New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

General discussion about calculators, SwissMicros or otherwise
vaklaff
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by vaklaff »

H2X wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 2:24 pm
Oh, cool! I should have looked it up, I thought it was an invented name. Sorry if I offended you, that was certainly not the intention (I am a fan of both LOTR and other scary stuff). I guess it was the first 3 letters that connected to Mordor and the rest just sounded vampire-ish...
No offence taken! Local names can sound funny to foreigners, that's for sure, yet your association took me by surprise :-)
H2X
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by H2X »

vaklaff wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 3:03 pm
H2X wrote:
Fri May 05, 2023 2:24 pm
Oh, cool! I should have looked it up, I thought it was an invented name. Sorry if I offended you, that was certainly not the intention (I am a fan of both LOTR and other scary stuff). I guess it was the first 3 letters that connected to Mordor and the rest just sounded vampire-ish...
No offence taken! Local names can sound funny to foreigners, that's for sure, yet your association took me by surprise :-)
Phew! :) Actually, it did remind me a bit of Belgravia, which I know is a district in London. BTW, we have our share of local names in Norway which sound funny even to us...
What is the metric tensor in imperial units?
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Walter
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by Walter »

A picture of the rear side of the box for the HP-15C CE:
hp15ce_top.jpg
hp15ce_top.jpg (202.74 KiB) Viewed 2558 times
Who did the translation to German? :roll:
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
H2X
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by H2X »

Excellent key feeling is reported on the other forum. Seems the art is not forgotten after all. Well done, Moravia!
What is the metric tensor in imperial units?
fra04
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by fra04 »

This new hp 15c seems incredible! I've discovered RPN scientific calculators since the previous month, and I fell in love with them and the way they can be programmed! Next year I'm going to study at university, so I'd like to buy this hp 15c ce. Is there anyone who knows if this type of calculators (programmable scientific) is allowed during exams?
DM42, Emu48, Emu71.
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Walter
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by Walter »

fra04 wrote:
Tue May 09, 2023 10:11 pm
This new hp 15c seems incredible! I've discovered RPN scientific calculators since the previous month, and I fell in love with them and the way they can be programmed! Next year I'm going to study at university, so I'd like to buy this hp 15c ce. Is there anyone who knows if this type of calculators (programmable scientific) is allowed during exams?
Welcome to the club!

You are representing a rare species - majority here is grey and knows RPN for some decades. The original HP-15C was launched in 1982 for 135 US$ (equivalent to 424 US$ of today). It's the most compact calculator able to do matrix operations AFAIK. Obviously it's still attractive after 40 years, else you wouldn't see a Collector's Edition.

OTOH, it features a 7-segment display only - newer calculators provide dot-matrix displays allowing for a significantly more flexible output. The HP-15C (hence also the HP-15CE) displays program steps as numeric codes while newer calculators show text there which a 7-segment display can't do. If you are used to menus note that the HP-15C can't offer you any on display for the same reason.

If you're looking for a more modern user interface than the HP-15C, you might consider an HP-42S, a DM42 of SwissMicros (a modern clone of the HP-42, featuring a far better LCD), a WP 34S (community software flashed on an HP-30b), a WP43 or C47 (community software flashed on a DM42). The latter two are work in progress. If you're interested, please look at
  • this site for the DM42,
  • this place for the WP 34S,
  • and this forum here for the WP43 and C47 (just search for their names).
Then compare and choose. If you have questions concerning these calculators you'll find their developers here on this forum, so don't hesitate to ask. Enjoy your opportunities!

Almost forgot: All these calculators feature the same RPN system and programming paradigm as you fell in love. And concerning their use in exams you have to ask the university department you are going to study at - it or even the individual professors teaching there have their specific rules AFAIK.
WP43 SN00000, 34S, and 31S for obvious reasons; HP-35, 45, ..., 35S, 15CE, DM16L S/N# 00093, DM42β SN:00041
Bill K. - USA
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by Bill K. - USA »

A few other points in addition to Walter's:

SwissMicros will soon (later this year?) be coming out with a DM32, which is another option: viewtopic.php?p=24190#p24190.

The HP-15C is a landscape calculator, which I love--although it does indeed have a single-line display. (But I find it exercises the gray cells marvelously and I love it.) And yes, I have the DM15L which is also great.

There's an ongoing discussion about using calculators in classrooms here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3483.
RaulLion
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by RaulLion »

fra04 wrote:
Tue May 09, 2023 10:11 pm
This new hp 15c seems incredible! I've discovered RPN scientific calculators since the previous month, and I fell in love with them and the way they can be programmed! Next year I'm going to study at university, so I'd like to buy this hp 15c ce. Is there anyone who knows if this type of calculators (programmable scientific) is allowed during exams?
I think you'll be more confortable with a 35S or a 32SII than the 15C.
Try 15C free emulator (JRPN 15C) and 32SII (on emu42) and compare both systems. Then you can decide if you prefer the 15C CE or the DM32 that some of us are waiting for.
Whatever your decision, you won't be disappointed :-)
hp41cv-hp15c-hp42s-hp32sii-hp48gx(2)-hp33s(pre-release)-hp35s-DM32

[hp48 + Metakernel + Erable + Alg48 + 20 years of stuff running on Emu48 for Android since 2019]
fra04
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by fra04 »

Thank you very much for your advices! You all know a lot about these calculators, and I'm waiting to lern more by reading your topics!
First of all, I would not spend a lot of money for overkilled machines I won't use. Dm42 is amazing, and I'm sure I'll buy it in a few years, but, for now, I think that a good scientific calculator like hp 15c or dm15l would be enough to solve physics problems. I was also interested in hp 35s, but here in Italy, where I live, it costs almost 400 euros (about 436 dollars) at Amazon, which is too much imho. Where could I buy it at a reasonable price?
DM42, Emu48, Emu71.
Bill K. - USA
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Re: New "HP"-15C Collectors Edition

Post by Bill K. - USA »

I agree that I think your best choice is likely between the HP-15C CE/DM15L and the DM32.


HP-15C CE Pros:
------------------
--will be available sooner (and the DM15L is available now)
--landscape mode allows easier two-handed operation
--I prefer the beveled keys with labels above and below, and there's less clutter because there're no letter labels
--Button press may be smoother than on the DM32 (people might prefer either over the other; I think both are fine, with a preference for HP-15C)


Neutral:
---------------
--39 buttons (HP-15C) vs. 43 buttons (DM32), but the DM32 has 6 blank buttons and uses 8 shifted-key slots on mere conversions. (The HP-15C has this info on the back: simply flip it over, find the number, and do the multiplication.)
--The HP-15C doesn't have letter input, but frankly doesn't need it.*
--The functions printed on the keys are mostly similar between the two models
--The HP-15C probably has fewer features, which also likely means it'll be easier to learn.


DM32 Pros:
---------------
--having a bigger screen and being able to see the entire stack is certainly useful (although it's easy to access stack values on the HP15C with rotate up/down and x<>y swap). [I love how the HP-15C forces me to use my brain: keeping the entire stack in mind, using RPN, etc.]
--the DM32 will likely have more capabilities than the HP-15C (but when I want more, I usually want a lot more*).
--will have 6 buttons that can likely be re-labeled in the display (and this could be really handy if there're a few fixed operations/conversions/ programs that you'll be re-using a lot)


Both would be a great introduction to RPN:
--If you think you'll want to do more extensive programming on it, the DM32 will likely be better. (You can do programming on the HP-15C, but having a bigger display as in the DM32 is very helpful.)
--If you're more after using it for basic calculations, I'd pick the HP-15C/DM15L.


----------------------------------
* - If you want to do advanced calculator programming, I'd suggest a bigger workhorse like the DM42 flashed (for free) to the WP43 or C47, or a used HP-48GX/HP-50g, or perhaps a new HP Prime/TI-89 Titanium/TI-Nspire CX II CAS line--although with these last you're crossing over into different terrain, some of which might be better served by using a laptop computer. (Just FYI, I own the HP-15C LE, DM15L, DM42-->C47, HP-50g, and HP Prime G2.)

There're several different types of programming:
--calculator-based
--Excel numeric tabular manipulation
--code-based (like C or Matlab or whatever)
--database manipulation
It's always worth pausing a moment to think about what type of programming will best serve your needs before choosing a platform. There's overlap, certainly, but there're also problem spaces in which the various options excel. And IMO there's still a good niche for programmable calculators.
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