Has anyone else noticed differences in HP-65s? I was looking over my first one and one
recently acquired and noticed several differences.
These are the things that I noticed:
Older Calc:
Serial Number 1333A136XX
Serial # Tag Location Inside of the battery compartment
Back label Shows "MADE IN U.S.A., PATENT PENDING, 3.75V 500mW" (like museum photo)
Label between bottom feet Hewlett Packard name & voltage/mWatt info (like museum photo)
Yellow keyboard labels Smaller than the painted on yellow "------- CLEAR -------" legend
Labeling above A -> E keys Larger with a more ivory color, same with OFF/ON and PRGM/RUN
labels, almost a painted-on appearance
Newer Calc:
Serial Number 1608S016XX
Serial # Tag Location Between bottom feet
Back label Shows "MADE IN SINGAPORE BY HEWLETT PACKARD PATENT PENDING,
3.75V 500mW"
Label between bottom feet Serial number tag
Yellow keyboard labels Larger than the painted on yellow "------- CLEAR -------" legend
Labeling above A -> E keys Smaller a more delicate look to them. Easier to see injection
molding lines.
My earlier one appears to look more like the one on this HP Museum site
<http://www.hpmuseum.org/65.jpg>. The later one can be seen at
<http://members.aol.com/hpgene/hp65.GIF> and <http://www.vttoth.com/calcs/hp65.htm>. The
differences are obviously more apparent when the calculators are sitting side by side.
Would these differences be just due to the different manufacturing location or would they
show some slight modification to the calculator (i.e. different verions)? After studying the
two, I can now recognize the two different tpyes even on eBay ads.
I would be interested in hearing other peoples ideas on this.
Matt Riehl
Go back to the main exhibit hall