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Programmable Calculators? [message #7110]

Mon, 17 February 2020 21:34

Andrew B
Messages: 467
Registered: October 2015
Location: Near Redmond, WA

Senior Member
Administrator

At the risk of going a bit afield of the topic of retro computers - is anyone interested in either vintage or newer programmable calculators at all?

I recently decided I wanted something better than the Windows calculator at my desk at work, after years of just using that + Excel + MATLAB/Python (depending on the complexity of the task).

Now I'm several Casio, HP, Texas Instruments calculators deep, plus one that runs a community firmware (which is pretty neat).

One nice thing is that all of this fits in a box smaller than 1 full sized retro computer.

Just curious if there is any overlap in interests.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7113 is a reply to message #7110]

Tue, 18 February 2020 15:36

ab0tj
Messages: 70
Registered: October 2015
Location: Colorado

Member

I have a collection of TI graphing calculators. Never really got into any other brands though.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7117 is a reply to message #7113]

Wed, 19 February 2020 13:15

Jonas
Messages: 77
Registered: October 2015

Member

I have a Texas Instruments TI-58C.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-59_/_TI-58

I bought it in 1983, used but in mint condition.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7135 is a reply to message #7117]

Sun, 23 February 2020 16:16

Andrew B
Messages: 467
Registered: October 2015
Location: Near Redmond, WA

Senior Member
Administrator

I have a TI-59 with the paper tape printer that I rescued from a suplus store here in SoCal. It needs a good teardown and careful cleaning, it was sitting in a pretty dirty warehouse for who knows how long.

The card reader needs some repairs, the wheel seems to have degraded into a sticky go based on what happened when I put a card in. The printer is missing the spool that holds the paper tape, but that should be easy to reproduce with a quick CAD model & 3D print.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7136 is a reply to message #7135]

Wed, 26 February 2020 03:54

Jonas
Messages: 77
Registered: October 2015

Member

I guess you have already googled about TI-59 repair et c. The card mechanism is just one of many issues. The TI-58C has no cards of course, but I must change the battery pack.

I have similar experiences with the sticky go in a Sharp MZ-80B https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=173, but it was inside the cassette player. I had to do a lot of cleaning and there were certainly no off-the-shelf spares. O-rings/toric joints are very useful and reliable.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7139 is a reply to message #7110]

Wed, 26 February 2020 16:01

druzyek
Messages: 1
Registered: January 2018

Junior Member

I think there is a lot of overlap, especially with the later graphing models. The TI-83+, one of the lower-tier TI models, for example, has a Z80 at 6MHz with 32k RAM and is programmable in assembly and BASIC. That sounds a lot like a retro computer to me.

I have a Casio AFX 2.0+ from the early 2000s which runs ROM DOS and has an x86 compatible NEC V20. You can write code for it with Turbo C just like any other DOS machine once you get used to the different key mapping.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7141 is a reply to message #7139]

Thu, 27 February 2020 03:24

Jonas
Messages: 77
Registered: October 2015

Member

Overlap indeed. I do have a bunch of SHARP pocket computers from the eighties. My father used them at work a few years before retirement and I remember several hours of programming together in BASIC. They were quite useful for a lot of technical applications. We had many peripherals and other stuff to interface or play with.

The most advanced of them all is a SHARP PC-1600, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_PC-1600, with a main processor eqvivalent to a Z80 and two additional slave/subprocessors as well.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7255 is a reply to message #7141]

Mon, 16 March 2020 00:14

craig
Messages: 4
Registered: March 2020

Junior Member

I bought a Sinclair Cambridge Programmable calculator in about '77 out of a little print advertisement in the back of a magazine. I remember thinking that I could get any girl I wanted by having not just any calculator but with *that* calculator. Turns out that isn't what girls were after, but I still have dreams about that calculator.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #7455 is a reply to message #7255]

Tue, 07 April 2020 18:06

scruss
Messages: 62
Registered: December 2015
Location: Toronto, Canada

Member

My dad was an HP dealer, so it's HP48s for me. I happened by the MSU Surplus Store once and scored 2 NOS 48Gs for $10 each. While they're closed right now (obviously) they sometimes have neat retro bits.

I also picked up a TI Z80 thing for cheap, but I have no programming cable.

The most fun, but absolutely useless, calculator I have is a 1969 vintage Sharp Compet with nixie display.

> Does anyone know what each of the pins on the 6502 CPU chip in the Apple II Plus does?
They all plug into the socket on the motherboard to keep the chip from drifting away. - c.s.a2 FAQ of yore

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #8168 is a reply to message #7455]

Fri, 01 January 2021 13:13

Garth
Messages: 29
Registered: April 2016
Location: Southern California

Junior Member

I started with the TI-58c in 1981, and then 59 a year or two later, but moved up to the HP-41cx in 1986 for its capability to interface to lots pieces of professional IEEE-488 workbench test equipment at once through the HPIL-to-IEEE488 interface converter. I wrote up my HP-41cx experience at http://wilsonminesco.com/HP41intro.html, telling about the many modules (including some that have come out in the last five years!), accessories, uses, books, etc.. I still use the 41 regularly, although I seldom connect anything to it anymore, like programmable signal generators, DMMs, relay matrices, etc.. There are engineers who are very serious hobbyists who are still, to this day, introducing new things to expand the capabilities of the 41.

http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #8175 is a reply to message #8168]

Wed, 06 January 2021 04:45

ale500
Messages: 44
Registered: April 2018

Member

I like Programmable/scientific calculators, specially HP models. In the last years I have been reconstructing several old models (70s, 80s) using FPGAs. Some work well (HP25, 67), some kind of (HP41, 11, 42, 71, 75), Some not at all (48). I haven't published most of it because I'm still on it. Some (old) progress can be seen here: github.com/raps500/Woodstock.

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Re: Programmable Calculators? [message #8179 is a reply to message #7139]

Sun, 10 January 2021 04:19

bifo
Messages: 48
Registered: October 2019

Member

druzyek wrote on Wed, 26 February 2020 16:01

I think there is a lot of overlap, especially with the later graphing models. The TI-83+, one of the lower-tier TI models, for example, has a Z80 at 6MHz with 32k RAM and is programmable in assembly and BASIC. That sounds a lot like a retro computer to me.

I have a Casio AFX 2.0+ from the early 2000s which runs ROM DOS and has an x86 compatible NEC V20. You can write code for it with Turbo C just like any other DOS machine once you get used to the different key mapping.

Yes, those TI-83s were a lot of peoples introduction to programming and assembly language back when I was a kid. They were considered mandatory for algebra classes and the county school system, naturally, never had nearly enough to supply everyone, so your parents had to buy you one. Then the kids discover that you can play games on it in class if you get the programming cable...

and, naturally, someone ported doom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nduMTX86Zl0

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