Presenting your collection of non HP calculators, is anyone interested of that?

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, all,

One of my favourite non-HP, non-SHARP models:





This is my CASIO fx-7500G, a most awesome scientific programmable graphic calculator released in 1989. To begin with, it's extremely small, a 140-gram version of the CASIO fx-7000G but with a foldable design which fits most any pocket and about 6 times more RAM (4 Kb), which provides for 26 fixed memories and 4,006 program steps, convertible to up to 500 additional memories for a gran total of 526 memories. Its dual keyboards house 59 keys, and it features 96x64 dot-addressable graphics displayed in a monochromatic LCD screen. It runs on 3 CR-2025 cells which provide about 2 months of typical use (0.06 W).

The function set consists of 195 functions including hyperbolics, factorial, decimal-sexagesimal conversions, binary-octal-hexadecimal conversions and arithmetic, coordinate transformations, random numbers, full statistics with means and standard deviations, linear regression with correlation coefficient and estimations, all of them computed internally with 13-digit mantissas and capable of holding up to 8 pending operands and 20 pending operations while evaluating expressions. As for the graphic capabilites, it supports 20 types of built-in function graphs plus user-generated functions and statistical graphs (bar and line graphs, normal distribution, linear regressions, etc). It can also read back the coordinates at any selected point.

To top it all, it comes with a big, excellent manual which covers about everything in comprehensive detail and includes a number of useful programs for it, including graphics ones and even blank sheets for your own programs. Finally, it's very fast, about 4x faster than the HP-71B or the HP-42S and, on the programming side, its decent programming capabilities (which includes labels, indirection, loops, 9 levels of subroutines and up to 10 program spaces with edition and debugging capabilities) and 4-line alphanumeric screen make it easy to write non-trivial programs on it, such as the 31-step Mandelbrot-rendering program you can find in the web. All in all, a real jewel.

V.

[rprosperi]

(04-08-2022 06:12 PM)vaklaff Wrote:  The irony! My collection is very small but nearly complete. I mean I have almost everything I wanted - except this rare “mini-fortran” Sharp. And my hopes aren’t high. And of course, someone has to show me his :-)

Please tell us more about why you refer to this machine as 'mini-fotran', it sounds intriguing.

I found a couple tiny photos of the 1300S while looking around earlier, but none revealed any useful detail.

@Didier - Do you have a 1300S, and more specifically, do you have a manual?

Also, what size is that machine? It looks like it may only be viable for quite large pockets, but hard to say from the photo with no reference item for comparison.

[rprosperi]

(04-09-2022 01:28 AM)Valentin Albillo Wrote:  One of my favourite non-HP, non-SHARP models:

[snip]

This is my CASIO fx-7500G, a most awesome scientific programmable graphic calculator released in 1989...

Another very interesting machine, thanks Valentin. I came to get an FX-7000G quite late (only a few years ago), but I've never heard of this model. It is beautiful, and your photography really does it justice; very nice. I like the (looks of the) thin/flat membrane keyboards Casio used in this timeframe. One of my favorite Casio machines of this type is the fx 995, only about 3mm thick.

[vaklaff]

(04-09-2022 02:24 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(04-08-2022 06:12 PM)vaklaff Wrote:  The irony! My collection is very small but nearly complete. I mean I have almost everything I wanted - except this rare “mini-fortran” Sharp. And my hopes aren’t high. And of course, someone has to show me his :-)

Please tell us more about why you refer to this machine as 'mini-fotran', it sounds intriguing.

Just hearsay. From Viktor Toth: It is described as programmable in "mini-FORTRAN", which is really just keystroke programming with some program control statements that were obviously inspired by the FORTRAN language. Loops are entered using DO and CNT (for continue); even the raise-to-the-power function is denoted using the double star, **, in true FORTRAN tradition.

Also e.g. this benchmark mentions "Mini Fortran".

As for the size, again from Viktor: 9"×5"×1½". And this great article (unfortunately without its autor's name) not only mentions FORTRAN too (Sharp likens the programming language to a stripped-down FORTRAN) but also shows a picture of a PC-13000s next to two HPs. If you, by any chance, have ever seen a Voyager in real life then you can get the idea of the Sharp's size :-)

Yeah, the manual - or at least scans of the programming part - would be useful but I haven't found any...

[vaklaff]

(04-08-2022 05:17 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The Sharp Elsi Mate PC-1200 is very interesting as this has a label that this is a "Pocket Computer" yet is a vertical format machine.

Generally speaking, Sharp marketed horizontal format devices as Pocket Computers and vertical format devices as calculators. While it was not uncommon to market horizontal devices as calculators (e.g. the EL-5500, El-5500II, EL-5500III which were all retail channel "calculator" models of the VAR channel PC-1403 line) I've never seen the opposite of a vertical format device positioned as a Pocket Computer.

Looking around a bit quickly, I see only the PC-1200 and PC-1201 and PC-1300S that are of this type, and all are from the late-70's, so probably before they standardized the naming and channel conventions used for most of the later models we all know.

Possibly related:

Roughly the same era and technology. While the PC is "truly" programmable, the EL has no flow control. Maybe that had some influence on naming back then?

Totally unrelated: Dirt is much better seen in photos than on the calculators themselves. I think a have a plan for a rainy weekend day. Unless my wife gets another idea...

[Didier Lachieze]

(04-09-2022 02:24 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  @Didier - Do you have a 1300S, and more specifically, do you have a manual?

Yes I have one but not the manual unfortunately. I just have the Japanese PC-1300 Application manual with 310 pages of programs.
Regarding the programming of PC-1300/S the best reference I've found so far is an article written in 2013 by Kiyoshi Akima and referenced here .

(04-09-2022 02:24 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  Also, what size is that machine? It looks like it may only be viable for quite large pockets, but hard to say from the photo with no reference item for comparison.

There is a picture in the article from Kiyoshi showing the PC-1300S next to an HP-19C and an HP 15+.

Here is the family picture showing the first calculator with a magnetic card reader from HP, TI, Casio and Sharp (for the the Japanese ones it was also the last one):



HP-65: Jan 1974 - SR-52: Fall 1975 - PRO fx1: 1977 - PC-1300: 1978, PC-1300S: 1979

[vaklaff]

(04-09-2022 12:32 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  Regarding the programming of PC-1300/S the best reference I've found so far is an article written in 2013 by Kiyoshi Akima and referenced here .

Ah, the author is known! I missed that hpmuseum thread.

(04-09-2022 12:32 PM)Didier Lachieze Wrote:  Here is the family picture showing the first calculator with a magnetic card reader from HP, TI, Casio and Sharp (for the the Japanese ones it was also the last one):

Awesome picture, thank you for sharing. The PC-1300S has found a good home :-)

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

I really love this thread! I've been collecting calculators for some 30 years but some of the machines make me stand in awe. Especially these "mini-FORTRAN" Sharps make me envious...

Here I can offer you a view into my "horror chamber": Calculators specifically produced to make money from people suffering from nonsensical pseudoscientific beliefs ;-)

Some biorhythm calculators:



(the same one as before but with Casio label, probably both were mady by Casio because they loook and feel casioish)




This is the nicest one with extra flashy LEDs to show which curve is close to dangerous levels:


Now two astrology calculators:

This one can be used as a real calculator even if it doesn't look like it. I just saw that the picture turned out bad, however Joerg Woerner dedicates a whole page to it with plenty of photos: http://www.datamath.org/Related/Kosmos/Astro.htm



A horoscope-only calculator without any "normal" calculator function:



And finally a numerology calculator (bought, who would have guessed, from Joerg Woerner...). Unfortunately I know nothing about it, it only came with a photocopied page explaining how to calculate one's lucky number for a lottery held on a specific date. This page refers extensively to the manual which I don't have. There is a single mention about this calculator in the whole world wide web, again with no instruction manual. I do not even know if the calculator can actually compute numerologic stuff, or if the missing manual just explains how to do that using a four-banger with one memory. At least the number keys have special alphabetic labels.

If anybody knows anything about this little oddity please let me know!



Regards
Max

[Thomas Klemm]

(04-09-2022 05:05 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Here I can offer you a view into my "horror chamber": (…)

Although it's not a calculator, it looks a bit like it. After all, it has keys 0-9 and a display.
I'm too lazy to look for it in the screed, hence just a link to a picture from the web.


Both the case and the pen were extremely cheaply made.
And the sound was terrible. I opened the thing to put it down.
But as a teenager I probably wanted that for Christmas and over time I was pretty quick.
Related to this: Mastermind with Steve Mould

[badaze]

This is a Calculator that is 50 years old. Found in a garage sales for 3€ !
However it’s like it was new and its size is very impressive.
Members who know the actual size of the € 2 coin will be able to judge.

[Jlouis]

This thread made my CAS (Calculator Acquisition Syndrome) goes sky high....

That Sharp PC 1300 is a must have....and so many others sexy calculators...oh dear...

[vaklaff]

(04-10-2022 03:30 AM)Jlouis Wrote:  That Sharp PC 1300 is a must have....

No no no, dear Jlouis, wait your turn :-)
I call dibs! The trouble is how to find one though...

[vk6ti]

One of my favorites from South Carolina Applied Technology THE DIMENSION . To deal with fractions. Found in a junk shop traveling through Michigan.
   

[badaze]

I have also an astrological calculator but Radio Shack branded.

[Benjer]

I've got a Sharp EL-5200 graphing calculator with a form factor not unlike that of the HP-28. I believe it's Sharp's first graphing calculator and it might even be the second one to market after Casio. It has an unassuming appearance when 'closed':



Has a lot going on inside, though:



Took me a while to find a manual for it and there were several functions I just couldn't figure out until then.

I've got more slide rules than I can shake a stick at. One of my more unusual ones is a Keuffel & Esser Analon, designed to perform dimensional analysis (e.g., divide 'distance' by 'time' and get 'velocity'). It's a treat to look at with all its various symbols and letters. It was one of the last slide rules designed by K+E and was not successful at all. They stopped making slides pretty soon thereafter.

[striegel]

(04-05-2022 03:22 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  

(04-05-2022 01:53 PM)striegel Wrote:  ...

... I wonder about the "Stop" graphic under the "+" button...

You may be reading too much into this. It's just an image of Mickey Mouse's gloved hand. This calculator most likely came as part of a set with a pen on which the tip of the pocket clip also was shaped like Mickey's hand.

[Ren]

When I first read the Title of this thread,
I must admit, I was not excited, I was thinking it was going to be post after post of each person drowning us in pictures of their collections...

But, WOW! there are some exciting (unique) calculators out there (implying exciting calculator collectors out there too!)!

So, please pass me a slice of humble pie, and keep showing me how limited my imagination has been!

re: badaze,
the links to your photos are not working for me, so I'm guessing the "Astro" is the tombstone shaped device in one of your website photos? (It's all French/Greek to me)

[Dan C]

What a splendid posts of calculators i ever didn't known to exists in this thread!
Very nice!
Now i'm not so sure if my pretty standard Casio, Sharp and Texas collection will add any interest at all.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(04-13-2022 06:16 PM)Dan C Wrote:  Now i'm not so sure if my pretty standard Casio, Sharp and Texas collection will add any interest at all.

As far as I am concerned every calculator is of interest (I also have quite a few standard Casio, Texas and Sharp calculators...)!

But I do like the non-standard calculators a little more. Out of professional interest I try to get as many different (air) navigation calculators as I can, rather special-purpose ones and not just general purpose calculators with a navigation module or pre-installed software. Like for example those three which come in specially made wooden boxes that I showed some time ago here: https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-14112.html

Regards
Max

[Didier Lachieze]

The very first CMOS calculator and first Sharp calculator using LEDs, the Sharp EL-801 or ELSI MINI from 1972 and it's sister made by Sharp for Dixons in the UK, the Prinztronic Micro:



The Prinztronic Micro is not just a rebadged EL-801, it shares a similar design but with a different (and probably cheaper) case: plastic vs. metal for the 801 and battery door on the back vs. a sliding battery case for the 801:



Some pictures from the inside (left the Sharp EL-801, right the Prinztronic Micro):

The display board is stacked on top of the CPU board which plugs onto the keyboard: