DATAMATH

DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM

Canon LE-10

Date of introduction:	January, 1972	Display technology:	LED-modules
New price:	$259	Display size:	10
Size:	5.7" x 3.2" x 1.4"
Weight:	15 ounces	Serial No:	158965
Batteries:	4*NiCd AA	Date of manufacture:	year 1972
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	Japan
Precision:	10	Integrated circuits:	TMC1824, TMC1825A
Memories:
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

When Canon introduced in 1972 the LE-10 it was far ahead competition. The smart housing accommodates not only the calculator chip set of the LE-100A but even a rechargable battery assembled of 4 AA-sized NiCd batteries.

A huge craddle holds the calculator during recharge-time of the internal batteries. The small analogue battery meter gives you the remaining operation time of the LE-10.

Dismantling the LE-10 reveals a genious masterpiece of Japan's engineering capabilities. Please enjoy the small picture series.

The dismantled LE-10 with a compact arrangment of three printed circuit boards.

The chassis of the LE-10 holds two PCB's:

	Main PCB: Display driver, Power Supply
	Second PCB: Calculating chip set

The main PCB uses hybride display drivers. We assume that these black modules contain discrete wired transistors and some resistors instead the later integrated display drivers introduced by Texas Instruments together with the TMS0100 single-chip calculator circuit.

The early TMC1824, TMS1825A performs calculations with 10-digits accuracy. The later single-chip calculator was limited to 8-digits.

The tiny display PCB holds 11 7-segment displays assembled with LED's (Light emitting diodes). They are manufactured by Texas Instruments and used in the SR-10.

The sealed battery pack of the LE-10 uses 4 rechargable NiCd batteries.

The Canon LE-10 followed the Pocketronic and uses red LED-modules manufactured by Texas Instruments to display the 10-digit results.

In Texas Instrument's history of calculator chips the LE-10 plays an important role. If you remember the three LSI-circuits of the Pocketronic you will find in the LE-10 only two chips of a later generation but one step in front of the single-chip calculator chip.

	TMC1824
	TMC1825A

The same chip set was used in the desktop calculator L100A introduced in the year 1971.

A special feature of the LE-10 is the 10-digit display compared with the the successor LE-80 making use of the TMS0101 "calculator-on-a-chip" driving only an 8-digit display. It took some time before with the LE-100 again a 10-digit calculator in the Canon’s pocket calculator line appeared. In the meantime some odd calculators like LE-80M, LE-80R, LE-81 and LE-82 were introduced before the LE-83, LE-84 and LE-85 settled the design line.

According to Shinichiro Osaki a later model carried the designation LE-10A. Differences are unknown but could be found in a LED display manufactured by Antex and provided by Amcon, Canon's subsidary situated in Silicon Valley, California.

In 1974 the era of pocket calculators with LED displays was over in Japan and Canon introduced with the LD-80 their first product with the green VF-Display (Vacuum Fluorescent). Main advantage of this technology was that time both lower power consumption and cheaper purchase price. Interesting to know that Texas Instruments – manufacturing their own LED displays – introduced only few VFD calculators.

Don't miss competition, the Sharp EL-811 and the later Toshiba BC-1205B sporting a 12-digit display.

If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.