HP Forum Archive 14

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Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #1 Posted by Namir on 4 Jan 2005, 7:22 p.m. Has anyone on this website purchased any Russian RPN from eBay? What was your experience with the seller? What was your experience with the product? Namir

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #2 Posted by Chris Woodhouse on 4 Jan 2005, 9:30 p.m., in response to message #1 by Namir I purchased one of the landscape layout ones with the green display (MK 52). It came in good condition even though the packing wasn't all that great. Took a little less than 2 weeks to get to Oklahoma City. Mine came from Ukraine not Russia. It certainly isn't of the same quality of the hp machines. For example 2^3 comes out as 7.9999993 instead of 8. and it is X^Y not y^x I haven't played with it all that much so I can't say much more. The buttons don't have a very consistent feel. Some times they click sometimes not. Chris W

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #3 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 4 Jan 2005, 11:25 p.m., in response to message #1 by Namir Hi Namir. We met at the San Jose confrence. I've bought six "red" RPNs from the former eastern block and traded for two more from Germany. One took 89 days to get here from Ukrane. One from Russia was broken but he took it back (i paid shipping back there). As Chris said; the quality of an hp (or Corvus or Heathkit or Privileg) is not there but they are RPN and quite original, although one is said to use an hp display. The packaging was adequate and although two were wrapped in twine they got here fine. Did you ever see my little RPN collection? Thanks to Mike Davis, it's at http://www.msdsite.com/forums/upload.php?upload=view&uid=482 Edited: 4 Jan 2005, 11:28 p.m.

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #4 Posted by Aleph Mobius on 5 Jan 2005, 1:11 a.m., in response to message #1 by Namir I bought an MK-61. It's identical to the MK-52 already mentioned except that it is in the traditional calculator shape and it does not have permanent storage. It takes mine a second or two to compute trig identities and as already mentioned it is a bit inaccurate at times. However, you have to consider that it came out in the mid 1980s using Soviet technology. I only payed $15 plus shipping from the Ukraine for mine and it arrived here in the US in 2 or 3 weeks. I don't use it from day to day but it is a neat calculator I play with from time to time. In my opninion, it was a good buy.

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #5 Posted by Namir on 5 Jan 2005, 2:37 p.m., in response to message #4 by Aleph Mobius Thank you all folks for your comments and for the link to the non-HP RPN calculator website. Namir

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #6 Posted by GE (France) on 5 Jan 2005, 5:43 p.m., in response to message #5 by Namir Andrew Davie sold a couple of models to me, he is (with Sergei Frolov) a prominent soviet calculators figure. So with these sellers trust is not a problem, delivery was a few weeks (from australia). These machines have a real personality, with quirks, tricks, workarounds and are collectible, overall harder to find than usual stuff. Take the plunge ! BTW, A.Davie sells his collection, see http://www.taswegian.com/MOSCOW/soviet.html, if you have $100,000 to spare. I hope no name is unappropriately used here - 123 to delete

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #7 Posted by Aleph Mobius on 5 Jan 2005, 9:55 p.m., in response to message #6 by GE (France) Here is a story that is a bit of a coincidence. I became interested in writing a game for the old Atari 2600 system last summer. I found a great tutorial by Andrew Davie. One morning I was reading this tutorial when the postman brought my MK-61. I searched Google for some information and read everything one of the sites had to say about it. It turns out the MK-61 website was made by Andrew Davie. I emailed him and it turns out he is also the guy who made the 2600 tutorial. By the way, Sergei Frolov is selling his collection for $100,000, not Andrew Davie.

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #8 Posted by Namir on 6 Jan 2005, 12:30 a.m., in response to message #7 by Aleph Mobius I will check the web site and sigh since I don't have 100,000 to blow away just like that ... besides it will cost me more to house the new collection since I will probably need to buy a bigger house!!!! Many thanks for all your comments! :-) Namir

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #9 Posted by Ed Look on 6 Jan 2005, 10:27 p.m., in response to message #8 by Namir Ha ha ha! I'd settle for ONE RPN Elektronika!

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #10 Posted by db (martinez, ca.) on 7 Jan 2005, 12:20 a.m., in response to message #9 by Ed Look Ed; Try ebay. I will say that magnetty is honest, but slow. That seller has auctions up on ebay regularly. If you are you in the SF area, i have one spare elektronika that you can buy.

Re: Question about Russian RPN Calculators Message #11 Posted by Ed Look on 7 Jan 2005, 11:40 p.m., in response to message #10 by db (martinez, ca.) db, I'm just a little outside of NYC; but you can reach me: firstinitlastname_at_optonline_dot_net Is it RPN?

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