What's better than owning an HP45? Owning
two HP45s, of course...
![](http://u.cubeupload.com/worsthorse/IMG0276.jpg)
I forgot about the bid I placed on what appeared to be a wrecked HP45 on ebay, when I was thinking I might need bits to fix the first HP45. When I got number one working I promptly forgot about potential number two. Then,
beep! you've got mail! and twenty bucks later I own another HP45 and charger.
The calculator is well-used but not in bad shape, other than the battery door. I fixed the power connectors in the calculator, popped the battery pack from the first HP45 and she lit right up. New NiMH batteries on order to rebuild the original battery pack properly (I won't describe what I found but I'm glad the charger didn't work or the damn thing probably would have caught fire) and it will be good to go.
The seller said it didn't work and the photos made it clear that someone had wreaked havoc on the charger, so I wasn't terribly surprised to find that both the 5 and 15 VDC outputs were dead, as the cable was damaged in two places (and repaired with scotch tape) and the calculator end plug had been gouged out in the back, exposing the connector pins, and refilled with RTV compound.
![WTF? :wtf:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/wtf2.gif.pagespeed.ce.pxLiY5pjs4.gif)
So I took it apart (btw, can you imagine... a charger you can
take apart and fix?) and found the reason it didn't work. Someone else had opened it and lost one of the copper leafs in the switch, so only half the AC line was connected. Since I am not going to use the charger on 240V, I removed the remaining leaf, bridged the correct connections, and fixed the switch in the 115VAC position.
While I was at it, I replaced the dodgy looking 450mfd electrolytic, checked the rest of the circuit components, cut out the bad section of the cable, and put on a new strain relief. 5VDC and 15VDC on the connector again. I removed the glob of RTV compound and two tie wraps, which I guess were supposed to hold the connector together, built a new strain relief with shrink wrap, and declared victory.
I also gathered up the pieces of the 466, put them in a box, and set it aside until the extraction set shows up. Tomorrow I think I will get back to fixing TM500 plugins.