Who has a sinclair scientific programmable?

[Johnh]

That really is a fascinating old magazine, from a time when audio projects, cb radio, computers, calculators and general diy gadgets were all for one type of target (nerd) demographic in a single publication!

My friends and I in the UK spent quite a lot of pocket-money on Sinclair products, and were grateful that we could. The most popular was the basic Sinclair Cambridge calculator, a neat LED four function, 8 digit machine. It was out while we were doing O-levels, age 14 to 16. Calcs weren't yet allowed in exams, just slide-rules and tables. So we had to remember to keep track of the powers of 10 by hand, and know how to look up trig functions etc. So this most basic, but very accessible and nicely designed little calc was very useful for classwork and homework, without eroding these necessary skills.

I also had a Scientific one, famous for what it squeezed in but not quite enough to do what it tried to provide. But a couple years later, I pulled out the board of my basic Cambridge and wired all the keys to a DIY TTL circuit that made it step through the Mastermind code breaking game. A fun project, and it worked, but there were better ways to do that even then.

I also bought Sinclair's circuit books, and some of his amplifier modules, half of which did not blow up.