scientific calculator with engineering notation keys

[setq]

Someone has already worked out how to repurpose an HP calculator and replaced the firmware on it:

http://commerce.hpcalc.org/34s.php

Picture: http://commerce.hpcalc.org/images/34s-front-medium.jpg

May be possible to do the same with another unit and avoid the hardware build.

[RoadRunner]

Yeah id buy one if i could find it.
Anyone here looking for a kickstarter idea?

I've always thought about it...

we would love see eevblog calculator.

[mathsquid]

Yeah id buy one if i could find it.
Anyone here looking for a kickstarter idea?

I've always thought about it...

we would love see eevblog calculator.

Seconded.

[amspire]

we would love see eevblog calculator.

I just think the practical way to do this is to make a phone/tablet app. It is really hard to make a quality calculator with labelling that does not wear off and buttons that keep working reliably. It needs to have very long battery life (or solar power). Otherwise you have one more device that needs to be regularly charged and I have too many of those now.

The HP CAS (Computer Algebra System) used in the HP 49G/50G is open source so perhaps that can be used somehow. Using a touch screen phone/tablet, you get the possibility of interactive graphing. You get a fast processor.

Using a phone also gives the possibility of connectivity. Back in the late 70's/early 80's, I used to use the HP 9825A desktop calculator that was a computer/calculator that also had the option of GPIB/Serial/Parallel connectivity.  So you could capture readings from a HP voltmeter into an array, and then use the calculator or embedded HP basic to crunch the numbers. I just loved using the 9825A.

Otherwise, if I need electronic calculations embedded in an ordinary calculator, I just program one of my HP calculators with the wanted functions. My HP49G labels the F1-F6 function buttons with the commands I have programmed, so works great.

[mathsquid]

we would love see eevblog calculator.

I just think the practical way to do this is to make a phone/tablet app.

You make some excellent points about the difficulty of making a calculator, but I making an app instead of a physical calculator completely negates the entire cool factor of such a device.  There are already many calculator apps out there. As you mentioned, that would be the practical way to go about solving this problem. We already have practical--we want something cool.

Besides, Dave has already done a lot of work on the µCalc (see episode 130). I'd be really interested in buying one he made them available, or if he made it into an upgrade kit to put into an existing calculator shell, similar to the HP project someone linked to in a previous comment.