HP Forum Archive 08

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*%^&#^ I love this hobby!!!!!! Message #1 Posted by Michael Meyer on 17 July 2002, 12:48 a.m. Dear HP Calc Community, I got a crippled HP-97 in the mail the yesterday. I came home from work and set out to do the overhaul. I rebuilt the battery, and one thing led to another. 3 a.m. I was done... new card reader roller, polished switches and cleaned case (scrubbing the casing in the sink with soap and a brush). I have a great, working, flawless 97. Now I know many here have done this, and though I already own one HP-97, I'd never fixed one... because the one I have was working and fixed already. Excuse my enthusiasm. THIS THING IS AWESOME! Incredible engineering. Beautiful circuits and keyboard design. A thing of art and beauty to behold. Inside and out! No wonder Mark Sims (Texaspyro) loves these things!! I can see why!!! About 5 hours of calculator heaven. Now I'm excited and ready to fix my next one... maybe one that needs even more extensive work. Darn... missed one by a buck on eBay today. There will be others. I've been doing this over three years now. I thought I'd tire of this by now, but I haven't. I still love it! One last thought. I looked into insuring my collection, but my homeowner's insurance guy says I really need an appraisal of my collection. I told him that * I * was the most qualified person I know (in town) to appraise these. He suggested I become a certified appraiser in this area, which I will look into. In the mean time, are any of you officially certified to do an appraisal of my collection (by photos or list?) If not, I just may find out how to become an officially certified appraiser myself and offer it as a service to the Museum community! I think I'm going to go look at my HP-97. And my HP-25. And my HP-67..... Michael

Re: *%^&#^ I love this hobby!!!!!! Message #2 Posted by Ron Ross on 17 July 2002, 7:21 a.m., in response to message #1 by Michael Meyer Perhaps auctions of similiar condition calculators would be sufficient for insurance purposes. Then just photograph your collection to the extent to authenticate the condition of your calculators. After all, insurance is to replace cost value. That is how antique value is determined. By the market place, otherwise it is old junk.

Insurance appraisals Message #3 Posted by Michael Meyer on 17 July 2002, 12:05 p.m., in response to message #2 by Ron Ross Thanks... I suggested that very thing to my agent, but for some reason he didn't think that would be acceptable to the company. It made sense to me, too. It still seems better than nothing.... Michael

Re: *%^&#^ I love this hobby!!!!!! Message #4 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 17 July 2002, 10:56 a.m., in response to message #1 by Michael Meyer Hey, Doc; new prescriptions? HP-therapy! Repair your calculator as a way to deeply understand the universe and RPN at the same time! Hey, guys, no flames, please. Doc knows I respect this a lot. But having fun is essential. And if we can join having fun and having a working calculator, I'm in! I have just upgraded my HP42S to HP42S+ (32K). I understand your words, Doc. And I feel glad for you, too. Best regards.

Re: *%^&#^ I love this hobby!!!!!! Message #5 Posted by Michael Meyer on 17 July 2002, 12:09 p.m., in response to message #4 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) Hi Luiz! I absolutely view this as therapy!! Being at one with HP hardware and RPN.. I suspect that most of the people on this forum feel the same way. Michael

Please, put my name in both lists... Message #6 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 17 July 2002, 7:41 p.m., in response to message #5 by Michael Meyer ... and I'll be happy! (god rading your posts again, Doc; and good knowing you're gatting back to your oldies... Success!) Cheers!

Re: Please, put my name in both lists... Message #7 Posted by db(martinez,california) on 17 July 2002, 9:53 p.m., in response to message #6 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) i don't know if dr. maslow would agree, but for me, soldering my trusty 41 back together after a bad fall was a "peak experience".

spell checking my own post... Gee! Message #8 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 18 July 2002, 12:02 a.m., in response to message #6 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) I was about to remove it and write it again, but that would disrupt the thread, and Mr. db (cal) would have its post lost in time, so I decided to add an add (?) Please, read this in my previous post: (good reading your posts again, Doc; and good knowing you're getting back to your oldies... Success!) Thanks and apologies.

Zen and HP Calculators Message #9 Posted by Michael Meyer on 18 July 2002, 12:53 a.m., in response to message #8 by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) See. It shows that some of us men don't just think about one thing. (No matter what Freud said. If he was so smart, why is he dead now? And why didn't he collect HP's!) Nope. Only calculators: "Hey, check out the figure(s) on THAT beauty!" or, "Those are the biggest stack I've ever seen!" "You can't put that there. That's a female end." "Wait a minute while I put this sleeve on my unit." "Are you sure that'll fit in that case?" ("I din't know they made them that big.") And of course, "Don't go dead on me now! We're just starting go get going! (programming, of course..) Don't you hate it when these things lose their power too quickly! But, seriously, speaking of Zen: I thought I might have gotten my worst e-Bay deal months ago when I spent $10 on an old HP multimeter. I saw the low price and bought it without knowing the model and with no picture. When I got it, it was this big, ugly, heavy 1960's looking instrument. But guess what. It works!! So, I can now repair my vintage calculators with a vintage multimeter. It has a big LED readout (consisting of separate dots), multiple dials and inputs, but best of all, it really does look cool powered up on my work bench. Say, it would be fun to see if there's a way to post pictures of people's work benches.. maybe in the article forum or something. Peace, Michael

You're the only one... Message #10 Posted by Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil) on 18 July 2002, 1:22 a.m., in response to message #9 by Michael Meyer ... that can post this in here without flames. And now let's go for old LED-display HP multimeters before they go to e-Bay... By the way, has anyone seen Dave around? Is he in China again? I miss his posts and I'm waiting for an answer to allow people downloading TTF for 41's LCD character Set and Voyager Character Set. They look great when printing docs using them as display reference. If you see Dave somewhere, tell him to say Hi. Cheers. (I'll stop pulling the thread more than it has to. Promise!)

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