HP 15C Collector’s Edition (preorder) | Hacker News Reader

HP 15C Collector’s Edition (preorder)

hpcalcs.com

56 pointsrudy691255 comments

My two 20+ year old 15Cs still work great, so I'll pass for the moment, but it's encouraging to read that the new licensee has fixed all known bugs from the last re-release[1] and produced an updated manual[2] that documents both changes from the original and "bug-compatible" behavior inherited from the original.

[1] https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-19886-post-172018.html...

[2] https://www.thecalculatorstore.com/WebRoot/StoreES3/Shops/eb...

Still have my original 16C (the programmers' model) from 1986, which my dog Ben bit into, making toothmarks all over the metal parts, but thankfully missed the display.

I got so mad at him that I threw the calculator across the street!

And then I sheepishly went and retrieved it, and it still works to this day.

Me, too. I still use it occasionally. Made during the time when HP represented solid design, construction, and reliability. Unfortunately, that company is gone.

That’s crunching numbers for sure

Thats awesome. i still have my TI-Programmer (with LED display) that did binary, 2C, octal, and hex calcs. Bought it for my IBM OS/360 Assembler 1 & 2 semesters.

Please please please HP, do a 16C run

I still have mine from '81. I remember my Dad taking me out to buy it. Now, being a fresh, college aged geeky kid, I wanted the -41, but we got the 15C, which, as a calculator, is more than adequate. It's just not the geek cred of the 41.

Certainly one of the best form factors ever for a calculator.

I like how its marked "Collectors Edition" so that collectors know it's not the collectible "non-Collectors Edition".

I hope its keyboard is still good. Only HP seemed to ever manage to make amazing keyboards.

Everyone loves the keys on these calculators, why are they not mentioned as a first-class feature? That they are not kinda highlights the disconnect.

The only reason to get these is for the buttons. And, they painted them. :(

The CE buttons probably aren’t the same quality as the original models.

I really wish they'd put out a collector's edition of the 16C.

Love my 12c. RPN for the win.

I wound up in that awkward middle ground where I can’t do much more than basic arithmetic with RPN, but every time I try to use a “normal” calculator I fumble around and forget how to add two numbers together.

So then I break out excel and put together a formula with lots of parentheses to calculate what I really should learn how to do on the 12c.

If they do the 16c I will be first in line. A programmer's calculator indeed.

Available in Europe, the UK, and Asia/Pacific, but not the US.

Why is it not available?

A good calculator, but for me the 48S is the go-to.

If they did a 16C, I would definitely buy one.

Came here to say this.

It should definitely be possible to turn off RPN though. I never got my head around that.

I actually love RPN, but that's only since I've seen it explained a certain way, I think it was in a manual on the Forth language. RPN makes sense for a computer, because you first give it all the information it needs to do something with, and only then what to do with it. Doing it the "classic" way (3+5) makes much less sense, because you tell the computer: here's a bit of incomplete info (3), please perform this operation (+), and oh here's the rest of the info (5).

It also said that it's in a way closer to how humans think: I have two numbers, and I want to add them up.

For me it also helps to think that RPN is based on a stack. In "3 5 +", 3 and 5 are pushed onto a stack, and + pulls two numbers off the stack, adds them up and pushes the result (8) back on the stack.

Yeah it makes more sense but it's not what I do. In those days calculators had limited processing. These days I want tech to adapt to me, not the other way around :)

After some time using RPN, you'll find it difficult to use anything but. And, it's nice to not have to worry about (, ).

It's not about adapting you to tech. RPN on its own is a powerful computing model. Some calculations are naturally easier with RPN. Especially long calculation chains just flow smoother. It's different but more efficient for humans, as well.

Glad to see this back on the market from HP. I miss my 11c and ill probably get this one. After supporting me through high-school, college, and a few jobs - my father asked to borrow mine, then proceeded to back over his briefcase with his car. :(

You would think that with the incredible advances in chip power efficiency, they could produce an edition that would be able to be run off a solar cell instead of 2 stupid and expensive CR2032 batteries.

I have an 11c. I bought it new in 1985. On its 4th set of batteries.

I imagine making your programs persist would be more challenging on a solar-powered device. Rechargeable batteries would be ideal, but the case is probably too flat for those.

The standby current of the original HP Voyager series was extremely low, a set of batteries (3 x LR44) would last a decade or longer. Even with batteries removed, the internal capacitor could retain the memory contents for hours.

I still appreciate my hp 50g

Definitely my favorite programmable HP calculator — fully loaded with development tools, it's essentially a quirky handheld Lisp machine.

While the 15C is my "daily driver", my dream HP calculator is a 50G with an OLED display, styled to resemble the 48G[X].

> my dream HP calculator is a 50G with an OLED display,

This is why I use the app on my phone. I really can't use my normal one without a backlight any more, just too hard to read.

I'd like to see a phone case designed to make using a phone calculator easier.

There are at least three ways this could be done. The simplest would be a case that covers the part of the phone display where the calculator buttons are, with cutouts in the case that go over those buttons.

This would let you feel the button positions so you could reliably operate the calculator app without looking at the keys.

A fancier way would be for the case to actually have physical buttons on the case. The buttons are placed so they are over the on-screen buttons, but not touching them. When you press one of the case buttons it would touch the corresponding on-screen button. The buttons could have conductive material in them that connects from the top of the button to a conducting layer on the bottom, so pressing the button registers as a touch.

Even fancier would be an active case. It too would includes buttons, but instead of actually pressing the on-screen buttons these buttons would be connected to the phone via Bluetooth. This would give a lot of flexibility, but would cost more and would require power.

I'm still hoping for something like that but in a Razr-like body with modern components.

I yearn of the day when I'll have time to make RPN games

Me too. One of the greatest pocket calculators I ever saw.

Y'all might want to check out https://www.swissmicros.com/products as well.

The keys are crap compared to hp.

Sadly, the keys of the previous "HP15C Limited Edition", which I bought in 2012 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005EIG3MW - were also crap.

My original HP11C (from around its launch date in 1981) works as well or better at this point.

Pull the Free42 app down from the Apple store and have an HP 42 calculator on your phone. The interface is an image of the 42.

My 1985 HP-11c is probably on its 4th set of batteries now. Would love a 15c but have the Retro 15C and Free42 emulators on my iPhone now.

I bought the 15c collectors edition about 5 years ago.

The black on white labelling on the backplate looks quite ugly, unfortunately (see the unboxing video).

£115, for those interested.

Seems steep.

Original was $135 so adjusted for inflation this is cheaper.

And the Limited Edition was $139.99 when I got one in late 2012.

I think I got my original one in 1982 for under $100, because I got two discounts. When I went to the Caltech bookstore to buy one they were sold out, but had one for display that people could try out. They said I could buy that one at a discount. There were no signs of any wear or abuse from the people who had tried it, so I was willing to buy it.

But I noticed that it was using comma instead of period for the decimal point, and period instead of comma for the group separator. Neither I nor the salesperson knew that there was a setting to swap these. We though it must either be defective, or somehow the store had actually been sent a model went for one of the countries that uses that convention.

The store offered me another discount because of that swap. I thought a while and decided that I could get used to it, and accepted.

You can switch between the point and comma decimal separators by turning the calculator off, holding down the "." key, turning it back on, then releasing the "." key.

Build quality isn't quite as good as the original.

Yeah the keys are nowhere near as good. :(

Isn’t it? In what way?

I was just about to buy one but I still have my original 15c and thought it would be good to get a new one.

Well, my re-release is the previous one (“Limited Edition”), so it's possible this is different. Mine actually rattles, and the key feel is inconsistent.

I'll skip it then I think, this 15C will probably outlive me anyway.

Double shot keys?

Painted. Probably these are the same platform as the current HP-12c incarnation.

Well yes but back then it was pretty difficult tech.

Damn it rounded up PI

Teenage Engineering for accountants

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