TI-3000 Panaplex Calculator From 1973

A classic show-and-tell plus teardown for you - this time it is a classic American Texas Instruments TI-3000 desktop calculator from 1973. Some strange surprises inside, and well worth having a close look at. Enjoy!
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/ frantone
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Music by Fran Blanche -
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[@roberttalada5196]

I hate to tell you Fran, 1973 was 52 years ago, not 42. I know, I know… time flies.

[@patrickcardon1643]

We're not getting any younger indeed .. but, the perk is we go so many cool told and new toys to play with 😁

[@Jjosh1358]

This is really cool. What a great find. I found a TI-5100 at a thrift store. I think it's from 1976. It has a vaccum fluorescent display and it's still in the original box with all the literature. I love vintage calculators. I also have a Canon Palmtronic 8M from around the same era also with a VFD.

[@leonardtreadway7082]

Thanks! The Saturday tear down that everyone asks for but the algorithm never shows.🤔😅😜👍👍 Keep up the good work

[@AlexBrandon.]

Reminds me of the TI-99/4A home computer system that Texas instruments was selling for Christmas 1981. The system was marketed alongside the video games systems including the Atari 2600 and had a catalogue of roughly 100 titles of games you could buy to go along with it.

[@pxdemar]

I inherited this model from 1973, from my grandfathers business when he passed away. I used it until 2010, when it finally got retired. Lovely piece of electronic.

[@flatfingertuning727]

The "+=" button means "add the last entered number or computed product to the overall result, and "-=" means "subtract the last entered number or computed product from the overall result". To process 5+4-3+7 one would use the sequence 5 += 4 += 3 -= 7 +=. A bit like RPN, except that I think (5x4)+(3x2) woul be 5 x 4 += 3 x 2 +=.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Definitely a nice calculator, and a lovely display too!

[@BixbyConsequence]

The early 1970s saw remarkable drops in cost in electronic calculators. Early versions were tremendously expensive. I remember seeing prices drop practically by the month for a couple of years until 8th-grade me was finally able to snag one -- a "Bowmar Brain". I spent many hours gazing into its red LEDs and marveling that such a thing was possible.

[@jamesharris9352]

My dad had one of those a beautiful blue one... Takes me back... 🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵

[@Tag-Traeumer]

Interesting device! My Sharp ELSI 804 from 1973 also has such strange keys with + and = and - and =. The ELSI 804 has a display made up of nine VFD tubes with a beautiful green glow, 230V AC, 50 Hz, 4 watts, no ventilation openings. I rescued it from the trash can.

[@CARLiCON]

cool calc tear down, good to see her still calculatin' after all these years!

[@ScottfromBaltimore]

So wild the scale of components in electronics from back when they were visible to the naked eye (except what's in that chip, of course). I mean, those big old capacitors and rows of neat resistors. The curves on the case. The style. The crudeness.

[@PatrickDunn13078]

Very interesting - my Grandma had the consumer version of the TI-30 and it was the first one I used. It was still going strong when we sold it at an estate sale, wish I kept it. My first calculator was Unisonic 1040 my parents had and I still have an HP-28C that still works since 1987 or 88 purchased from a friend of mine.

[@AlexBrandon.]

Thanks!

[@JessHull]

I love Texas instruments old calculators. My favorite Desktop unit is the TI-3531 Its a Calculator but is also a Clock! and it uses those panaplex displays as well. I still have mine on my desk. Looking at it now. its 8:38am I think its basically the same calculator as this on just with the addition of the clock feature.

[@vernonland5987]

Love your videos! I made a nostalgia purchase of some Halicrafters walkie talkies built in 1965, made in Japan. They both still transmit well but the reception is a little sketchy.

[@bradquinn2859]

In high school most kids had Texas Instruments calculators. If one of your parents was an engineer you had the Hewlett Packard. Boy did I envy those kids.

[@ThunderChickenBucket]

beautiful little machine, thanks fran!!

[@Scott-s9u3n]

My first job out of high school....each cubicle in the " Borg cube" of cubicles had a Texas Instruments desktop calculator ( no idea what model) and a Selectric typewriter....

[@John_Ridley]

I don't know how many times, working at a store in a college town, we had engineering students come in to buy an HP after their third TI failed in the middle of an exam. The buttons were atrocious and after a while bounced so badly, or stopped working, that the calculator was unusable. The HPs never failed.

[@FranLab]

True that the early calcs did not have the transistors to really dedicate clock time to switch bounce.

[@Species1571]

When I was at school, the TI-30 was the one I had, and that was in the late 80s, so I wonder what their model numbering system was.

[@urglegurgle5807]

No idea about the naming convention, other than the first TI-30 was the same basic calculator as the SR-40 (SR being slide rule) but without double shot keys and a rechargeable battery. The first pocket scientific calculator was the Hewlett Packard HP 35, named after how many buttons it had.

[@narcoosseefl]

I still have a TI-30. 🙂

[@JLajos]

Ooooh, calculator! I'm in!

[@tvelektron]

nice calculator, i like this vintage machines. The deposits and discoloration on the right side of the display window look a lot like super glue residues that can often be easily polished. Maybe the window got loose long time ago and somebody just glued it from the outside...

[@RockHudrock]

13:48. Fran - I don’t want to make you feel old …but 1973 is 52 years old, not 42! 🫣 I’m old too… b1968 🤜🏼🤛🏼

[@sambrose1]

My Mom has stopped counting the last decade so I just add ten years if she says something happened 42 years ago I think 52

[@markhammer643]

I remember the days when the desktop calculators we used for stats class had those big ol' nixie tubes for each digit of the display. Remarkable that everything that TI-3000 does can now be bought at Dollar General (or Poundland if you're in the UK) for roughly the same price as a chocolate bar...maybe less. My first programmable calculator was a Sinclair, that cost me somewhere around $40-50 in 1976. STrangely enough, it had a fluorescent display and the enter key was *upper case* . That is, y9ou had to press Shift, then Enter, to enter a value. Weird, but oh-so-Sinclair.

[@verpahh]

I used to play with one of these at my mom's former office lol. Also where I learned how to use a typewriter. I'm 27

[@KeritechElectronics]

Nice! I'm 38 and only really laid my hands on a typewriter after I got my Selectric III in 2023, then Erika 3004 at a hackerspace in my old city. Also, got a '60s/70s Soemtron 220 desktop calculator in 2022 and did a full repair project on it - got a video about it on my channel. Fully discrete logic, Nixie display, ferrite core memory and totally confusing schematics, you name it, you got it! German engineering with crappy components.

[@artistlovepeace]

You do great vlogs. Very cool. Thank you. I'm glad I found your channel. I remember this product.

[@RockHudrock]

2:40 even seeing the non-polarized plug 🔌 is a blast from the past!

[@richardbrobeck2384]

cool calculator and years the out gassing . I have a little rado I throw the cover away the carrying strap melted into it's speaker grille !

[@dscott1524]

CC unavailable! For the older viewers would you take care off this? From what I gather the content creator has control of this. Cheers.

[@D.E.Middleton]

Thanks Fran

[@charlesduboise5198]

My mom bought my dad an uniden pocket calculator in 1974 and she paid over 80 dollars for it then and my brother is a CPA and he collects old accounting machines and many from the early 70s

[@franklittle8124]

HP and the their RPN notation are superior. I still use my 40 year old HP15C at work every day.

[@tomsetlock7380]

This video made me pull out my sr10 and reminisce...

[@AIexanderHartdegen]

Hi Fran, why don't you use a dim bulb tester on your device?

[@UrbanoDagrippino]

Great devices

[@JLajos]

Fun and interesting video. Thanks!

[@SoItGoesCAL34]

Happy Groundhog Day in advance :) That looks like an excellent desk calculator. Back in 72-73 I was the fastest student on a 10-key calculator. We had a couple of good ones that I'd try to snag as the majority were clunky. Do you remember rotary calculators? Those were cool how the numbers would spin. My teacher said they were used in banks? Have a great weekend.

[@ocsrc]

How did calculators find the square root ? I always thought that function was a lot more difficult than any other problem you could give it.

[@GeorgeKauffman-w6g]

Tinnerman nuts and screws to the rigid top cover, keeps the PCB from bending with that heavy transformer when dropping the unit.

[@mikededmon]

I worked for Hitachi Automotive and they would make large quantities of brake parts and then ship them to their plant in Mexico. They would make all of the brake assemblies, then ship them back to us. Then we'd add the last single piece, pack them up and get to label them "Made in the USA". Because assembly doesn't count, since the parts were manufactured in the USA, but assembled in Mexico. Ugh...

[@paulstubbs7678]

An interesting calculator, you can see the display jump about as it does the calculation before your eyes, kind of odd.

[@GeoffreyFeldmanMA]

Thinking about how much hand work there was in manufacturing there. No surface mount there.

[@kuro68000]

I've been trying to get some Panaplex displays for years, but nobody has them in stock, at least not at a reasonable price.

[@MikeSmith-sh3ko]

Well done Fran. I think at the time the sharp calculators were better made than Texas Instruments. But every manufacturer were cutting costs at this stage 👍

[@michaelervin9325]

Do you make guitar pedals?

[@Derpy1969]

Looks like that fuse blew in the past as there was some black dust in that upper (lower?) left corner of the cover.

[@ocsrc]

I wonder how they got the 120 vac to 280 vdc that runs the display. The transformer seems to be for getting the 5 vdc and other small parts at small voltages

[@FranLab]

170VDC for a panaplex. Just fully rectified mains voltage will do.

[@TotallyTuberous]

I'll bet that most of those 8 watts powered the display and related circuitry.

[@RockHudrock]

I wish I bought stock in Texas Instruments the year this calculator was released 💰💰💰

[@DimasFajar-ns4vb]

you can use this calculator as a kindergarten kids toys but maybe use a ac to dc adapter will be amazing for safety

[@duncan-rmi]

1973 was about when I first encountered a desktop, similar functionality, though running off four AAs.... made by brother. the display was turquoise, possibly gas discharge?

[@douglasjohnson4382]

Did the plastic yellow in the box, or was it always that color?

[@FranLab]

Always beige.

[@jameshammons2826]

Perhaps an compare and contrast RPN of Algebraic notation

[@SoItGoesCAL34]

I was surprised at the wattage.

[@randyr.parker2698]

I wanted a calculator in 1974, (I was 14) asked my dad for one, he handed me a piece of paper and a pencil 🤦‍♂🤣

[@hotpuppy1]

i think the plastic case could be made more white again with some strong hydrogen peroxide/baking soda slurry applied and put out in the sun. there are videos on how to do it. At least it hasn't decomposed to dust. This was an expensive calculator when new. My dad was an accountant and he bought a Burroughs printing calculator that cost $350 in the mid 70'.s. That is over $2000 today. He bought a reconditioned Xerox copier around 1980. That was equally expensive. His previous copier used the photo paper and messy liquid toner.

[@barrybogart5436]

Very pretty little calc. But I prefer Commodores.

[@marvinmartian8746]

Curious. Anyone know why they printed the year in format 7319 instead of 1973? How this became a standard. At 11:50

[@FranLab]

Year (last two digits) then week (01-52)

[@marvinmartian8746]

@@FranLab Thanks! But I was wondering why they flipped the pairs. International thing, or whatever (my guesses).

[@carlosmilonsilva]

@@marvinmartian8746 So that in the following week the date code would be 7320 (just add 1).

[@dentakuweb]

Those displays look nicer than LEDs but I'm assuming people prefered the brightness of LEDs once they started making them in reasonable sizes. 8 Watts is also quite ridiculous for a calculator.

[@musicom67]

Everyone watching that negative sign knew...yelling to ourselves "BUT THE BUTTON IS YELLOW, FRAN! PUSH IT!" 🤗 Loved the 'correction' in type. Awesome video, as usual - a nice surprise with the goodies you introduce!

[@djindustrialcomplex]

Thought that was gonna be the new Teenage Engineering product, OP-71 Dad's Grimy Old Calculator

[@mrsjohnson1743]

Warm…vinylette

[@georgegherghinescu]

Such a carefully designed quality object! Sad that calculators are mostly just a boring app now.

[@Erwinhooi]

nice rigid epoxy circuit board instead of that brown brittle pertinax stuff that was used most of the time...!

[@filepz629]

❤️‍🔥FRAN❤️‍🔥

[@TheTrueVoiceOfReason]

I know the CVD fog is real, but it's actually 50+ years.

[@BerndFelsche]

My TI-30 looks much, much worse. 😢

[@ParanoidFactoid]

I hated it when kids did that sound on school blackboards too! It's like a bat squealing in my brain!

[@Eye_of_state]

I was so into calculators, especially the programmable ones. Made for easy tests, by just popping in the parameters and pushing a button. Also, ty for the data

[@ludmilascoles1195]

Good old Mutzing a product😂

[@feywerfolevado6286]

very top of my home feed! :)

[@SGregW]

Nice find Fran. Nothing more satisfying than using tactile clicky keys. A L L modern mushy keyboards suck!

[@ethimself5064]

Fran, your websites have significant Security issues. Dangerous URLS and outdated expired Security Certificates. AND your blog

[@top10no.15]

Perfect

[@kevvywevvywoo]

just getting reports on the BBC about a plane crash in Philadelphia, thought about you x

[@CDmatt]

Hope your ok in Phili

[@uptake2]

I hope you weren’t in the area of the crash Fran. Take care.

[@marpleka]

Thanks god you're ok, but i'm sure you based near fire depot...

[@X-Radio]

Fran I am willing to finance your ventures, warehouse and a home. I understand you've had issues finding a permanent home for your businesses and archieves. I am a retired broadcaster who has the means to help, and in the event of my passing insure your income and the property is owned. I do wish to be your husband. Regards Rory in Vancouver WA.

[@FranLab]

Well Rory, I suggest that you could start by becoming a Patron. Give that a try.