New Stuff
Author
Links
Guest book
Web-log
Bric-a-brac
Calculators
Components
Ephemera
Events
Glossary
History
Hit or Miss
Radios
Transport
Valves
Wanted
Metal Puzzles
Clocks
Calculators: Handheld: Vanguard X-800 (aka 03PA)
|
|
|
| Size (approx): |
93mm x 170mm x 25-35mm (w,h,d) Weight 238g excluding batteries. |
| Power: | 9V DC, 6 x AA size batteries double-decker stacked. Also accepts adapter (two pin 9V DC 150mA, adapter D6JDA) through a top side socket on the far right. The battery compartment has a ribbon-pull to aid removal. There is a battery low indicator. |
| Case: | Large blocky calculator with pronounced raised top area to accommodate the six batteries. Constructed of a two-piece matt black plastic case with substantial side brushed aluminium panels. The two vertical raised edges are painted white. Two very stylish mini knobs sit in a grooved section. The switch labels, along with the top section are printed white with the model number. The brand name is silver painted raised plastic. There is a tilted and very slightly proud red plastic display filter which is notable for being full-width when the display is actually a third of the width. The filter has the word "low" printed over the right LED indicator for low battery. Originally it had something printed over the right "negative" indicator but my example has this worn off. The display is bright with a wide angle of view. The convex keys are short travel, loud hollow click type but work well to this day. |
| Display: | 8 digit red LED with bubble lens and and additional two separate red LEDs for negative and low battery indicators. |
| Features: | Four function and switched decimal point |
| Age: | 1972 |
| Manufacturer: | Vanguard, Cahue Industrial S.A. Spain. Serial number 000247 on the rear label. |
| Comments: | Very stylish but cumbersome calculator from this Spanish manufacturer similar to other models in the range. Very odd logic with no overflow, no underflow, no floating decimals, no input overflow suppression and RPN thrown in. Top it all with a silly battery low indicator - which just drains the battery quicker! You have got to get one of these for your collection - just to see how not to do it. Inside it is crammed with components but only one IC so this is a very early single chip calculator. |
| Components: | 1 x cpu: Mostek MS5010P
C.747 7237 KUH (week 37 of 1972) 40 pin DIL , 0.6"width 2 x LED modules; 1 x 4 digit, 1 x 5 digit, red bubble lens units 2 x individual red LEDs 33 x transistors 0 x diodes (perhaps some of the transistors are being used as diodes as this is quite odd) 32 x resistors 12 x capacitors 1 x transformer |
| Boards: | The main cpu board (2002h) is held to the front by two screws and sits on top of the keyboard assembly (12PA 560C 561o) which is held to the front by four metal spacer pillars. The two are joined by 12 wires. |
| Construction: | Remove the two screws on the back and the back section comes away easily. Gently pull out the front keyboard which hinges up from the top. |
| Logic comments: | The (CE) key is used to clear the last entry whilst the (C) key clears the whole calculator |
| Overflow on the input of a number is not suppressed, typing in a ninth digit results in it becoming the first digit and you can just carry on with no ill effect! | |
| There is no constant function | |
| By using the switch you can have zero, 2,3 or 4 decimal points - no full floating mode is offered | |
| The calculator uses Reverse Polish Notation which takes a little getting use to; to do "2-9" key in (2)(+=)(9)(-) to give "-7" | |
| Negative numbers are flagged by a separate LED on the far left of the display thereby allowing full eight digit negative numbers. | |
| A divide by zero shows nothing as the calculator goes into an infinite loop with no display which is not recoverable | |
| Overflow shows just zero and is not recoverable | |
| It suffers from the negative zero" bug; try (1)(+=)(2)(-) to give "-1" then (1)(+=) will give "-0" |
