LGR - Radio Shack Computer Keyboard Calculator

Thank you for the fleeting entertainment. :D

Justin T Lee

It was very entertaining how you showed all the different companies and methods used to try and sell this calculator throughout the years. But I guess it was good for multi-taskers who maybe had a small screen, or didn't want to exit their fullscreen applications to do a simple calculation. I love little oddball things like this.

Mac84

Why would you buy a calculator for your keyboard? It just doesn't... add up.

Gary Leigh

My friend had a keyboard with a *built in* calculator circa 1994 or so. I remember being very impressed by it. There was an 8ish digit display in the top right corner above the keypad and it used those keys to run the calculator. I believe there was either a toggle switch or a key to press to choose whether you wanted the numpad to drive the calculator or the computer

Peter Metzger

I remember one of these in the family between my uncle who managed a Radio Shack for years and my grandparents. I'll check and see if it's still around.

Jason Wellband

That beige on red table top combo works really well. Little bit of natural gradient and it doesn't seem to make your hands too red.

JennaKay

for some reason I just don't find it that dumb of an idea. I mean it is cheap as shit and I often use multiple calculators when making quick budget work or some shit (mostly to have several screens to visuales the available budget plans). Also it kinda looks cute on a keyboard it fits on.

Ezydenias

Glad to hear it's workin' out for ya :)

LGR

Yeah my dad's old Micronta DMM has that same type of surface soldered ribbon cable, and it suffered from the same issue (glitchy/partially working LCD). They were a huge pain to reflow, but eventually I got it working.

I actually get excited for LGR videos. And I like this Patreon reward because it rewards my impatience :)

Seems somewhat practical, I always find using the windows calculator kind of breaks the flow of working on something as you switch to it and back to an application, where it might pop behind the window instead. Having it on the desk is kind of handy. It's possible that the flex ribbon is losing contact on the LCD end of it, and might be repairable by re-heating the connection on the LCD side, seems like quite a common problem with certain LCDs. Likely similar to the issue people sometimes get with the original Gameboy's screen having dead columns.

Chartreuse Kitsune

Might be a long shot but you could try running a soldering iron along the ribbon cable at the pcb connection and seeing if that makes the screen work, I know original game boys have a similar problem with columns not displaying due to weakened solder at the ribbon cable connection and that usually fixes it. Idk if that’s even close to what’s wrong though, I’m no keyboard calculator expert lol

Zachary Outen

Yep, was using the 30mm Olympus for just about this entire video.

LGR

Can't let the lens comment go -- are you using that Olympus macro lens for close-up work, or the GH5 kit zoom lens?

Jim Leonard

This is kinda neat, the way it fits on your keyboard so perfectly! I'd have bought one back in the day had I seen them, saves having to open a separate calculator app, especially as a lot of the software I used was DOS and didn't multitask...

Pixels.Ltd (Samuel Victor)

I guess it makes sense in the DOS era, instead of having a TSR calculator running in the background. But given that this thing was sold 1990-96, it seems a bit late for that.

Steve Lovelace

I remember seeing this for sale. I always had a similar thought, "what possible use is this? If I'm already sitting at my computer, why do I need a second calculator?"

The 8-Bit Guy

A thing that existed! You made me smile today, Thanks!

David Roberts

In my experience, I always need a calculator when I'm in the middle of a full-screen game, so it's rare that I get to use the one that comes with Windows, since it's much easier to just pull my smartphone. I'd love to have one of those. Though yeah, it'd be rare to find one that fits my keyboard.

Pablo Rodriguez

Yeah, after watching a bit of it, kinda now makes sense. I'm half-asleep, though- which is why I commented prematurely. :D

Robert Butler

Hah this reminds me of those USB numpads and calculator combination doohickies...

That's a weird keyboard, just saying.

Robert Butler

Apricot had a calculator integrated in to their keyboards in the 80's - it was pretty neat and actually useful then. Not nearly as cute though.

BaudBand

Shame you couldn't get the display working properly but I can't believe how well it matches your keyboards.

it's good to do brief and simple sometimes.

Kenny Ketner

The colour matching!

Bastien Nocera

You are on fire as of late.

Ai dude