Suggestions on scientific calculator, solar, one line - like TI-36X Solar in EU? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: r0tati0n
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 03:29:18 pm
content: Might sound strange, but does anybody have suggestions on calculators?I used a TI-36X Solar for a long time but I lost itI liked the 1 line display and the many functions with 2nd and 3rd button. It is solar only.Unfortunately, this is not made anymore, the successor is available in US only, it appears, shipping to EU is costly.Does anybody have a suggestion for a scientific calculator, preferrably one line, preferrably solar only - or solar+battery.It should have a lot of functions including unit conversion, can be programmable or not.I would like to have a good feel on the buttons, as well as a good feedback when pressing a button.A lot of the calculators do not have that, are there still clicky calculators out there - or at least button press with a lot of feedback and no bouncy buttons?€dit:Preferrably no RPN or switchable

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 03:45:38 pm
content: I like the Swiss Micros line (made in Switzerland) based on the classic -hp- RPN calculators, but they don't have solar. On the other hand, with the modern lithium batteries, the battery life is very long.(If you give a fair try to RPN, you may find you prefer it to algebraic, unless you are transcribing the equation from a textbook.)https://www.swissmicros.com/

author: r0tati0n
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 03:53:52 pm
content: Nice suggestion, but I do not like RPN.Can it be deactivated?

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 04:03:18 pm
content: I think not, but I suggest you give RPN a fair trial. I find that it tracks my thought process better than does algebraic operation.Many years ago, in a logic class, I learned "forward Polish notation" for symbolic logic, which avoids special characters (only requires upper- and lower-case Roman letters).Jan Łukasiewicz invented Polish notation in 1924 for logic, and RPN was invented ca. 1954. (It is difficult to pronounce "Łukasiewicz" backwards.) Traditional adding machines used RPN without telling anyone.When I had this discussion with co-workers before retirement, I watched them using the parentheses on algebraic calculators, and found their usage to be clumsy, using the storage registers or even writing down intermediate answers.My DM41X from Swiss Micros displays the full stack (four lines high), while others have the single-line readout.Personally, I gave up using the programming functions on handheld calculators when I shifted to Excel, but I keep a pocket-sized RPN calculator handy at the workbench to calculate resonant frequencies, etc.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 05:32:58 pm
content: There are a few scientific solar calculators on the market these days. Apart fom the TI-36X which is pretty popular, you'll find some from CASIO, in the fx-ES series for instance. We can mention thefx-991ES PLUS-2 and the fx-85ES PLUS-2, for instance. They are current in CASIO's catalog. Dunno how easy they are to buy right now, though.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 09:18:33 pm
content: Quote from: r0tati0n on July 07, 2021, 03:29:18 pmThe current TI-36 version (the one in USA) is not a one-line calculator.If it being single-line is the most important criterion, then the closest model is the TI-30Xa (battery) /TI-30 ECO RS (solar).But if in fact you are OK with a multi-line display (which I personally consider to be vastly superior), then you have many options. (In fact, TI offers twice as many models in Germany as in USA). The TI-30X Plus and Pro (which differ only in the Plus having a few features removed that aren’t allowed in certain school grades in Germany) are the spiritual successors to the TI-36 line, and have the highest resolution display of any of their non-graphing calculators. I have one as my backup calculator and it works fine.(My main calculator is the HP Prime graphing calculator. It has some quirks, but it’s thin and light (for a graphing calculator), has a big color touchscreen, and has the best keyboard of any calculator on the market right now IMHO. It’s also the fastest of any graphing calculator on the market, should that matter. Graphs always draw instantly.)As far as multi-line calculators from other manufacturers, the Casio FX-991EX (which also exists in a fully localized German version, the FX-991DE X, which even claims to have almost 150 more functions than the English model!) is very highly regarded, and has a handy feature for electronics/physics for easily shifting engineering notation by 3 places. I just don’t care for the serif font they chose to use on screen.The HP 300s calculator is apparently also made by Casio, and also has the shift-by-3-places feature.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 09:34:09 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on July 07, 2021, 04:03:18 pmHave you tried the “textbook” entry of modern calculators? (That’s algebraic, but where fractions and exponents are actually displayed correctly.) I wouldn’t say it’s the absolute fastest entry method, but it’s damned well the least error-prone IMHO, since you can see exactly what’s going on, and lets you compare your entry to the actual formulae you worked out on paper and now just need to calculate.My HP Prime can do RPN, but I didn’t grow up using that, and I don’t think it’s particularly advantageous for the everyday math I do (electronics and personal finance), so it’s just not worth taking the time to learn it. (When I was in high school, we used TI-85 graphing calculators, which are algebraic, and once I went algebraic I never looked back. From that point, I instantly hated immediate-execution calculators.)

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 09:59:11 pm
content: I started with an algebraic calculator, since I couldn't afford an HP35 ($400 in 1972), but after my first HP, I learned to love RPN and have been faithful for almost 50 years.I can easily enter the numbers from a written formula, and I find it much easier than using parentheses.I also enjoy opera: most of the people who tell me they don't like opera have never been to one, because they don't like it.However, that is their right in a free country.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 10:01:51 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on July 07, 2021, 05:32:58 pmI second the suggestion. The Casios can keep up with fast typing as well. I have several fx-115MS which also support n,p,M,G, etc postfixes and can show the result with the postfix which makes it so much easier to use for electronics. Type 1/(2pi*10u*2.2k) to calculate the bandwidth of a simple RC filter using a 10uf capacitor and 2.2k Ohm resistor.A current model with similar features seems to be the Casio fx-570MS-2

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 10:07:08 pm
content: In RPN, that is2 (ENTER) (SEC) pi (X) 1 (EEX)-6 (X) 2200 (X) (1/x)where each command (single press) is in (parantheses), (EEX) is the "enter exponent" key, and "(SEC) pi" is two presses for second function and pi (second function of the 0 key).Since the beginning, all HP calculators can set the numerical format to FIX, SCI, or ENG (where the latst only has exponents that are multiples of 3), and set the number of decimal places.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 10:11:31 pm
content: Give me using the postfixes all day long. Making a mistake with milli/micro/nano is easy to do. I never ever want to use a calculator for electronics which doesn't have the postfixes; it makes life so much easier when the calculator speaks the same language. I can buy 2M Ohm resistors but not 2e6 Ohm resistors. Besides that I often want to edit an expression and recalculate. Not sure whether RPN supports that.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 10:19:43 pm
content: My RPNs, operated in "ENG" format, use numerical values for the exponents, rather than postfixes. If you hit 1 (EEX) -8, the display goes to 10.00 -09. Works for me.

author: emece67
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2021, 11:28:00 pm
content: .

author: brichards42
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2021, 12:58:19 am
content: I asked about postfix symbol support on the swissmicro form a few days ago.They had no plans to implement it since there was no interest in that feature.It was suggested I just needed to be more careful when enter exponents.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2021, 01:19:05 am
content: Of course at my age, I learned about “scientific notation” for powers of ten at a tender age and much later started using the “ENG” format. With postfices, one must also worry about case, “m” vs. “M”, and life is already complicated.You need not follow my example, but you will need to take RPN from me from my cold, dead hands.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2021, 05:09:23 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on July 07, 2021, 10:01:51 pmThis inspired me to do something I’d been meaning to do for a while: attempt using units on the HP Prime. They’re a bit clumsy, but it does work, apparently!As an example, I tried an op amp differentiatior homework problem, solving for the capacitor, giving me the equation C = 0.283/(2pi*500Hz*100kOhm)Which gets entered as:0.283/(2pi*500_(Hz)*100E3_(Ohm))(in textbook mode it’s displayed as a proper fraction, I’m just not bothering to do latex for the forum post)It evaluates to:900.8E-12_(1/(Hz*Ohm))Then you can run that result through the USIMPLIFY command:USIMPLIFY(Ans)Which returns900.8E-12_FPretty nifty.You can also use SI prefixes, but they’ll carry through. (E.G. if you took 1mV and multiplied it by a million, it’ll output 1,000,000 mV, not 1000 V or 1 kV.)The CONVERT command will do the conversions properly, for example 1m3to mm3will correctly output 1,000,000 mm3, even though it doesn’t offer mm3as a unit to choose from the volume menu.CONVERT(900.8E-12_F,0_pF)will output900.8E0_pF

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2021, 06:44:14 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on July 07, 2021, 10:01:51 pmYes they have nice features. But don't forget the OP was looking for a solar calc. This is why I mentioned models that were. The fx-570MS-2 is not solar. (I don't like its screen either, but YMMV.)

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2021, 06:49:04 pm
content: there are some available on ebay.de, and in europe.https://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_nkw=TI-36X+Solar&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3