HP50g FrankenCalc

[mfleming]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd post pictures of an oddity I ran across this weekend. I found a local green-waste dealer advertising a lot of four HP50g calculators on TAS, all missing battery doors and with a warning that keys or displays might not work. What caught my eye was the light color of one of the four calculators. The opening bid was $30, so I placed a bid. Good price for a supply of parts, and I wanted to see that weird calc.

I searched but couldn't find a picture of a similar 50g, but it looked a good deal like a 49G+. No one else challenged my bid, so I now have this odd 50g at hand for closer examination. The picture below shows my 49G+ on the left and two of the 50g calculators on the right.



The calculator in the center certainly appears to be a 49G+, right down to the blue background on the HP logo. The result of a VERSION command, followed by VIEW and TEXT confirms that it is. Yet I don't see how the 50g script appears in the upper left. No sign of the faceplate being lifted off. The back photo below shows that the battery compartment matches the 49G+ as well, and I don't see any sign of tampering.



Any thoughts on what the previous (mad scientist?) owner might have had in mind, and how they went about this alteration? Assuming it's an alteration! Perhaps this was a mistake on the production line. Any chance I might be able to flash the 50g OS and have a really unique FrankenCalc to show off?

Looks like it might pay to cruise the discard bins,
~Mark