The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Forum Archive 16

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Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #1 Posted by Hal on 20 Aug 2006, 4:58 p.m.

I thought the description in this auction was interesting, where the seller, upon being hired by Ti, kept right on using his HP machine. I've read other accounts of Ti lab benches being strewn with HP calculators...now you've heard it from the horses mouth.
This must've driven management at Ti nuts.

Best regards, Hal

      
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #2 Posted by Ed Look on 20 Aug 2006, 5:24 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Hal

Incredible!

But TI has the upper hand now, I guess...

      
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #3 Posted by Thomas Okken on 20 Aug 2006, 7:34 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Hal

Neat!
I wish FixThatCalc.com serviced TIs, so I'd be able to think the card reader could be made to work again, at least. (Or are the TI card readers immune from the infamous HP "gummy wheel" problem? I wonder...)

I'm not really a collector, but I sure wish I had a nice TI-59. It really was a landmark calculator, back then. Not up to HP's quality, but boy, in terms of memory capacity and pure CPU horsepower, it *ruled*. It blew the HP-67 right out of the water, and it wasn't until the HP-41C was released that the calculator wars were finally decided.

Now, y'all be good sports and don't spoil my plans of sniping this unit at the last minute! ;-)

- Thomas

            
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #4 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 20 Aug 2006, 9:05 p.m.,
in response to message #3 by Thomas Okken

The TI-59's are NOT immune from the gummy wheel problem. Worse than that, to my knowledge no one has figured out how to repair them.

The TI-59's have also developed a memory problem in which what the user enters in a program or into data may not be what the memory spits back out. My experience says that about five or ten percent of machines tested will show the problem. Working with one of those machines is reminiscent of the "olden days" when our drum memories would develop bad locations and we would program around them.

            
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #5 Posted by Karl-Ludwig Butte on 21 Aug 2006, 4:23 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Thomas Okken

Hi Thomas,

Quote: "Now, y'all be good sports and don't spoil my plans of sniping this unit at the last minute! ;-)"

if you're keen on getting some TI's for your collection you needn't wait for the end of this auction: you can have my TI's if you like. There are:

1 TI 58C in good working condition 1 TI 59 in good working condition but the card reader needs some repair 1 TI 59 not working any more (for spare parts) 1 TI-Programmer not working anymore but I guess it's rare to find There are some battery-packs but all suffer from severe leakage. Lots of other stuff like carrying cases, magnetic cards, power supply etc.

If you're interested please let me know soon 'cause I'm planning to put this stuff to ebay-Germany. I need more room for my expanding HP-collection

Regards

Karl

                  
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #6 Posted by Thomas Okken on 21 Aug 2006, 5:18 a.m.,
in response to message #5 by Karl-Ludwig Butte

Hi Karl,

Yes, I'm interested. I'll get in touch by email. Thanks!!!

- Thomas

            
May I suggest a Ti-58C
Message #7 Posted by Ron Ross on 21 Aug 2006, 9:50 a.m.,
in response to message #3 by Thomas Okken

I suggest you consider a Ti-58C for a play toy. It has continuous memory, so that you can key in small programs and keep them (until you let the batteries discharge to low). A Ti-58C doesn't need to be reloaded with programs every time you power up, they are still there from the last time you used it (as long as you keep the batteries charged).

Ti-59 mag readers will fail for other reasons (cheap electronics and mechanical reliability in addition to the gummy wheel problem).

Just my $0.02

      
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #8 Posted by Vassilis Prevelakis on 20 Aug 2006, 11:47 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Hal

If he left that battery pack in the calculator for 20+ years, then the missing power supply is not only thing preventing this calculator from working.

Why don't you ask for a picture of the battery compartment without the battery.

**vp

            
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #9 Posted by Garth Wilson on 21 Aug 2006, 1:20 a.m.,
in response to message #8 by Vassilis Prevelakis

Quote:
If he left that battery pack in the calculator for 20+ years, then the missing power supply is not only thing preventing this calculator from working.
I left the battery pack in mine for that long and there's no leakage, just batteries that won't take a charge.

My TI-59's rubber roller turned to mush too.

                  
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #10 Posted by Raymond Del Tondo on 21 Aug 2006, 3:35 a.m.,
in response to message #9 by Garth Wilson

So you're lucky;-)

Nearly every older TI I saw so far had a problem with
the battery compartment, be it either a broken metal contact piece,
a corroded (once rechargeable) battery, or both.
It seems the TI-45 (with green lumi display) suffered
from these malades very often, at least most of the TI-45 calcs
I had were in that condition, even more than the TI-5/59 units.

                        
Re: Ti 59 unused by Ti engineer
Message #11 Posted by Garth Wilson on 21 Aug 2006, 4:16 p.m.,
in response to message #10 by Raymond Del Tondo

Quote:
So you're lucky;-)

Nearly every older TI I saw so far had a problem with the battery compartment, be it either a broken metal contact piece, a corroded (once rechargeable) battery, or both.

I didn't realize it was such a problem. I have a 58C as well, same story. I've had another 58C and another 59 (so I had four a few years ago) and never had these problems with any of them. Both 59's had the problem of the roller turned to mush, and one of the 58c's had a RAM problem. I also still have the original batteries in my two 82161A cassette drives (that shows you how often I use them), and those haven't leaked either. None of my HP's have had any hardware problems.

wilsonmineszdslextremezcom (replace the z's with @ and . )

                              
Battery leakage
Message #12 Posted by Palmer O. Hanson, Jr. on 21 Aug 2006, 10:49 p.m.,
in response to message #11 by Garth Wilson

Battery leakage was a problem with both the HP-41 and the TI-59 because there is nothing but air between the cells and the circuitry in either machine. My only HP-32E also has extensive circuit damage due to battery leakage including damage to the connector to the charger.

I don't have my collection here but my recollection is that the early HP's such as the HP-35, HP-45 and HP-80 had battery pack compartments that made it much more difficult for cell leakage to get to circuitry. Early TI machines were the same. Somewhere along the line the calculator manufacturers must have decided to believe that cells were sealed and wouldn't leak.

A note on the TI-58C memory holdup: Back in the early 1980's I was asked if a TI-58C would hold memory during a change of battery packs. It will. Actually, if a charged battery pack is removed the memory will survive for seven days. or more.

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