What did you do Today 2018

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Robin on 01/01/2018 22:55:19:

As our American chums would say, "Heads up!". Today i bought a Casio fx-451M calculator NIB from America on that auction site. If you ever had one you will know why this is amazing. Solar powered but there is an internal battery to retain mode selections, you have to know where to make the incision if it goes flat. He has 4 more

Here's what's in our office desk ATM. 2 programmable scientific calculators from the mid / late 80s and a modern model.

The old ones were pretty expensive at the time but Casio always seemed to be pretty easy to use. I did a lot of work with these, first at uni (engineering), then in my first job (power electronics and magnetics design) where the fx-4000p did a lot of messy calculations such as fringing flux, gapping sizes etc. Then in the late 80s, we started to see PCs (Supercalc was the first spreadsheet program, predating 1-2-3) and since then, they are a minority sport

The modern one is widely used in schools these days and costs under a tenner. It's better in every way, as you might expect.

As you might also expect, during our time there the Canadian schools mandated the use of "Texas Instruments" scientific calculators. They looked like a slightly noddy version of the equivalent Casio but naturally they cost over $100(!!). That seemed typical of the protectionist / rip-off arrangement between the "local" brand owners and the authorities, despite the fact that they were made "abroad" and probably only rebadged in the first place. The Canadians just love to get ripped off.

Murray

There's a list of Casio calculators here, including production dates etc.

Edited By Muzzer on 03/01/2018 12:26:07

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

Muzzer,

never could understand why true Canadians have let the French language contaminate the rest of the country anyway………

no different here, the French only buy French even if u can buy better for cheaper……

crazy world…….

my best friend took his kids back to Holland because the local schools refused to teach the kids English….

his kids can now speak German, English, Flemish and French………

dont get me into talking about saying 80…….in belgium they have a dedicted word for 80…..why not here….hahaha……

clogs

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Muzzer

In the early days of calculators I seem to recall a company that provided calculators and I think early desk top machines called CBM or Canadian Business Machines which were even available here in the UK. Nothing like supporting your own economy is there.

Cheers MartinW

ps

Like the list of Casio calculators though.

[norman royds 2Participant @normanroyds2]

are they made chine

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Martin W on 03/01/2018 14:22:50:

 

In the early days of calculators I seem to recall a company that provided calculators and I think early desk top machines called CBM or Canadian Business Machines which were even available here in the UK. Nothing like supporting your own economy is there.

Cheers MartinW

ps

Like the list of Casio calculators though.

 

I thought CBM was Commodore Business Machines (founded by a Canadian), I also seem to remember our works ones (Pets) running the aformentioned Supercalc.

If my memory serves correctly Commodore also made the very popular C64 machine etc plus the Amiga.

Edited By V8Eng on 03/01/2018 16:20:23

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

You have not mentioned, 'Sinclair' calculators. They came on the market in the UK also with a little FM radio which you made up from a kit, if it did not work you sent it in and it came back working. It had a little bulb type earphone.

I still have 2 Sinclair calculators, one a Scientific calculator. Very useful in the early days. Of course Clive Sinclair is famous for the C5 trike car ?

Clive

[RobinParticipant @robin]

I couldn't afford the posh Sinclair calculator but I got the cheap one in kit form. Later I was given the posh one by my college tutor which was fun.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Yes, CBM made the range of PET computers before the PC was invented. The later models offered staggering 32k and 96k memory but by then the end wasn't far off. These ended up as the basis for the C64 which played its part in the dreaded home computer episode. I used PET 3000 / 4000 machines during my year off before uni when I worked at ICI Petrochemicals (anyone remember ICI??) where we used them for real time, closed loop control of industrial processes. They were much more cost effective than PDP11s etc.

The Canadian government is situated in the East of Canada (the parliament is in Ottawa) where there is the greatest concentration of French, particularly near Quebec. Consequently it seems they have a disproportionate influence on the federal government. Before the Scots bothered to arrive, the French believed themselves to have "won" Canada for themselves but it wasn't long before they learned otherwise. To this day and despite a couple of failed attempts at autonomy, the Quebecois still feel aggrieved at the lack of their own country there. I'd say I heard less French in Vancouver than you'd hear in London which is surely how it should be, although by law, all product packaging throughout Canada must be bilingual and schools must offer "French Immersion", whereby all lessons are provided in French to those who want it.

Murray

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

My wife & I show mechanical calulators, slide rules both rotary & linear also some very early digital calculators. on the steam fair circuit in the awning display area's. We also have a lot of related manuals and books. We have a huge collection and believe it to be one of the biggest outside of a museum in the UK. We reckon on there being probably a 1000 pieces in the collection so we only show a small part of it.

We took over the collection from my father in law who is a Professor of mathematics. He started collecting them in the very early 60's when he saw that manual mechanical machines were being overtaken by electro mechanical and would soon be superseded by electronics.

We find it a fascinating hobby. My wife is an engineer and strips, cleans and rebuilds them. I make any parts needed in the workshop for her. We have a room in the house where some are on display.

At one show we met a chap from Wellingborough who apparently designed the "Sinclair" calculators.

We have an invitation later this month to the Rolls Royce Heritage Centre in Derby to have a look through their archive collection to see if we can fill in any gaps in our collection.

If anyone see's us any shows just say hello and stop for a chat.

regards

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

Posted by john carruthers on 03/01/2018 08:03:24:

Yesterday I did the first little job of the year, a thrust washer in brass, 77mm ID, 103mm OD, 1.1mm thick to go on the bottom end of a mate's polar axis shaft….

Respect!

Jim

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

In my last year at school, dad brought one of the new-fangled Hewlett Packard calculators home from the office. The RPN system seemed strange at first, but then I “got it”. Consequently I have used HP calculators through my professional life & have two on my desk at the mo. For anything more than the most basic equation, I find the reverse notation far quicker & easier than trying to use brackets on a “normal” calculator. Unfortunately, they are becoming hard to find now (but I have an HP calculator app on my ‘phone, just in case!).

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My Dad was sent free samples of the Black Watch (semi-kit) and Cambridge Memory Calculator.

As he already had an Elsi Mini calculator, I got both. Teachers insisted on taking me round the school to demonstrate the watch to their mates. It ate batteries at an astonishing rate.

Neil

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

This HP41C has been everywhere with me for over 30 years, nowadays it stays on the desk as the emulator on the phone is functionally and (nearly physically) identical.

Nowadays I rarely use the accessories (Card reader, Barcode reader etc) but in its day HP made printers, plotters, and even a video interface that all communicated with their HPiL (Interface loop).

Ian P

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Nice emulation – almost photo perfect!

Note that HP still sell RPN calculators. Again, the price is somewhat more manageable these days (£50).

Murray

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/01/2018 20:53:45:

My Dad was sent free samples of the Black Watch (semi-kit) and Cambridge Memory Calculator.

As he already had an Elsi Mini calculator, I got both. Teachers insisted on taking me round the school to demonstrate the watch to their mates. It ate batteries at an astonishing rate.

Neil

I always remember those LED watches as the first "2 handed" watches. Very eye catching, particularly in the dark but required you to press the button with your other hand to see the time – this was progress!

Murray

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Hurrah for Free42! Have it on my iPad, phone and PC, an excellent emulation of the hp42 calculator. Go to **LINK** to download, of the app stores.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 03/01/2018 16:16:23:

You have not mentioned, 'Sinclair' calculators. They came on the market in the UK also with a little FM radio which you made up from a kit, if it did not work you sent it in and it came back working. It had a little bulb type earphone.

I still have 2 Sinclair calculators, one a Scientific calculator. Very useful in the early days. Of course Clive Sinclair is famous for the C5 trike car ?

Clive

I bought one of the early Sinclair scientific calculators, came with a pack of cards to program the thing. Tedious!

Surplus motors for the Sinclair electric car (which actually looked like a childs plastic trike) provided motive power for a whole generation of model locomotives. Why didn't Sinclair just make the model locomotives to begin with?

I still have a Sinclair black box digital multimeter, tiny display but worked OK.

I could be wrong but I believe Clive Sinclair invented the mutiplexer for the digital display which made pocket calculators possible.

Daveb

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Modern stuff needs batteries. At school we were shown how to use a Curta calculator. Lovely engineering.

However it was cheaper to have electronics as a hobby than engineering so I built a Sinclair in 1975 and a microcomputer (6800 based, 256 bytes RAM, 8 switches and LEDs for data and 8 for address) in 1977. Met Sir Clive in 1980 at the first London Computer Fair at the Polytechnic of North London.

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

After machining quite a bit of cast iron, I thought my poor little Sieg X2 mini mill needed a bit of a clean and oil. So I did. Only real surprise was that the X axis (?? side to side) leadscrew was supported by two thrust races. After ten years the slides definitely needed some oil, but they were clean with no apparent wear. So everything got a good wash, clean up oiled or greased as required and re-assembled. Everything now feels silky smooth, backlash free and good.

Happy New Year

cheers

Bill

ps Isn't cast iron filthy stuff!!

 

Edited By Bill Pudney on 04/01/2018 02:26:54

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I went on an archeological dig. During two hours of careful work, a large number of 5C collets, tool holders, CBN and carbide inserts, nuts bolts and other historical artifacts were unearthed. The last, and most exciting, artifact to be found may be a lathe chip tray. Positive identification is still awaited, since this artifact has not seen the light of day for at least several years.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Mark Rand on 04/01/2018 03:05:36:

I went on an archeological dig. During two hours of careful work, a large number of 5C collets, tool holders, CBN and carbide inserts, nuts bolts and other historical artifacts were unearthed. The last, and most exciting, artifact to be found may be a lathe chip tray. Positive identification is still awaited, since this artifact has not seen the light of day for at least several years.

Cleaning the workshop up then?😉

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

Speak not of Sinclair, grrr.
I spent several summers picking black currants to fund the purchase of some Sinclair hi-fi modules, none of which ever worked.
I assembled them as per the instructions, even had a sparks check it over for me, nothing…

Decades later I mentioned it to Clive at a mensa dinner, no reply

[Anthony KendallParticipant @anthonykendall53479]

Posted by john carruthers on 04/01/2018 08:51:31:
Speak not of Sinclair, grrr.I spent several summers picking black currants to fund the purchase of some Sinclair hi-fi modules, none of which ever worked.
I assembled them as per the instructions, even had a sparks check it over for me, nothing…
Decades later I mentioned it to Clive at a mensa dinner, no reply

Yes, I remember the stuff – great claims of the power output – by careful selection of words e.g. using terms like peak power it was possible to claim the modules were amazingly powerful. We used to joke about there being average power, peak power and Sinclair power!
Having bought a small module boasting 20W audio power, looking like a heat-sink filled in with black gunge, I powered it up and fed it with audio tone. It lasted well under 30 seconds. I conducted a post-mortem and found gunge had got between the collector of one of the output transistors and there was little thermal conductivity.
I also bought a ZX81 with added memory module – the latter bobbed up and down at the connector and crashed the computer regularly.
Sinclair – I think he is a genius who produced mainly rubbish. I hope he inspired others. Take heart though, the motors from the C5 are great for motorised bogies for models.

[Jim NicParticipant @jimnic]

I understood that C5 motors were Electrolux components from their washing machine range.

I resisted buying one despite the hype; as well as being slow, positively dangerous in traffic, limited in range and having little weather protection, you needed to be "Billy No Mates" to drive one. (And if you weren't at the start you soon would be.)

Jim

Edited By Jim Nic on 04/01/2018 10:35:32

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Anyone remember the upgrade kit to the ZX spectrum to the spectrum+? The latter had a QL-style case with better keyboard – the kit was basically the case and keyboard, you swapped your Spectrum motherboard. Anyway I heard from someone who worked for Sinclair Research that WH Smith's service policy for people returning Spectrums was to basically replace them since the failure frate was so high and they didn't have the support expertise, sening the ruturn back to Sinclair. Sinclair found they were getting quite a number of Spectrum returns that turned out to be empty cases – people had twigged on to the WHS policy and worked out a little scam.

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