When I was a student, one of the advantages of having an RPN calculator was that almost no one ever asked to borrow it. At least, not for a second time.
When I was in engineering school, the vast majority of the students had an HP calculator, I had an HP-34C as I bought it before the HP-41C became available. RPN logic is much easier to useonce you have learned the process, especially with complex calculations. There is an App available in itunes that is an HP-41C emulator that I have on my phone.
I bought the HP-11C for my first year of engineering, I quickly learned I should have bought the 15C instead so my second year I bought the HP-41CX. I bought some modules to help with thermo and fluid dynamics and math functions. I used to connect it to the test equipment in the lab and automated taking readings directly. I loved RPN on those calculators and I still use them when I need to get a quick numerical answer. Four of these, along with custom modules from NASA were on the early space shuttles as backups to the onboard shuttle computers. That is the kind of quality I miss. When HP re-launched the HP-15C as a special edition I bought one, it stopped working less than two years later. My 11C and 41CX are still working after almost 40 years.
This brings back fond memories of me learning about programming on a TI-56. I was in the Air Force, in the barracks at Torrejon AB, Spain, and another troop asks me if I'd be interested in buying his programmable calculator. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I went ahead and bought it. That started my life long hobby of computer programming. I had the TI-58 and then later, before I left Active Duty, the TI-59.
A company called SwissMicros builds a modern clone of the 41-CX that they call the DM41X. I have one and it is an extremely well designed and built unit. Based on a modern ARM processor emulating an HP-41CX it is the closest thing you can get to the actual HP-41.
I have their DM42 (a recreation of the HP-42S), easily the best calculator I ever had. One important aspect of those recreations is that they are completely faithful, so one can use HP's original manuals and advanced handbooks to use them. This is very important as those manuals are extremely well-written.
@@4thesakeofitname Lots of people still use a physical calculator because they are much faster for large number calculation sessions The exception to this is of your sitting at a desk with a desktop computer, then you would possibly use Excel/calc instead There is a reason stores still sell calculators because for certain markets and use that are the most efficient to use
@@stultuses I see, and I also use a "modern" physical calculator (even on my desk) for quick problem solving. I was referring to the "retro" machine, which probably lacks modern features compared to available calculators..
@@4thesakeofitname Yes. The engineering exams banned newer calculators on which you can easily enter alpha data. The HP12, 15, and 41 are on the list and if you are used to RPN, you can not go back to an algebraic calculator.
At 8:50 with the Byte magazine, the name of the company was actually Computer Mail Order, just like it says. That font stylized name was their logo. I bought parts from them in the late '80s, and that is who I always made the check out to (yes most mail order co's took checks back then), and the only name ever printed on the catalogs they sent me.
HP: High Price; High performance! I have several of the HP-41c family. Still crazy awesome after all these years. It saved my bacon in physics and chemistry classes. Classmates reported me to physics professor. He said, if I could program it to solve for all possible missing variables, then more power to me. I never really programmed it to cheat, but the RPN made it easy for me to perform chained calculations without errors.
I only had a 15c, but it computed some great linear regressions for my physics lab class. My TA complemented me on always having such great best-fit lines. I didn't have the heart to tell him. I later got a 42s, which I use to this day.
That one is a very nice calculator. I'm 63, grew up on RPN, my first calculator was a HP-45 and used many of more HP-s during my life including engineering and finance tasks. One tiny comment to your video (thank you for showing the CX): you regret the LCD. Well, LCD was a really big thing back then (and still it is in my opinion). It consumed tiny fraction of power compared to high voltage tubes and even the red leds, and it made possible to build the really complex (for that time) display of the 41CV / CX. So it is not the mark of cheapness, it was indeed a big deal back then both in technology and functional aspects. Your spotless package is an awesome find.
I bought my HP-41CX in 1985 and use it as my "daily calculator" ever since. It didn’t fail me once during all those years and is still 100% functioning and all keys are still feeling like (almost) new. HP calculators from the 1970s and 1980s are meant to last forever.
@@GSimpsonOAM thanks, it's good to know they have LCDs, could be used outdoors, though they are not backlit I assume... Have any idea about the internal circuitry ? which cpu/mpu did they use ?
@@4thesakeofitname I think it was a custom CPU by HP. I have several. Still use them from time to time. Batteries last years, unless you're using them every day maybe. Best calculator ever made, unless you need to do hex-decimal conversions, graphing, or need more speed. They can only run about 15-20 steps per second (my rough estimate).
The best scientific calculator during its time. It helped me through many tough Engineering courses. It smoked many of its competitors when performing complex calculations during my undergraduate days. Bravo HP-41CX!. Love that RPN.
As a starving student in the early 1980s, I could never afford an HP-41CX or CV, even though it was the standard calculator in our department-programs saved in the magnetic readers were circulated around to those that had the hardware. I just had a HP-11C that I bought in 1982, which worked well for me; it still runs like a champ now in 2023!
I remember that era and time frame very well. I was a TI (Texas Instruments) guy, but that 1982 HP 41-cx is the "pinnacle" of what the best calculator could be, was and will be. that is a collectable item, and it represents the finest rendition of any calculator from that time frame. A gemstone - without question. A legend in its own right. In fact, as a calculator that is an astounding 40 years old? It is still not only perfect usable today, but offers amazing functionally and features - even by today's standards. I mean, what else from computer technology can you buy that is 40 years old, and today that stands so tall on its own? Its perfectly able to function in todays world - and stands as perhaps one of the finniest calculators EVER made, let alone from 40 years ago. What a beauty - it simple is!! it does not even look outdated by one day, let alone 40+ years.
My dad used one in the 80’s with all the accessories when he worked as a surveyor at a construction site of a nuclear power plant in Satsop WA. He bought me the 11 or 12 c (I still have it this day and it works). His had card readers and the printer thing. Way ahead of its time.
I hope it was the 11c unless you got into finance. I do have a HP12c a coworker found in a snow drift, a couple of HP32s, and a couple of HP42s. I mainly use Free42 on the phone, tablet, and Linux box when I need a calculator.
Memory registers aren't associated with keys; they're actually numbered, with registers 00-99 directly accessible. It's just that the top two rows of keys function as shortcut ways to enter 01 through 10 into the prompt. With no memory devoted to programs, there are 319 memory registers, if memory serves, but 100 and up must be addressed indirectly. The price advantage of the CX over the CV is even better than you described, since the CX has both the Time and Extended Functions/Memory modules built in, plus a few other extra functions. It's really fun to see someone discovering what a tremendous leap forward the 41 was - it's like reliving my first moments with my brand-new 41C back in 1979! (I've now got three 41CV's plus my original 41CX).
I had one of these when I was a young engineer back in the early 80s, along with all of the bits - printer, mag reader, etc. Sadly, it finally failed some years ago and is now long gone. But once you're a RPN guy, you're always a RPN guy. So....I headed over to the Apple App Store, and sure enough the 41CX lives in software as a nice iPhone app. It's once again the only calculator I use.
Oh man - this brings back memories. I remember my uncle having one of these with all the stuff. He had a magnetic stripe reader and did a bunch of programing on it related to his EE consulting. I loved playing with it when I was at his house.
The space in the box was not for a module, but for a small box that contained the batteries. The fom was a space holder for the card reader that attached on top of the calculator. I got one back in 1986. It costs about $230 at Fedco.
I bought one(~$300) in 1979 or 1980 when I was starting as an upper division physics major at a university in Florida. It was amazing to have so much computational power in my hand. It was especially handy for the numerical analysis subroutines that I programmed into it.
That beauty came out in the late 1970s. I was an undergraduate student of civil engineering and couldn’t afford one of them, but a friend of mine had one and would let me use it from time to time for advanced applications. My own calculator was a non-programmable TI 35(?) SR. When I started grad school I was able to get me a TI 49 that served me well for my MS degree. At the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, where I went to study, they use to sell a thick volume of calculator programs for hydraulics and hydrology for both TI and HP programmable calculators. Those where the days of handheld programables. I didn’t owned an HP calculator until the early 1990s, when, as a faculty member at Utah State University, HP Boise send all of us free HP 48 G calculators. I later got me an HP 48 GX, which I used extensively in the courses I taught and even published books on calculator programs for probability and statistics, dynamics, and fluid mechanics. The HP 48 G series had a fabulous collection of reference handbooks that were very helpful in learning that calculator and it’s programming language. When the HP 49 G came out in the early 2000’s, the documentation was lousy. We had to use the documentation of the HP 48 G series as reference, except that the HP 49 G included a CAS (Computer Algebraic System) that allowed symbolic calculations to that calculator, something that the HP 48 G series didn’t have (it was a purely numerical calculator). I started typing a series of notes on the use of the HP 49 G CAS that became a book I used to sell online. HP Boise got hold of my book and in 2003 asked me to write a decent manual and user’s guide for the newer version of the HP 49 G, the HP 50 G. That was a great, hybrid (numeric symbolic) calculator, but it became obsolete by the 2010s. The TI 89 Titanium, and now the TI NSpire became the top-of-the-line engineering handheld calculators. HP tried a new calculator, the HP Prime, which hasn’t been too popular.
Nearly 50 years with HP calculators, I decided to buy HP's latest, the Prime G2, and see how HP has progressed. Regressed is more like it. The color touch screen is just lipstick on a pig as far as I'm concerned. Didn't take me long to rethink things and get a Swiss Micro DM41X. Cheaper than the collector prices 41C series calculators are going for. Very nice calculator. This is the direction HP should have kept going in. It's not that the torch has passed, but Swiss Micro has stolen the torch from HP's failing hands.
Welcome to the HP-41 user club. Bring lots of time and excitement. The User keyboard was created as a way to deal with the problem of fitting all the functions onto the keyboard without having to have ever more shift keys or menus, especially with plug-in modules that added new functions. Being able to assign user programs to keys came as a bonus. It permitted the designers to _simplify_ the keyboard while introducing open-ended functionality. Compare the 41 keyboard with those of its immediate predecessor the HP-67, or the later HP-34C, both of which are the ultimate in uber-complex calculator keyboards. The 41 looked simple and streamlined by comparison, which belied what it was really capable of.
I graduated from high school in 1971. Then in college, I saw the HP-35, HP's first pocket calculator, when it was introduced in 1972. I fell in love and was saving up money to buy one. I didn't get enough money until 1973, when the HP-45 was introduced. It had 10 memories and some extra functions. Using RPN was definitely a conversation topic. I remember many times, handing my calculator to a classmate who'd asked to borrow it for a calculation. They''d press a few keys then ask "Where is the = key?". There were lots of claims of "mine is better than yours" between HP owners and TI owners. I used to have a t-shirt with graphics on the front "ENTER > =". I got lots of questions whenever I wore it.
I graduated high school in 1971. I became a mechanical engineer for the auto industry. I had about nine hp calculators starting with the 41c to the 50g.
Card Reader was to read your collection of HP67 Calculator pre programed cards, (or collection of blank cards you recorded instructions on). It filled one slot and covered the other three being as tall as that piece of foam in the bottom of the calculator pouch. I still have my 41C I bought new back in the day. Along with my Math Pack 1, Stat Pack, Stress Analysis, Thermo Dynamics, Aviation X Pack and my Time Module. I upgraded from my HP67 which had the Standard Pack, Civil Engineering Pack, Business Decision Pack, Stat Pack I, Mechanical Engineering Pack, Math Pack I, and my Electrical Engineering Pack card library; but didn't ever buy a HP41C card reader, since I could load those programs into memory as needed. Big Dave
I had one of these, and I wrote a program to help reduce my sextant sites whilst sailing the Atlantic in my 30 foot cat in 1981. Fabulous bit of tech. I loved it. It eventually succumbed to saltwater. Very sad. HP gear was beautiful in those days.
My HP41CX still works although I don't use it day to day anymore, I just fire it up every few years N type batteries are expensive The keys are just a delight to experience I have a few plug in modules, Stats, circuit analysis etc The most stupid thing HP ever did was vacate the calculator space From what I remember, I think there was a development group in Melbourne Australia who did some of the internal software design The leather case is quality too Did I mention how great the keyboard is :-) Those keys were better than the TI's too, they would be the only other calculator in a similar class HP told BS in my opinion as to why they dropped using those awesome keys, claiming environmental reasons The best thing about old HP calculators however is not just the build quality, it's RPN (reverse polish notation) !!! RPN is just so intuitive to use and allows one to start almost anywhere in an equation. I think it helped students/users learn how to approach a calculation and understand an equation which modern day in-fix notation calculators do not. I love RPN so much that I use an HP emulator on my phone as my calculator RPN is like the forth programming language, stack based and highly memory efficient I also have a Casio FX 100c as well, programmable in Basic and it still works too but the HP41CX is the device I love
I have my HP 41-CX purchased in 1984 still sitting on my desk. I still use it regularly as I have the muscle memory to be very efficient with it. I do have RPN calculator on my phone but it doesn't hold a candle to the 41cx for large calculations done by hand. At the time I hoped to be able to delay getting a computer- but did get my first PC clone later that year- writing long programs on the 41cx was difficult.
Nothing beats a physical device for data entry. While having a good emulator on a phone or tablet is convenient, touchscreens are terrible for fast, accurate input. The feel of a well made device is a large portion of what makes it a quality calculator.
At the time, HP led the industry with engineering calculators. I was an engineering graduate student in the late 70’s and at that time the HP67/97 was the gold standard in programmable calculators (more correctly: scientific computers). Great video.
My first HP calculator was a HP-41C, the current model at the time, that my mom gave me when I was freshman in engineering school. I loved that thing and learned every little trick I could. I eventually got into what they called "synthetic programming" which was really just a hack of the interpreter to allow it to access protected areas within the CPU. There was a little program you could make called a "byte grabber". Pretty cool, you would press a hot key to insert a string that said it was 7 bytes long but was really only six. The interpreter wasn't happy so it grabbed a byte from the next instruction turning the now 6 bytes into a 7 byte instruction that did something new and undocumented. This chain would continue on through program memory until the interpreter was happy again. These instructions could not only wipe out your memory but completely lock the calculator up to where you had to leave the batteries out overnight. I had to leave the batteries out of mine plenty of times. I had many happy hours playing with that thing and it propelled me through engineering school. I had a magnetic card reader, a thermal printer, all of the slots were full. I had the circuit analysis pack, the math pack, the electrical engineering pack and a memory pack that took it up to the CV memory. I had some others I forgot the names of. I never felt that I could afford to buy the tape drive. Mine is in good condition but not as good as that one. I used the hell out of mine. I still have it and will never get rid of it.
I picked up a 41C (with extra memory) at goodwill a number of years ago now, so it is interesting to see the differences the CX has in operation that the original does not. Its interesting that the CX has a redish orange border for they keys whereas the C has a whitish silver one. Unfortunately I didn't get the documentation with it, but it wasn't expensive for what it is.
The 41cx included the time module and 2 memory modules. The foam block in the case can be removed to make room for the card reader. The time module includes a function to fine tune the time base . In the days before cheap gps, these were popular for sailboat navigation
I used to own the assumedly older HP-41CV years ago, with a magnetic card reader, thermal printer, UPC wand and about 8 modules. I sold it all on eBay about 10 years ago. One of my best memories was the ability to do "synthetic programing", which (once enabled) allowed access to prohibited areas of memory, and even allowed the defeating of copy protection on the magnetic cards. I'm new to your channel, and just saw this video, so I thought I'd mention synthetic programming and see whether you're familiar with it.
5:01 just that little caress of the page.... that says it all, it even sounds like a nostalgic nerd sigh, I'm right there with you! :) I used to have that same feeling looking over shiny camera catalogues, things i could not afford but seemed to be the solutions to problems i wanted to have.... aaahh the nostalgia! I do love the HP-11C, love the form factor, not willing to pay the price for one these days though!
FYI - If I am remembering correctly, the HP41CX also has the entire "Extended Functions" module built into it too, just like the time module you referenced.
I bought an HP41C new when I was in high school, and kept it through college. I had the card reader, several modules, and the desktop printer, which also served as a battery eliminator. I ended up using it at work after college to automate some calculations for quality control of parts we were producing. I got rid of it after many years, but I now keep the i41cx+ app on my iPhone for when I'm feeling nostalgic. I still have several other vintage HP calculators in my desk somewhere.
A CX had several modules built in. Like the time module. Which is why the stop watch overlay is included. The 41-C was popular. And over time the CV was introduced and then the CX. And legacy compliance to use modules to get CX utility in the CV and C A pristine CX with books is still hundreds of dollars on eBay. I have several. #1 professional calculator in its day. And iPhone emulators are marvelous way to keep the system alive and relevant
I had a HP-21 in 1975 at college when everyone else had a TI of some sort. Using RPN for chain calculations in organic chemistry and physics was such a breeze. It died many years later due to battery corrosion but to this day I use a HP-21 app on iPad and iPhone. In 1985 I bought a HP-41CX and a Navigation module so I could do celestial navigation sun and star shots while sailing to and from Bermuda and elsewhere. I remember lusting after the HP-IL system and accessories like the printer and barcode reader but never got them. I put it in a drawer in the early 90’s and forgot about it. But a couple years ago I found it in the original box with all the original docs. I had removed the batteries when I stored it so it worked like new when I put in new ones. Been checking out 41CX videos to get reacquainted. What a great and fascinating piece of gear this thing is.
What an awesome device. That's super cool that you can create your own keyboard layout. I recently got a DM42, which is a terrific calculator. As others have mentioned RPN is so intuitive for solving multi step calculations. The swap and roll keys allow you to rearrange your data as you please with much more flexibility than on algebraic.
(I was waiting to seethe price (@9:08) $250 pretty hefty price REDUCTION. An electronics engineer that my division worked with bought a much less complex HP calculator early in '73 that cost if I remember right over $1000. I do still remember how excited he was when it came and how he invited several of us (who sent problems to him and got solutions back) to his office to show us his "new toy"
The -41C and -41CX were the "must have" calculators for engineering students in the early 1980's. Unfortunately, they were crazy expensive. I managed to complete my engineering degree with a low-cost Sharp calculator. Brings back good memories.
A few years before this model when I was in the USAF, I was issued an HP35 while serving on an evaluation team out of Griffiss AFB Rome, NY. I fell in love with RPN. Not owning buckets of cash, a few years later after leaving the USAF, I had to settle for a Texas Instruments SR-56 (i couldn't afford the better SR-52 with programming cards) that (barely) fit into my budget but got me through the FAA's Radar A and B schools (but I still missed RPN).
I remember using an HP with an external thermal printer when I was in the Coast Guard in the 80s. It had a built in magnetic strip reader for the strips that had the programs stored on them. We used it for waveform analysis of the LORAN data. That was the first time I saw a calculator that used RPN. I think it was the HP-65.
I was a gear engineer for an auto company in Detroit from 1977 to 2007. In the early 80's I started with the an hp41c. Then I bought a 41cv and two 41cx's. We would start the preliminary design using slide rules and the programmable hp's. Then we would go to huge Fortran programs on the mainframe computers. They would print out on green and white striped paper that we would cut to 8.5 x 11 inches to fit in our file folders. There are still many millions of vehicles driving around with transmissions and axles that I designed in this manner with the hp calculators. Some are still being manufactured. I also had the card reader and thermal printer. I kept two calculators at work, one at home to use, and another at home as a backup storage for the programs. I never had a RPN (reverse polish notation) hp stolen out of my desk. I suspect they couldn't figure out how to use it and just put it back. Later I had 4 hp48's, one hp49, and one hp50, and then the hp prime. My all time favorite was the hp41. Since being retired, I have sold all my hp calculators except for one of the 48's. We use to buy hp calculators from a place in Oregon called Educalc. They had a great catalog and fast service. We also had one hp calculator with a built in printer. I think it was an hp 97. I also had an hp42. I spent many 10 to 12 hour days crunching away on those hps. The early ones had the numbers and digits cast all the way through the keys so they would not wear off. Hp was the calculator king back then. This was a fun trip for me to go down memory lane, back when engineers were true geeks (With our slide rules on our belts) and proud of it. We would tell other people "Don't make fun of the geeks, one day you will be working for one".
I worked at HP in the 80s, and I got to use a lot of neat calculators. We used the 71b, and the 41c for doing fun programmable and testing stuff, and the 28 was being developed but it looked pretty awesome. Ive never owned any, but Ive destroyed thousands of imperfect calculators, because quality matters
"quality matters" is why I have purchased (and still use) HP calculators. I've had one fly out of my hand across the room and land on a concrete floor and still work flawlessly. Thank you for your work. The only failure I had was a 35 that I spilled soft drink on. Flushed it out (I thought) and it came back, but months later it stopped and when I opened it up some pins on an IC had been eaten through by the acid. 😞
@@stan.rarick8556 There is a bit of lore about a college professor showing the kids his calculator, and the throws it down on the ground as hard as he can, and it never breaks, and he does this every term for like 20 years without ever breaking his calculator.
I had an HP11C in the 1980's. I programmed it to do synthetic division and asked my College Algebra instructor if I could use it for the final exam. He asked my if I wrote the program and to show him the source code and explain it. Once he was convinced that I wrote the code he let me use it. I finished the final in about 20 minutes.
I wrote my own code for traffic accident reconstruction (physics and trig mostly) and was instructed to explain it by opposing counsel during a trial. My ability to easily do so backfired on them.
Back in the mid 1980's I was lucky enough to be able to buy a HP-41CX, I loved it! I went back to college in the mid 1990's to finish my degree. I decided to call HP to find out what would be a good choice since 10 years had passes. They suggested a HP-48GX. They also asked me about the calculator buy back program....I'm like tell me more....In the 1980's I paid about $300 for to HP-41CX, in the 1990's they gave me almost 1/2 off for a 48GX. The 41CX depricated only 50% in 10 years! Say that about anything else!
When I worked for Fugro back in the 1990s, we had two of those (boxed and mint and with mag-strip readers), which had been supplied as a way of manually calculating navigation fix positions in the event of the main PDP-11 computer failing. After the PDP-11s were upgraded to Windows PCs (in 1997), I enquired about what the plans for the HP-41s were - only to be informed that both had been dropped in a Norwegian dumpster a couple of weeks previously. Absolutely gutted didn't even touch first base on how I felt.
The HP-41C is how I got through freshman chemistry class. I had the addon mag strip reader for it. Stored all the periodic table and important info on it and made good use of it for many years.
I bought an HP-41CV back in 1986 for $170 when I was an undergraduate engineering student. It lasted for about 10 years when I replaced it with an HP-48GX, which I still use to this day. Both are wonderful calculators.
One of the many HP calculators I've owned at one time was the HP-41c. The ASN function was often used in programs to assign specific functions to keys. Those programs would come with those clip-on overlays with the assignments listed on them.
I had an HP 41CX that I got in 1986 and loved it. It lasted until the late 2000s when it got where it wouldn't turn on reliably and finally wouldn't work at all. I still have the HP 15c that I got in summer 1985 and still use it a lot and preferred it to the 41CX for some things due to having more mathematical functions on the keyboard for easy access. Also the HP 15c display was far easier to read. The alphanumeric display on the 41CX was neat and funky in its way of allowing all the capital letters but the numbers were harder to read.
Would you consider doing a video on a TI-57 II. It's an odd find because my late father was an engineer and must have got it during his apprenticeship. Found it some 15 years ago in some old tools and didn't think much of it then, til recently when I was in the garage at the mothers looking for an allen key and realised what it was. It's kind of interesting to me, especially as a software dev who mostly works on legacy transactional systems and automation. I don't know how interesting it is to guys who really like their calculators. If you'd like to borrow it for a video, I'd be happy to ship it over.
There is a hack procedure called synthetic programming that you can do to this calculator that adds additional functions. Who knew that back in 1981 I was Jailbreaking my first device.
Read every page of those manuals. I programmed equations for every EE class all summer long before stepping into any class using books/notes sold by graduating classmates. Then solved for any missing variable in any combination. Great way to learn a topic. Loved it. Switched to Computer engineering and started programming in assembly and Fortran 77 on other minicomputers! Sold it and all programming code for $200 in 1985 to buy a car.
My dad had one of these for statistics and I played with it a lot when I was little. I got used to RPN and could never go back, and in college I bought a 48GX, which I still have.
I graduated from Oregon Tech in 1986 and got through it with an HP-15C? A wonderful calculator! The Model 41CX was the best at the time and 3x the price--amazing technology! And such great manuals at the time! Theirs, Commodore... The Radio Shack TRS-80 Intro-Manual and Advanced Programming Guide...you could figure out everything! And some video-game programmers did! And now off on a binge of TH-cam and their HP-calculator designer's videos :-)
I have 2 HP-41 calculators. I was a flight engineer on C-141 aircraft and was issued a HP-41C to do my computations for flight and did a lot of programming to make it more useful. I also purchased a HP-41CX for my own use (I was into mini-computer and microprocessor design at the time). I got so used to RPN that I only use the HP-12C for finances and math. I use an algebraic calculator from time to time, but still prefer RPN.
Yes, bought a HP41C when I was an engineering student in 1982, was about one months rent for it but was worth it at the time. Still have it and still use it, the batteries are 20 years old and still work! Love the RPN calculators, once you get used to is you never can go back.
Never used the 41. I used the 48 series in the USAF. Have a 48G, 48SX, and 48GX in my collection; along with quite a few manuals and books. They're great mini-computers!
Back in the dark ages (early 1980s) I used an HP-11C for celestial navigation. I was very envious of the one student (we were studying to be deck officers on US merchant ships) who had a HP-41C. There was a navigation module that made entering things like what body he was using (sun, moon, planets, or stars) the time, and the uncorrected altitude of the body. A few more steps corrected this and gave him a useable line of position that could be plotted on a chart. Three of those and he had a good fix on the ship's position. All of this in less time than it took to explain it here. Only problem was the HP-41s were not allowed in our Coast Guard exams, but the HP-11C was.
I've still got my old CX from college. I was obsessed with programming it. I once wrote an app on it that would, based on wind speed & direction, aircraft velocity, altitude, and position compute a point of no return for transatlantic flights. It was commissioned by a local company that flew their Learjet often to Europe and back. I think I still have that app on a tape cartridge.
15:09 The advantage of RPN is you don’t need rules for operator precedence or parentheses to get around them. The disadvantage is that normal people seem to have great trouble understanding it. For example, I did a lot of programming in PostScript, which was very popular in high-end laser printers and typesetters back in the day. I tried explaining how it worked to colleagues, but they never seemed able to grasp the concept.
In school I always laughed when people asked to borrow my calculator (a 48GX). Even if all they needed to do was basic arithmetic, it always took twice as long with me explaining how to enter it. Of course... I was always twice as fast as people using algebraic mode on complex equations since I didn't need parenthesis.
@@christopheroliver148 Then use a Casio, Canon or Sharp, those were the normal calculators. In the sense of being among the most intuitive, self explanatory and easy to use. American ones were always a bit weird, whether HP or Texas. Yes, that's from an european 1980s perspective. (I loved the build quality of HP instruments and computers though, much like Tektronix.)
I got an HP41C while serving in the Navy. Nice to have such a complete system available and still be able to keep it in the limited storage space one has as a sailor. That place in the box you supposed was for a module is where HP would ship your first set of Ncell batteries.
At one time HP sold blank keyboard overlays (those plastic sheets with holes for the keys to stick through). I did a whole set of assignments that put calculation functions on all the keys and shift keys for when I was not running a program.
I still have mine and a card reader that plugs in the top. I used it a lot when I was taking electronics classes in college. I remember programming it to play a hangman game where it actually showed the gallows on the display. Haven't looked at it in decades but if I remember correctly, the battery corroded inside it and ruined the contacts.
Interesting trivia: HP went to RPN so they could build a slide rule calculator for the Apollo missions. All calculators of the time ran RPN internally, and devoted chip space for a converter to go from algebraic to RPN, and then back for the display. HP figured out that if they didn’t devote space to the RPN converter, they had room for the trig functions.
I had an HP 41 CX back in the day. Prior to that I had a TI 58 then TI 59 and the 41 CX was a big step up. I did have a couple modules for it, including the HP IL which I used for interfacing with HP test equipment. At one of the jobs I was issued an HP 71B as well which was also used to interface to and control test equipment. Eventually I moved up to the HP 48 SX then the 48 GX, which I still have and use regularly. In fact I have iHP48 app for my iPhone and still run a bunch of the programs I've written over the years on the iPhone because I have that with me most of the time and it is a zillion times faster than the native HP 48 GX.
I have one of these (41 CX) myself, all I need is the HP-IL to HP-IB converter so I can have some fun controlling some of my HP instruments, and send plot jobs to my HP plotters.
The HP 41C was my first computer. I was working in an electronics company and I used it to calculate MTBF for power supplies. The engineer who sat next to me bought himself a Heathkit H8 computer and spent weeks getting it to do anything at all. The HP41 had all sorts of engineering modules available. The most useful accessory for me was the magnetic card reader/writer. I could store custom programs on separate cards and make custom keyboard overlays. I wish I still had it! I bought my first PC in 1984, a Columbia MPC-1600 IBM clone. I never bought one of those 8-bit computers such as the Apple II or the various Commodores or Atari's. The seemed like glorified game machines to me. @CharlesWT-TX reminded me of a big personal advantage of having an RPN calculator, whenever anyone would ask to borrow it I'd tell them it used RPN. The borrower would look at me blankly and they would return it to me after a minute or so and say "It doesn't work!" 😛
I bought mine (maybe only a -C) in the early 80's still have it, don't remember if it still works. Batteries are type "N" Being a mainframe computer programmer, I actually used the HP-16C more (for it's hexadecimal capability. I tried tot turn the 41 into an hexadecimal calculator but it was just too messy) I still use the 16C to this day for it's RPN and quality, although I am retired and don't need the hexadecimal capability anymore As I remember I spent over $400 in 198x dollars for the 41 and other stuff, (expansion module(s) )) A note about the batteries, because of the LCD display instead of LED, the batteries lasted for what seemed forever. My only real complaint about the 41 (and the 16) was that the stack wasn't big enough
16:15 It’s just using the keys as symbolic register names. They probably double up as symbolic labels in programs, too. The meaning is all a matter of context.
I collect Casio calculators generally and wasn't interested at HP models at all (never understood the RPN thing but I know some people swear by it). Last year I happened to be able to buy an HP-41C and HP-41CX over two separate occasions for pretty good prices. They came with some ROM modules, magnetic cards, two card readers, and some other accessories. The readers didn't work of course because the rollers had long ago turned to mush. I replaced the rollers and got one of the readers working, but the other one still would not read cards. While I have never learned to use them, and probably never will, I am glad I have them in my collection.
I have more of these than sane people probably should. I don't have any CXs though; all mine are C or CV. I use them all the time, with peripherals. After this, HP just never quite got it right. The 32SII was the only thing almost as good. If only they'd made a 32S like calculator with 41C hardware, or at least a 41CX with inbuilt fractions and solver, and nobody would ever need a different calculator. Incidentally these weren't just used on-the-go. Many companies used these as special purpose computers in industrial (and other) applications. I don't have the GPIB interface (and don't want one because I don't need to get that deep into these). But if I did, I'd be very tempted to connect an HP41C to my Commodore 9060D hard drive.
Maybe I missed out, as the 48GX was the current model when I was getting started. It was a heck of a calculator too, though it didn't support external hardware in the same way.
I still have my 41-CX. It works fine. There was something about the feel of those tactile switches on those early HP calculators that just oozed quality. The programming you can do can be very sophisticated. What it won't be is fast by today's standards. I guarantee that solving a 4x4 matrix was far faster using the calculator than working it out by hand.
The thing I miss most going from hp41c* to hp42s is the ability to completely reassign the whole keyboard rather than just the top row. That's a bit of an ergonomic downgrade.
I bought my HP41C in 1980. I still use it as my everyday calculator. I even have a HP41C app on my phone to use when it is not to hand. Can't stand regular calculators
The reason they called it a calculator was when you ordered it thru work, the purchasing department would see it as a calculator not a computer and ok the purchase.
I had a 41 without the X. It could do some time stuff, but it wasn't 'accurized' and therefore not fully reliable There were multiple overlays (certainly for the other application modules) and some blank ones as well, so they weren't just for the time functions.
I used HP calculators in high school and when studying in the 90s, but later it became a bit of a collection of mine. I think you'd also love the HP 67 (or 65) if you can get your hands on one in good condition, and some magnet cards.
That era of HP calculators is definitely one of my weird geeky curiosities too... I've wanted a HP-71B for ages, but people on ebay seem to think they're worth their weight in gold. lol
Back in the day I bought a 41CV while I was in the Navy, got the statistics modules when I started university, failed miserably in statistics, lost the 41CV, got a 41CX, spent the summer 1988 learning statistics and writing my own programs which I stored on the magnetic strips and then passed statistics without even touching the calculator 😊 One of my programs got published in a german computer magazine. Later I sold the 41CX to help me pay for a HP-95 which then had to go for a Psion 5, I should have kept all of them!
When I was a student, one of the advantages of having an RPN calculator was that almost no one ever asked to borrow it. At least, not for a second time.
It's really true, that happened to me too 😆
And if anyone does, you just made a friend for life!
When I was in engineering school, the vast majority of the students had an HP calculator, I had an HP-34C as I bought it before the HP-41C became available. RPN logic is much easier to useonce you have learned the process, especially with complex calculations. There is an App available in itunes that is an HP-41C emulator that I have on my phone.
True. You are really in different league.
Once you learn RPN, you also NEVER get the wrong answer unlike modern calculators. I think I still have my HP-41CX in a box somewhere...
I bought the HP-11C for my first year of engineering, I quickly learned I should have bought the 15C instead so my second year I bought the HP-41CX. I bought some modules to help with thermo and fluid dynamics and math functions.
I used to connect it to the test equipment in the lab and automated taking readings directly. I loved RPN on those calculators and I still use them when I need to get a quick numerical answer.
Four of these, along with custom modules from NASA were on the early space shuttles as backups to the onboard shuttle computers. That is the kind of quality I miss. When HP re-launched the HP-15C as a special edition I bought one, it stopped working less than two years later. My 11C and 41CX are still working after almost 40 years.
HP41C and CX basically same. Why did you buy 2
@@levondarratt787 I think that you may of misread his post, he said that his first one was a HP-11C.
This brings back fond memories of me learning about programming on a TI-56. I was in the Air Force, in the barracks at Torrejon AB, Spain, and another troop asks me if I'd be interested in buying his programmable calculator. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I went ahead and bought it. That started my life long hobby of computer programming. I had the TI-58 and then later, before I left Active Duty, the TI-59.
A company called SwissMicros builds a modern clone of the 41-CX that they call the DM41X. I have one and it is an extremely well designed and built unit. Based on a modern ARM processor emulating an HP-41CX it is the closest thing you can get to the actual HP-41.
I have their DM42 (a recreation of the HP-42S), easily the best calculator I ever had. One important aspect of those recreations is that they are completely faithful, so one can use HP's original manuals and advanced handbooks to use them. This is very important as those manuals are extremely well-written.
Excuse me but I really wonder if there is any use of these retro calculators (or pocket computers) other than their very cool feel...
@@4thesakeofitname
Lots of people still use a physical calculator because they are much faster for large number calculation sessions
The exception to this is of your sitting at a desk with a desktop computer, then you would possibly use Excel/calc instead
There is a reason stores still sell calculators because for certain markets and use that are the most efficient to use
@@stultuses I see, and I also use a "modern" physical calculator (even on my desk) for quick problem solving. I was referring to the "retro" machine, which probably lacks modern features compared to available calculators..
@@4thesakeofitname Yes. The engineering exams banned newer calculators on which you can easily enter alpha data. The HP12, 15, and 41 are on the list and if you are used to RPN, you can not go back to an algebraic calculator.
At 8:50 with the Byte magazine, the name of the company was actually Computer Mail Order, just like it says. That font stylized name was their logo. I bought parts from them in the late '80s, and that is who I always made the check out to (yes most mail order co's took checks back then), and the only name ever printed on the catalogs they sent me.
HP: High Price; High performance! I have several of the HP-41c family. Still crazy awesome after all these years. It saved my bacon in physics and chemistry classes. Classmates reported me to physics professor. He said, if I could program it to solve for all possible missing variables, then more power to me. I never really programmed it to cheat, but the RPN made it easy for me to perform chained calculations without errors.
I only had a 15c, but it computed some great linear regressions for my physics lab class.
My TA complemented me on always having such great best-fit lines. I didn't have the heart to tell him.
I later got a 42s, which I use to this day.
I will never use a non-RPN calculator again. The first time I experienced it, I never looked back.
Ha ha, I used it to cheat in my Finance exam ...... man, how I love this "computer". Too bad I can't find a place to fix it.
@@granitepenguin Me 2 !
Sadly, the HP of today is a far cry from the one that made these fabulous machines.
That one is a very nice calculator. I'm 63, grew up on RPN, my first calculator was a HP-45 and used many of more HP-s during my life including engineering and finance tasks. One tiny comment to your video (thank you for showing the CX): you regret the LCD. Well, LCD was a really big thing back then (and still it is in my opinion). It consumed tiny fraction of power compared to high voltage tubes and even the red leds, and it made possible to build the really complex (for that time) display of the 41CV / CX. So it is not the mark of cheapness, it was indeed a big deal back then both in technology and functional aspects. Your spotless package is an awesome find.
I bought my HP-41CX in 1985 and use it as my "daily calculator" ever since. It didn’t fail me once during all those years and is still 100% functioning and all keys are still feeling like (almost) new. HP calculators from the 1970s and 1980s are meant to last forever.
what about its battery consumption ?
@@4thesakeofitname They have LCD screen so battery consumption is economical. Earlier HP used LED that were harder on batteries (uses 4xN size)
@@GSimpsonOAM thanks, it's good to know they have LCDs, could be used outdoors, though they are not backlit I assume... Have any idea about the internal circuitry ? which cpu/mpu did they use ?
@@4thesakeofitname I think it was a custom CPU by HP. I have several. Still use them from time to time. Batteries last years, unless you're using them every day maybe. Best calculator ever made, unless you need to do hex-decimal conversions, graphing, or need more speed. They can only run about 15-20 steps per second (my rough estimate).
The best scientific calculator during its time. It helped me through many tough Engineering courses. It smoked many of its competitors when performing complex calculations during my undergraduate days. Bravo HP-41CX!. Love that RPN.
As a starving student in the early 1980s, I could never afford an HP-41CX or CV, even though it was the standard calculator in our department-programs saved in the magnetic readers were circulated around to those that had the hardware. I just had a HP-11C that I bought in 1982, which worked well for me; it still runs like a champ now in 2023!
Bought it in the early 80's in engineering school with several modules. Still my daily calculator and 100 % functional.
You must be a surveyor
@@nathanielmandish6919 no, retired engineer.
@@jimp9884 wish I was retired
I used these briefly in yhe 90s woth my father for calculations in field when we were surveying
I have that piece of hardware since 1980 and it is still working, thanks dad!
I remember that era and time frame very well. I was a TI (Texas Instruments) guy, but that 1982 HP 41-cx is the "pinnacle" of what the best calculator could be, was and will be. that is a collectable item, and it represents the finest rendition of any calculator from that time frame. A gemstone - without question. A legend in its own right. In fact, as a calculator that is an astounding 40 years old? It is still not only perfect usable today, but offers amazing functionally and features - even by today's standards.
I mean, what else from computer technology can you buy that is 40 years old, and today that stands so tall on its own?
Its perfectly able to function in todays world - and stands as perhaps one of the finniest calculators EVER made, let alone from 40 years ago.
What a beauty - it simple is!! it does not even look outdated by one day, let alone 40+ years.
In highschool I had a 2nd hand TI 58, but I moved to RPN not that long after I graduated with the HP-41CV.
My dad used one in the 80’s with all the accessories when he worked as a surveyor at a construction site of a nuclear power plant in Satsop WA. He bought me the 11 or 12 c (I still have it this day and it works). His had card readers and the printer thing. Way ahead of its time.
I hope it was the 11c unless you got into finance. I do have a HP12c a coworker found in a snow drift, a couple of HP32s, and a couple of HP42s. I mainly use Free42 on the phone, tablet, and Linux box when I need a calculator.
Memory registers aren't associated with keys; they're actually numbered, with registers 00-99 directly accessible. It's just that the top two rows of keys function as shortcut ways to enter 01 through 10 into the prompt. With no memory devoted to programs, there are 319 memory registers, if memory serves, but 100 and up must be addressed indirectly.
The price advantage of the CX over the CV is even better than you described, since the CX has both the Time and Extended Functions/Memory modules built in, plus a few other extra functions.
It's really fun to see someone discovering what a tremendous leap forward the 41 was - it's like reliving my first moments with my brand-new 41C back in 1979! (I've now got three 41CV's plus my original 41CX).
I had one of these when I was a young engineer back in the early 80s, along with all of the bits - printer, mag reader, etc. Sadly, it finally failed some years ago and is now long gone. But once you're a RPN guy, you're always a RPN guy. So....I headed over to the Apple App Store, and sure enough the 41CX lives in software as a nice iPhone app. It's once again the only calculator I use.
Yes, once you learn RPN you are spoilt for life, nothing else feels so initiative afterwards
I still have mine, used it through high school, college, and work. RPN was awesome!
Oh man - this brings back memories. I remember my uncle having one of these with all the stuff. He had a magnetic stripe reader and did a bunch of programing on it related to his EE consulting. I loved playing with it when I was at his house.
The space in the box was not for a module, but for a small box that contained the batteries. The fom was a space holder for the card reader that attached on top of the calculator.
I got one back in 1986. It costs about $230 at Fedco.
I bought one(~$300) in 1979 or 1980 when I was starting as an upper division physics major at a university in Florida. It was amazing to have so much computational power in my hand. It was especially handy for the numerical analysis subroutines that I programmed into it.
That beauty came out in the late 1970s. I was an undergraduate student of civil engineering and couldn’t afford one of them, but a friend of mine had one and would let me use it from time to time for advanced applications. My own calculator was a non-programmable TI 35(?) SR. When I started grad school I was able to get me a TI 49 that served me well for my MS degree. At the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, where I went to study, they use to sell a thick volume of calculator programs for hydraulics and hydrology for both TI and HP programmable calculators. Those where the days of handheld programables. I didn’t owned an HP calculator until the early 1990s, when, as a faculty member at Utah State University, HP Boise send all of us free HP 48 G calculators. I later got me an HP 48 GX, which I used extensively in the courses I taught and even published books on calculator programs for probability and statistics, dynamics, and fluid mechanics. The HP 48 G series had a fabulous collection of reference handbooks that were very helpful in learning that calculator and it’s programming language. When the HP 49 G came out in the early 2000’s, the documentation was lousy. We had to use the documentation of the HP 48 G series as reference, except that the HP 49 G included a CAS (Computer Algebraic System) that allowed symbolic calculations to that calculator, something that the HP 48 G series didn’t have (it was a purely numerical calculator). I started typing a series of notes on the use of the HP 49 G CAS that became a book I used to sell online. HP Boise got hold of my book and in 2003 asked me to write a decent manual and user’s guide for the newer version of the HP 49 G, the HP 50 G. That was a great, hybrid (numeric symbolic) calculator, but it became obsolete by the 2010s. The TI 89 Titanium, and now the TI NSpire became the top-of-the-line engineering handheld calculators. HP tried a new calculator, the HP Prime, which hasn’t been too popular.
Cool stuff. I still use my HP50 daily. I constantly worry what I'm going to do when it finally wears out!
Nearly 50 years with HP calculators, I decided to buy HP's latest, the Prime G2, and see how HP has progressed. Regressed is more like it. The color touch screen is just lipstick on a pig as far as I'm concerned. Didn't take me long to rethink things and get a Swiss Micro DM41X. Cheaper than the collector prices 41C series calculators are going for. Very nice calculator. This is the direction HP should have kept going in. It's not that the torch has passed, but Swiss Micro has stolen the torch from HP's failing hands.
@@martinmckee5333 Get yourself the Hp 50 emulator currently available for android and iPad/iphone
@@drgilbertourroz I use the emulator daily as well. It's quite good. I do miss the tactile feel of a real HP keyboard though.
Not 70ies, that's 80ies onward. Might have announced it December 1979 the first base model, but still an 80ies computer
Welcome to the HP-41 user club. Bring lots of time and excitement.
The User keyboard was created as a way to deal with the problem of fitting all the functions onto the keyboard without having to have ever more shift keys or menus, especially with plug-in modules that added new functions. Being able to assign user programs to keys came as a bonus. It permitted the designers to _simplify_ the keyboard while introducing open-ended functionality. Compare the 41 keyboard with those of its immediate predecessor the HP-67, or the later HP-34C, both of which are the ultimate in uber-complex calculator keyboards. The 41 looked simple and streamlined by comparison, which belied what it was really capable of.
I graduated from high school in 1971. Then in college, I saw the HP-35, HP's first pocket calculator, when it was introduced in 1972. I fell in love and was saving up money to buy one. I didn't get enough money until 1973, when the HP-45 was introduced. It had 10 memories and some extra functions. Using RPN was definitely a conversation topic. I remember many times, handing my calculator to a classmate who'd asked to borrow it for a calculation. They''d press a few keys then ask "Where is the = key?". There were lots of claims of "mine is better than yours" between HP owners and TI owners. I used to have a t-shirt with graphics on the front "ENTER > =". I got lots of questions whenever I wore it.
Ha ha ha, yes, 'where's the = key'
I graduated high school in 1971. I became a mechanical engineer for the auto industry. I had about nine hp calculators starting with the 41c to the 50g.
Card Reader was to read your collection of HP67 Calculator pre programed cards, (or collection of blank cards you recorded instructions on). It filled one slot and covered the other three being as tall as that piece of foam in the bottom of the calculator pouch.
I still have my 41C I bought new back in the day. Along with my Math Pack 1, Stat Pack, Stress Analysis, Thermo Dynamics, Aviation X Pack and my Time Module. I upgraded from my HP67 which had the Standard Pack, Civil Engineering Pack, Business Decision Pack, Stat Pack I, Mechanical Engineering Pack, Math Pack I, and my Electrical Engineering Pack card library; but didn't ever buy a HP41C card reader, since I could load those programs into memory as needed.
Big Dave
I had one of these, and I wrote a program to help reduce my sextant sites whilst sailing the Atlantic in my 30 foot cat in 1981. Fabulous bit of tech. I loved it. It eventually succumbed to saltwater. Very sad. HP gear was beautiful in those days.
My HP41CX still works although I don't use it day to day anymore, I just fire it up every few years
N type batteries are expensive
The keys are just a delight to experience
I have a few plug in modules, Stats, circuit analysis etc
The most stupid thing HP ever did was vacate the calculator space
From what I remember, I think there was a development group in Melbourne Australia who did some of the internal software design
The leather case is quality too
Did I mention how great the keyboard is :-)
Those keys were better than the TI's too, they would be the only other calculator in a similar class
HP told BS in my opinion as to why they dropped using those awesome keys, claiming environmental reasons
The best thing about old HP calculators however is not just the build quality, it's RPN (reverse polish notation) !!!
RPN is just so intuitive to use and allows one to start almost anywhere in an equation. I think it helped students/users learn how to approach a calculation and understand an equation which modern day in-fix notation calculators do not.
I love RPN so much that I use an HP emulator on my phone as my calculator
RPN is like the forth programming language, stack based and highly memory efficient
I also have a Casio FX 100c as well, programmable in Basic and it still works too but the HP41CX is the device I love
I still have 2 of my Hp 41 calculators, 2 plug in modules and all of the original books, about 5 of them. All in perfect condition.
I have my HP 41-CX purchased in 1984 still sitting on my desk. I still use it regularly as I have the muscle memory to be very efficient with it. I do have RPN calculator on my phone but it doesn't hold a candle to the 41cx for large calculations done by hand. At the time I hoped to be able to delay getting a computer- but did get my first PC clone later that year- writing long programs on the 41cx was difficult.
Nothing beats a physical device for data entry. While having a good emulator on a phone or tablet is convenient, touchscreens are terrible for fast, accurate input. The feel of a well made device is a large portion of what makes it a quality calculator.
At the time, HP led the industry with engineering calculators. I was an engineering graduate student in the late 70’s and at that time the HP67/97 was the gold standard in programmable calculators (more correctly: scientific computers). Great video.
My first HP calculator was a HP-41C, the current model at the time, that my mom gave me when I was freshman in engineering school. I loved that thing and learned every little trick I could. I eventually got into what they called "synthetic programming" which was really just a hack of the interpreter to allow it to access protected areas within the CPU. There was a little program you could make called a "byte grabber". Pretty cool, you would press a hot key to insert a string that said it was 7 bytes long but was really only six. The interpreter wasn't happy so it grabbed a byte from the next instruction turning the now 6 bytes into a 7 byte instruction that did something new and undocumented. This chain would continue on through program memory until the interpreter was happy again. These instructions could not only wipe out your memory but completely lock the calculator up to where you had to leave the batteries out overnight. I had to leave the batteries out of mine plenty of times. I had many happy hours playing with that thing and it propelled me through engineering school.
I had a magnetic card reader, a thermal printer, all of the slots were full. I had the circuit analysis pack, the math pack, the electrical engineering pack and a memory pack that took it up to the CV memory. I had some others I forgot the names of. I never felt that I could afford to buy the tape drive. Mine is in good condition but not as good as that one. I used the hell out of mine. I still have it and will never get rid of it.
I picked up a 41C (with extra memory) at goodwill a number of years ago now, so it is interesting to see the differences the CX has in operation that the original does not. Its interesting that the CX has a redish orange border for they keys whereas the C has a whitish silver one. Unfortunately I didn't get the documentation with it, but it wasn't expensive for what it is.
CV is what I have, best of both worlds, essential same as CX but easier to find and more reliable
The 41cx included the time module and 2 memory modules. The foam block in the case can be removed to make room for the card reader.
The time module includes a function to fine tune the time base . In the days before cheap gps, these were popular for sailboat navigation
What a generous contribution!
Where I live a CX in such a good condition & complete in box would fetch around $500 on Ebay.
Get CV instead...would be 350, and essentially same computer, with slightly better quality
I used to own the assumedly older HP-41CV years ago, with a magnetic card reader, thermal printer, UPC wand and about 8 modules. I sold it all on eBay about 10 years ago. One of my best memories was the ability to do "synthetic programing", which (once enabled) allowed access to prohibited areas of memory, and even allowed the defeating of copy protection on the magnetic cards. I'm new to your channel, and just saw this video, so I thought I'd mention synthetic programming and see whether you're familiar with it.
CV and CX essentially same
5:01 just that little caress of the page.... that says it all, it even sounds like a nostalgic nerd sigh, I'm right there with you! :) I used to have that same feeling looking over shiny camera catalogues, things i could not afford but seemed to be the solutions to problems i wanted to have.... aaahh the nostalgia! I do love the HP-11C, love the form factor, not willing to pay the price for one these days though!
FYI - If I am remembering correctly, the HP41CX also has the entire "Extended Functions" module built into it too, just like the time module you referenced.
and time module built in to test try XEQ alpha clock alpha or time or date
I bought an HP41C new when I was in high school, and kept it through college. I had the card reader, several modules, and the desktop printer, which also served as a battery eliminator. I ended up using it at work after college to automate some calculations for quality control of parts we were producing. I got rid of it after many years, but I now keep the i41cx+ app on my iPhone for when I'm feeling nostalgic. I still have several other vintage HP calculators in my desk somewhere.
i41cx+ was one of the first apps I bought over a decade ago now. I still use it daily; the attention to detail can not be overstated
I had a 41C back in 1979 - a real game changer
A CX had several modules built in. Like the time module. Which is why the stop watch overlay is included. The 41-C was popular. And over time the CV was introduced and then the CX. And legacy compliance to use modules to get CX utility in the CV and C
A pristine CX with books is still hundreds of dollars on eBay. I have several. #1 professional calculator in its day. And iPhone emulators are marvelous way to keep the system alive and relevant
I had a HP-21 in 1975 at college when everyone else had a TI of some sort. Using RPN for chain calculations in organic chemistry and physics was such a breeze. It died many years later due to battery corrosion but to this day I use a HP-21 app on iPad and iPhone. In 1985 I bought a HP-41CX and a Navigation module so I could do celestial navigation sun and star shots while sailing to and from Bermuda and elsewhere. I remember lusting after the HP-IL system and accessories like the printer and barcode reader but never got them. I put it in a drawer in the early 90’s and forgot about it. But a couple years ago I found it in the original box with all the original docs. I had removed the batteries when I stored it so it worked like new when I put in new ones. Been checking out 41CX videos to get reacquainted. What a great and fascinating piece of gear this thing is.
What an awesome device. That's super cool that you can create your own keyboard layout. I recently got a DM42, which is a terrific calculator. As others have mentioned RPN is so intuitive for solving multi step calculations. The swap and roll keys allow you to rearrange your data as you please with much more flexibility than on algebraic.
(I was waiting to seethe price (@9:08) $250 pretty hefty price REDUCTION. An electronics engineer that my division worked with bought a much less complex HP calculator early in '73 that cost if I remember right over $1000. I do still remember how excited he was when it came and how he invited several of us (who sent problems to him and got solutions back) to his office to show us his "new toy"
The -41C and -41CX were the "must have" calculators for engineering students in the early 1980's. Unfortunately, they were crazy expensive. I managed to complete my engineering degree with a low-cost Sharp calculator. Brings back good memories.
A few years before this model when I was in the USAF, I was issued an HP35 while serving on an evaluation team out of Griffiss AFB Rome, NY. I fell in love with RPN. Not owning buckets of cash, a few years later after leaving the USAF, I had to settle for a Texas Instruments SR-56 (i couldn't afford the better SR-52 with programming cards) that (barely) fit into my budget but got me through the FAA's Radar A and B schools (but I still missed RPN).
11:16 Awww, my PKCell!!!
13:00 Stand by, I'm arming the nugget!
I'll see myself out.
I can't escape DankPods, lmao.
But tbf, I thought the same when I noticed the PKCell branded battery.
No, please stay. Frank's here.
I remember using an HP with an external thermal printer when I was in the Coast Guard in the 80s. It had a built in magnetic strip reader for the strips that had the programs stored on them. We used it for waveform analysis of the LORAN data. That was the first time I saw a calculator that used RPN. I think it was the HP-65.
I was a gear engineer for an auto company in Detroit from 1977 to 2007. In the early 80's I started with the an hp41c. Then I bought a 41cv and two 41cx's. We would start the preliminary design using slide rules and the programmable hp's. Then we would go to huge Fortran programs on the mainframe computers. They would print out on green and white striped paper that we would cut to 8.5 x 11 inches to fit in our file folders. There are still many millions of vehicles driving around with transmissions and axles that I designed in this manner with the hp calculators. Some are still being manufactured. I also had the card reader and thermal printer. I kept two calculators at work, one at home to use, and another at home as a backup storage for the programs. I never had a RPN (reverse polish notation) hp stolen out of my desk. I suspect they couldn't figure out how to use it and just put it back. Later I had 4 hp48's, one hp49, and one hp50, and then the hp prime. My all time favorite was the hp41. Since being retired, I have sold all my hp calculators except for one of the 48's. We use to buy hp calculators from a place in Oregon called Educalc. They had a great catalog and fast service. We also had one hp calculator with a built in printer. I think it was an hp 97. I also had an hp42. I spent many 10 to 12 hour days crunching away on those hps. The early ones had the numbers and digits cast all the way through the keys so they would not wear off. Hp was the calculator king back then. This was a fun trip for me to go down memory lane, back when engineers were true geeks (With our slide rules on our belts) and proud of it. We would tell other people "Don't make fun of the geeks, one day you will be working for one".
I worked at HP in the 80s, and I got to use a lot of neat calculators. We used the 71b, and the 41c for doing fun programmable and testing stuff, and the 28 was being developed but it looked pretty awesome. Ive never owned any, but Ive destroyed thousands of imperfect calculators, because quality matters
Oh, those are called heat stakes, its how those things are fitted together, and why you wont ever put them back together if you take them apart.
"quality matters" is why I have purchased (and still use) HP calculators. I've had one fly out of my hand across the room and land on a concrete floor and still work flawlessly. Thank you for your work.
The only failure I had was a 35 that I spilled soft drink on. Flushed it out (I thought) and it came back, but months later it stopped and when I opened it up some pins on an IC had been eaten through by the acid. 😞
@@stan.rarick8556 There is a bit of lore about a college professor showing the kids his calculator, and the throws it down on the ground as hard as he can, and it never breaks, and he does this every term for like 20 years without ever breaking his calculator.
Yep I learned how to program on my HP-41C in 1981 when no one knew what a computer was. And I still have it and yes it still works. 😉
Wow!! Epic
That is honestly the earliest example of operator overloading I've seen so far. What a beast of a computer that must have been back in the days
I had an HP11C in the 1980's. I programmed it to do synthetic division and asked my College Algebra instructor if I could use it for the final exam. He asked my if I wrote the program and to show him the source code and explain it. Once he was convinced that I wrote the code he let me use it. I finished the final in about 20 minutes.
They still call you "the cheat" lol
I wrote my own code for traffic accident reconstruction (physics and trig mostly) and was instructed to explain it by opposing counsel during a trial. My ability to easily do so backfired on them.
Back in the mid 1980's I was lucky enough to be able to buy a HP-41CX, I loved it! I went back to college in the mid 1990's to finish my degree. I decided to call HP to find out what would be a good choice since 10 years had passes. They suggested a HP-48GX. They also asked me about the calculator buy back program....I'm like tell me more....In the 1980's I paid about $300 for to HP-41CX, in the 1990's they gave me almost 1/2 off for a 48GX. The 41CX depricated only 50% in 10 years! Say that about anything else!
And they probably sold that hp41 to south america for 500 dollars back then.
I think the hp32s and hp42s have actually appreciated if you believe evilbay prices for good examples.
I never had the 42CX, but I loved my 48GX!
When I worked for Fugro back in the 1990s, we had two of those (boxed and mint and with mag-strip readers), which had been supplied as a way of manually calculating navigation fix positions in the event of the main PDP-11 computer failing. After the PDP-11s were upgraded to Windows PCs (in 1997), I enquired about what the plans for the HP-41s were - only to be informed that both had been dropped in a Norwegian dumpster a couple of weeks previously. Absolutely gutted didn't even touch first base on how I felt.
The HP-41C is how I got through freshman chemistry class. I had the addon mag strip reader for it. Stored all the periodic table and important info on it and made good use of it for many years.
I bought an HP-41CV back in 1986 for $170 when I was an undergraduate engineering student. It lasted for about 10 years when I replaced it with an HP-48GX, which I still use to this day. Both are wonderful calculators.
One of the many HP calculators I've owned at one time was the HP-41c.
The ASN function was often used in programs to assign specific functions to keys. Those programs would come with those clip-on overlays with the assignments listed on them.
I had an HP 41CX that I got in 1986 and loved it. It lasted until the late 2000s when it got where it wouldn't turn on reliably and finally wouldn't work at all. I still have the HP 15c that I got in summer 1985 and still use it a lot and preferred it to the 41CX for some things due to having more mathematical functions on the keyboard for easy access. Also the HP 15c display was far easier to read. The alphanumeric display on the 41CX was neat and funky in its way of allowing all the capital letters but the numbers were harder to read.
Would you consider doing a video on a TI-57 II. It's an odd find because my late father was an engineer and must have got it during his apprenticeship. Found it some 15 years ago in some old tools and didn't think much of it then, til recently when I was in the garage at the mothers looking for an allen key and realised what it was.
It's kind of interesting to me, especially as a software dev who mostly works on legacy transactional systems and automation. I don't know how interesting it is to guys who really like their calculators. If you'd like to borrow it for a video, I'd be happy to ship it over.
19:41: Since the overlay and the original lettering are the same here, it looks like this thing has a day and night mode.
There is a hack procedure called synthetic programming that you can do to this calculator that adds additional functions. Who knew that back in 1981 I was Jailbreaking my first device.
Wow, it's amazing when you find something that's really old but still in really good shape without needing much or any restoration, isn't it?
Read every page of those manuals. I programmed equations for every EE class all summer long before stepping into any class using books/notes sold by graduating classmates. Then solved for any missing variable in any combination.
Great way to learn a topic. Loved it.
Switched to Computer engineering and started programming in assembly and Fortran 77 on other minicomputers!
Sold it and all programming code for $200 in 1985 to buy a car.
My dad had one of these for statistics and I played with it a lot when I was little. I got used to RPN and could never go back, and in college I bought a 48GX, which I still have.
You should get the successor of this calculator: HP 42S! It's a classic always in high demand
I graduated from Oregon Tech in 1986 and got through it with an HP-15C? A wonderful calculator! The Model 41CX was the best at the time and 3x the price--amazing technology! And such great manuals at the time! Theirs, Commodore... The Radio Shack TRS-80 Intro-Manual and Advanced Programming Guide...you could figure out everything! And some video-game programmers did! And now off on a binge of TH-cam and their HP-calculator designer's videos :-)
I have 2 HP-41 calculators. I was a flight engineer on C-141 aircraft and was issued a HP-41C to do my computations for flight and did a lot of programming to make it more useful. I also purchased a HP-41CX for my own use (I was into mini-computer and microprocessor design at the time). I got so used to RPN that I only use the HP-12C for finances and math. I use an algebraic calculator from time to time, but still prefer RPN.
Yes, bought a HP41C when I was an engineering student in 1982, was about one months rent for it but was worth it at the time. Still have it and still use it, the batteries are 20 years old and still work! Love the RPN calculators, once you get used to is you never can go back.
Never used the 41. I used the 48 series in the USAF. Have a 48G, 48SX, and 48GX in my collection; along with quite a few manuals and books. They're great mini-computers!
I have an HP 41C and 2 41CX's. An HP 97 and 67, I have had HPs since late 70s and I'm still using them. Very good investment.
Back in the dark ages (early 1980s) I used an HP-11C for celestial navigation. I was very envious of the one student (we were studying to be deck officers on US merchant ships) who had a HP-41C. There was a navigation module that made entering things like what body he was using (sun, moon, planets, or stars) the time, and the uncorrected altitude of the body. A few more steps corrected this and gave him a useable line of position that could be plotted on a chart. Three of those and he had a good fix on the ship's position. All of this in less time than it took to explain it here. Only problem was the HP-41s were not allowed in our Coast Guard exams, but the HP-11C was.
I've still got my old CX from college. I was obsessed with programming it. I once wrote an app on it that would, based on wind speed & direction, aircraft velocity, altitude, and position compute a point of no return for transatlantic flights. It was commissioned by a local company that flew their Learjet often to Europe and back. I think I still have that app on a tape cartridge.
I added HP-IL (hewlett packard instrument link) to my HP41 to control laboratory instruments (gas chromatograph, autosampler.) Circa 1985.
15:09 The advantage of RPN is you don’t need rules for operator precedence or parentheses to get around them. The disadvantage is that normal people seem to have great trouble understanding it.
For example, I did a lot of programming in PostScript, which was very popular in high-end laser printers and typesetters back in the day. I tried explaining how it worked to colleagues, but they never seemed able to grasp the concept.
Also, it takes a lot less computing power
Agree. These days, trying to use an algebraic calculator, or silliness like a TI84 (found at a garage sale) just raises my blood pressure.
In school I always laughed when people asked to borrow my calculator (a 48GX). Even if all they needed to do was basic arithmetic, it always took twice as long with me explaining how to enter it.
Of course... I was always twice as fast as people using algebraic mode on complex equations since I didn't need parenthesis.
@@christopheroliver148 Then use a Casio, Canon or Sharp, those were the normal calculators. In the sense of being among the most intuitive, self explanatory and easy to use. American ones were always a bit weird, whether HP or Texas. Yes, that's from an european 1980s perspective. (I loved the build quality of HP instruments and computers though, much like Tektronix.)
I got an HP41C while serving in the Navy. Nice to have such a complete system available and still be able to keep it in the limited storage space one has as a sailor. That place in the box you supposed was for a module is where HP would ship your first set of Ncell batteries.
P.s. I quickly got the card reader. that foam reserves space in the carry case for the calculator with the card reader attached.
At one time HP sold blank keyboard overlays (those plastic sheets with holes for the keys to stick through). I did a whole set of assignments that put calculation functions on all the keys and shift keys for when I was not running a program.
I had one of these (without the X) and taught myself programming with it. Times were tough. Loved it! I don't have it anymore. I'm jealous.
I still have mine and a card reader that plugs in the top. I used it a lot when I was taking electronics classes in college. I remember programming it to play a hangman game where it actually showed the gallows on the display. Haven't looked at it in decades but if I remember correctly, the battery corroded inside it and ruined the contacts.
Interesting trivia: HP went to RPN so they could build a slide rule calculator for the Apollo missions. All calculators of the time ran RPN internally, and devoted chip space for a converter to go from algebraic to RPN, and then back for the display. HP figured out that if they didn’t devote space to the RPN converter, they had room for the trig functions.
I had an HP 41 CX back in the day. Prior to that I had a TI 58 then TI 59 and the 41 CX was a big step up. I did have a couple modules for it, including the HP IL which I used for interfacing with HP test equipment.
At one of the jobs I was issued an HP 71B as well which was also used to interface to and control test equipment.
Eventually I moved up to the HP 48 SX then the 48 GX, which I still have and use regularly. In fact I have iHP48 app for my iPhone and still run a bunch of the programs I've written over the years on the iPhone because I have that with me most of the time and it is a zillion times faster than the native HP 48 GX.
Hp48 is a downgrade to a 41CV... Cheaper and less pro.
I have one of these (41 CX) myself, all I need is the HP-IL to HP-IB converter so I can have some fun controlling some of my HP instruments, and send plot jobs to my HP plotters.
The HP 41C was my first computer. I was working in an electronics company and I used it to calculate MTBF for power supplies. The engineer who sat next to me bought himself a Heathkit H8 computer and spent weeks getting it to do anything at all. The HP41 had all sorts of engineering modules available. The most useful accessory for me was the magnetic card reader/writer. I could store custom programs on separate cards and make custom keyboard overlays.
I wish I still had it!
I bought my first PC in 1984, a Columbia MPC-1600 IBM clone. I never bought one of those 8-bit computers such as the Apple II or the various Commodores or Atari's. The seemed like glorified game machines to me.
@CharlesWT-TX reminded me of a big personal advantage of having an RPN calculator, whenever anyone would ask to borrow it I'd tell them it used RPN. The borrower would look at me blankly and they would return it to me after a minute or so and say "It doesn't work!" 😛
The HP48 serial cable will also fit an HP95 dos-compatible pocket computer
I bought mine (maybe only a -C) in the early 80's still have it, don't remember if it still works. Batteries are type "N"
Being a mainframe computer programmer, I actually used the HP-16C more (for it's hexadecimal capability. I tried tot turn the 41 into an hexadecimal calculator but it was just too messy)
I still use the 16C to this day for it's RPN and quality, although I am retired and don't need the hexadecimal capability anymore
As I remember I spent over $400 in 198x dollars for the 41 and other stuff, (expansion module(s) ))
A note about the batteries, because of the LCD display instead of LED, the batteries lasted for what seemed forever.
My only real complaint about the 41 (and the 16) was that the stack wasn't big enough
Old tech has so much charm.
16:15 It’s just using the keys as symbolic register names. They probably double up as symbolic labels in programs, too. The meaning is all a matter of context.
I collect Casio calculators generally and wasn't interested at HP models at all (never understood the RPN thing but I know some people swear by it). Last year I happened to be able to buy an HP-41C and HP-41CX over two separate occasions for pretty good prices. They came with some ROM modules, magnetic cards, two card readers, and some other accessories. The readers didn't work of course because the rollers had long ago turned to mush. I replaced the rollers and got one of the readers working, but the other one still would not read cards. While I have never learned to use them, and probably never will, I am glad I have them in my collection.
I have more of these than sane people probably should. I don't have any CXs though; all mine are C or CV. I use them all the time, with peripherals.
After this, HP just never quite got it right. The 32SII was the only thing almost as good. If only they'd made a 32S like calculator with 41C hardware, or at least a 41CX with inbuilt fractions and solver, and nobody would ever need a different calculator.
Incidentally these weren't just used on-the-go. Many companies used these as special purpose computers in industrial (and other) applications.
I don't have the GPIB interface (and don't want one because I don't need to get that deep into these). But if I did, I'd be very tempted to connect an HP41C to my Commodore 9060D hard drive.
Maybe I missed out, as the 48GX was the current model when I was getting started. It was a heck of a calculator too, though it didn't support external hardware in the same way.
I had a pocket computer in college back in 1982. A Radio Shack PC-2. It still works today. And the printer cassette adapter.
Cool 1943 tech.
I still have my 41-CX. It works fine. There was something about the feel of those tactile switches on those early HP calculators that just oozed quality. The programming you can do can be very sophisticated. What it won't be is fast by today's standards. I guarantee that solving a 4x4 matrix was far faster using the calculator than working it out by hand.
The thing I miss most going from hp41c* to hp42s is the ability to completely reassign the whole keyboard rather than just the top row. That's a bit of an ergonomic downgrade.
Hey, I used to live in Vancouver! Thanks Alan!
I bought my HP41C in 1980. I still use it as my everyday calculator. I even have a HP41C app on my phone to use when it is not to hand.
Can't stand regular calculators
The reason they called it a calculator was when you ordered it thru work, the purchasing department would see it as a calculator not a computer and ok the purchase.
The keybord overlay is for the time-module which was integrated into the CX
I had a 41 without the X. It could do some time stuff, but it wasn't 'accurized' and therefore not fully reliable
There were multiple overlays (certainly for the other application modules) and some blank ones as well, so they weren't just for the time functions.
Used this model during 2nd half of college coursework in math, engineering & computer science. Also used a 16C. Excellent tools.
I used HP calculators in high school and when studying in the 90s, but later it became a bit of a collection of mine. I think you'd also love the HP 67 (or 65) if you can get your hands on one in good condition, and some magnet cards.
That era of HP calculators is definitely one of my weird geeky curiosities too...
I've wanted a HP-71B for ages, but people on ebay seem to think they're worth their weight in gold. lol
@@nneeerrrd lmao
it has a chime function you can specify the length and tone so you can incorporate little musical beeps in your programs
The ULTIMATE engineers calculator.
Back in the day I bought a 41CV while I was in the Navy, got the statistics modules when I started university, failed miserably in statistics, lost the 41CV, got a 41CX, spent the summer 1988 learning statistics and writing my own programs which I stored on the magnetic strips and then passed statistics without even touching the calculator 😊
One of my programs got published in a german computer magazine.
Later I sold the 41CX to help me pay for a HP-95 which then had to go for a Psion 5, I should have kept all of them!