Texas Instruments makes it harder to run programs on its calculators

[Zarathustra[H]]

Saying you have unresolved issues with High School probably puts you on a half dozen watch lists.

Hah, that made me laugh out loud.

It reminds me of that year my mom bought a one way plane ticket, and then shortly after that found pressure cookers on sale and bought them as holiday gifts for the entire family.

If she didnt get contacted by a three letter federal agency, I'm pretty sure I'm fine

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You younguns and your TI calculators....

I may have had a basic calculator in high school and I took pre-calc which was the hardest I could take at my high school.
Later in college....mechanical engineering classes...our professor said to get an HP calculator since their better scientific calculators would do matrix math and it would be important, unless of course you wanted to do that crap by hand.
I got the now famous HP 42S. Crappy ones sell for $150 to $200 on ebay now. They are still in high demand. https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp42s.htm
The HP 42S is not really a graphing calculator. I used that the entire time in college to get my mechanical engineering degree.
Swiss Micros made a clone running Free42 software. It's called the DM42 https://www.swissmicros.com/product/dm42
They also make clones of other HP calculators like the HP 15C and the HP 41
I was kind of poor, some others in my classes had the more expensive HP 48 series like the HP 48G or the HP 48GX which had card slots for cards with extra programs on them.
Most have no clue about HP calculators but they used to be the best. NASA used HP calculators: https://www.educalc.net/page/1660081/ https://blogs.brown.edu/ladd/2015/11/30/flight-critical-calculator/
Also these great HP calculators had RPN...reverse polish notation. No, not a racial slur. They do not have an equals key. You had a 4 level stack. If you want to find the answer to 10 dividied by 2 you type in 10, then enter, then 2, and finally divide. RPN could also be called postfix if I remember correctly. It may seem pointless, but if you have to get a numerical answer by plugging in a number or numbers in a messy equation with parenthesis it will save you keystrokes. You just start in the middle and work your way out. If you know the order of operations for math pretty well it is faster and plus you will most likely make less mistakes.
Sadly HP has gone downhill and has dropped off the map in terms of calculators. They never really pushed to get into schools which was probably their downfall.

Loved HP calculators. In engineering school, I loaned my HP 28S to a friend and he “lost it,” so it was replaced by an HP 48G. I still have the 48G but it has an annoying issue that seems to doom most of them - apparently some rubber parts inside the calculator decay and eventually you can’t turn it on. The part itself is easy to replace but in their brilliant cost-cutting wisdom, HP made the calculator nearly impossible to open. I’m willing to pay someone to fix it but the one guy everyone recommended seems to have closed shop. So it sits in the drawer out of nostalgia and not because I can use it.

 

[HockeyJon]

maybe youre too young/old or in the wrong spot? we had to have them here in 'berta in the 90s(grad 97) but we were given the choice of the TIs or casios.

I graduated high school in Ontario in 2003. Definitely not the case here. I didn’t use one at university for that matter, either, and I studied mechanical engineering (McMaster’s standard calculator is Casio FX-991, and we all had to use them).

 

[HockeyJon]

Just because I am curious (and not to out you on the age front) but what years were you in high school?

Lol, I’ve accepted my age .

Graduated 2003. Perhaps in other areas of Canada they used these as pendragon1 has indicated, but we never did in my area.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Yep. That's probably the case. If they have the endurance of modern cellphone batteries, most of these will be bricks in 4 years time.

Maybe you can open them and replace the battery. Who knows.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/TI-84+Plus+CE+Teardown/118886

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/TI-84+Plus+CE+Teardown/118886

Nice. User replaceable battery. We don't see that much anymore.

 

[pgaster]

Loved HP calculators. In engineering school, I loaned my HP 28S to a friend and he “lost it,” so it was replaced by an HP 48G. I still have the 48G but it has an annoying issue that seems to doom most of them - apparently some rubber parts inside the calculator decay and eventually you can’t turn it on. The part itself is easy to replace but in their brilliant cost-cutting wisdom, HP made the calculator nearly impossible to open. I’m willing to pay someone to fix it but the one guy everyone recommended seems to have closed shop. So it sits in the drawer out of nostalgia and not because I can use it.

I liked the 28 and 48 series calculators too. They had a lot of nice features. I might know of the one guy you mention who used to fix the calculators. Maybe 10 years ago or so I found a 32SII at a thrift store that sort of worked but had display issues. I sent it to a guy who was able to fix it. This might have been that same guy. Yeah, a lot of those old calculators have plastic posts that are heat staked during assembly and getting the calculator apart is hard. I didn't even dare try myself. I think your 48G is even harder than the 32S series to work on.
There used to be a 48G app for phones, and maybe it's still around, but not exactly the same as holding the real thing.

 

[OutOfPhase]

I liked the 28 and 48 series calculators too. They had a lot of nice features. I might know of the one guy you mention who used to fix the calculators. Maybe 10 years ago or so I found a 32SII at a thrift store that sort of worked but had display issues. I sent it to a guy who was able to fix it. This might have been that same guy. Yeah, a lot of those old calculators have plastic posts that are heat staked during assembly and getting the calculator apart is hard. I didn't even dare try myself. I think your 48G is even harder than the 32S series to work on.
There used to be a 48G app for phones, and maybe it's still around, but not exactly the same as holding the real thing.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I liked the 28 and 48 series calculators too. They had a lot of nice features. I might know of the one guy you mention who used to fix the calculators. Maybe 10 years ago or so I found a 32SII at a thrift store that sort of worked but had display issues. I sent it to a guy who was able to fix it. This might have been that same guy. Yeah, a lot of those old calculators have plastic posts that are heat staked during assembly and getting the calculator apart is hard. I didn't even dare try myself. I think your 48G is even harder than the 32S series to work on.
There used to be a 48G app for phones, and maybe it's still around, but not exactly the same as holding the real thing.

I think my 48G is dead. I found another guy who fixes them and spoke with him and he thinks it is unlikely it is just the keyboard since the “push the bezel down” trick isn’t working. I’d be willing to buy another but I’m sure most 48G calcs out there are on the verge of needing repair.

I wonder if the 28S has any issues like that..,,,,

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I think my 48G is dead. I found another guy who fixes them and spoke with him and he thinks it is unlikely it is just the keyboard since the “push the bezel down” trick isn’t working. I’d be willing to buy another but I’m sure most 48G calcs out there are on the verge of needing repair.

I wonder if the 28S has any issues like that..,,,,

The TI models have a common flaw as well. The spring loaded contacts from the batter compartment to the board wear though the contact pads over time and they stop working.

They can be fixed by coating the pads with solder.

I tried that on my sister's Ti-83+, but the leaky batteries she left in there are away so much of the contact pads that I couldn't make it work even by adding solder.

At least the TI models are easy to open. Just takes a T6 torx driver. Could t do it with my iFixit kit through as the bits were too först to fit down the recessed holes to reach the screws, so I had to order a cheap torx driver set.

 

[pgaster]

I think my 48G is dead. I found another guy who fixes them and spoke with him and he thinks it is unlikely it is just the keyboard since the “push the bezel down” trick isn’t working. I’d be willing to buy another but I’m sure most 48G calcs out there are on the verge of needing repair.

I wonder if the 28S has any issues like that..,,,,

The 28S had one big weakness which was the battery door area and battery door itself. The pressure the batteries put on the door would make the door itself break sometimes, or if one was really unlucky the housing area could crack or break. If you ever look to get one on ebay look at the battery door area. Some sellers go out of their way to take battery door area and battery door pictures because they know of the issue. Other than that I really liked those. The fact that it folded which protected the screen seemed like a great idea.

 

[horrorshow]

I won't lie, during HS in the late 90's, my group were all guilty of various.... *ahem "shenanigans"