The TI-30 SLR (scientific) I got in 82 is still the one I use the most. The plastic case for it disintegrated many years ago but the calculator still works great. No battery backup, big solar cells, if there is enough light to read the thing will turn on.
My calculator box I have a few original LED TI 30, TI 55 then LCD version . buttons always stop working. Sharp, the displays on a few seems to go bad and lose a few segments. Casio all still work. HP all still work. But yes get those batteries out.
Those boxes are awesome when they're filled up and stored away. I like to go through them years later when I find them under other items and it's like Gifts from past me to future me.
Love my HP-41CX. Just bought an X MEMORY module for it. It was my upgrade from TI-55 when I was in college. Quite the investment at the time. RPN is the only way to go.
I had a soviet one, with VFDs. It was gulping batteries pretty fast, when doing sqrt or something power/computing demanding, it just froze for two or three seconds and revealed the result. It was heavy as a brick, pretty sturdy (even with all the glass in display). If it wasnt stolen I would bet my ass it would be still working.
My favorite electronic calculator of all time isn't electronic. It's the Pickett N-515-t slide rule. It can calculate tank circuit resonance and reactance problems and effortlessly convert from Watts to dBm and back and is loaded with electronic formulae. My favorite 'electronic' scientific calculator is the Sharp EL-506D. Very easy to use and intuitive, but extremely powerful for its day. The scientific calculator I grew up with was the Casio FX-85M. It's still the most intuitive calculator for me because I was raised on it.
(Re-posting. Apparently, RU-vid silently discards comments with links) Hey! My calculator is (almost) there! I have, and still continue to use a Casio 7000G (no "GA" rubbish :-) ). It's on its fourth or fifth set of batteries (uses 3 CR2032 cells), the plastic is a bit cracked and the metal back case is dented, but it still works and is still my daily driver. It replaced a Casio FX-450 (or a similar related model). Unfortunately, I no longer own that one. I think I gave it away when I got the 7000G. A really unique design, putting a lot of extra keys on the wallet-cover. My absolute favorite (historically speaking) was a TI-59. One of (if not the) first programmable calculators. It would lose the RAM (and programs) when powered off, but it has a magnetic card reader you can use to save programs. It also has a socket on the bottom for pre-packaged ROM programs. My father bought it when it was new and gave it to me years later. Sadly, it got lost/stolen when I was in college in the late 80's.
Can't remember the model number but I had a Sharp EL ?? That I used throughout secondary school, it had stats at the right-hand side. You got me interested so I dug out my old Sharp PC 1360 , Got a few Casio's upstairs somewhere but I have a Casio FX 9750G which is about 10 to 15 years old. I'm sure I made up a box to connect it to my PC at the time.
My first ever calculator was a Commodore 796M (a bit like the one you have except its 4 functions + % and was black with hard plastic buttons) which I loved, and still have somewhere (unworking, sadly). When I got into 6th form at school I upgraded to a Casio FX510 which took me most of the way through university. I did acquire other calculators in that period, including a programmable Casio that breifly replaced it but I don't recall so it clearly made a huge impression on me - but it was the FX510 that I carried about in my briefcase for years after graduating. Not sure what happened to it to be honest, I think I just had less and less use for it until it got stuck in a draw and dissipated the way things do.
The HP25S wipes the floor with those other mere "calculators". Infra-red serial comms, graphics, algebra solving, matrix math, etc: it was a real computer.
I have that same 28S. I treated it really well and my batteries leaked on that door and a bit cracked off. It still holds sort of in place. One time I typed in a long equation in as a string in a structural engineering course and had the answer like 5 minutes before the rest of the class. Then everyone was was freaked out, and at the end of the 5 minutes they came up with the same answer.
Thing of beauty, joy forever. And it does not deteriorate! The HP's double keypad is absolutely impressive. A week ago I worked on a Taiwanese calculator with a single smallest and most packed VFD I ever saw. I wish I saved my mom's 90s vintage Casio... or was it Citizen? It was absolutely splendid. I've got a Casio fx-82ES I used in my high school 20 years ago. Will have to take a closer look at it.
Awesome. I still have my commodore scientific led calculator from school in the early 70s. And it still works! I remember the joy and wonder of using it then. God knows how much it cost my parents. Surely no-one throws calculators out.
Still got my Casio FX602P I used in school. I got it from my father, who upgraded his office calculator to a HP41C, and no longer used it. Got that HP still, just the display has gone entirely black with time.
Thing for me always is.... yeah it may be worth 600 Dollars or so on Ebay, just like my Commodore Amiga is likely somewhere around there or even higher. But it's also not really a lot of money, sure it is for old stuff, but it also has emotional value. And getting a few hundred dollars to part with that historical thing, isn't going to change my life.
A good fast option for vinegar is "Lime Away" brand cleaner, which is used to remove encrusted minerals from hard-water fixtures. You have to be careful with it because it is quite a lot more acidic than vinegar, but it will get down into the vias on PCBs and other areas where battery electrolyte has leaked. I usually dilute it 50/50 with water, which works just fine for reconditioning battery terminals, PCBs, and other electronic items that have been victimized by the Big Battery carte;s that want us to lose our old electronic items. Follow up with a rinse, some IPA, a little Deoxit, and your thing of beauty will remain a treasure forever. Great channel, cheers!
TI was pretty much the standard in my school but I never liked using their graphing calculators for regular calculations because every function you needed was pretty much in a menu multiple button presses away. Gave Casio a chance recently but can’t stand their cheap plastic build quality. Mine also has the order of operations wrong. Went for a HP 35s and love RPN! I just wish HP still made good RPN calculators because the keys on the HP 35s do not have a good feel and sometimes doesn’t register a keypress. Always have to watch the display to make sure what you typed in was actually recognized.
I have an HP 28S from college in 1990. My roommate got the free replacement after his battery door broke, and sold it to me after upgrading to a 48S, I think? So mine has the redesigned battery cover and is still in mint condition.
Great video. I didn't expect to see a Canadian and a Russian calculator here! By the way, that Russian MK-52 calculator's name is "Electronica" in Cyrillic letters. 11:15
I bought a Kingspoint SC-40 in 1974. Kept it for decades until the batteries leaked and destroyed the interior. Found it's replacement, the SC-40C, with a VFD instead of LED. Have it still!
I have an old HP 12c Real Estate/financial calculator from maybe the 80s (?) when my mom bought it, that my mom gave me about 15 years ago. it's one of the good colored ones, not one of the new silver ones. Nothing beats the TI-84 Plus CE for doing actual work. It makes life so much easier. (Assuming you don't need the functionality of the TI Nspire.) I haven't used the TI Nspire, HP Prime, or Casio Prizm though.
My TI-55-II got me all through high school, then died on me in the middle of my chemistry mid-term without any warning freshman year of college. It wasn't a cheap purchase for me as a poor college student, but I picked up an HP-41CV and the "Advantage" module for it. That was in 1985; I still have it... along with several other HP RPN calculators; I love 'em all. I can't use a calculator with an equals key anymore, and I don't have any desire to.
0:49 heuristics, tsc, tsc, they save time, except when they don't . nothing like a deep search with brute force attack on all possible combinations of boxes
I had one of those folding HP calculators in the late 80's or early 90's, it was a very powerful engineering calculator. Nowadays I use a HP48 emulator on my Android phone (Emu48) which works by running the original HP48 firmware, ripped from its ROM, using software that emulates the hardware that the ROM is run on, so that it works exactly as the original calculator in every respect. It is also available as a Windows application, possibly for other operating systems also.
I have always liked Casio scientific calculators (the old style in the 1970s-1980's) and have a tidy collection including several calculator watches and pocket computers. I still have the first calculator that I bought in 1979 which was a fx-68 for HK$95. I have a few HP/TI as well including a HP-41C and HP-41CX. My "current" calculator that I use regularly is a fx-5000f.
I regret turfing my beloved HP41C (named Hewie) about 20 years ago when it ceased to function. Now with all the repair videos online I’m sure it was probably fixable.
I love the Sharp EL-506P clones! Even decapped one and put it on a microscope slide. I should get the real thing tbh, It's a bit sad how poorly the clones stand up to daily use.
Thanks mate, just pulled out my calculator from high school purchased in 1997. Still working with the original batteries, took me all the way through uni. Brought back so many memories of exams... thanks for bringing back the memories of the good times! Cheers.
Those TI-nSpire calculators have the MOST unfriendly user interface I have ever encountered on a calculator. I have tried to use one multiple times and the learning curve always seemed very steep. Then I abandoned it for a real calculator until next time. When I took it out again with new motivation, I remembered why I stashed it away. It remains in my bottom desk drawer till this day. Maybe it will become a collectors item one day. That is all it is useful for in my opinion. The Casios are my favourite calculators. Nice clean layouts with plenty of functions. The single AA battery in one of my Casio calculators lasted about 10 years and it was frequently used. That Tandy was a Casio copy..
nSpire CAS is indeed a very powerful beast, but the many many functions are hidden in menus because there are not enough buttons for each feature. Not an expert, but probably the only calculator that can solve differential equations and stuff like that...
Nice collection! My current "daily driver" is the Swiss Micros DM-42 that I learned about on your channel. My only criticism of it is the buttons - I wish they could've faithfully copied the classic hp keys...
Wonderful! I still have my Casio FX-602P from about 1983 and it still works. And my one is tuned. My math teacher showed me how to manipulate the clock speed. I think it is about 2.5 times faster than original.
I agree with you about the hard keys. I'd much rather have those injection molded keys where the legends were made from a different color plastic since they didn't end up rubbing off on frequently used keys like the printing silk screened onto rubber keys does.. I used to insist on that type of key for calculators and cordless phones, until everything started being made with rubber keys. I had the Sharp EL-506A in college (and still have it). I also had a Radio Shack EC-4009 credit card sized solar powered (only) scientific calculator. I got that one in high school and used it in college for a while, until I spent a good part of one exam in a dimly lit lecture hall holding it at just the right angle so I could read the fading LCD display.. I got the EL-506A not long after that. Still have that one in my desk at work. I also got a HP-28C in college, and was bummed when the 28S came out with more memory and an input instruction for programming.
You're right about Casio. My first graphing calculator was an FX-7000 series (one of the "color" models -- 7850C comes to mind). It wasn't cheap, but it was half the cost of an equivalent TI at the time, so my parents went for it. I hated the thing at the time, largely because I'd bought the TI marketing hook line and sinker, and all my classmates were on TI. So when someone stole my Casio, I used the opportunity to get a TI-83+, and boy, talk about missing expectations. Sure, it was faster, and had more memory, just like the spec said... but the user interface is (still!) utter crap. Even today I'm having to look in the manual for how to use some of the more obscure functionality. Never needed that for the Casio. Having said that, I am a TI-30 series fanboy. I have a TI-30 SLR+ my father bought ages ago, and it still works great. (Doesn't have the _HYP_ button either. 🤪) I have a TI-30 II Xs (I think) successor on my desk at work. Daily driver at home though is a Casio fx-300ES+, bought for a song at Costco. It handles fractions really well, which is kinda important when one lives in a country still using imperial units. 😁
I think I could fill that box with just my old HP and TI calculators and accessories. Newest is a 41CV. I never did buy a CX or anything newer. Yeah, I preferred RPN. I also had my own custom ROMs. HP should have made it easier to make your own ROMs. I could burn my own, but I had to make the equipment to do it. You also had to buy the ROM chips by the tube, and make your own modules to put them in. As a preteen I realized if somebody had done it, I could learn or figure out how to do it too. Soon after I was mishmashing multiple things together, and inventing wholly new things.
Great video. I have a Casio CM-100 (Computer Math Calc) from the early 80s. It appears to have the same case as your Tandy 4014, but the button layout is slightly different. It cost me just under £12. No box with it; I got it from a friend who worked for Casio in London. Oddly, I've only ever seen another one, so maybe it has rarity value?
I dislike the term fanboy. I have a couple of those calculators including one of the first ever Texas instruments led display models. Very neat looking red light up display, I should donate it to you!
I've always found phone or computer calculators very annoying, and rediscovered the hand me down TI-36X that I used through middle and high school a few months ago. It's not high end, or nearly as vintage as any of Dave's (it's the 2004 version) but it's a joy to use even if i only really use it as a four function plus sqrt most of the time.
I have an HP-28S and I actually use it too. I've recently replaced the batteries and it was scary with that door but thankfully nothing broke. The housing is annoyingly creaky though and display contrast isn't great.
Personally I didn't know HP made a clamshell scientific calculator. I have an 18C Business Analyst which is a business calculator with an alphanumeric keyboard for inputting annotations, mostly to be placed on hardcopy (an infrared printer was an option).
I had a calculator very similar/same as your Sharp that my dad gave me. I loaned it to a mate at school and got it back bent and broken the next day. He chucked it in his bag, then text books on it. Wasn't happy.
Delightful calculator, sadly it's hard to find one with a good LCD these days (same issue as the PC-1211). I did manage to find an EL5103S - basically the same calculator in a smaller, portrait form factor - with a good display.
In my collection are one random Chinese scientific calculator, an HP-28S, and my faithful and beloved HP-15C. The 15C goes 15 years on a set of coin batteries. It is very efficient. I don't use it much, but still, the ultrasound standby power. Of course it has RPN and built-in self tests. Like Dave, the battery door on my 28S has some damage. That is the biggest pain in the ass with that calculator. It did get me thru a few years of Uni, and would probably work fine if I were to get some batteries for it. I've had other calculators, a Tandy/RadioShack, a sharp. Usually scientific hobbies, nothing special. I have a landscape Casio at my parents place I think. I didn't mind that one. I'd be happy to add an HP 41 to my collection.
I've got a Voyager HP-16C "Computer Scientist" calculator that I bought at a Ham Radio flea market for like $25 back in the day. I hardly ever use it much these days, but I'll never part with it. Added a modern HP-48G years later. And lately have been collecting some HP-39gs -40gs and HP-50g calculators and re-flashed their firmware with newRPL which runs lightning fast on those ARM processors. Somewhere lurking in a box I know that I still have my HP-200LX palmtop calc/computer. Runs MS-DOS! I've been searching for it for a couple of years; it might be in a box off in storage..
Yes my boxes get frustrated. It's an actual term and like the thread later in the comments say its like Christmas. I may not lose things in my lab but I do get disoriented every now and then.
Got any 28L HURO boxes? Willow bought them out a few years ago and has now discontinued them :( I've been using the 18L and 28L forever and my van racking is designed around them! I need some more!!
I am pretty sure that the Venn diagram intersection of people who: - own multiple boxes full of calculators, hold strong opinions and are able to provide a backstory for each of them - are in a successful relationship - do hardcore outdoors activities on a regular basis is... Dave...
