Vintage calculators

[M0AFJ, Tim]

Not sure if this is the right place, mods move it please if wrong.
I’ve just had my yearly meeting with my pension man, he mentioned that one of his customers has recently passed away and has left his wife with a large collection of electronic calculators going back to the early days.
The widow doesn’t want them just to end up in a skip or even money for them.
She is based in Sheffield. Is there any interest in this collection and if so please PM me and I’ll get the lady to contact so a visit can be arranged.

Thanks, Tim

[TonyDuell]

It might be worth contacting the Handheld and Portable Computer Club :

http://www.hpcc.org

Their members are interested in all types of calculating machines and will make sure they go to good homes.

[paulsherwin]

Some models are worth quite a few quíd and are easy to post. If these were mine I'd list them individually on eBay with a £5 start including postage, and see where they go. I appreciate she may not want to bother though.

[Paul_RK]

Depends what "the early days" are: 1960s, desktop machines perhaps with Nixie tubes, or early '70s onwards in which case most or all are likely to be hand-held and even a large number won't take up much space. There'll be interest either way.

Paul

[paulsherwin]

Just about anything working from the 70s VFD era is likely to attract interest, even no-brand stuff. There aren't a lot of survivors - they didn't sell in huge numbers because they were still quite expensive, and the pretty green displays ate batteries at a scary rate causing them to be dumped when cheap LCDs became available.

[M0AFJ, Tim]

I’m passing on contact details of Busby123 on here who is interested. Living on the Lizard, it’s a long way from Sheffield for me to go and sort it all out. Let’s see what Jeff says.

[Oriskany]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Just about anything working from the 70s VFD era is likely to attract interest, even no-brand stuff. There aren't a lot of survivors - they didn't sell in huge numbers because they were still quite expensive, and the pretty green displays ate batteries at a scary rate causing them to be dumped when cheap LCDs became available.

I have a lot of vintage calculators from when I went through a collecting phase some years ago. I agree that the VFD stuff is more interesting and furthermore there were two types - the flat "Futaba" tube type and the single or double-ended, cylindrical type terminated in dozens of wires. I prefer the latter as they are rarer and more interesting. I have a Commodore P50 also which is interesting as it contains just one 24-pin IC to run all of those functions, handle a 50-key keyboard, a 10-digit LED display and a rather poor 30-step programme capability. Not bad for 1979.

[TonyDuell]

Originally Posted by Oriskany

I agree that the VFD stuff is more interesting and furthermore there were two types - the flat "Futaba" tube type and the single or double-ended, cylindrical type terminated in dozens of wires.

There are a few older calculators with individual VFD tubes, one per digit. Most were the normal 7 segment design, but there were a few Sharp machines, at least one of which was also sold by Dixons under the Prinztronic name with other segment layouts

Attached are some photos of such a display.

I've never seen nixiie tubes in a handheld calculator (they are not rare in desktop models) but I have come across handheld calculators with 7 segment gas discharge displays, either individual digit tubes or a Panaplex display.

[Oldmadham]

To widen the search for likely takers, try having a look on the "Test Equipment Anonymous" site, which, despite the name, also has an ongoing sub-forum on vintage calculators.

EEVBlog is another possibility.
Being a Geek, here & those two sites, are my immediate "Go to's" after turning the browser on.

[SiriusHardware]

At the Blackpool rally yesterday I spotted a 'Prinz' branded version of what I more usually find branded as the Texet 880 - £2 in generally good physical condition but with no battery cover which I think would probably rule it out for any serious collector so I would have had no qualms about buying it to take apart. It's a typical basic handheld cheapie from roughly mid 70s to early eighties, with nasty little hinged plastic keys prone to breaking off at the hinge.

The Texet 880 is a good source for displays which can be used in some single board computer replicas - but - unlike the Texets, this Prinz version had a GREEN display filter so I couldn't be sure it would be the right display. It was too small (PP3 powered) to have had a VFD in it, or so I decided.

Because of the green filter, I didn't buy what would otherwise have been a bargain display. I can't recall ever having seen green LED 'bubble' displays, if they exist they must be rare indeed?