1 Sep
2013
1 Sep
'13
11:13 a.m.
[...]
And yes, there's a pride of ownership angle. I
have a 48SX that can do
all these things, but the 16C is just so geek-cool - and it fits perfectly
in this pocket in my shoulder bag. There's a nice emulation of the 16C on
Android phones, but it's just not the same as feeling the travel and
seating of those beautiful keyboard buttons.
How anybody can use a touchscreen for serious work is totally beyond me.
I certainly can't....
I have a buddy with the 'mini-clone' so I got to check it out. I was
worried I was going to break the damn thing every time I pressed a key. HP
devices of the 16C and 48SX era feel like I could hammer nails with one.
Hmmm.. I've been inside most series of HP calcualtors. My views is that
the pre-30 series LED models are solid. Very solid. Very well made,
wonderful keyboard feel, etc.
Then the quality started to fall. The 30 series ('Spice') were intitally
assembled with almost no soldered connections. The chassis was a metal
plate with afelxible PCB wrapped round it, the ICs (DIL packages) had
their pins bent out flat and were held agaisnt the flexible PCB byu a
plastic holder. Yes, it works. Most of the time. But it can't have been
that relaible as HP went over to a conventional soldered PCB in later
versions.
The HP41 (and many later models) have flexible PCBs held against normal
PCbs by elastomer strips. In the HP41, the whole ls clamped together when
the case is screwed down. A cracked screwpost (very common) is a common
cause of problems. And of course trying to repair one is 'interesting',
as soon as you take the case apart, connections are opened. There was a
special HP41 'test calculator) for service centres, basically an HP41
with half the back ocver cut off and clamps to hold a logic board in. So
you could fit the board from the unit under test and probe IC pins, etc.
I have never seen a 'real' one, I do have a home-made clone.
ASlo HP did a lot of heat-staking. In the Voyagers (16C, etc) the
keyboard PCB, which may also carry the logic ICs (depends on the version)
is heat-sakes ot the top case. Ditto in the HP41, the HP71, etc. Starting
with the Clamshell models (18C, 28C, etc) the whole machine as assembled
with heat stakes. Those clamshells, in particular, are very hard to put
together after a repair. They are also not that solid.
Oh yes, the keybaords in the 48 series, 42S, etc are actually membrane
swtiches sandwhiched between the top case adn a metal plate, all heat
staked again. The feel is pretty good, but I still don't think the build
quality is spectacular.
-tony