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Calculators: Handheld: Casio FX-29
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| Size (approx): |
84mm
x 152mm x 22.5mm (max) (w,h,d) Weight 148g excluding batteries. |
| Power: | 3.0V DC, 2 x AA size batteries, 0.75W. Also accepts adapter (AD-4145) through a top side socket on the left. Two alkaline batteries give about 19 hours continuous operation, a fully charge Ni-Cd pack about 6 hours. |
| Case: | Smooth plastic white base and black top. Inset brushed aluminium panels around keyboard and above display. Neutral and slightly tilted plastic display filter gives a clean image. Logo, brand and key functions are printed in black, blue and orange. On off switch located perfectly on left side about 2cm from the top. Units switch on the right hand side front corner is also easy to use. Subtle black and grey keys with only two highlighted in orange. Squishy but positive keys. |
| Display: | 8 digit blue VFD with a ninth digit for negative indicators. |
| Features: | Four standard functions, square root, change sign, reciprocal, pi, powers, trigs, stats, logs, fractions, DMS/HMS mode. Four function memory. 6+2 scientific display mode. |
| Age: | 1977 |
| Manufacturer: | Casio Computer Co. Ltd. Made in Japan. Serial number 4541831 on a sticker in the battery compartment. |
| Comments: | Fabulous quality calculator from a famous range. As they got it so right, this layout remained for years - well into LCD calculators. Displays fractions with a reversed "L" symbol, but does not display an angle separator like later ones. Sound logic - but annoying limited mantissa and error recovery. Supplied originally with an open topped leatherette case with Casio logo embossed on front. |
| Components: | 1 x cpu: Hitachi HD36130 7G23
(July 1977), 28 pin DIL, 0.6" width 1 x 9 digit VFD display, round faced single tube; LD8124 3 x transistors 12 x diodes 13 x capacitors 6 x resistors 1 x transformer |
| Boards: | The Keyboard assembly is fixed to the front by five screws and attached to the cpu board (F8M-1A) via 19 copper wires in two bunches. |
| Construction: | Remove the single screw for the battery compartment. Still quite difficult to open. Open the lug visible to the left of the compartment by gently pushing in the brown plastic front. There are two lugs on each side that are very difficult to pop as the plastic sides are so stiff. Warning - very likely to damage it so be very careful. |
| Logic comments: | The Clear key (C) is used to clear an input number, the all-clear (AC) to completely reset the calculator. |
| Overflow on the input of a number is suppressed, typing in a ninth digit is ignored | |
| The constant function is invoked for multiplication and division by a double press of the operator. | |
| There is no indication of memory use - you have to remember it. | |
| The negative sign is to the immediate left of a number, it can push to the ninth digit to allow 8-digit negative numbers | |
| On overflow the display just shows "E" in the far right (first) digit and is not recoverable. | |
| On divide by zero the display just shows "E" in the far right (first) digit and is not recoverable. | |
| Negative square roots are not allowed and result in an error as above | |
| Oddly enough the scientific display mode is limited on input; if you input a greater than six digit number, you cannot enter an exponent. | |
| The change sign function can be used in mid number entry | |
| There is no recovery from any type of error. |
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The box at 100mm x
184mm x 37mm is quite a bit taller than the calculator. The image on the
left is the back and front of the box.
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One colour 32pp
booklet in English and Spanish. 84mm high by 126mm wide. Very
detailed with lots of examples of scientific calculations
Printed in Japan |
