Nice pickup! As others have already suggested - try typing 8888888888888888 to fill the display. As they use 7 segments for each digit, failed segments can be revealed that way. If one has failed, there's nothing you can do except swap the VFD =/
According to the online USA inflation calculator if that was purchased in 1975 for $29.99 in today's money it would of been $142. So yes quite expensive at the time
$115 in today's money adjusted for inflation. An expensive calculator. Maybe donate it to the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. They have some retro mock-up office exhibits of that period and it's in exhibit condition. They might be interested in it.
vfd = vacuum florescent display, be carful they run on fairly high voltage. And the getter absorbs oxygen that out gasses that will damage the display.
Hi Vince, I guessed late 70's due to the display and styling of the calculator. I think that calculator was designed for accountants. I think the GPM button stands for Gross Profit Margin. Also there was most probably a 4% tax or something due to the 4% button. Have a good one, sorry it wasn't broken for you. 😁
The amount of care and craftsmanship put into these old electronics is amazing. Of course many of them are simple by today's standards but to think something made that long ago still works perfectly fine is amazing to me, even if it is just a calculator. Then you see smartphones today are deliberately designed to degrade after a few years of use. Also from the looks of it, it looks like this particular calculator can connect to some sort of display via the port in the back, maybe that would have been the fault in the machine?
I am able to retrieve eBay orders placed back in 2018 and 2017. If you click on My eBay drop down box located on the top of screen, you then select Purchase history. The default will list current purchases, however if you click on "see orders from" the default is last 60 days, click on the drop down box you will be able to select 2018 or 2017. Once you do that you should find your purchase and open it up. I use this all the time so I know it works.
Haha the irony, I've just built a brand new kit calculator and it does not work! (faulty ADC IMO, seller being a pain lol).I have had similar luck though buying my second Game Gear (your fault Vince haha :D ) which was described as not loading games, but just had dark screen/no sound hence failed caps and is now my default player to keep the first one I did in great shape! Thanks for sharing, it's nice to know you got a bit of luck finally even if it didn't make for a chewy repair vid.
VFD Vacuum Flurescent Display. Fun things. The black spot in there shows the display is still under vacuum, they're supposed to turn white if the seal is broken. Quick way to tell if the display has failed without removing and testing the elements. I had a similar story myself last week, bought myself an Atari Flashback 8 which was 'freezing when you play with it' Hours of 'testing' later... dont judge me I grew up playing Atari games.. no freezing.... yay? The red digit calculator, if not early LED based, simply had a red filter infront of the same kind of VFD you have there. Just like some of the grandstand style games did to have colour graphics.
True, they're actually working to gain back the reputation that Duracell lost on their original black/gold brand when they went rubbish. Very good batteries IMO.
@@danmackintosh6325 well I remember and they still probably do sell fake Duracell batteries on markets, ebay, Amazon, corner shops and other places so that couldn't have helped the reputation of them but I've always known they are alright and the industrial ones are really mint. My LG magic remote has not needed fresh AAs yet! It's been 5 months and the Xmas light up Santa is still lit :)
Could have been that too but even the genuine ones from places like Tesco or Asda went downhill, mainly in that they leaked before they even ran out or passed their date. I've noticed lately they seem to be using the black/gold for their "economy" line so perhaps the damage was bad enough they had to rebrand the good ones as industrial? (Compare this to some people I know of who have found Duracell D cells in old keyboards with a date of 2001, next to a different brand that had leaked everywhere, and the old Duracell still looked perfect & IIRC even showed some charge.
I'm really pleased to hear you guys saying Duracell Industrial batteries are good as I wasn't sure when I bought some 9V PP3 ebay 10 for £10.99 112343789541
picclick.co.uk/Radio-Shack-EC-2001-Portable-Desktop-Calculator-Faulty-223117516294.html Maybe this is the item you bought? If you don't want to open the link, it states "The display intermittently flick on and off".
Perfect, well done for finding it, that is definitely the one. I will test this calculator again and shake it round a bit to see if the display flicks on and off. Thanks again :-)
I've bought one or two old calculators on Ebay listed as not working with VFD displays and if they haven't been powered up for long time can sometimes take quite a few seconds to come back to life when you put new batteries in. Worth waiting 30 seconds. And cleaning contacts of course.
just curious I have an old adler royal-1248 PD and it works fine but the screen is so dim I need to use it in the pitch black darkness any clue what would cause this?
The getter serves 2 purposes: - get rid of impurities when the vacuum device is manufactured; - show how good the vacuum seal is; It gets white if air gets in contact with it, which tells you that's a dead tube that needs replacing immediately!
The black mark in the lower right corner of the Vacuum Fluorescent Display is actually an oxygen indicator. If the screen leaks, that black mark will turn white letting you know it is no longer under a vacuum. I also agree to test it with all 8's to test every line in each character. Thanks for the video!
It's not a scientific calculator, it's an accounting calculator. That calculator has GPM (Gross Profit Margin), and ITM I'm unsure but it's accounting related. Also you can fix the decimal position at 2 which is done mainly in accounting.
"Not Working" = "I gots meself a couple of really pheckin old batteries that can't power anything but I's gonna use it anywaeee.... weee ittta not powering up, must be shieeet..."
Although C and D cell batteries are both 1.5v they produce very different currents. If the seller put C cell batteries in the display may have been flickering on and off which might explain why they thought it was faulty.
@@pbarratt73 I briefly worked as a programmer at an insurance company, and they had a bunch of spare adding machines, but no calculators. So I learned to use one out of necessity.
@@JamesPotts my Parents used to do all their bills and savings etc on the one I have I remember in the early 80's and I kept it safely all this time. The store was called Tandy in UK instead of radio shack though. Thanks for the info matey.
I've got a bunch of shit in boxes with some masking tape slapped on with the problem + what it is. I would be so fucking lost without this roll of masking tape and permanent marker. I'm sure there are better ways to sort stuff out, but for now slapping some tape on the front of the box is perfect.
On any windows browser you should be able to see ebay orders for last 3 years from drop down menu that by default is set to last 60 days. But you probably tried that and it didn't work. so I will be quiet :-(
Hi Vince, Just wanted to thank you for all of these fix-it videos you have put together. Watching them gave me the confidence to tackle my own fix-it job. Bought 2 Canon SX10IS digital cameras from eBay and was able to make one fully functioning camera from the two of them. Thanks again.
That could well be true, worth investigating the tape on the bag and see if it looks aged. Maybe they just switched it on through the bag & nothing happened, and because it's old & weighs more than something modern they assumed the batteries would already be installed (much like modern calculators)
Ramunas Ram That seems like something I would’ve done! When I was younger one Christmas I was given a cassette tape recorder. I remember that I was sad that it wasn’t an answering machine. I think I might have pretended that it was one if memory serves me right.
I think you'll be better off putting it back in its box and sealing it up and storing it, to then pass it down the family, who knows an old calculator thats fully working and boxed in another 50 years could be worth quite a bit.
Great video looks like brand new all the white keys look so clean don't think it's been used much by the looks of it. You need to try all 8's like Kw3str said might be a segment missing.
