Tindie

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213 orders since Dec 30, 2019

North York, ON, Canada

Ships from Canada.

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Sales to USA has been suspended, need to figure out shipping options.

Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

5
10 4
7 3
0 2
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Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (4.59)

Shipping: (4.88)

Communication: (4.82)

All Reviews

Chris | May 11, 2025

An amazing kit from Chris Chung in Toronto, Canada.

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit (2020 Version)

This emulator kit for the Sinclair Scientific (and the TI Datamath) of 1974 is amazingly well done. It worked first time and took less than an hour to assemble from scratch.

The design ethos is perfectly in keeping with Sinclair - a diminutive pcb with small switches and a very clever shallow case added. It is even smaller than the original, a head-turner at the time 50 years ago. Eliminating the slide switch (ironically one of the least reliable parts of the original Sinclair) was a good move, taking advantage of the frugal sleep current consumption of the TI MPS430 20 pdip used.

Very high quality pcb and parts, with a useful violet filter added to ease reading of the 9 digit LED displays.
The alpha prompts are very helpful, as is the 'secret message' eeprom feature.
Ten out of ten, Chris.

Christopher | Nov. 7, 2023

Fun "retro" 14 segment device

For S14Clock LED Word Clock Kit (24 Characters)

I purchased this for my home office that I'm outfitting with a "control center" sort of motif. I like the red LED motif, but I would see a few occasions where a "green" or "amber" one might be fun as well. I have 3d printed a "friction fit" enclosure for it that makes the display cover flush the the opening in the enclosure, and an appropriate hole for the USB-C plug, and 3d printed a "stand" that tilts it up slightly for close viewing. I added some "vents" to the rear of the enclosure, although I really don't feel any substantial radiated heat from the unit.

The designer of this went to great troubles to eliminate a surface-mount component to make the unit easier to assemble. The downside is that nearly every IO on the ESP device is utilized -- there may or may not be one that is available. I was thinking of tying to WS2812b style LEDs on my stand for alerts. I haven't had time to investigate if that is possible. The other downside is that the brightness of the display is limited due to the mutiplexing and charlie-plexing going on. In a perfect world, I'd like 25-50% more brightness.

All that said, this is a great device, and I plan on ordering a couple more.

Joshua | Oct. 7, 2022

Neat calculator kit

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit (2020 Version)

It was pretty easy to assemble (and this was only the fourth kit I have made), but it would have been nice to have a picture of how the battery holder on the 2020 version is supposed to be put in.

In DataMath mode it works like regular four function calculator, in Sinclair mode it works like a Sinclair Scientific, which is kind of a strange scientific calculator (To get sqrt(45) you would use 10^(log(45)/2), and to get that you would type 4 5 E 1 Up X 2 / Down X and get 6.7091E00)

If you have ever wanted to build your own calculator, I recommend this kit.

Eli | July 19, 2020

Awesome easy-to-assemble kit

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit (2020 Version)

Kit was super easy to assemble, and the two calculator simulations are a lot of fun, especially in conjunction with the online simulations. Incredible to see what was squeezed out of so little space!

Douglas | July 17, 2020

Went together quickly, works well

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit (2020 Version)

The kit was complete.

It wet together quickly.

It performs well in both modes.

Though the instructions are brief, they are enough to assemble and use the calculator.

Douglas | June 18, 2020

Excellent item

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit

Excellent emulator which precisely matches the original. The use of LPM4 to get an auto power off is cool. If I have a criticism, it is the negative sign LED is a tad too flimsy (I broke mine during soldering - yes I am v experienced): I intend to replace it with an smd led when I get an opportunity.

Many thanks.

John | March 19, 2020

Retro calculator at its best

For TI MSP430 Emulating Calculator Kit

I love this kit. The construction is pretty simple (it can be a little fiddly getting the switches just right, but if it was too easy what would the point be, right?). I opted to use a socket for the displays and IC, but in doing so I bent the IC pins and snapped a few off (oops) so I just soldered the replacement IC in directly (thanks very much for the speedy replacement!) and it worked perfectly. I kept the displays in sockets, and they seemed happy.

The real joy is using this thing. You need to read the web sites linked to from the description to fully appreciate what this is: a piece of genius that shrank a scientific calculator into something that should not have been possible. The coding is genius, and it's fun to work out RPN and watch as the poor little thing tries to calculate SIN :-)

This kit emulates two types of calculator so make sure you know which mode you are in, so you can read the relevant printing on the PCB. Overall, very please. I got the version with the retro LED bubble displays for full-on vintage effect, but the version with the modern LEDs will probably be easier to read and will be just as much fun learning to use.

Remember to get the original Sinclair manual from the links!

(I built this kit with my 11 year old doing the soldering, and it was a great way to spend time together)