HP Forum Archive 16

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #1 Posted by Don Shepherd on 1 Feb 2007, 3:33 p.m. Ever since I bought a 12c 25th anniversary edition, I've been worried about the magnets in the leather case. I wondered if they could affect the calculator. While I have not seen any evidence of that, I think they did wipe out all of my cards in my hp65 standard pac. I must have put the plastic case on the 12c leather case, and now none of the mag cards will work. Beware those magnets.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #2 Posted by Ken Shaw on 2 Feb 2007, 10:48 a.m., in response to message #1 by Don Shepherd Sadly, just another example which demonstrates that the lights may still be on at HP, but the brain trust has long departed.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #3 Posted by John on 2 Feb 2007, 11:02 a.m., in response to message #2 by Ken Shaw Why? What makes you think that HP should be designing products today with protecting a highly unlikely event like that described? If the magnets do not affect the 12c 25th calculators operation, then HP has no fault here. The magnetic card product affected is 33 years old now. I'm sorry the cards were erased, but to pin blame on HP is not right. Magnets are a fact of life. Using magnetic media means sometimes you put things where you should not.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #4 Posted by Geir Isene on 2 Feb 2007, 12:06 p.m., in response to message #3 by John Quote: Using magnetic media means sometimes you put things where you should not. So in case you would normally not put things where you should not, using magnetic cards would somehow decrease your intelligence or generall alertness? (couldn't resist)

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #5 Posted by Don Shepherd on 2 Feb 2007, 2:41 p.m., in response to message #3 by John My point was to warn others who might be in the same situation as me (i.e., HP41 owners and others who have magnetic cards and a 12cp 25th anniv. case). This case has been discussed in this forum before, I believe by at least Katie, who noted the potential problem with the magnets as well as the exposed unprotected corners of the calc while in the case, not to mention that the case doubles the width of what is supposed to be a shirt-pocketable calculator. If I were the designer of the case, realizing that it might be placed near wallets and purses with credit cards close by, maybe I would have chosen velcro instead of magnets.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #6 Posted by John on 2 Feb 2007, 2:53 p.m., in response to message #5 by Don Shepherd Agree about the actual design of the case, but I believe credit cards are not in danger from the magnets in the 12c 25th case. The magnetic encoding is stronger on a credit card than an HP67 magnetic card from 30 years ago. My main beef was someone seemingly bashing HP because they didn't think someone might lay a pack of magnetic cards from a 30 year old HP on top of a case. The 49g+ case has magnets, so do man palm and phone cases and ipod cases. Seems like there woudl be some groundswell of complaints if credit cards were in danger.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #7 Posted by Ken Shaw on 2 Feb 2007, 3:46 p.m., in response to message #6 by John Well, I wasn't "seemingly" bashing HP, I meant to bash HP. But my reason wasn't specifically to do with magnetic cards that almost nobody would have today. My experience with HP products in the last 5 years has been consistently frustrating and disappointing, and I've concluded that the products they make now are poorly thought out; they seem to lack real world testing from the viewpoint of somebody who would use them for an everyday task. Mostly I'm talking about printers, scanners, and the bloated software that ships with them. Magnets can be a problem for a variety of reasons, usually credit card damage, but maybe I was jumping to conclusions there without enough data. Probably it was a poor example for a bashing rant. If there's a reason to admire HP products these days, if there's some way in which they excel (other than price), I'd be happy to hear about it and be proven wrong.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #8 Posted by John on 2 Feb 2007, 5:04 p.m., in response to message #7 by Ken Shaw No big deal, I've been known to rant myself. As a user of Microsoft products, I know very well about software bloat. Laziness on display. About HP calculators recently, how about the HP49g+ pioneering the use of an SD card for storage? You can carry around 1GB of software for your hp50g. How about the great improvement in the 50g keyboard? Yes, the 49g+ keyboard was awful, no way to excuse that. But the 50g is finally fixed. How about the very nice 25th anniversary 12c? Several good things with hopefully more to come.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #9 Posted by Ken Shaw on 5 Feb 2007, 12:16 p.m., in response to message #8 by John Ok, thanks. I'll take it under advisement. I'm still happily plugging along with a 15C and 17BII (and old 12C). I've always preferred a PC for graphing, so have no experience with the 48G and its descendants, but may give them a look.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #10 Posted by cfh on 3 Feb 2007, 12:31 p.m., in response to message #1 by Don Shepherd Is the anniversary edition Kinpo? I "need" a 12c, but not the newer Chinese one. /Charles

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #11 Posted by Gene on 3 Feb 2007, 2:49 p.m., in response to message #10 by cfh Yes, from where else would expect to find a calculator made today? I believe there are only 3-4 places where all calculators are made today anyway, and they are all in Taiwan or China.

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #12 Posted by cfh on 5 Feb 2007, 4:39 p.m., in response to message #11 by Gene Quote: Yes, from where else would expect to find a calculator made today? I believe there are only 3-4 places where all calculators are made today anyway, and they are all in Taiwan or China. Thanks for the answer, but let me then reformulate; Is there a significant drop in 12c quality? -If so, when? What year? There are lots of them out there, and if I buy 2, I want the most "hp-like" ones ;) cheers Charles

Re: magnets in 12c 25th anniversary edition case Message #13 Posted by Gene on 5 Feb 2007, 5:24 p.m., in response to message #12 by cfh Then you may have to look for a USA made model from the early 1980s through the late 1980s. The Serial Number would be of the form 2031AXXXXX through perhaps 26XXA something. The A is the indicator that it was made in the US. It will be significantly older of course, but may be more "toughly" made. Then again, being that old, it may fail earlier than a more recent model. Tough trade-off. Seems quite a few people look for earlier voyager series models on ebay, so the price might be a bit high too. Good luck, Gene

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall