why do I have a bunch of cheap calculators on my table
because we're going to do a little investigation it all started with this one a telstar
CA 4229 a very basic calculator that ive been using for a number of years now
until recently when I accidentally knocked it off the table and it fell on
the floor and it stopped working it wouldn't power on so I figured I must
have broken something inside it so I decided to take it apart and I was
shocked by what I found inside it now you may ask why even bother trying to
fix a calculator so cheap why wouldn't I just get a new one well I like this one
I like the way the buttons feel and it works fine and I just was curious to see
what's inside it either way even if I wasn't able to fix it on the back it
says 2010 I don't know if that's the year was made but we'll open it up and
I'll show you what's inside and I pop open the cover you can see everything is
on one chip but that's nothing new calculators been doing that since the
70s you can also see a battery and I always assume this was a dual power
calculator because even when I covered up what appears to be a solar cell it would
still work the display would not fade out like a solar cell only calculator
but you can see something funny here if I pull away the LCD and the circuit
board that's the so-called solar cell its just a plastic decal
there's nothing soldered to it it's just a piece of plastic made to look like a
solar cell so I found this one at work its a Victor
1100 - 2 unknown date but probably from sometime in the 2000s then I went back
to the same dollar store where I found this one
well they don't sell these anymore but they do sell this this bazic eight digit
pocket calculator with a flip cover it says auto power off square root key battery
included ideal for school home and office
now on this entire packaging it doesn't mention anything about the solar cell and in
fact I saw a similar model on the shelf where instead of a solar cell it was
just an indentation in the plastic case you can see where the solar cell would
go but there was nothing installed so they didn't even bother to put a fake
solar cell on that model but I got the one with the solar cell which is
probably going to be fake here's the receipt pocket calculator a dollar 59
and the reason why these light bulbs are in the background because they're still
selling these not legal for us sale Spanish incandescent light bulbs so I
was surprised to see that and I picked up a few blanco suave and basica
bulbs while I was there the Dietz Visi Flash has nothing to do with the video
that's just for show and if you're interested about that I have a video
about it and then I found this one at the thrift store is still new in the
packaging and it has a price tag of a dollar 99 from some unknown store but I
didn't pay that much I actually paid a little bit more but I was just curious
to have another cheap calculator that I could put in this video and then I broke
the bank on this one I want to stop and shop and it turns out they sell
calculators under their own house brand smart living and I say I broke the bank
on this one because it costs $6.99 so quite a bit more expensive than other
ones you can see the same suspicious solar cell there says battery power full
function memory easyread display each digit
also does not say anything about the solar cell on it you can see distributed
by food hold USA copyright 2015 made in China quality guaranteed or your money
back I wonder if they would get me my money back
for having a fake solar cell so we'll see what's up with that one so here is
the Victor calculator and that's the initials of somebody used to work for
the company I work for and he left this behind so that's how I ended up with it
took out the screws so let's see what hidden mysteries are in this one I can
pop it open without breaking it it's putting up a fight for some reason I don't know
if it has some kind of clips so I have to get something to pry this open there we
go so there's the battery that came popped out and LCD and it actually has
the solar cell wired but that does not necessarily mean it is a real solar cell
I've heard some of these have a fake solar cell that's wired up to look like
it's real but it doesn't actually do anything so I'm going to shine a bright
light on this and measure the voltage it's putting out to see if it's actually
doing anything so I have this cordless light switch it's a neat little thing I
found it ocean state job lot for five bucks looks
just like a standard wall mount lights which has magnets on the back and a
little hooked about it except it has built-in LEDs that are extremely bright
when you turn it on so I'm going to put that down there and I'm going to shine
those bright LEDs onto the solar cell of this calculator here now I'm going to
measure its putting out any voltage using my free Harbor Freight multimeter
okay let's see what we get the solar cells marked positive and negative so
I'm going to my leads on it and look at that it's
putting out one point six volts so this one actually has a real solar cell now
does it work just find the solar cell I'm
getting inconsistent I've actually broken the little cable when I was
taking this apart but you can see who was working oh that's our problem the
cable tore even if I hold it yes okay it's working just on the solar cell so
if I hadn't broken that cable it would work just by the solar cells you can see
the battery that wasn't it is no longer so whatever you see on the screen here
is just through the solar cell so this is a real solar cell calculator so
unfortunately I ruined this one in the process of investigating it but at least
I got a good real working solar cell and a good battery out of it so it wasn't
all for nothing let's tear into this bazic pocket
calculator actually comes a whole cover
yeah it's sort of falling apart already bazic electronic calculator I assume I
can sort of put that back together hopefully or just
tear the whole cover off let's see if it works it's a very tiny display
does seem to be working it has an off button which you don't normally see on
calculators that have a solar cell because why would you need to turn it
off it doesn't take up any battery power for draining from a solar cell let's try
the old trick over the square root of 2 times the square root of 2 now the
answer is supposed to be obviously just 2 but most of these cheap calculators
took a little bit off as you can see so let's open this one up it says use
battery LR 1130 1.5 volts they even has a little holder
for the battery so you don't have to take the whole thing apart to change the
battery but we'll see what else is inside so I took out the battery and yes
I did actually break this cover trying to just get this calculator out of the
packaging so not a good sign already and we'll see now it doesn't work without
the battery in it so almost 100 percent sure that is a fake solar cell I think
we have a winner for the cheapest possible design on this one because as
soon as I crack the case open all the keys came loose so that is just lovely
and here is our fake solar cell just a little plastic decal so I don't think
I'm even going to bother reassembling this one it's just so cheap I won't want
anybody to suffer through having to use this so only good thing we got out of
that bazic calculator is the battery I guess I can use this as a tray to hold
the screws when I take the rest of them apart so here is the century and this
one is actually stating right on the packaging solar with backup battery dual
power so this solar let's take this company has some
explaining to do get down here it says dual power solar with battery so we'll
see what we get off this one until right away the packaging is higher-quality and
then that bazic calculator and this is like a Sinclair spectrum very rubbery
mushy keys okay oh there it is and that is a dim display so probably
the batteries getting weak because I don't know how long this was in that
packaging doesn't have a date on it visit us online at century industries
.com but it does work slowly because it's on low power again a little bit off
of the two it's supposed to be so we'll see what we get in this one
the one thing it says on the back is made in China okay removed battery and
it is working we've got the battery so clearly that is a real solar cell but
I'm going to take it apart anyway so there it is taken apart you can see both
the battery holder and the solar cell are wired up so it is an actual solar
cell to be sure and I'm going to see this battery I took out the bazic will
fit into this one at least there'll be something good there we go
there we go fully functional dual power calculator with a new battery in it
now finally the deluxe well the smart living calculator from stop and shop
it's not coming out easily all right let's
put it on the better use battery says 2016 on it so I guess that is the date
of manufacture made in China QC HN 17 so apparently passed quality
control electronic calculator DC AG 10 1.5 volt these buttons are kind of cheap
and rough feeling and I don't know what this is supposed to be it has a cover
over the display to peel that off right now nice and shiny not likely to stay
that way for long so we shall see what treasures lie inside this well lookee
here that does look like a real solar cell or at least something that's
actually wired up but I'm puzzled by this diode here with the entire length
of the leads just left in there and one side is tucked under the battery
terminal other side is this wire soldered into it but they just look the
rest of this just hanging in here that just bizarre it's nothing back there for
this to touch that would be conductive but that's just weird
that has this big circle thing over where that weird cutout is on the front
I don't know maybe they have a version of this with a speaker in it I know in
China they do sell talking calculators that are roughly as cheap as this but
they talk and they have a mode where you can play music on the keys
maybe that's what they put in the same case as this I don't know but I'm going
to see if there's any voltage coming out of that solar cell let me turn on my
magic light here it's now shining right onto that solar cell I don't know the
polarity but I'll just wing it here since both wires are red that's not a good
sign as to which side is positive and which is negative and it's putting out
almost two volts so that is a real solar cell and that does beg the question why
wouldn't they advertise it as having a solar cell and dual power on the
packaging doesn't say that anywhere so knows let's do our square root of 2 test
on this 1 2 root times 2 root equals typical 1.999 998 instead of 2 well I
just noticed it has a little icon that looks like the Sun next to an icon of
battery so I guess that's their way of saying it's dual power it could have
written out I mean they have plenty of space there so the results of our
experiment are a bit mixed we have two calculators with fake solar cells the
Telstar and the basic we have three calculators with real solar cells the
victor the century and the smart living though the smart living had a very
questionable looking diode soldered in there
but wait there's more I have a late-breaking addition to this video I
went to the thrift store again and I picked up not only disco tape number four
disco tape number one and disco tape number six recorded and produced by Mike
mangus approximately in 1977 I also got one of these infamous American flag big
button big display calculators you're pretty much guaranteed to find at least
half a dozen of these in any thrift store you go to apparently this one is
originally owned by Miss Dorothy Shehee but we'll see if this solar cell is
real or not first let's see if this thing actually works yep
and this is one of those cheap designs where if you take it apart the
wrong way the buttons all go flying out but luckily this time I was a little careful
and they stayed in place there you can see another fake solar cell just a piece
of plastic not even in there that tightly there's that single chip
calculator and single battery even though the compartment looks like it was
originally intended to hold two batteries they want to put one in there
so these infamous big display calculators have a fake solar cell so if
you have some of these calculators lying around you might want to open them up
and see if the solar cell in them is real or fake you just gotta be careful
some of these really cheap ones because when you open them up the keys will go
flying and it'll be a nightmare to get those back in there