Civil Engineering Calculators

[greenhornet98]

After 10 years of good use my HP 48g quite working. Does anybody have a recommendation for a replacement?

 

[swearingen]

My suggestion is to get another one. I haven't found a calculator as good as that one yet. I own a 49g and 49g+ which are both trash, and I've played with a 50g and the TI-86 and -89. I still have my original 48gx from college (it looks really rough, but it's still ticking) and I keep a spare, new, 48g in my desk drawer.

The thing that does it for me are the physical keys. Why HP got away from making the keys the way they have for 30 years is beyond me.

The 48g seems to be the best because it's got only 32k of RAM. Since it accesses all of the RAM for each operation, less means it will run faster. Only heavy programming type folks need the 128k and expansion found in the gx.



If you "heard" it on the internet, it's guilty until proven innocent. - DCS

 

[DarthSoilsGuy]

Don't get the 48gII!

it's mostly the same except

/ is where enter was
x is where / was
- is where x was
+ is where - was
enter is where + was

i can't tell you how much agony retraining my fingers has been.

 

[cvg]

how about the 41CX if you can find one? Mine is 22 years old and still works great! You can probably find one on Ebay for a bargain

 

[sammyk]

Some of the older engineers around here use the HP 32s and 41's, they are starting to give out and the used costs for those older ones are going through the roof.

Get on EBAY and look for some 48g's (~$50-60).
I bought 2 extras in the last year just so I wouldnt be at a loss in the future. There are no quality RPN calculators out there anymore.

Friendly reminder if you buy spares: remove the battery or they will corrode.

 

[psmart]

Love my HP 41CX. I have one at home and one in the office. Still going strong.

 

[francesca]

I use Excel and the Sharp I got for the FE. We had to get a graphing calculator for one of my structures classes in college and all I could figure out to do with it was play minesweeper and use it as an alarm clock.

 

[StephenA]

My old HP died and I traded it in for a HP33s which does everything that I want it to do. 2 Function buttons but a smaller Enter button than the older models.

Stephen Argles
Land & Marine

http://www.landandmarine.com

 

[BelspringKen]

The 48G is really a nice calculator. I used it on the FE several years back, ended up using a simple TI on the PE.

I also have the 33S - I really don't like using it much...

 

[greenhornet98]

I had to use an HP 33s for the PE. It's O.K., but I like the visual stacking that is on the 48g. Is the 49g similar?

 

[swearingen]

The 49g can be configured for stacking as well - up to 7 visible stacks out of the box. It's the keys that are just terrible on that calculator. The force required to register a press is ridiculous and sometimes if you press too hard it will register that press twice. When you're really banging away on calcs, these two issues are killers because either you get too many numbers (press too hard) or none at all (press too softly).



If you "heard" it on the internet, it's guilty until proven innocent. - DCS

 

[DMcGrath]

I got a 50g after I lost my trusty old 15C, and it is a pretty good replacement (about $124 on Amazon). The keys work well - once you change the "key repeat" time to something shorter than the default. Supposedly the 49g programs will run on the 50g as well.

 

[redbridge]

I prefer the TI-89.

 

[whyun]

I don't think 49G or 50G is an equal or better replacement for 48G, personally. Try contacting HP and find out if they have a replacement program. You may end up with a refurbished model and pay a replacement charge of $80 or more. I'm not sure if HP still has this program, though. Good luck.

 

[BRIS]

I had a HP 28S (folding with separate alpha key pad) for many years: sat on it and the keys dropped out, cried for a week and bought a 48GS. I have never got on with the 48GS and would gladly swap it for a 28S.

These days I am more likely to get out my lap top and run excel than pull out my calculator which is a shame - It used to be much more impressive to flip open the 28S in a meeting and run a solver solution.

I understand HP are re-launching the HP 35S – since my lap top has now superseded my calculator for anything but simple functions I would buy the 35S out of nostalgia

 

[msquared48]

I love my 41CX too - have had one of the 41 models since they came out around 1980, to include the memory modules. Don't know what I'd do without it. The only problem is the thermal printer for the output from the programs - cannot get battery packs for it anymore (been 10 years since I tried - I gave up). Haven't checked the thermal paper availability. Wonder about the programmable magnetic strips too for the card reader and their availability.

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering

 

[psmart]

msquared48: The battery packs can be reloaded with new nicad cells, which are available from wholesale electronics suppliers like DigiKey. Some repair shops (such as a surveying instrument dealers) can rebuild the pack, although it's not too hard to do yourself.

There are a number of web sites devoted to the HP-41 such as

http://www.hp41.org

and

http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp41.htm

Also see the links at

http://www.hp41.org/Links.cfm

Google will find these and others.

 

[msquared48]

psmart:

Thanks a bunch for the leads. The printer's been collecting dust for 10 years. Think it needs to be cleaned too?

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering