Some fantastic pictures and history of the progression of calculators.
When I finally finished up at college and actually got out into the profession, the HP48GX was becoming a powerhouse in the industry. I still have 2 of them. They are fantastic workhorses. At my first surveying job, we used them as a data collector and mobile COGO cruncher. It was amazingly convenient!
At some point HP came out with the HP49. I saw it and hated it. It was clunky and not nearly as easy to use. So I've stuck with my 48's. I even have the HP48GX emulator on my iPhone. It's actually rather entertaining to hand it to my friends and have them get completely confused by the RPN format of data entry.
We trained with the Brits a few times. On one trip they brought a prototype fire directon computer. The device was named MORZEN when it went into production. It was a 41.
Heh, when I first got my 41cx, I told my dad that it could tell the time from the sun! Held it up to the window and pressed the time function. Dad checked his watch and told me "you're a little slow, son, it's actually 12:30!"
-JD-
Seems like we had some Geodimeter Geodat data collectors that used a 41 inside a clam shell Geodimeter case.. coulda been one like you refer to. That would have been about 1985 or so.
HA-HA, I love that kind of stuff.
Funny how monstrously huge the disk drive is but they worked great.
The tape drives always sounded like they were going to fly apart when running at high speed.
All of that stuff was so cool back then.
The HP11C and HP15C calculators that you show in the photo are the original editions. Today you can get an HP15C "Limited Edition". It's exactly the same on the front as the 15C in the photos. The ONLY difference is a GOOD one. The new HP15C runs on two CV2032 batteries that are easier to find and much cheaper than the original batteries. The new model is a bit pricey, but worth it to me, The old 11C was my favorite of all of the early HP's because they could do the calcs I was responsible for in the office.
My first HP was a HP 35 which I bought in 1971 when they first came out. The price was $400. I bought a HP 9810 desktop calculator at the same time. It used magnetic cards and had 500 program steps. The cost of it was $4,800. I've had the 45, 41, several 48GXs and several of the newer models, 35s, etc. Also have a 48 app on my phone which works great. I've used RPN so long I can't work a regular calculator.
Next in my ventures with the HP Calculators, the HP71B. My first one was inside a Topcon Data Collector called the HA3, got it through Survey Supply Company. I had been using the HP41CX with the Sup-R-Rom inside, no data collection capability. My instrument was a Topcon GTS3B, still have two of them, haven't had them in the field for several years now. The HA3 data collector had a HP71B as the calculating and storage power. Now the mistakes of writing the data in the field book was brought to a stop. Funny thing about the HA3 it was based on azimuth surveying. I always had used angle right. That took a little getting up to speed, the occupied point would be used and the back sight would be entered and it would beep and the back azimuth was put into the display of the GTS3B, then data collection could be done on foresight targets. Had download software to hook to the Computer and download into Survey Supply Company software called Survey Soft. Still use that to look things over and do coordinate rotation before going to Auto CAD for mapping.
The HP71B had a software application from HP, it was strictly office type stuff. I never took it into the field. My field hand held was still the HP41cx with the Sup-R-Rom. It didn't get much use because the HA3 had rather good COGO. I played around int he office a bit with the HP survey software in a HP71B. As usual I had accumulated three of the HP71B's. Of course the HP71B could be used with the HPIL loop hardware.The HA3 served me rather good for about three years or so.
The HP71B with HP Survey application software.
I have January 1987 written on the HP71B Surveying Pac book, so that must have been about the time of the HA3 in my operation.
About that time I was flying out of JFK for TWA and had a month of layovers in Las Vegas. I had a 32 hour layover there, two nights and one complete day. I looked through the Telephone book for Surveying sales. I found one and visited the store, it was run by a fellow that had been working for Allen Precision in Atlanta. I bought my first electronic instrument from him in 1983, shortly after my father in law died. The fellow was going out of business and had one heck of a sale going on. He had cancer and was cleaning up his life before passing. I got two of the HP71B calculators and several HP41CX calculators along with a lot of supplies. The prices were well under half the market value at the time. He had several of the HP41 calculators that didn't have the clock, can't remember the number of the calculator. I didn't get any of those, I regret that because it would be an unusual calculator now days and probably be worth more than the HP41CX.
This brings us up to the HP48. I was getting along with the Topcon HA3 with the embedded HP71B. Then along comes the HP48SX, I quickly order two of those units. I quickly discovered they were out of my realm. I did ok starting with the HP-65 keystroke recording for the program. The HP48 was mighty different. I never did get on to the programing stuff. Then on one of the North Carolina Society of Surveyors yearly meeting in Asheville, NC, I met Stanley Trent of SMI. I spoke with him a few minutes at the display and the few minutes lasted probably two hours or more, we missed the lunch call and decided to go out for lunch. Well that lasted the rest of the afternoon. What a fellow, Stanley Trent was the nicest, honest no bull fellow I have ever met. Anyhow I purchased one of his SMI cards and a memory card to make it run on the HP48SX. On my return from the trip. I showed the HP48 SMI to my instrument man. He wasn't too much for change. Anyhow I would let him make his choice of data collectors for the day. Every now and then I would override his decision to use the HA3 and we would use the SMI collector. Then on morning I asked him which collector he wanted to use, he elected the SMI collector. We carried the HA3 with us to work for a month or so after that but he never elected to use the HA3 any more. By that time the HP48GX was on the market, so I got a couple of them. I showed the data collector to several surveyors in the area and got them to order the SMI module and the HP48GX. Stanley was so happy that he offered me a Construction Five update for nothing. Of course I quickly jumped at that deal. I stopped by SMI in Tennessee on a couple of my trips to visit with Stanley. What a fellow!
At first we used the HP48 without a case, then the hard plastic case was used. One of my HP48GX had a pin on the connector that would not engage the cable to the instrument. Another HP48 got it's face smashed when I had it under my shirt while cutting brush with a Bush Axe. One of my stokes the handle hit the HP48 on the display and cracked the display. The HP48 was ok but no display. As usual I had a couple of spares in the vehicle. Put them IR port to IR port and got the book out and keystroke by keystroke I got the files transferred from one HP48 to another and continued the job. From then on the HP48 went under my shirt face to my body. When the HP48 got end of life with HP, they made an offer to swap inoperable units for good HP48 units. I quickly called HP and told them I had three inoperable units, they took my name and address and sent me three in shrink plastic with documents. I asked them the address to send the inoperable units. They said don't worry about sending them back to us, they will just be destroyed. So I still have three HP48 units that are inoperable. I have considered sending them to Fix that Calculator for repair but never get around to doing so. I still take a SMI unit with me on every job with the job file loaded.
Some time in the early nineties I got interested in robotics. MY instrument man had fell in love with the wine bottle and was almost useless early in the morning. He had been caught several times DWI and finally the judge sent him to jail for six months. On the first issue of POB that Leica advertised their ROBOT. I called the dealer in Charlotte and got a demonstration, when the demonstrator left he didn't leave with the Robot. I was the second owner of a Leica Robot in North Carolina. I have been a Leica user since. I tried a robotic card from SMI but it didn't perform as well as the onboard TDS software. I would far rather use SMI than TDS but the 48 just wasn't up to the Robot. Stanley as usual agreed with me that the SMI with the Robot was not the best solution.
The HP48SX
HP48GX with SMI
I have operated solo since getting my first Leica Robot. I upgraded to the new Leica Color from the old Wild Color. Do get some brush cutting help from a nephew when on a farm job. I miss having an Instrument man to blame for my mistakes. The Robot is always ready to go when I am, it doesn't get drunk or late for work and it takes all kinds of verbal abuse from me when things do not go my way but it stands there and laughs at me, knowing I'll soon cool off and go back to work.
I'm seventy eight years old now and my wife is nagging me to quit this mess and stay home. I'll do that when I can't move.
This is the end of my long winded HP Calculator tales.
Jerry M. Davis
:good:
great stories.
I'm still young, so it's probably just ignorance or arrogance, but I don't really get retirement. I'm probably wrong, but I see myself living out my days on this Earth working, for as long as I can anyway - mostly because I find great satisfaction in it.
