SwissMicros DM32 Released [video] | Hacker News Reader

SwissMicros DM32 Released [video]

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25 pointstaviso17 comments

I must be the only person to have a bad experience with SwissMicros. I bought a DM16 when I lived in Iceland, it took months to arrive, and it was absolutely not worth the wait. The build quality was poor, the metal plate was crushed down so half the buttons were hard to get to work (but in an undamaged box), and when I reached out to them, they told me I needed to send it back, the cost of shipping (at my expense) more than the calculator and the import tariffs I had.

Been an RPN lover my whole life but I was really let down with them.

The user manual is available online:

https://technical.swissmicros.com/dm32/doc/dm32_user_manual....

For me, the DM42 is more desirable, hopefully it will get a refresh with this upgraded hardware.

The manual is also available as a 150gsm brick if you're into that kind of thing.

https://www.swissmicros.com/product/user-manual-dm32

i like that the dm32 has first-class fraction support. i use the hp 35s as a shop calculator and use fractions all the time.

Is it like the 32Sii where it has some weird approximator which sometimes gives you high or low estimates of correctness for the fractions? That really killed it for me back in the day.

The fraction display implementation has been entirely redone. For instance, where the HP-32SII displayed things like 8 16/16, the DM32 displays 9 0/16.

It will get a refresh, with the latest USB-C PCB and normally also a front graphics facelift.

Can anyone with an existing SwissMicro comment on the battery life? That was something HP really nailed (at least with all of their scientific calculators released in my lifetime).

I have a DM42 and have had it a few years. I haven’t had to replace the battery yet. There are times when I used it everyday, and times I leave it sitting on the shelf for months. I also have an HP42, and it eats batteries. I assume it has a fault.

That’s because the Voyager series like my HP-15C used silicon-on-sapphire technology originally developed for the space industry, which is why it will run a decade on a single change of batteries.

The SwissMicros are nowhere near the same class, no modern electronics are.

I heard a story that might be apocryphal that the Voyager series were specified to not need a battery change for "at least a year" and it was misinterpreted as 1 year of power-on time.

But both my 32s and 35s both had "pretty good" battery life.

I bought my HP-15C in 1987. It only recently got its third set of batteries.

I have a DM42 (which I absolutely love) and to be honest I'm a bit disappointed in battery life. I think it lasts a few weeks at best, and I know the battery is almost done when it starts resetting to the splash screen with a beep when I turn it on. The easy workaround for me, since it basically stays on my desk all the time, is to leave it plugged into a USP port. I noticed another comment saying the battery life is excellent so maybe mine has an issue, or my custom SI units program/menu sucks down the battery life!

I've been on a synthesizer and groovebox video binge on youtube lately. I was briefly very confused about what I was looking at after starting this video.

I wish they would come out with the credit card-sized versions of their calculators again!

We're working on an upgraded credit card platform. There are a few setbacks and it's less easy than expected, but it's in the works.

Their calculators are amazing. I got a DM16L and it is really good

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