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HP-67 saves my holidays

Posted by Klaus on 8 Oct 2009, 4:49 a.m.

My uncle is a retired surveyor, living in south america. I visit him regularly, and it must have been in 1999, when I was 18 years old, that I stayed there in winter (june or july) and it was raining nearly all the days.

We looked through his surveying equipment, and stumbled across his old HP-67, covered with red dust from the soil in that region. We powered it up on the AC adaptor (which I now know can damage the calc), and it worked. The battery pack was dead and one battery terminal was missing. Since it was raining outside, I cut a new battery contact from a silver sheet, disassembled the calc, and soldered it in.

Next task was to build a battery pack, so we took a gas soldering iron and fumbled 3 batteries together. I burnt the sleeve of my uncle's jacket in the process, but we had a really great time.

After reassembling the calc, it showed random patterns in the display. I disassembled it, and it worked when used without the case. After reassembling it with the case, it stopped working again. So after doing some more disassembling and assembling, I realized that I had removed some isolation tape in the calc, so I put a handkerchief where the tape had been, and the calc worked when assembled.

I read the manual in the rainy days, and learned to program it, I still have good memories to this holidays thanks to the HP-67.

Since then, my electronic skills have definitely improved, and I have a small collection of HPs I use regularly. But this HP-67 is my favorite machine with lots of memories. It always gives me a warm feeling when I use it.

This HP-67 has a HP-65 backlabel, as my uncle sent it to HP to repair the cardreader long after it had been discontinued, and it has a silver battery contact. I has some wear, and the display is scratched, but I wouldn't trade it for a mint one!

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