Casio AL-10

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Calculators: Handheld: Casio AL-10


	Size (approx):	80mm x 140mm x 25mm (w,h,d) Weight 134g including batteries.
	Power:	3.0V DC, 2xAA size, 0.2W. Also accepts adapter (AD-2S) through a socket on the top side to the far left. The on/off switch is on the left hand side, in line with the word Casio.
	Case:	Three piece smooth plastic case with base in matt brown, top in gloss white and a third front piece in gloss brown. The neutral, slightly tilted display filter gives a clear image. A small brushed aluminium panel at the top has black and blue printed text for the make and model number. A similar panel surrounds the keyboard with black text for some key labels. The keys are the typical squishy Casio ones that work rather well. My example has rather yellowed with age.
	Display:	10 digit blue VFD with no eleventh digit.
	Features:	Standard four functions with percentages, square root, automatic accumulation (grand total), remainder, fractions, hms/dms, stats functions and four function memory. Full floating, cut-off or round-off at two decimal places.
	Age:	c1976
	Manufacturer:	Casio Computer Co. Ltd. Made in Japan. Serial number 1354711 on sticker inside battery compartment.
	Comments:	The first calculator range to handle fractions and sexagesimal numbers easily. Unusual "function" key (the "P" key") is set with a sliding switch. Handy reminder panel on back. There was a similar AL-8 that was eight digit rather than ten but used exactly the same IC.. Sound logic except for negative square roots, lack of an eleventh digit, poor recover, memory overflow bug and negative zero bug. Actually, it’s not that sound at all!

Components:	1 x cpu: NEC D573C R66856, 28 pin DIL, 0.6" width 1 x 10 digit VFD; single tube round face; NEC LD8149 2 x transistor 15 x diodes 9 x capacitors 4 x resistors 1 x transformer
Boards:	Main board (A10G-1A) is connected by 19 copper wires to the (and sits on top of the) keyboard board. The latter is secured to the front by 6 screws. There is a small piggy back board module with the transformer and associated components.
Construction:	Remove the two screws from the inside of the battery compartment. Carefully separate the top and gently continue down the right hand side as there is a lug near the bottom of the side. The back will completely lift off. Quite difficult to do without causing damage.

Logic comments:	The (C) button is used to clear last entry of a number and (AC) to clear the whole calculator.
	Overflow on number input is suppressed; typing in an eleven digit number ignores the eleventh digit.
	There is selectable automatic constant on all multiply and divide only by double hitting the operator; i.e. (3)(X)(X)(=) gives "9".
	An overflow error is flagged with an "E" in the first (right most) digit, negative or positive. Number is not recoverable.
	Divide by zero shows an "E" which is also not recoverable.
	A round off switch and fixed two-decimal point notation is available.
	Square roots of negative numbers are allowed and result in a negative zero bug; Continuously square root -1.01 until it reads "-1" then (+)(1)(=) results in "-0"
	There is no indication of memory store - you have to remember it.
	Higher functions are selectable with a sliding switch changing the function of the (P) key.
	Fractions are separated by an inverted lower "L" and sexagesimal notation by an upper "o"
	Negative numbers are flagged by a "-" sign in the immediate left digit, limiting you to ten digit negative numbers.
	If you type in (1)(2)...(9)(0)(M-), this will result in the storage of an error, which you do not see unless you recall or use the memory.