We’ve seen a large shift over the previous few many years from gadgets that take single-use batteries to gadgets with built-in rechargeable batteries. There are some environmental advantages, as a result of fewer batteries find yourself in landfills. However the main driving elements are comfort and price. Think about in case you needed to swap out AAA batteries in your iPhone each morning — you’d have to purchase these batteries by the pallet. Due to Nico Verduin, followers of classic TI calculators can now expertise that very same comfort with a LiPo battery improve.
Verduin’s work is an extension of an earlier mission accomplished by tomcircuit, which was a LiPo battery pack for TI-58 and TI-59 calculators. However whereas these two fashions are among the many hottest in Texas Devices’ historical past, there are various different fashions nonetheless in use by collectors, lovers, and the sorts of people that like saying “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Verduin’s mission brings lithium goodness to any Texas Devices calculator that makes use of a BP-7, BP-8, or BP-9 battery pack—a big swath of classic fashions.
It is a self-contained battery pack, with a 9V connector on one facet and a USB port on the opposite facet. The enclosure is 3D-printable and inside is a normal 3.7V lithium-polymer battery and a customized PCB. That PCB supplies the connections and likewise a lift converter to carry the output voltage as much as the 9V required by the calculator.
As soon as assembled, this could slot in the identical place as the unique battery pack. The one draw back is that the USB port isn’t accessible from exterior the calculator. That implies that customers should take away it to cost it again up. However that’s rather a lot higher than shopping for bins of batteries for those who use their previous TI calculators frequently.
