Mastodawn

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈

this is my assessment of the situation. my opinion could change...

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

the aliexpress calculator is my favourite least favourite calculator because you can key in stuff, and it will turn around and tell you it's too hard to calculate and will just refuse to do it.
in other cases it will crunch some numbers, and give you a completely false result. it would be amusing, if not for the fact i could be tempted to reach for it, if it is in reach, just to run a number or two, without realising how wrong it might end up.

i found https://hackaday.com/2020/07/02/review-calculator-kit-is-just-a-few-hacks-from-greatness/ and there's a link out to an RPN firmware for it. that would probably be useful to turn it from e-trash to something else. hmm.

Review: Calculator Kit Is Just A Few Hacks From Greatness

While most people are satisfied with a calculator application on their smartphone these days, there’s still something to be said for the old fashioned desk calculator. Maybe it’s the fa…

Hackaday

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

calculatorposting will continue until morale improves

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 16

please remember to defragment your calculator regularly to ensure peak performance

@0x47df I love calculatorposting :D

jn (big endian energy)Mar 15

@0x47df this industrial design plus custom firmware that isn't terrible.. i kinda like it

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@jn My next quest, if I put mastodon down and stop posting, would be to finish this.

A little less industrial given I 3d printed a case, and the keycaps are tbd. I have some similar relegendable ones I could install. But I also need to design and print some kind of angled attachment for the screen first. 13” MacBook for scale i guess

@0x47df i think neutral evil is perfect placement of cg50

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@mini_ninja_64 riiiiight?
i want to like it. it has lots of things i could like about it. it does frustrate me to high heavens and back. there is a reason i'm trying so hard to meddle the fxsdk so i can port my version of the numworks firmware to it.

@0x47df saaaaaaaaame it's so close but painful in the worst ways

like why would base16 input be behind so many menus it's no sense!!!

Very reasonable if u get ported, i wud luv a copy 🫣

@0x47df if i continue building abacat decently, maybe it could get a embedded device port 😈

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@mini_ninja_64 👀 i like the idea of this a lot !

it reminds me about a brainworm. i was lamenting calculators out loud on a wall with flacs. flacs is like, python is calculator.

and that might be true. i was building a micropython ..thing. i don't necessarily want to call it a cyberdeck. it has a recycled laptop keyboard, and an lcd screen. the repl can go there.
at which point i guess it is calculator.
i just need to finish display driver. it is in a box because the lcd i was using was making me annoyed 😅

@0x47df yessssss it neeeds to reahch a certain vibe i fink for calculator.

iiooooooooo that sounds COOOOL :3

ahhhh very fair most lcd driver not FUN in my experienceeee 😭

jn (big endian energy)Mar 15

@0x47df i was expecting good to be on the lower/red side because that's where the word is placed

(i know far too little about different calculators to appreciate the whole depth of the post though)

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@jn i stole it from wikipedia 😅
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29

Alignment (Dungeons & Dragons) - Wikipedia

american_megatrans

@0x47df where is the option for black and white ti84+ /j

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@ezio i haven't had any TI-84+ to make my assessment on, but i assume they are close enough to the CE anyways.
i have had TI-83+, and i did not get on so well with it. i kept it because i can at least run houstontracker on it. if it will not make me happy running numbers, it can make some chiptune. that's a reason to keep it.

american_megatrans

@0x47df theyre slightly better, imho. iirc they added anti-assembly stuff to the newer firmwares on the 84CEs which is not cool, meaning you have to jailbreak them with exploits

the 84+ does not exhibit such issues, which is why i bought one a couple of years ago when my 83 died

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@ezio mmm, I traded my CE for an 83 pocket Fr within a few days of getting the CE.
I still don’t vibe with the older TI calculators. Idk why.

Emelia/Emi Mar 15

@ezio @0x47df The 84CSE (basically a prototype version of the CE hardware in the bulky AF older case; AFAIK the main difference is that the CPU is somewhat slower?) has no such restrictions IIRC, but I haven't checked recently because I don't need to use that awful thing anymore. (It's excruciatingly slow even by TI-84 standards)

If I remember the drama of the time correctly, the assembly restrictions are probably because someone figured out a way to jailbreak the calculator to invalidate some of the "test mode" protections (disable programs for the duration of an exam) using an assembly program?

Robin Bradshaw Mar 15

@0x47df I might still have a smart response xe kicking about if you wanted to try coding a calculator firmware for that https://hackaday.com/2021/06/29/smart-response-xe-turned-pocket-basic-playground/

SMART Response XE Turned Pocket BASIC Playground

Ever since the SMART Response XE was brought to our attention back in 2018, we’ve been keeping a close lookout for projects that make use of the Arduino-compatible educational gadget. Admitte…

Hackaday

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@en4rab oh, yeah, i think i have five of them kicking about in a box?

i think i picked mine up because of the specan firmware, well before nanoSA was a thing. kinda just rotted in a box since, i had trouble with counterfeit TI modules.

i also wanted to write some baudot-encoding/decoding firmware to try doing some autotuning+autobauding RTTY on them as a nice little companion to my radio, or at least see if i could make it agree with speaking to a real ultratec, but the math for doing fft with little resource was something i struggled on.

i should find where i put them...

Robin Bradshaw Mar 15

@0x47df after I got the LCD working and Mick got them in hackaday everyone started buying them thinking they were going to make money reselling them so I lost all interest. There is a super start trek firmware id like to try https://github.com/Subsystems-us/Smart-Response-Super-Star-Trek

GitHub - Subsystems-us/Smart-Response-Super-Star-Trek: A port of the 70's great text adventure game for the Smart Response XE

A port of the 70's great text adventure game for the Smart Response XE - Subsystems-us/Smart-Response-Super-Star-Trek

GitHub

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 15

@en4rab i found this ! https://hackaday.io/project/193043-rpn-basic-on-smartresponse-xe

it's not quite what i want but, well, i suppose it is a start. now to find where on earth i put the funny little pogo guy...

RPN + BASIC on SmartResponse-XE

Adding a RPN style calculator to the BASIC on the SmartResponse-XE is straightforward and really enhances the usefullness of the surplused device.

Alyx Arson Mar 16

@0x47df whats wrong with the fx-cg50

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 16

@alyx idk it just feels kinda clunky? why so many menus?
i thought it might feel like the 991ex, but there's enough difference to feel jarring.

it at least wins points for having an SDK. even if it is a frustrating architecture to target.

@0x47df I was gonna ask how you feel about the HP48g but, uh, nevermind.

*48g surreptitiously back in pocket*

sleepy duck pond appreciator 🦆✨🏳️‍🌈Mar 21

@gws friend shaped too tbh?

@0x47df I just don't understand what a calculator has to do to align 'chaotic'.