Using casio fx-CG500 as a Digital Diary ??

[Ask Mait]

Hey Guys,
Need some advice from the past & present owners of Casio fx-CG500.
I need to store my contacts, passwords etc. that I don't want google to know about.
I have been maintaining a paper diary for this purpose but want to go digtal; since casio no longer makes those I thought if I can get this calculator and repurpose it ?
Feel free to give yourself a good laugh but after that can you please let me know why you thing this could be a bad idea.
Thanking you all in advance.

[vaklaff]

I've never had that calculator but there's nothing wrong with your idea, IMHO. I used a Palm device in a similar fashion in the past and I believe it would be a similar experience. Just beware you have no data if you don't have its verified backup.

[blackjetrock]

(05-09-2023 04:03 AM)Ask Mait Wrote:  Hey Guys,
Need some advice from the past & present owners of Casio fx-CG500.
I need to store my contacts, passwords etc. that I don't want google to know about.
I have been maintaining a paper diary for this purpose but want to go digtal; since casio no longer makes those I thought if I can get this calculator and repurpose it ?
Feel free to give yourself a good laugh but after that can you please let me know why you thing this could be a bad idea.
Thanking you all in advance.

I'm doing a very similar thing, but am using a Psion Organiser II. This has the advantage that it is very robust and has easily swappable data storage. I'm using flash data packs for storing data, but can back up to a PC using USB as well. The whole thing is very reliable and you can drop it off a table with no ill effects. There are quite a lot of them about as well. I'd be wary of using something like a Casio unless you have a very easy to use backup system.

Andrew

[Csaba Tizedes]

Update: I can see, it is CG-500, not 50, sry...

Maybe a PSION?
BTW CG-50 has internal hardware clock?!?
Why not a 48xx?

Cs.

[klesl]

You can store your items inside the spreadsheet.
As far as I know, the calc with Organizer application are Ti-92, Voyage 200 and TI-89 Titanium
https://education.ti.com/en/software/det...9organizer

[rprosperi]

Any reason to not consider an HP-95LX, -100LX or -200LX ?

They are pure PIM/PDA and have much easier to use keyboards for letters. They also have serial ports so you could maintain the pw list on another machine if desired.

[Ask Mait]

Hello Vaklaff,
Thanks for confirming that it not as stupid idea as I thought before I started this thread. I can settle with a PDA like yours if they are still made today from a reputable manufacturer.

Hello blackjetrock,
Thanks for weighing in. Good to know about Psion Organiser-2, it seems a really nice device. I did some google search and find that its latest models are only available in the UK and they are super expensive for me to import.

Hello Csaba Tizedes,
I am unable to understand what you mean by 48xx ? Do you mean HP-48GX ? I didn't know it can be done with this HP. I have HP-50G, Can I do that in 50G also ? Thanks

Hello klesl,
Yes, I think putting all the data in the spreadsheet should be the easiest for me. Thanks for telling me about the organizer app from TI, I didn't know that. Now I am considering 89-Titanium as well.

Hello rprosperi,
Thanks for updating me with these HP models 95LX, 100LX or 200LX. Seems these are long discontinued. I don't want to buy used. Ideally I should be getting a PDA but nobody makes them anymore.

Once again, thank you all for your time and suggestions, Please keep it coming.

[Dave Britten]

I can second the Psion Organiser II if you want to go old-school. They're very sturdy little machines. You will need a few Datapaks and a UV EPROM eraser to make the most of it, though.

Other relatively current options I can think of:

- TI-89 Titanium with the Organizer, NoteFolio, and CellSheet apps (and the external keyboard courtesy of ebay, though the kickstand case for the 84/89Ti is a little tougher to find)
- Casio fx-CG50, fx-9750GIII, fx-9860 (any version), etc. - No dedicated organizer apps, but there's a spreadsheet, and you can use e-Activity or an add-in text editor to store notes
- An iPod Touch (i.e. no cellular connection)
- A later-model Palm organizer (Tungsten T5, etc.)
- HP 50G - I remember running some simple organizer programs on my 49G back in high school, so that's probably an option here as well

[mchris]

You can always use your smartphone for locally storing your address book, without google synchronization.

[Ask Mait]

(05-09-2023 05:08 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  I can second the Psion Organiser II if you want to go old-school. They're very sturdy little machines. You will need a few Datapaks and a UV EPROM eraser to make the most of it, though.

Other relatively current options I can think of:

- TI-89 Titanium with the Organizer, NoteFolio, and CellSheet apps (and the external keyboard courtesy of ebay, though the kickstand case for the 84/89Ti is a little tougher to find)
- Casio fx-CG50, fx-9750GIII, fx-9860 (any version), etc. - No dedicated organizer apps, but there's a spreadsheet, and you can use e-Activity or an add-in text editor to store notes
- An iPod Touch (i.e. no cellular connection)
- A later-model Palm organizer (Tungsten T5, etc.)
- HP 50G - I remember running some simple organizer programs on my 49G back in high school, so that's probably an option here as well

Hello Dave,
I understand that Psion shoud have been my best option and if they were available new in 2023, I would have got one irrespective of its cost. Same goes for the iPod and Tungten T5.
yes, I am considering TI-89Ti as well.
fx-CG50 and other casio graphing calculators you mentioned won't have touch screen and stylus. So entering large volume of text could be a pain in the.
HP-50G I already have it and use it as my everyday engineering calculator. I wasn't aware of the organizer programs. Let me try finding one, defenitly I will try this option before buying a new device.
Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

[Ask Mait]

(05-09-2023 09:49 PM)mchris Wrote:  You can always use your smartphone for locally storing your address book, without google synchronization.

Hello mchris,
A smartphone can be hacked, I may loose it somewhere or drop and break it. I want to save passwords as well, So, I want to avoid that.
Thank you, I appreciate your time.

[Dave Britten]

(05-10-2023 03:01 AM)Ask Mait Wrote:  Hello Dave,
I understand that Psion shoud have been my best option and if they were available new in 2023, I would have got one irrespective of its cost. Same goes for the iPod and Tungten T5.
yes, I am considering TI-89Ti as well.
fx-CG50 and other casio graphing calculators you mentioned won't have touch screen and stylus. So entering large volume of text could be a pain in the.
HP-50G I already have it and use it as my everyday engineering calculator. I wasn't aware of the organizer programs. Let me try finding one, defenitly I will try this option before buying a new device.
Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

Yeah, if you have a 50G already, I'd say look around hpcalc.org for some organizer/PIM/database programs and see if those meet your needs. There's a good chance you'll find something.

For large amounts of text input directly on the calculator itself, a TI-89 with the full-size external keyboard is pretty hard to beat!

[Eddie W. Shore]

For a fx-CG500, you may want to try a program file and store text there. I don't think there is a password protect option for program file.

If you want to password protect you can try code like this**:


InputStr pword,"Enter Password"

If pword==(password) Then Goto [label]
Else Stop
IfEnd

Label [label]
ClrText
Print ...

**My syntax may not be perfect, but hopefully you get the idea.

If you do this, safeguard your calculator carefully.

[Dave Britten]

(05-10-2023 01:50 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  For a fx-CG500, you may want to try a program file and store text there. I don't think there is a password protect option for program file.

If you want to password protect you can try code like this**:


InputStr pword,"Enter Password"

If pword==(password) Then Goto [label]
Else Stop
IfEnd

Label [label]
ClrText
Print ...

**My syntax may not be perfect, but hopefully you get the idea.

If you do this, safeguard your calculator carefully.

Actually, you raise an interesting point. Many Casio graphing calculators going all the way back to the fx-8000G and fx-8500G do let you password protect text/program files. In fact, the file editor mode introduced on those models was intended for storing arbitrary text, not merely programs, with examples in the manual such as storing a list of phone numbers. I believe both the fx-CG50 and fx-9750GIII still give you this option if I'm not mistaken, and it may be sufficient to protect the data from casual snooping. I'm sure a determined attacker could still get it, though.

[Ask Mait]

(05-10-2023 03:01 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  

(05-10-2023 01:50 PM)Eddie W. Shore Wrote:  For a fx-CG500, you may want to try a program file and store text there. I don't think there is a password protect option for program file.

If you want to password protect you can try code like this**:


InputStr pword,"Enter Password"

If pword==(password) Then Goto [label]
Else Stop
IfEnd

Label [label]
ClrText
Print ...

**My syntax may not be perfect, but hopefully you get the idea.

If you do this, safeguard your calculator carefully.

Actually, you raise an interesting point. Many Casio graphing calculators going all the way back to the fx-8000G and fx-8500G do let you password protect text/program files. In fact, the file editor mode introduced on those models was intended for storing arbitrary text, not merely programs, with examples in the manual such as storing a list of phone numbers. I believe both the fx-CG50 and fx-9750GIII still give you this option if I'm not mistaken, and it may be sufficient to protect the data from casual snooping. I'm sure a determined attacker could still get it, though.

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the extra input; I liked your suggestion/s. I would take good care of the device, it would stay in my home office all the time.
Thanks again.

[Dave Britten]

I did a bit more experimenting to satisfy my own curiosity. The fx-CG50 and fx-9750GIII both let you password protect programs. These models also let you mount them like a USB flash drive, and access the programs and data in main memory. Adding a password does NOT encrypt the contents of the program (just confirmed this myself). So the password protection doesn't do anything once the data is copied off of the calculator. If you want to take this approach, it might be slightly safer to use the older fx-9860GII, which doesn't have the USB mounting feature (you have to use the fa-124 software to copy files, so you get a little bit more security-through-obscurity). Or if you want to be extra safe, get an old fx-8700G (not the GB model) which has no link port for exfiltrating data.

Anyway, something to consider if you don't find anything for the 50G that meets your needs.

[Ask Mait]

(05-10-2023 04:25 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  I did a bit more experimenting to satisfy my own curiosity. The fx-CG50 and fx-9750GIII both let you password protect programs. These models also let you mount them like a USB flash drive, and access the programs and data in main memory. Adding a password does NOT encrypt the contents of the program (just confirmed this myself). So the password protection doesn't do anything once the data is copied off of the calculator. If you want to take this approach, it might be slightly safer to use the older fx-9860GII, which doesn't have the USB mounting feature (you have to use the fa-124 software to copy files, so you get a little bit more security-through-obscurity). Or if you want to be extra safe, get an old fx-8700G (not the GB model) which has no link port for exfiltrating data.

Anyway, something to consider if you don't find anything for the 50G that meets your needs.

Hi Dave, IMHO, the reason for choosing fx-CG500 over the rest is that it has a touch screen, comes with a stylus, a slot to secure the stylus, and a QWERTY key board. All these would be useful in entering numerous contacts and passwords for over 30 websites.
Hope you agree with me.
Thanks.

[Dave Britten]

(05-10-2023 04:46 PM)Ask Mait Wrote:  Hi Dave, IMHO, the reason for choosing fx-CG500 over the rest is that it has a touch screen, comes with a stylus, a slot to secure the stylus, and a QWERTY key board. All these would be useful in entering numerous contacts and passwords for over 30 websites.
Hope you agree with me.
Thanks.

In principle, I agree, but the fx-CG500 that's sold in the US does not have a QWERTY keyboard - it's arranged in a more calculator-like ABC layout. It's because of a stupid SAT (or was it ACT?) rule prohibiting devices with QWERTY keyboards which was instated around the time the TI-92 was released, and it's one of my least favorite things about that model. Not sure where you're located, or if the keyboard layout is any different there, so research carefully before buying one.

[Ask Mait]

(05-10-2023 05:14 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  

(05-10-2023 04:46 PM)Ask Mait Wrote:  Hi Dave, IMHO, the reason for choosing fx-CG500 over the rest is that it has a touch screen, comes with a stylus, a slot to secure the stylus, and a QWERTY key board. All these would be useful in entering numerous contacts and passwords for over 30 websites.
Hope you agree with me.
Thanks.

In principle, I agree, but the fx-CG500 that's sold in the US does not have a QWERTY keyboard - it's arranged in a more calculator-like ABC layout. It's because of a stupid SAT (or was it ACT?) rule prohibiting devices with QWERTY keyboards which was instated around the time the TI-92 was released, and it's one of my least favorite things about that model. Not sure where you're located, or if the keyboard layout is any different there, so research carefully before buying one.

Hi Dave,
Yes, you are right. I fidn that the Casio fx-CG500 desn't have QWERTY keyboard, it would have ABCD keyboard. However its predecessor fx-CG400 has got the QWERTY.
Thanks again.

[dfberquo]

Dear, I thought I was the only one using old devices for data storage. I have a Casio DataBank DC-E300. I've been looking for a while if there is any other manufacturer of this type of device currently. I also have a Casio DataBank with PC communication at 64k. If you know of any company that manufactures something like this, put it here in the forum. I don't think a calculator is a good idea, because it doesn't fit in a pants pocket.
When I took my Electronics course, I used my HP48G as a databank, but it is very big.