -- =============================================================================== Roger Ivie 35 S 300 W Logan, Ut. 84321 (801) 752-8633 ===============================================================================
tomm@uucp (Tom Mackey) (11/08/90)
In article <543@voodoo.UUCP> tomm@voodoo.voodoo.uucp (Tom Mackey) writes:
<Hey, That's me!>
+I just purchased an old HP-38E financial calculator and have
+a few questions:
+
+ It came with zip documentation.... is HP pretty good about
+ supplying User's Manuals for their older stuff? Anyone
+ willing to part with a manual, or willing to make copies of
+ some of the 38E specific stuff?
+
+ Hitting G-MEM shows p-08 r-20 (8 program steps and 20
+ registers). Does this imply that they can be re-allocated
+ like the HP-41 series? If so, how? Seems like
+ programability implies a bit more useful address space.
+
+ How do you use the Delta-DAYS and DATE keys?
+
+ What is %T? (This is probably a stoopid question, but what
+ the hey!)
Well, Ive figured out the memory and programming stuff (it
automatically converts registers to program steps at the rate of
1:7, for a maximum of 99 steps and a minimum of 7 registers. I'd
still like to get some answers on the other three questions.
--
Tom Mackey (206) 865-6575 tomm@voodoo.boeing.com
Boeing Computer Services ....uunet!bcstec!voodoo!tomm
M/S 7K-20, P.O. Box 24346, Seattle, WA 98124-0346daver@ECE.ORST.EDU (Dave Rabinowitz) (11/09/90)
I tried mailing this but it bounced: In article <543@voodoo.UUCP> you write: > It came with zip documentation.... is HP pretty good about > supplying User's Manuals for their older stuff? Anyone > willing to part with a manual, or willing to make copies of > some of the 38E specific stuff? It's very similar in operation to the 12C so you can probably get all the information you need from one of those manuals. Check with friends or an HP dealer or call the HP calculator technical support at (503) 757-2004. > How do you use the Delta-DAYS and DATE keys? Dates are entered as MM.DDYYYY. If you enter two dates Delta-DAYS will compute the number of days between those dates. I believe the DATE key is actually DATE+ and adds a number of days (in X) to a date (in Y) producing a new date. > What can you say to your spouse that will make them believe > that buying old HP's is better than putting the same amount > of money in savings???? I'm not sure this is defensible. The 38E is more than 10 years old and unless you paid less than $10 for it with the recharger and a good battery pack you could have done better buying a new calculator (HP sells an upgraded replacement for about $50 list, about $35 by mail order). The 38E battery pack uses old-style NiCad batteries (the only kind available at the time - c.1978) which have problems with memory. Don't leave the calculator plugged into the recharger or you'll destroy the batteries. Plug it in when the low-battery light on the side of the display goes on. A new battery pack is not cheap - if you can find one. It uses "standard" AA NiCad cells but without the bump on the + side, so if you buy ordinary AAs they won't fit in the case. The 38E has had occasional problems with the keyboard getting mushy and failing after several years. In fact, HP had a lifetime warranty where they would replace the calculator with a new one using a different keyboard technology at no cost if the keyboard showed this failure, but I'm sure this program has ended. If you have keyboard problems now you're SOL (but then what do you expect from a 10+ year-old consumer product). Good luck, Dave Rabinowitz
conte@crest.crhc.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte) (11/09/90)
In article <21661@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, daver@ECE.ORST.EDU (Dave Rabinowitz) writes: > > In article <543@voodoo.UUCP> you write: > > What can you say to your spouse that will make them believe > > that buying old HP's is better than putting the same amount > > of money in savings???? > > I'm not sure this is defensible. The 38E is more than 10 years old and unless > you paid less than $10 for it with the recharger and a good battery pack you > could have done better buying a new calculator (HP sells an upgraded > replacement for about $50 list, about $35 by mail order). It is defensible, from a collector's standpoint. I own 20+ antique HP's. (Everybody has a hobby, and all that.) A 38E in good working order is a good find. $10 is too low. Without manual, $40-$50. EduCALC has replacement battery packs and rechargers for 38E's. I personally don't own one, so I can't xox a copy of the manual to you (sorry). ------ Tom Conte Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing conte@uiuc.edu University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois I worry about insects: I bet the dinosaurs had `mammal exterminators'
rrd@hpfcso.HP.COM (Ray Depew) (11/09/90)
Tom Mackey asked: (among other things...) + How do you use the Delta-DAYS and DATE keys? + + What is %T? (This is probably a stoopid question, but what + the hey!) Guessing here, based on bad memories of my junior year: HP calculators use a date format of mm.ddyyyy, where today's date would be 11.081990 . In the 41 series, you could set a flag to reverse the dd and mm; I don't know if the 38 will allow that. AT ANY RATE: to use the Delta-DAYS function, put one date in y and one date in x, in the mm.ddyyyy format. The calc should return the number of days between the two dates, to the X-register. (Also known as the "days-between- dates" function.) To use the DATE function, put a date in mm.ddyyyy format in the X-register. It will be replaced with an integer from 1 to 7 denoting the day of the week that that date falls on. I think 1 = Sunday, 7 = Saturday, but I wouldn't bet my job on it. Try it first. %T is a useful function. It stands for "percent total." Put your TOTAL in y, and your SUBTOTAL in x. The machine leaves the "percent of total" in x, the TOTAL remains in y, and stack-lift is disabled. This presents two possibilities: a) To calculate more %T's, you don't need to re-enter the TOTAL. Just enter a new subtotal and hit [%T] again. You can repeat this as long as you wish, because stack-lift remains disabled. b) To recover your original SUBTOTAL, hit plain old [%]. "Percent" takes the TOTAL in y and the PRECENTAGE in x, and returns the SUBTOTAL in x, the TOTAL still in y, and the stack-lift disabled. For this reason, you can think of %T and plain-old-% as inverse functions of each other -- that is, the one "undoes" the other. The HP-41 series didn't have a %T function, so many users created an equivalent program: 01 LBL "%T: 02 1/X 03 % 04 1/X 05 END and assigned it to the shift-% key, so it was only a USER-key away. I'm wearing my ironclad underwear while posting this. I don't officially represent HP, and what I say may or may not work. But heck, it doesn't hurt to try. Have fun. Ray rrd@hpfitst1.hp.com
bob@teda.UUCP (Bob Armstrong) (11/10/90)
>In article <21661@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, daver@ECE.ORST.EDU (Dave >Rabinowitz) writes: >> [ ... looking for 38E manual ... ] Have you tried calling HP Direct at 800-538-8787 ? The 38E manual is no longer listed in the HP DPD, but this doesn't always mean anything. I have bought unlisted manuals for old calculators this way in the past. Even when they don't have original manuals HP will provide photo copies (for a charge, of course). >Tom Conte (conte@uiuc.edu) writes: >It is defensible, from a collector's standpoint. I own 20+ antique HP's. >(Everybody has a hobby, and all that.) A 38E in good working order is a >good find. $10 is too low. Without manual, $40-$50. Seems a little high to me (I have more calculators than Tom, but fewer HPs) - $40-$50 _WITH_ manual, case and AC adapter (but bad batteries) or $20-$30 for a bare calculator. I don't have a 38E either, or I'd offer to copy the manual for you. Wanna sell ?? :-) Bob Armstrong