DATAMATH  CALCULATOR  MUSEUM

Texas Instruments TI-10

Date of introduction:  February 2002 Display technology:  LCD
New price:  $12.99 (SRP 2008)
 $17.25 (SRP 2020)
Display size:  11 +11 characters
Size:  6.8" x 3.2" x 0.50"
 172 x 82 x 13 mm3
   
Weight:  4.0 ounces, 112 grams Serial No:  
Batteries:  CR2032 (60µA) Date of manufacture:  mth 04 year 2007
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-10 was manufactured in China by Nam Tai Electronics an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for Texas Instruments. Starting around 2006/2007 production of the TI-10 was shifted - together with its sibling TI-15 Explorer - to Kinpo Electronics, another major OEM in China.

Dismantling this TI-10 manufactured in April 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-10 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-10 calculator brought our attention to a small mark reading SR10T-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, March 27, 2020. No reprints without written permission.