joshua@csustan.csustan.edu (10/30/90)
The HP 48SX Overlay Kit
a mini-review
By Joshua Delahunty
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. The title may sound stupid, and the article may at
first glance SEEM unnecessary, but this is the kind of thing I appreciate from
time to time, and it makes one feel good to help others.
Background:
I ordered my "Overlay Kit for HP 48SX, Stock #82220A" through
EduCalc. Ordered on Friday, Oct. 19, 1990, it arrived (along with a PC
Serial Interface Kit -- but anyone could tell you about those) via "2nd day
Air (FedEx)" on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 1990. [The difference in dates, along with
the fact that it didn't enter my possession until Thursday the 25th, is
another story -- suffice it to say I was not happy.] I've now had a weekend
to examine and use the kit. These are my reactions.
Contents:
The Keyboard overlay kit is a set of 7 plastic overlays that fit
over the lower portion of the 48 SX keyboard (the menu keys, A-F, aren't
overlaid). All 7 are the same shape and thickness.
Three are transparent plastic (they make the keyboard harder to read,
but I imagine they might keep some contaminents out of the keyboard,
and they allow for very fine writing, as long as you are using very
small markings, and don't overwrite the see-through markings already
present).
Three more are opaque. They are a light gray, almost white color,
and would allow one to do fairly decently sized markings for custom
keyboard setups. Putting one on the keyboard lets you know just how
many functions this one small keyboard actually performs! The machine
looks almost naked that way.
The 7th is the most useful overlay (and the reason I bought the
package). More on that below.
The 7 overlays come packed in a plastic slip cover stapled to a
5" x 7" (approx) piece of black cardboard, which in turn is encased
in another plastic bag topped with a stapled on product banner with
the HP logo, stock number, ISBN, etc. [Very similar to the way my
serial cable came -- it was an option 1AW part]. Nowhere in the
package are there indications of use or installation. This may seem
silly, but there were times I almost felt installation instructions were
needed. Makes for a fun adventure in the meantime, I suppose.
The seventh overlay ("old mr. useful") contains the markings for all the
alpha-blue keystrokes. It is otherwise semi-transparent, like the 3 clear
overlays. These are mentioned in the manual, and are comprised
of mostly greek alphabetics, along with the various diacritical marking
modifier keys, and finally the mathematical and obscure ASCII types entries,
like greater-than-equal-to or plus-minus or the cent mark or the degree mark.
(alpha usually gets one the alphabetic value of the key, alpha-orange (aka
alpha-left-shift) usually gets you lowercase letters, and this overlay
shows the alpha-blue (alpha-right-shift) results).
Although I'm not in the habit of using these characters very often,
I did find a time or two while working through the manual where something
was needed that I had to look up in the manual -- ugh! how terrible.
In cases like this, the overlay comes in quite handy, and would be something
I'd personally consider a necessity. I know it would REALLY be useful
for programming, etc., until one learned "by heart" the not-equals and other important key
strokes [or does everyone who's serious just edit on a micro?]
One must still, of course, remember that alpha-blue-A is the greek letter
alpha, a-b-B is the greek letter beta, etc., but these were pretty well and
logically laid out, so they make sense anyway.
The overlays themselves, being of plastic overlay-type construction, lend
themselves to comparisons with objects that are very thin. :-) Although
the construction and placement of the overlay "anchor points," is well-
thought out, getting those anchors into the holes is definitely an
exercise in patience. Although it is seemingly easier than hand-threading
a small needle with thread, the exercise could be looked upon as comparable.
I can *ALMOST* see HP marketing an overlay installation tool, but that would
be going TOO far. Makes the machine more fun to own, I guess. I'd think
that one would either not change overlays often (as I don't -- I keep the
alpha overlay on all the time), or learn to get good at installing them.
I have yet to find a foolproof method that works everytime, but improvement
is possible. I find that utilization of a pocket knife with a thin blade
helps in this situation, including removing the things.
Conclusion:
The alpha overlay is useful. The opaque ones will probably one day be
useful, once the day comes that I need to redefine the keyboard to do
something different. Relabeling for Chip48 already comes to mind.
Even the clear ones have some utility. They can serve as an extra
layer of keyboard protection, for when I want the overlay, but without
the extra clutter of the Alpha-blue markings.
However, the price I paid for the package was $14.95, plus shipping.
The overlays will probably not be useful to a large segment of 48SX
users. I personally believe that the "alpha markings" overlay should
have been included WITH the calculator in the first place. Of course,
one could then see the futility in HP trying to sell additional overlays
to anyone. Perhaps if I'd gotten some set of instructions, I wouldn't
mind as much. I do think that most users should have the alpha overlay,
but it will of course be up to the final consumer whether the price is
worth it.
Further Disclaimers:
I don't work for HP. I don't know anyone who works for HP. I own a
calculator, 2 weeks old, that I'm completely overjoyed with. I think they
did a magnificent job, and the more I learn, the more excited I get. I
tried to be fair. I didn't mean to imply anything overly negative nor
anything overly positive (-- it's just so hard! :-)). I am a student,
studying computer science, who up until this point, had mediocre interest
in math -- now it's become fun. I wanted to share a little info, and
encourage others to do the same.
-- Joshua Delahunty
joshua@altair.csustan.edujpser@cup.portal.com (John Paul Serafin) (11/01/90)
I must confess that I too had difficulty installing a keyboard overlay on the HP48. This was always a very simple process on the HP41 and HP71. . Anyone considering buying the overlay set solely for the shifted alpha characters should remember that they are on the back cover of the quick reference guide. . I also hope that a groundswell of demand will convince HP to go ahead and mark the shifted alpha characters on the keyboard. They don't look that cluttered with the overlay and I think the calculator looks nicer without the overlay. John Serafin jpser@cup.portal.com