DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments TI-15 Explorer
Date of introduction: | October 7, 1999 Available: Feb. 2000 |
Display technology: | LCD |
New price: | $14.99 (SRP 2008) $19.95 (SRP 2020) |
Display size: | 11 +11 characters |
Size: | 6.8" x 3.2" x 0.50" 172 x 82 x 13 mm3 |
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Weight: | 4.0 ounces, 112 grams | Serial No: | |
Batteries: | CR2032 (60µA) | Date of manufacture: | mth 10 year 2007 (A) |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | China (K) | |
Precision: | 13 | Integrated circuits: | |
Memories: | 1 | ||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
The
first edition of the TI-15 Explorer was
manufactured in China by Nam
Tai Electronics an OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturer) for Texas Instruments. Starting around 2006/2007 production of the
TI-15 Explorer was shifted - together with its sibling TI-10 - to Kinpo Electronics,
another major OEM in China.
Dismantling
this TI-15 Explorer manufactured in October 2007 by Kinpo Electronics in China reveals a
clean design centered around an unknown single-chip calculator circuit mounted
in Chip-on-Board (COB) technology on a double-sided printed circuit board (PCB)
and powered by 4 solar cells and a CR2032 backup battery. Please notice that the
TI-15 Explorer manufactured by Nam Tai is using a smaller CR2025 battery. A
second PCB is used for the keyboard and connected with a short flat flexible cable (FFC
to the Main-PCB. While Nam Tai is using for the keyboard a single-sided phenolic
resin PCB, chose Kinpo a more expensive solution based on a double-sided epoxy
resin, but could manage to integrate the battery holder, too. We discovered
already with the TI-30X
IIS completely different designs among the OEMs.
Inspecting
the PCB of this TI-15 Explorer calculator brought our attention to a small mark reading
SR15T-10-3, we noticed a similar mark already with other
Slide Rule calculators manufactured by Kinpo
Electronics and started compiling a list of the
PCB-Marks on calculators manufactured by OEMs for Texas Instruments.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, January 16, 2009. No reprints without written permission.