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| Calculators: Handheld: Altronic
808 |
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Size (actual): |
76.0mm
x 137.2mm x 22.0mm (max) (w,h,d) Weight 92g excluding batteries |
| Power: | 9V DC, 1 x PP3 size battery. It accepts an adaptor (undefined) through a socket on the top side to the far right. There is a note on the back stating that you must remove alkaline batteries if you use an adaptor. | ||
| Case: | Two-piece gloss black plastic, lightly wedge-shaped case. The top ridges have a gap to accommodate a metallic sticker printed black for the logo. Below this an inset and angled neutral display filter lets through a bit too much light. The keyboard is surrounded by a metallic plate with a light yellow plastic coating. This may have been an original idea to make the plate appear gold, or it may have yellowed with age. Others on the web look silver. The plate is printed black for the on/off label text and key highlights. The keys are soft touch with no real audible feedback. | ||
| Display: | 8 digit red LED (bubble lens) with no ninth digit | ||
| Features: | 4 function calculator with percentages and four function memory | ||
| Age: | 1976 | ||
| Manufacturer: | No manufacturing details, made in Singapore, serial number 131898 | ||
| Comments: | Little known brand name calculator that is pretty standard for its age. The logic is let down by memory overflow, one bug and seven digit negative numbers. Very few components for this date by taking advantage of the Texas IC. |
| Components: | 1 x cpu: Texas Instruments
TMS0972NL KDS 7628 (week 28 of 1976) 28 pin 0.3" width DIL black
plastic 1 x 8 digit LED module with individual integrated bubble lens 0 x transistor 0 x diodes 0 x capacitors 0 x resistors 0 x transformer |
| Boards: | The main board (BESTEK 14-0023) sits face down on top of the keyboard assembly with intervening foam. The keyboard assembly is fixed to the front with six screws. The two are joined by 13 stiff wires. |
| Construction: | Remove the two screws from the rear, and the internal lugs are easily popped. The back comes off easily, hinging from the bottom edge. |
| Logic comments: | The (CE) button is used once to clear the last entry of a number and the (C) key to clear the whole calculator. |
| Overflow on number input is suppressed – keying in a ninth digit is ignored | |
| There is automatic constant on all four functions | |
| Negative numbers are shown by a "-" in the immediate left digit but as these is no ninth digit you are limited to seven digit negative numbers | |
| An overflow shows the result flashing and is recoverable using (CE) | |
| Divide by zero shows zero flashing and is recoverable using (CE) | |
| Memory store is not indicated - you have to remember it | |
| The percentage works well enough but does not have a mark-up/mark-down capability | |
| Overflow in memory is flagged by a flashing number and is not recoverable - and the memory is cleared | |
| Negative square roots are not allowed and result in zero and “C” in the far left (ninth) digit and is not recoverable | |
| It suffers the pseudo fixed decimal bug: key in (1)(+)(1)(.)(0)(0)(0)(=) to get "2.000" which remains a fixed decimal until you need more digits or use multiply or divide |
