Chapter 8

Storing your HX-20

Because of its sensitive components, the HX-20 requires some care even when you’re not using it. This chapter tells you how to store your HX-20, for a few minutes, a few days, or even a few months.

Storing your HX-20...for a few minutes to a few hours

If you won’t be using your HX-20 for a few minutes, you don’t need to take any special precautions. You don’t even need to turn it off. Just put it down, and pick it up again when you’re ready to continue working with it.

Storing your HX-20...for a few hours to a few weeks

If you know that you won’t be using your HX-20 for at least a few hours and perhaps for as long as a few weeks, turn if OFF before you put it away. When you come back to it and turn it on, you’ll find that the program you were using is still in memory, ready for you to use again!

Just be sure to store your HX-20 in a place with acceptable temperature and humidity. (Remember-your car in the summer is likely to be much too hot for the HX-20. If you must store an HX-20 in your car during hot weather, put it in the trunk, which is likely to be cooler than the interior of the car itself.)

Storing your HX-20...for a few weeks to a few months

If you know that you won’t be using your HX-20 for more than a few weeks, you must take certain precautions to ensure that the batteries won’t drain down. You see, even when you turn the HX-20 OFF, it continues to draw a small amount of current from the bat- teries. This current keeps the memory circuits and calendar clock active.

Although the clock and the memory circuits require only a miniscule amount of power, they will discharge the batteries completely if given enough time. When that happens, the HX-20 will forget all the programs in its memory, and the batteries, once fully discharged, may no longer be able to accept a full charge.

Therefore, you should charge the batteries for several hours before storing the HX-20 for an extended period of time. It would

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