EEVblog #1153 - 1970's Programmable Calculator Teardown

Let's do some programming, early 1970's style with a teardown of the Canon Canola SX-100 Programmable Calculator

Support the EEVblog through Patreon!

Buy anything through that link and Dave gets a commission at no cost to you.

Stuff I recommend:

Donate With Bitcoin & Other Crypto Currencies!

[dougford]

I used this programmable calculator to determine the size of the timbers and nail plates for house roof trusses in the mid 70's. It was provided and programmed by Pryda (New Zealand). Pryda manufactured the Gang Nail plates used in construction of timber roof trusses. It provided all the cutting list and angles for the timber cord and web components and each gang nail plate size at every join. It worked for all spans and roof and ceiling loadings (Concrete Tiles, Roofing Sheets and Plaster). Over time I learnt how to modify existing programs which was essentially an early form of the Basic programming language with up to about a thousand lines of code. This machine was the catalyst to my computer analyst career.

[mikehenry]

I worked on these in 70s in Canada. The SX310 used mag card storage for programs, the SX320 used data cartridge. The 310 was the cheap version, the 320 the deluxe. They were not around very long. They were replaced by the AX-1 which used the same programming language and the BX-1 that used BASIC. I think there was even a floppy drive system available for the SX320.
Great video a nice trip down memory lane. Thanks.

[randynovick]

My pop became an accountant in the 60s and only retired some five years ago. He used maybe 2 (3?) Canon adding machines all the way through. (He wore at least one out, as I recall.) The keys were dependable and had snappy rebound and the printers were pretty much indestructible. He would not switch for anything else. What we look at today as sloppy or bodgy was very much dependable at the time, and these large desktop-format Canon calculators were tool of choice for anyone that banged out numbers all day. I'll note that yours fired up just fine, which I found very pleasing indeed. Great teardown!

[conradpankoff]

Ahh, I see you sprung for the Cockford-Ollie voice activated focus module. Good stuff.

[MattStum]

Note that some of the "bodge" wires have dashed-line silk-screen, so not entirely bodged.

[horseandcart]

Yes. You got the date right. My Dad was an accountant and got one of these brand new in 1976. It was great entertainment for us. He would spend five minutes entering codes and numbers, then it would finally print out my name.
I should add that the purchase price was NZ$4000.00

[BrianBoniMakes]

These were not office machines or personal calculators. I used to see these and others like this from names like HP and Tektronix when they were used in scientific and industry to run experiments, test equipment or some process machine like a low cost PLC of the day. What you are missing from that back panel is the I/O connectors, I expect everyone who bought one of these had a special cable that they made up to connect to the hardware they were automating.

[jimsteele]

Back in the day, I tore apart an early 70s or maybe late 60s video terminal. The entire character set was formed by a board sized array of individual diodes. The screen memory was a huge delay line coiled up in a metal box.

[kostaskritsilas]

We used HP98000 series "calculators" at school. In the later 1970s, HP brought out the HP 95/97 desktop calculators. The HP97 was the desktop version of the HP67. Programs, and the magnetic strips, could go between the two interchangeably. The HP97 did have a built in thermal printer. The HP 9800 series higher end "calculators" were extremely capable, being able to be used as GPIB controllers, and a couple of the models could do linear algebra.

[techman]

A Joy Forever, brings a teat to tied eyes! I love the craftsmanship.

[williamgottlieb]

Thank goodness they developed the pocket calculator relatively quickly because the pants with pockets that were tailored to hold that thing weren't very stylish.

[Error_]

REMINDER TO DAVE: The ROM based state machine sounds interesting, do a video on it ;-)

[Corianas_]

... My dad still uses his.

Edit:
To expand on this, he uses the SX300, (and still has spares for parts) he was an accountant, and being able to work with large numbers and have the written history of all the calculations was invaluable to him.

The information on the clear CPU feature is very interesting, as I remember him being very upset about that, as it took out 3 days worth of programming something.

I will check if he has a different manual for it to what you have.

[srfrg]

Very similar to the Olivetti Programma computer considered to be the very first '' personal computer '' of that era (1965 to 1979). The slot was for magnetic cardbords. On the Olivetti it was the size of a punchcard but one size was fully covered with ferric oxyde like the strip on credit cards. My dad who was an engineer had one of these before he bought his HP85. That Olivetti was used to compute armed concrete resistance to build TV signal relay towers. It was before the age of satelite TVs. When it cames in the late 70s, the HP85 was a huge revolution compared to the Olivetti Programma though. Indeed the Olivetti style computers are now seen as programmable calculators, but they where seen as real computers back then. It was possible to use all kind of peripherals such as paper tape or endless loop magnetic tapes. But the lack of alphabetical keyboard limited it to engineering and they are not known to the general public. With the exception of the Apollo fligh computer I guess.

[Roflcopterb]

The multi-chip "microprocessor" is just the old fashioned mini-computer era way of making a CPU. The whole board is literally the central processing unit. Actual computers like the PDP-11 were built in the same way.

[nrdesign]

Gotta say it's pretty well equipped with scientific functions for the time, let alone the programmability which could lead to some pretty complex algorithms running on the thing.

[CostumeJewelryHome]

The model number is called Canon Canola SX100. Canola today means a type of cooking oil and SX100 is a model of Canon PowerShot camera.

[Renville]

My take on the blue wires with dashed line silkscreen markings was that there was no more room on the board layout for a given trace, so a jumper wire was necessary. Not a bodge, not an incomplete update.

[markandsuriyonphanasonkath]

This was the "first and only", machine in my years - 1970's at Wesley College in Perth WA, now I'm 57, what a blast from the past, hope it works!

[the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda]

LOVE those freehand curves of the tracks!! No 0°, 45°, 90° 'rubbish' of the modern-day CAD! I'd love it if I could still design modern PCBs like that!! Solder mask?! Pfft Shoulder flask! ;) all that steel!! No wonder its heavy!! And then... Along came miniaturisation!