Saturday, March 7, 2015

Datexx DS 834, Ativa AT-36, and Clones: The Mystery of the CL-PROG function

If you have a Datexx DS-834 solar calculator, or any of the clones, such as the Ativa AT-36 calculator (pictured below):

Ativa AT-36 Calculator.  I bought from an Office Depot store before it was merged with Office Max eons ago.  Compared to today's standards, this calculator is slow as heck!

The calculator would feature a "CL-PROG" function as the second function of the Clear key, as shown below.  

The CL button, with the CL-PROG function

This would imply that the Datexx DS 834 ECO (Link:  http://www.datexx.com/product-p/ds-834.htm), Ativa AT-36, and any other clones, such as the Citizen SRP-285N (Link:  http://calculator.citizen-europe.com/en/calculator/srp-285n )  would be programmable.  

However, looking over the five modes which are:

Main Mode: Calculator mode
Stat Mode:  Statistics mode (1 variable, 2 variable? )
Base-n Mode:  Boolean Algebra with decimal/binary/octal/hexadecimal
Complex Mode:  Arithmetic Only
VLE Mode:  2 x 2 Simultaneous Linear Equation Solver
QE Mode:  Quadratic Equation Solver

No program or formula programming mode is available. No mention of the use of the CL-PROG feature in the any of the manuals or the example sheets provided.  I don't know if this feature was going to be programmed and the original programmers just ran out of time.  However, the [2nd] [ CL ] for CL-PROG seems to do nothing.  If you do know, please comment on this blog entry.  

One of the curiosities of scientific calculators.  

Eddie


This blog is property of Edward Shore - 2015