HP Forum Archive 14

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Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #1 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 29 Nov 2003, 10:16 p.m. Hi all, sorry to bother you, but I'm so happy I finally got my brand new HP-48G+ with black&white high contrast display, 1280K RAM (or 10 ports), and, not to forget, the SpeedUpMAX which is a switchable CPU clock rate accelerator. Although the unit was made in Indonesia (ID249...), which can be easily seen from the lower quality keyboard legends, too, it's the best HP-48G series machine I've ever seen. It has much more RAM than I'll ever need, I've another 48G with 2304K RAM (or 18 ports), and I use only the first two ports. In my older GX's I mainly used main RAM and port 1. The most important improvement is the MUCH better display. So from the hardware side there absolutely no reason to switch to a 49G or alike. Actually there never was a reason, except for the previously better display of the 49G, but even that is history now... The keyboard has the layout and feel I want it to have, and works without missing a key stroke, of course. The additional RAM and the SpeedUp were a nice-to have, I thought if I spend another few hundred euros for another calc, it could have some bells and whistles, too. Did I mention that my unit even has a write-protect switch for ports 2 - 9 ? Ok, another gimmick;-) The speed gain depends on your application. For normal calculations by hand the machine is fast enough, programs run a bit faster in speedup mode, of course. I'd suggest everybody who wants to keep working with a *real* HP-48, and not the newer wannabees, to get a unit with that excellent display. The other gimmicks are nice to have (as said above), but not essential for everyone. The key legends in the molded keys are better, but even these painted keys of my new HP-48 are much better than any keyboard of the 'successors' of the real HP-48. As always, OMHO. Regards, Raymond

Congratulations! Message #2 Posted by HrastProgrammer on 30 Nov 2003, 1:40 a.m., in response to message #1 by Raymond Del Tondo I have 3 HP-48GXs (Indonesia models, two ID9xxxxxxx from 1999 and one ID0xxxxxxx from 2000), each with 128K + 2048K RAM (ports 0..17) card; one HP-48G (Singapore SG7xxxxxxx model from 1997) with 1280K RAM (ports 0..9) and one HP48G+ (Indonesia ID8xxxxxxx model from 1998). I prefer the old "blue-on-green" LCDs but this is just a matter of personal preferences. And I don't see any problem with the keyboard paintings and also haven't noticed any difference in quality between ID and SG models. Regards.

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #3 Posted by R Lion (Espaņa) on 30 Nov 2003, 3:05 a.m., in response to message #1 by Raymond Del Tondo We are in the same team :-) This summer, I ordered a new black screen 48GX from Samsoncables: 139.99$. Look at that web today: used units for 249.99$!! I also ordered klotz cards... so my old blue screen unit (768kb) is stored as replacement and I'm everyday enjoying the black screen one (1280kb) Regards

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #4 Posted by kim on 30 Nov 2003, 7:19 a.m., in response to message #1 by Raymond Del Tondo Sorry for the ignorance with the enthusiasm you project, I have to know where these are sold or made. Can you share the source of the version you have? Kim

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #5 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 30 Nov 2003, 9:13 a.m., in response to message #4 by kim Hi, of course, sorry. The dealer I bought the machine from is Dynatech (www.dynatech.de). There are some other vendors in Germany which offer these upgraded units, but after a short internet price comparison Dynatech appeared to have the best prices. Apart from that, I made good experiences with them in the past. Raymond

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #6 Posted by Patrick R on 1 Dec 2003, 7:05 a.m., in response to message #5 by Raymond Del Tondo Are there any exterior signs that show that the 48G+ was opened to install the speed-up module? Is it possible to install the MetaKernel onto such a (memory) modified machine? My approach is to buy Gxes with memory cards, but this could then be an interesting alternative.

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #7 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 1 Dec 2003, 1:01 p.m., in response to message #6 by Patrick R You don't see that the machine has been opened. My machine ist a bit different, because it has the extra write-protect switch for ports 2-9, so it has a hole on the bottom to be able to reach the switch. Of course you can install MK in port 1 of a G,G+, or GX, regardless if it's with SpeedUp or not. But if you're just looking for the best file manager, simply ignore MK and use Filer48, which doesn't waste a whole 128K block. And with SpeedUp and my UI stuff (Form engine replacement) from hpcalc, even forms are nice to use. Believe me, you'll feel the difference. According to Dynatech, the memory access speed is the same as without SpeedUp, so you can even use older HP-48 cards with a faster GX. The reason I bought a G+ instead of a GX is that I already have some GX's, and a G+ was simply missing from my collection. Since I use my HP-48 mainly for playing Reversi these days, the (lesser) weight (~60 grams less) of a G+ compared to a GX was another reason. And another: Nearly all external software on my HP-48 was developed, co-developed or at least modified by me, so I don't have the need for plug in cards ;-) Raymond

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #8 Posted by Patrick R on 2 Dec 2003, 1:36 p.m., in response to message #7 by Raymond Del Tondo Thanks for your response, I will give the mentioned programs a try.

Re: Yippiee !!! My new HP-48G+ w/1280K & SpeedUp arrived :-) Message #9 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 2 Dec 2003, 7:28 p.m., in response to message #8 by Patrick R BTW: I have updated versions of some of the UI Stuff programs. So if you want to check them, just drop me a mail. R D e l T [at] g m x . d e Raymond

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