Kudos to TI...

[Jeff_Birt]

(11-30-2023 06:18 AM)John Garza (3665) Wrote:  The root cause of all this is engineering decisions were made to reduce costs while sacrificing long term reliability. You see the same with HP machines. Everything was downhill quality-wise after the Classics.

I have mixed feelings about it to be honest. On one hand, I understand that these sorts of devices were not designed to last 50 years. It was not a design requirement and if it were, they would have cost much more. I understand why the decisions were made. On the other hand, I like playing with old calculators and want to keep them working.

I have a book about the history of the Allis Chalmers company. They originally started out making steam engines, the gigantic things used to power whole factories via a system of rotating shafts, pulleys and belt driven machinery. Material science being what it was around 1900 the engines were vastly overbuilt. While they required a lot of maintenance in terms of lubrication, adjustments and tweaking of controls they did not really break. Almost no spare parts were sold.

Given the limited market for huge steam engines and advancements in technology leading to electrification they put themselves out of the steam engine business. The huge stationary steam engines were scrapped even though they were in working order as electrification was more efficient. The effect was that the owners of the steam engines overpaid. They bought machinery which outlasted its usefulness by a large margin.

Over-engineering is as big a sin as under-engineering. Yet, though my mind understands this my heart wants my old calculators to function perfectly.