Need advice from Engineers who are also TI users

[ijabbott]

Another two maybe worth taking a look at are the Sharp EL-W506T and EL-W506X. They have slightly different features to each other, but both of them keep the history when powered off, and both have unit conversions and physical constants. The 'X' has formula memories and one extra data memory compared to the 'T', but is lacking HCF/LCM and a few other functions.

[burkhard]

On the HP 35s vs TI 36X Comparison, this is a pretty good video directly comparing the two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5DHCraotRk

[Hlib]

(06-04-2018 07:17 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  Dare I suggest a frontal lobotomy?

Pauli

Since then, as over past five years all my HP-calculators (HP-50g, 48gii, 39gii and 39gs) have ceased to function (died), I began to think about another brand too. Despite this, 50g continues to remain on my android as an emulator.
Frankly, some TI calcs are not very durable, but you can buy a few of them very cheaply. I bought six used TI-s in good condition for $100. Two of five TI-83plus soon had to be sent to trash, but the rest (three TI-83plus from 2010-2015 and one TI-85 from 1994) are still working fine.
I like some features of these models besides mathematics and programming such as:
1) TI-85 1.5-2 times faster than its successor TI-86.
2) normally sound TI-83plus can still run even if the supply voltage is dropped below 3 Volts (0.75 Volts per element). Thus batteries are consumed by more then 80%.

(06-05-2018 02:05 PM)Ask Mait Wrote:  2) Casios ... do not save the work before auto power-off, I lose my work if I attend a phone or reply to an email in between.

CASIO FX-2.0 Algebra. Even removing or short-circuiting main power supply during operation cannot disrupt its any state or procces. After the power is restored and [ON] is pressed, it returns all states/data or continues the interrupted program. I couldn't get it to hang or lose its data/functioning in any way. Don't know if there is another calculator with such striking feature.
Finally, I can recommend one of the best TI calc's android emulator "Graph_89". Five models (TI-83plus, 84plus, 89Titanium, 92plus and Voyage200) can be installed in this app at the same time with easy switching between them.

[Druzyek]

One small thing in favor of the TI-85/86 is the 128x64 resolution compared to only 96x64 on the TI-83(+).

Quote:2) why is 84+CE not suitable for Electrical Engineering, but good for other eng. decisplines?

I agree that this could just be marketing, but those two calculators can solve symbolically with their CAS including complex numbers (I'm not an engineer so I don't know but maybe that is why it is less useful in mechanical engineering).

Quote:CASIO FX-2.0 Algebra. Even removing or short-circuiting main power supply during operation cannot disrupt its any state or procces.

Yes! This is a good choice. I have two of these and I really like them. I also have a TI-86 and had a TI-89 (my favorite TI) and would rank the AFX 2.0 between the two for how much I like using it. It also has a CAS like the TI-89.

The AFX 2.0 runs on an 80286 equivalent with a version of DOS so I was able to write C programs for it with the 16 bit compiler I already had installed before I got the calculator. This was really cool stuff in 2002!

[pier4r]

(01-26-2019 10:42 AM)Hlib Wrote:  Since then, as over past five years all my HP-calculators (HP-50g, 48gii, 39gii and 39gs) have ceased to function (died), I began to think about another brand too. Despite this, 50g continues to remain on my android as an emulator.

Due to what the 50g died? I am interested!

[Hlib]

(01-26-2019 09:51 PM)pier4r Wrote:  Due to what the 50g died? I am interested!

At first, 50g srarted to turn off unpredictably during operation, batteries were new. Then, following the auto-power-on cycle every 4 days (http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-7334.html), sometimes he didn't turn off and kept draining batteries at full throttle without switching the LCD. I discovered this fault after a while. Similar behavior was sometimes also observed during normal [RS] [OFF]. Later, 50g stopped seeing the SD card. One day I couldn't turn 50g on at all even with USB adapter.
I could write about my other faulty hp-calcs (once I did it in this forum due to 39gii), but it doesn't make sence. To pay $400 including delivery for 4 NIB calculators and in five years not to have any serviceable is very expensive entertainment. These circumstances forced me to TI.

[pier4r]

Understood. I guess you had quite a bad luck since those reports do not happen often on the forum.

[BruceH]

(06-04-2018 10:17 AM)Nigel (UK) Wrote:  If you like the TI-83+ you'll probably love the TI-86: well out of production but still available on various auction sites.

If you're going to consider buying second-hand then have a look for an HP-20S. Algebraic (as you're used to) and has lots of math functions and unit conversions direct from the keyboard. Large, clear display but only single line.