Which calculator is best.
Which calculator is best.
(OP)
I wanted to ask for opinions about calculators.
I currently have an HP48GX, which I have had for many years. It has served me well and I am looking for a new one. I have looked at the HP49G, but I get the feeling that HP is geting out of the high end calculator business. They no longer make a USB connection cable and there are no plans on the horizion for a GX model.
I have also looked at the TI's, especially with the Voyage 200 comming out soon, but I don't have any real experience with them.
A little backgound. I am a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering and am looking for a platform which will allow me to do work in the class room and when I am away from my computer. I know I will not find a "Hand Held Mathematica" machine, but I want to get something good.
Any adive, insight would be appreciated.
I currently have an HP48GX, which I have had for many years. It has served me well and I am looking for a new one. I have looked at the HP49G, but I get the feeling that HP is geting out of the high end calculator business. They no longer make a USB connection cable and there are no plans on the horizion for a GX model.
I have also looked at the TI's, especially with the Voyage 200 comming out soon, but I don't have any real experience with them.
A little backgound. I am a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering and am looking for a platform which will allow me to do work in the class room and when I am away from my computer. I know I will not find a "Hand Held Mathematica" machine, but I want to get something good.
Any adive, insight would be appreciated.





RE: Which calculator is best.
input your model number in its search engine - they have a few items
RE: Which calculator is best.
RE: Which calculator is best.
I know that there is a new TI model coming up early this summer, wait and see; check their website for more details.
I think, by experience that TI (texas instruments) is the best machines around, fast and reliable machines!). However Casio has some intresting models, CFX 9950, and CFX 9970 are pretty good but no match to TI83/89/92/92+.
There you go, I hope I helped a bit!
Ohhh by the way it's the TI92/TI92+ that halp the qwerty keyboard, and I've always used it in my exams!
RE: Which calculator is best.
There are free programs available that allow you to program on your computer and download to the HP (assuming you own a connection cable) as well as a wealth of user submitted programs at www.hpcalc.org.
Whatever calculator you end up with, take the time to learn its programming syntax! It is well worth the time investment.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Add the convenient CBL2 and you have a good low-end data acquisition system. I have use this to monitor temperature in enclosures over a 24 hour period. This could very easily be implemented into a Statical Process Control System.
If you are going to use the system in presentations I recommend the TI-92+, it has the built-in interface for a LCD panel or calculator to TV convertor and a lareg screen. The V200 due out later this year may or maynot have this interface but has additional memory.
I never found much use for the Geometry features on the TI-92/92+. Though I could see if you did not want to carry a laptop to the plant floor it could come in handy for 2-d CNC designing and troubleshooting.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Will
RE: Which calculator is best.
but HP support RPN ...what is your suggestion on both calcuator.( i am using HP 32ii)
TI 89
http://education.ti.com/educator/product/graph/89.html
HP 49G
http://products.hp-at-home.com/products/detail.php?id=F1633A&j=1
RE: Which calculator is best.
FYI: the HP has eigenvalue/eigenvector functions built in and there are also downloadable programs for laplace transforms available (I did a quick search on the website in my previous post and found more than 6 different programs for laplace transforms).
RE: Which calculator is best.
Will
RE: Which calculator is best.
The polemics about TI/HP will never end. Both are excellent.
How about the PDA's? Does somebody have the experience in using these new toys for engineering calculations and creating custom programs for them? Please do not start the Palm - CE war here, I am just looking for opinions...
gearguru
RE: Which calculator is best.
Then you can run MathCAD, Excel, Matlab and Mathematica.
if you want to.
Mine is the crummy old P120 based one, and since I bought it, haven't even switched my TI on.
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Which calculator is best.
And I own a Palm M100 too (to answer Gearguru) since a few time. Haven't try to make something with it but fill my agenda :p
FrenchCAD
Université Joseph FOURIER
Département Génie Mécanique
Grenoble
France
cyril.guichard@wanadoo.fr
RE: Which calculator is best.
RE: Which calculator is best.
That being said, Greg is probably on the long term track. Get a laptop or palmtop and use MathCAD, Mathmetica, etc. BANG FOR BUCK, A PORTABLE COMPUTER IS THE BEST VALUE. Keep the cheap calculator and spend your money on a laptop and good software. Yes, my HP49 can do matrices and eigenvectors and eigenvalues and laplace and etc. But the reality is, I don't WANT to input a 6x6 matrix into it. I would rather do it in MathCAD where I can save the sheet and reuse it to my heart's content. Computers will win because they have a better interface and much more resources available.
BTW, software is where it's at anyway. All this talk about my calculator can do this and my calculator can do that, are all really arguments about software. The firmware stopped controlling a LONG time ago, which is why HP is getting out of the business. If firmware were the problem then HP would still OWN the high end market and be making tons of money. Alas, firmware can't compete with software and cheap hardware.
Imagineer
RE: Which calculator is best.
If you own a HP48GX you already own the best calculator in the world, IMHO of course. A chair got sat on the display of my 48 and broke it so I tried the TI-89. Wrong move for me. Being so use to the HP spoiled me on RPN and the stack also, the TI's just can't cut it for me for operational characteristics.
I bought a 49 as a replacement and it's a weak try at what the 48 is...the best calc of them all, again IMHO. The 49's keys are mushy and stuff is moved around and changed enough to earn my distain. So now I'm looking for a 48 to replace my broken one.
RE: Which calculator is best.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Watch out for the HP-49: there is, apparently, a much more convoluted approach to unit conversions. One of the engineers here got it, and regrets not spending less on the 48GX. Also, the 49 doesn't have the card slot on the back (if you want to do such things).
With respect to RPN--I've been using HPs since 1979, so I have no choice but to love RPN. I can't go more than 6 or 7 operations on a "=" calculator before I botch it up! Maybe these newer "algebraic" calculators have fixed the problem; I'll never know.
That MathUcalc for the Palm is pretty neat--I tried it for a while, and found that it pretty much replaced my HP for almost all of the features that I use.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Gonna check this MathUcalc, seems interesting enough
FrenchCAD
Université Joseph FOURIER
Département Génie Mécanique
Grenoble
France
cyril.guichard@wanadoo.fr
RE: Which calculator is best.
with a little help from what ever you like for a tool! to help
I have software on my desktop and notebook and still I use my
slide rule and a pad of paper when ever I am checking out a new product
that doe'st feel right.
remember, we put a man named Armstrong on the moon with slide rulers
RE: Which calculator is best.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Sounds like a design challenge to me. . .
Crashj 'but my HP 25C still works fine' Johnson
RE: Which calculator is best.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Now that I'm out of University, I rarely use my HP for anything more complicated that the odd trig function and some powers/roots. Anything more complicated goes on a spreadsheet. I have not looked at Mathcad or similar programs but it's something I'd like to.
Just another point of view.
RE: Which calculator is best.
Regards
RE: Which calculator is best.