it arrived 😻
despite being 35+ years old, the HP 48G series are still surprisingly expensive to buy used ($150+ CAD), so when i found this "broken" machine on ebay for $25, i went for it.
all of the 48G's suffer from the same design problem: after several years, a piece of internal foam which presses down on the keyboard ribbon cable loses its elasticity over time. the foam strip no longer presses down on the keyboard cable, and the keyboard stops functioning.
people find that their beloved machine no longer turns on, and assume that they're deaders.
the temporary fix is easy: press down on the display bezel as shown, which compresses the foam strip internally, and reconnects the keyboard
the permanent fix will involve opening up the case and replacing the foam strip. i plan to do that soon.
i can't wait to learn RPN and RPL on this little beast!
#calculator #hp #retrocomputing
vga256
npub1hj…caev9
2026-10-05 21:34:05 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…lvqd
Author Public Key
npub1hj02llxmd56ugs7x24e0mzewq3re4m8lv7adwyhwmptl2gr3styq6caev9Seen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-10-05 21:34:05 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "it arrived 😻 \n\ndespite being 35+ years old, the HP 48G series are still surprisingly expensive to buy used ($150+ CAD), so when i found this \"broken\" machine on ebay for $25, i went for it.\n\nall of the 48G's suffer from the same design problem: after several years, a piece of internal foam which presses down on the keyboard ribbon cable loses its elasticity over time. the foam strip no longer presses down on the keyboard cable, and the keyboard stops functioning.\n\npeople find that their beloved machine no longer turns on, and assume that they're deaders.\n\nthe temporary fix is easy: press down on the display bezel as shown, which compresses the foam strip internally, and reconnects the keyboard\n\nthe permanent fix will involve opening up the case and replacing the foam strip. i plan to do that soon.\n\ni can't wait to learn RPN and RPL on this little beast!\n\n#calculator #hp #retrocomputing\nhttps://mastodon.tomodori.net/system/media_attachments/files/117/390/433/563/723/817/original/637e64ebb550b08a.mp4\n",
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