Someone inspired me to think about this project, so here it is. Basically, it would be reconfiguring a TI-84+ calculator to fit inside a clamshell form-factor. I'm considering a Nintendo DS-sized case for it, but that might be too small to fit the keyboard that I want. Here's the basic outline, sketched roughly below. The (backlit) LCD would go in the top half of the clamshell, flanked by two piezo speakers. In the body would be a (probably) rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, the mainboard of the calculator, and a second PCB containing a microcontroller for the trackball, the amp for the piezo speakers, breakouts for the connectors along the right side, and of course contacts for the reconfigured keypad, shown in the second image.


Now, I know that a lot of you are going to kvetch and moan about how everything's moved around, it makes no sense to rearrange the keypad into a qwerty layout, it's going to be a horrible pain to find the number keys, and I hear you. To you I say, sure, this isn't for everyone. However, over the first few months of using my calculator, I quickly learned to touchtype in the awkward ALPHA layout, and I know from intuition and our interactions on the forums that most of you did as well to at least some extent. I think it will be at least as easy to learn this layout, if not easier. I believe that it will be significantly easier, because the tiny-font alpha functions are where you'd expect from typing on a computer, and the rearranged "main" key functions (like math operators, numbers, etc) are written in much larger font on each key.


As always, because of the massive numbers of projects I have on my plate or planned before you even begin to consider my academic projects, my personal life, and work, I give no guarantees that I will get to working on this project in the near or foreseeable future. With that said, I'll certainly try to make time for it, and I hope all of you will post comments, thoughts, and criticisms.

Better yet, slap a 10-key num pad off to the side. You'll duplicate buttons, yes, but it would be far nicer to use.

Ugh, that would make it even wider. What about the [0]-[9] [-] [+] row above the qwertys?

You want to be able to quickly touch type alpha keys but not number keys on a *calculator*?

Your call, but that sounds rather lame

*cough*

QFT

oh look a 92. Is there any particular reason they are so massive?

Exactly, this would ideally be much smaller than that monstrous slab.

Looks pretty sexy to me. I mean, it's probably smaller than a macbook Air.

But can you fit it in a manilla office envelope? If not, then you're out of luck.

If we want to think up more bogus reasons why this is a good idea, I could come up with that it would appeal to the audience of schoolchildren who are used to a clamshell design from their portable gaming consoles, laptops, and some flip QWERTY phones.

Yes casio made one and it sucks just as much as any other casio, but with the un/coolness of clamshell.

Hey, screw off, I learned Casio BASIC before I learned TI-BASIC. Although, the language was pretty screwy, didn't even have a way to write text on the graph screen.

TheStorm, that's actually decent, although the lack of width makes it look more like a toy than a real calculator. I tried to put the game-playing buttons (2nd, alpha, D-Pad) near the hinge corners to make it easy to use with the thumbs in classic two-handed portable console fashion; Casio seems to have made it as hard as possible to do that with this model.

Games? On a casio? Are you insane?

Me thinks we should do a SNES casemod and put a SNES inside a TI-84 shell.

would both of the I/O be accessed by port 0?
Imagine trying to get away with playing a game on a 92 in class.
The on button should be further away from 2nd, like in a bottom corner or something.

this looks like an interesting idea actually....hmmm, I want one

Well, we'll have to see if the execution turns out as well as the proposed plan. I'd say the hardest part from the perspective of my experience is the fabbing of the secondary PCB.

Read: will take too much time and effort and go the way of RE/BE.

RE/BE popped into my head the moment I saw this actually.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw this, what happened to the RE/BE projects? I know you had a few good mockups drawn Kerm for one of them.