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I'm really happy with the very well build swissmicros DM42 calculator: https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php It is inspired

by nullc 6y ago

I'm really happy with the very well build swissmicros DM42 calculator: https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php https://www.swissmicros.com/dm42.php It is inspired by the venerable HP42 and an e-ink like display that persists when powered off, an arm cpu running at 24MHz when powered by a cr2032 (or 80MHz when on USB power). Both the display and the key action are a big advantages over using a calculator app on a phone. The software is entirely free software. They will have a new model coming out in the next year or so which is on the same hardware platform (but a different model because the key layout is different) with an even more powerful software stack. Unfortunately dedicated calculators are a seriously niche market, except for education. And education results in weird user hostile features as well as being extremely overpriced. (DM42 is also not super inexpensive, but at least there its because its extremely well built and made in very small quantities). A lot of really awesome things could be done but without a bigger market it's hard to justify the development costs and manufacturing NREs.

saagarjha 6y ago
Can you use it on the SAT? Otherwise, I don't think this would be relevant for 99% of the people who own a TI calculator. (I appreciate you sharing it here anyways: just saying that it's not a replacement for most people.)
- disabled 6y ago
  No, you definitely cannot use this calculator on the SAT. I also think that the College Board posts a list of permitted calculators.
- avhon1 6y ago
  Definitely not. The requirements on https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-test/calculator-policy https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-tes... say: > Only the calculators listed on this page are acceptable for the Math Test—Calculator portion of the test. The page has a table of calculators which does not include the SwissMicros DM42. The brands present on the table are Texas Instruments, Casio, Helwett-Packard, Radio Shack, Sharp, Datexx, Microtona, NumWorks, and Smart2. If you had one of SwissMicros scientific calculators (rather than the DM42, which is their only graphing calculator), you could try to bring it in. Farther down the page: > Calculators permitted during testing include: > * Most graphing calculators (see chart) > * All scientific calculators > * All four-function calculators (not recommended) So you could make a solid case for bringing in a scientific calculator which doesn't have any of the disallowed features (wireless connectivity, QWERTY keyboard, touch input...), but a proctor might still tell you it's not on the list of specifically-approved calculators and therefore not allowed. --- Amusingly, some of the allowed calculators have disallowed features. Off the top of my head, the HP 50G has wireless (infrared) communication, and the HP Prime has a touchscreen.
  - unsignedint 6y ago
    As far as infrared communication, they didn't have problems with HP48 like 20-some years ago. i think the rationale was that it only allows limited short range communication, thus was not much of the concern. Though, I'm curious why some of those "disallowed features" exist, particularly for keyboard and touch input...
    - tinus_hn 6y ago
      They probably know infrared never works anyway
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - jedieaston 6y ago
      They don’t want you to write down full length questions into the calculator for taking out of the test site. It’s just hard enough to type a sentence on the TI-84 that nobody would bother, but a qwerty keyboard that you could touch type on would be a different story.
      - BoorishBears 6y ago
        > It’s just hard enough to type a sentence on the TI-84 that nobody would bother Are you sure about that...
      - MereInterest 6y ago
        As someone whose first experience programming was in writing a text-based adventure game on the TI-83, I beg to differ.
      - dharmab 6y ago
        When I was a student, every middle school student with a TI-83+ was keeping notes in the BASIC editor, and the future programmers were all automating their work in BASIC. Teachers started wiping calculators before exams, and kids started backing up their files to the calculator's ROM to work around it. Remember, this was the age of T9 typing, we weren't gonna let the lack of a keyboard stop us...
StreakyCobra 6y ago
You can also have it in you pocket all the time with Free42 and a skin I made: https://github.com/StreakyCobra/dm42-skin https://github.com/StreakyCobra/dm42-skin "Almost" have it though, because the display is a bit different on the real DM42, but all functionalities are the same otherwise.
disabled 6y ago
Thank you so much for posting info about this calculator! This looks extremely similar and almost identical to my beloved HP 50g graphing calculator, which I still use. However, the HP 50g has been discontinued. Thanks to you, now I have a perfect (and even better) replacement!
neilpanchal 6y ago
Thanks for the kind words. Regarding the build quality - we strongly believe in buy-it-for-life philosophy, and the chassis is designed with repairability in mind [1]. Battery life is also one of the top concerns for us and we don't want our users to take the calculator out of the drawer after a long period only to find that the battery is dead. We've had suggestions to add a color screen or OLED display, but that would eat into the battery budget by a few orders of magnitude. We are also launching DM41X[2], about 100 units have been sent out for beta testing and should be in production later this year. We appreciate feedback and would love to hear from you: neil[@]swissmicros.com [1] Teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk [2] DM41X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrU4sGWt45M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrU4sGWt45M
- stephc_int13 6y ago
  Do you ever plan to do the same thing for the HP-48 series?
  - neilpanchal 6y ago
    Definitely, we have intentions and there are significant challenges, but certainly on the horizon.
    - stephc_int13 6y ago
      Great! I'll buy one without hesitation. I still have my beloved HP-48 GX on my desk, I created a multitasking kernel and a few apps for this hardware while I was a student (1998) https://www.hpcalc.org/details/79 https://www.hpcalc.org/details/79 If you want some input or beta testers, I'm in :)
      - killjoywashere 6y ago
        HP-48G sitting on my desk right now. Onza sticker on the back and my childhood 7 digit phone number on the original nameplate, scratched in with, I'm pretty sure, a Pentel Quicker Clicker.
bbarn 6y ago
Thanks for that link. While I have little use for a graphing calculator these days, the DM-16 is something I could use all the time. Ordered one :)
chinathrow 6y ago
Ha, that brings back memories from high school. Some classes had HPs, other TIs, it was like Vim vs emacs during puperty. I was in the TI-85 class and we programmed the heck out of the devices (for cheating too, obviously). I re-wired the link cable with a phone cable and was able to chat over that link with class mates 5m away.
IshKebab 6y ago
That doesn't look like an e-ink display to me? Perhaps you meant e-paper? Or do they have one that is actually e-ink?
- neilpanchal 6y ago
  Not quite e-ink, but a proprietary memory display manufactured by Sharp Japan, like the one sold on Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3502 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3502
  - m-p-3 6y ago
    I believe the Pebble smartwatch used such a display.

by nullc 6y ago

saagarjha 6y ago

Can you use it on the SAT? Otherwise, I don't think this would be relevant for 99% of the people who own a TI calculator. (I appreciate you sharing it here anyways: just saying that it's not a replacement for most people.)

disabled 6y ago
No, you definitely cannot use this calculator on the SAT. I also think that the College Board posts a list of permitted calculators.
avhon1 6y ago
Definitely not. The requirements on https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-test/calculator-policy https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/taking-the-tes... say: > Only the calculators listed on this page are acceptable for the Math Test—Calculator portion of the test. The page has a table of calculators which does not include the SwissMicros DM42. The brands present on the table are Texas Instruments, Casio, Helwett-Packard, Radio Shack, Sharp, Datexx, Microtona, NumWorks, and Smart2. If you had one of SwissMicros scientific calculators (rather than the DM42, which is their only graphing calculator), you could try to bring it in. Farther down the page: > Calculators permitted during testing include: > * Most graphing calculators (see chart) > * All scientific calculators > * All four-function calculators (not recommended) So you could make a solid case for bringing in a scientific calculator which doesn't have any of the disallowed features (wireless connectivity, QWERTY keyboard, touch input...), but a proctor might still tell you it's not on the list of specifically-approved calculators and therefore not allowed. --- Amusingly, some of the allowed calculators have disallowed features. Off the top of my head, the HP 50G has wireless (infrared) communication, and the HP Prime has a touchscreen.
- unsignedint 6y ago
  As far as infrared communication, they didn't have problems with HP48 like 20-some years ago. i think the rationale was that it only allows limited short range communication, thus was not much of the concern. Though, I'm curious why some of those "disallowed features" exist, particularly for keyboard and touch input...
  - tinus_hn 6y ago
    They probably know infrared never works anyway
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - jedieaston 6y ago
    They don’t want you to write down full length questions into the calculator for taking out of the test site. It’s just hard enough to type a sentence on the TI-84 that nobody would bother, but a qwerty keyboard that you could touch type on would be a different story.
    - BoorishBears 6y ago
      > It’s just hard enough to type a sentence on the TI-84 that nobody would bother Are you sure about that...
    - MereInterest 6y ago
      As someone whose first experience programming was in writing a text-based adventure game on the TI-83, I beg to differ.
    - dharmab 6y ago
      When I was a student, every middle school student with a TI-83+ was keeping notes in the BASIC editor, and the future programmers were all automating their work in BASIC. Teachers started wiping calculators before exams, and kids started backing up their files to the calculator's ROM to work around it. Remember, this was the age of T9 typing, we weren't gonna let the lack of a keyboard stop us...

StreakyCobra 6y ago

You can also have it in you pocket all the time with Free42 and a skin I made: https://github.com/StreakyCobra/dm42-skin https://github.com/StreakyCobra/dm42-skin "Almost" have it though, because the display is a bit different on the real DM42, but all functionalities are the same otherwise.

disabled 6y ago

Thank you so much for posting info about this calculator! This looks extremely similar and almost identical to my beloved HP 50g graphing calculator, which I still use. However, the HP 50g has been discontinued. Thanks to you, now I have a perfect (and even better) replacement!

neilpanchal 6y ago

Thanks for the kind words. Regarding the build quality - we strongly believe in buy-it-for-life philosophy, and the chassis is designed with repairability in mind [1]. Battery life is also one of the top concerns for us and we don't want our users to take the calculator out of the drawer after a long period only to find that the battery is dead. We've had suggestions to add a color screen or OLED display, but that would eat into the battery budget by a few orders of magnitude. We are also launching DM41X[2], about 100 units have been sent out for beta testing and should be in production later this year. We appreciate feedback and would love to hear from you: neil[@]swissmicros.com [1] Teardown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk [2] DM41X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrU4sGWt45M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrU4sGWt45M

stephc_int13 6y ago
Do you ever plan to do the same thing for the HP-48 series?
- neilpanchal 6y ago
  Definitely, we have intentions and there are significant challenges, but certainly on the horizon.
  - stephc_int13 6y ago
    Great! I'll buy one without hesitation. I still have my beloved HP-48 GX on my desk, I created a multitasking kernel and a few apps for this hardware while I was a student (1998) https://www.hpcalc.org/details/79 https://www.hpcalc.org/details/79 If you want some input or beta testers, I'm in :)
    - killjoywashere 6y ago
      HP-48G sitting on my desk right now. Onza sticker on the back and my childhood 7 digit phone number on the original nameplate, scratched in with, I'm pretty sure, a Pentel Quicker Clicker.

bbarn 6y ago

Thanks for that link. While I have little use for a graphing calculator these days, the DM-16 is something I could use all the time. Ordered one :)

chinathrow 6y ago

Ha, that brings back memories from high school. Some classes had HPs, other TIs, it was like Vim vs emacs during puperty. I was in the TI-85 class and we programmed the heck out of the devices (for cheating too, obviously). I re-wired the link cable with a phone cable and was able to chat over that link with class mates 5m away.

IshKebab 6y ago

That doesn't look like an e-ink display to me? Perhaps you meant e-paper? Or do they have one that is actually e-ink?

neilpanchal 6y ago
Not quite e-ink, but a proprietary memory display manufactured by Sharp Japan, like the one sold on Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3502 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3502
- m-p-3 6y ago
  I believe the Pebble smartwatch used such a display.